Smart Grid

Welcome to the Smart Grid website at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Whether you are a consumer, engineer, or policymaker, this website can help you learn about and participate in the smart grid and in the development of the interoperable standards that will make it possible. 

Building on NIST’s century-long partnership with the electric industry, we are embarking with our partners on this generation’s grand challenge—modernizing the electric power grid so that it incorporates information technology to deliver electricity efficiently, reliably, sustainably, and securely. Unlike the grid of the 20^thcentury, which primarily delivered electricity in a one-way flow from generator to outlet, the modernized grid permits the two-way flow of both electricity and information.

Working with stakeholders and partners from industry, government, and academia, we’ve been building a solid framework and roadmap for smart grid interoperability standards. While continuing our work toward smart grid version 1.0, we are also participating in the full cycle of research, development, and innovation that will take us to smart grid 2.0, 3.0, and beyond.   

In response to a mandate given by Congress and the Administration, NIST, through its Engineering Laboratory-led Smart Grid program and public-private Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP), is leading the coordination and acceleration of smart grid interoperability and security standards in collaboration with the private sector and has published the NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability, which provides the foundation for future work. By utilizing expertise in NIST's Engineering, Physical Measurement, Information Technology, and Communication Technology Laboratories, this program will advance the measurement science that will increase asset utilization and efficiency, improve grid reliability, and enable greater use of renewable energy sources in the grid through research, standardization, testing and implementation of the NIST Framework.

The Smart Grid and Cyber-Physical Systems Program Office is a division of NIST’s Engineering Laboratory. The program draws on expertise from across the breadth of the NIST organization, including the Physical Measurement Laboratory, the Information Technology Laboratory, and the Communication Technology Laboratory.