The Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) will provide technical guidance on smart grid standards and specify testing and certification requirements for grid interoperability.

SGIP includes members from 370 organizations from 13 countries representing 22 different stakeholder sectors. The group was organized by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as part of its effort to accelerate the move to smart grid standards.

The SGIP held its first meeting this week, electing a government board of 20 members. Board members include Internet veteran Vint Cerf of Google; Brian Markwalter who heads up standards efforts for the Consumer Electronics Association and Matt Theall of Intel who also heads the Home Grid Forum that promotes the ITU G.hn home networking standard.

Three at-large board members were elected including Paul Di Martini, vice president of advanced technology for Southern California Edison and representatives of Electric Power Research Institute and GE Energy. Mladen Kezunovic, a professor at Texas A&M University, is a representative to the board from the academic community.

NIST released a first draft of smart grid standards recently. "We've design the [SGIP] process to make sure all the stakeholders have a voice," said George Arnold, national smart grid coordinator at NIST.

A separate group, IEEE 2030, is working in parallel on standards for smart electric grids. At least one organization from China is taking part in the SGIP group. Some observers have said China will set de facto smart grid standards given its aggressive plans to build out its grid.