A proposed standard that would provide a common basis for consumers to describe, manage and communicate electrical energy consumption and forecasting is open for an advisory public review until Sept. 3, according to ASHRAE. The group is developing Standard 201P, Facility Smart Grid Information Model, with the National Electrical Manufacturers Association.

“Historically, electricity consumption has been viewed as a collection of dumb loads at the end of a distribution system," with almost no interaction between the loads and those responsible for electricity generation and distribution, says Steve Bushby, chairman of the committee writing the standard, in a release.  That is likely to change in a smart-grid world, he adds.

The standard will define an object-oriented information model to enable appliances and control systems in homes, buildings and industrial facilities to manage electrical loads and generation sources in response to communication with the smart electrical grid as well as communicate information about those electrical loads to utility and other electrical service providers.

Work on the standard is part of ASHRAE’s support for the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel, a public-private partnership initiated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology to speed development of interoperability and cyber-security standards for a nationwide smart electric power grid.  

The effort is also aligned with work by the North American Energy Standards Board to develop a basic energy-usage data-model standard and create a facilities data model that provides additional energy-usage data elements for commercial and industrial buildings, says ASHRAE. These elements include lighting, heating, HVAC&R and other electrical loads.