LONDON — The Universal Powerline Association (UPA), an international industry consortium providing a forum for the design and development of interoperable and open specifications for Powerline communications, has announced that it is issuing two market requirement documents for powerline communication based Smart Grid and Command and Control applications.

The documents are intended to foster interoperability and international regulatory approval. They focus on in-home applications and those that tie into the Smart Grid such as HVAC, security, lighting and energy management applications among others.

Paul Bertrand, Chairman of UPA's C&C Working Group stated that, "UPA shall develop a single technical specification and certification process based on the UPA MRD. We are paying special attention to energy consumption requirements. New regulations in Europe and the US require low power devices and place restrictions on standby power and the MRD has arrived on time to take full account of these requirements in the development of a specification for environmentally friendly command and control devices."

The UPA Smart Grid MRD provides a baseline to clarify the multiple economic, commercial, legislative and environmental requirements against which UPA members develop products and services. Smart Grids must help utilities to intelligently integrate the actions of all components and users connected to the grid. This holistic infrastructure defines the UPA Smart Grid from generation, transmission & distribution to advanced metering. The considerations include reliability requirements in a range of operating environments.

Chris Graham-Fielding, Chairman of the UPA Smart Grid Working Group stated, "To a utility, a smart grid is a commercial imperative as well as a technological implementation. Utilities are faced with complying with a range of environmental targets. These include for example; an 8 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2008-2012 (Kyoto) or increasing the share of electricity from renewable energy systems to 21 percent of gross electricity consumption by 2010, and reducing energy intensity by a further 1 percent per year until 2010."

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