Energy and utility industry senior executives and government officials attended the opening of the Smart Grid Interop Lab in Kentucky on 24 October. The lab leverages KEMA’s 84 years of experience as a leading independent provider of high- and medium-voltage testing and certification, and technical and management consulting to the global energy and utility industry.
The company believes the new centre will “plays an important role in the deployment of smart grids”, providing independent testing of specific designs within a specific environment and enabling flexibility and innovation within existing smart grid programs and configurations.
Compliance and cyber security
As the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), as well as standardization and technology organizations in other countries and industry stakeholders work to define smart grid standards and an interoperable infrastructure, KEMA will ensure compliance and testing in the lab is in accordance with these initiatives. Interoperability testing will also provide critical measurement of cyber security performance within smart grid networks.
“Our Smart Grid Interop Lab is all about taking industry leading smart grid technologies and putting them to the test from a functionality, compliance and interoperability perspective. The benefit to utilities is to reduce exposure to risks in their smart grid deployments,” explains Hugo van Nispen, Managing Director for KEMA Americas. "Ensuring interoperability will be imperative for utilities, and there are not many options for this level of testing. We’re really the only impartial interoperability lab in the world.”
“One of the most important enablers that made the Internet possible was a robust, flexible framework of interoperability standards that allowed countless different types of devices to communicate end-to-end, work together, and exchange information. This is the vision for the smart grid,” said George Arnold, Eng.Sc.D., National Coordinator for Smart Grid Interoperability, NIST. “KEMA is taking a leadership position in offering impartial state-of-the-art interoperability testing, advancing compatible technologies, and assisting with the advancement of industry standards. It is only through this type of innovation that we can realize the smart grid vision to provide clean, efficient power for the twenty-first century economy.”
KEMA, which was founded in 1927, is an independent leading authority that is active worldwide in the energy value chain, and is specialized in high-grade service provision in the field of business and technical consultancy, operational support, measurement & inspections, and testing & certification. As an independent business, KEMA advises and supports government bodies as well as producers, suppliers and end-users of energy, and manufacturers of electricity transmission and distribution equipment. More than 1,700 professionals work at KEMA, which has branches and representatives in over 20 countries around the world.
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