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The UK national standards body BSI has been appointed to take on the role of governing essential standards to digitalise the country’s energy sector.
With its appointment by regulator Ofgem, BSI will act as the governance body for the Common Information Model (CIM), which is required to be adopted by all network companies to improve the consistency, accessibility and usability of network data.
The CIM is made up of families of international standards providing information on data exchange protocols and defining how different assets in the energy sector are operated and how information is exchanged between energy stakeholders on these assets.
To reach net zero targets, millions of new distributed energy resources are being introduced into the energy system and the CIM and the standards it represents standardises how these assets capture and share information, so they are effectively integrated, used and managed.
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The implementation of a CIM and new governance arrangements of new digital assets and actions was among the recommendations to support development of a decarbonised digital energy system by the government’s Energy Digitalisation Taskforce in its 2022 report.
Seb van Dort, director of Sustainability and Energy at BSI, said that underlying the digitalisation of the energy system is the transparency and consistency of the data of grid and network operators, without which ambition cannot be turned into action.
“Enhancing consistency in data offers the opportunity to overcome a key barrier for policy makers, industry and Ofgem. We are pleased to be playing our role in digitalising the energy sector and ultimately accelerating progress towards a net zero future”
BSI has coordinated with Ofgem and the Energy Networks Association to develop the national CIM governance arrangement.
It will comprise three elements: a new subcommittee, a CIM advisory group and an online CIM engagement hub.
The new subcommittee will focus specifically on the CIM standards suite, i.e. IEC 61970, IEC 61968 and IEC 62325, with the aim to ensure the standards process is impartial, open to all stakeholders and able to adapt quickly to national needs.
The CIM advisory group is intended to give key industry stakeholders a formal forum to discuss how the GB CIM schema is developed, applied and used.
The CIM engagement hub is an online portal to serve as an information repository and as the central point of industry engagement on the CIM and its application in Britain.
Together, these arrangements are aimed to help ensure the CIM remains aligned with the needs of local energy stakeholders and is maintained under an open and transparent governance structure.
