The standard is part of ASHRAE’s supporting efforts for the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP), a private-public partnership initiated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to speed development of interoperability and cybersecurity standards for a nationwide smart electric power grid.

A “facility” in the context of this standard can be a single-family house, a commercial or institutional building, a manufacturing or industrial building, or multiple buildings such as a college campus. There is a range of control technology used in these facilities and standards to support them. The Facility Smart Grid Information Model (FSGIM) provides a common framework to guide the development of these control technologies so that they can meet the control needs of a smart grid environment.

“In a smart grid world, facilities of all kinds will become partners in managing the electricity grid, sometimes providing local generation and moderating loads to balance variations in renewable energy supply or meet other grid constraints,” said Steve Bushby, chair of the Standard 201P committee. “The FSGIM provides a common path forward for residential, commercial, and industrial control technologies to implement the features needed to participate in the smart grid.”

“The technologies that are enabling high performance buildings are evolving at a fever pitch and the need for a common model for communication of energy data is essential,” said Robert Hick, vice president engineering for Leviton Manufacturing and co-vice chair of the Standard 201P committee representing NEMA.

“Adherence to this standard will insure interoperability of energy systems within all types of buildings and compatibility with the smart grid for current and future technologies. The contributors to this publication come from a broad collection of stakeholders in all the related industries and their dedicated efforts to developing and publishing this standard could not be more timely.”

“SGIP’s Priority Action Plan (PAP) process is designed to identify standard gaps or needs and to facilitate the development, discussion, and recommendations for smart grid-related standards to advance grid modernization,” said Aaron Smallwood, director of technology operations for SGIP. “We’re pleased that the Facility Smart Grid Information Model PAP17 resulted in the development and approval of ASHRAE/NEMA Standard 201, and that we now have the opportunity to review Standard 201 for inclusion in SGIP’s Catalog of Standards.”

The standard provides a way to model real building systems as a combination of four abstract components: loads, generators, meters, and energy managers.

The kinds of functionality that will be enabled by the model include:

• On-site generation management

• Demand response

• Electrical storage management

• Peak demand management

• Forward power usage estimation

• Load shedding capability estimation

• End load monitoring (sub-metering)

• Power quality of service monitoring

• Use of historical energy consumption data

• Direct load control

The cost of ANSI/ASHRAE/NEMA Standard 201-2016, Facility Smart Grid Information Model, packaged with the User’s Manual, is $110, members ($129, non-members). To order, visit www.ashrae.org/bookstore or contact ASHRAE Customer Contact Center at 800-527-4723 (United States and Canada) or 404-636-8400 (worldwide) or fax 678-539-2129.

Publication date: 6/27/2016

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