The six standards, all of which had been approved previously by the SGIP's Governing Board, received approval by greater than 90 percent of the broader SGIP membership in voting earlier this month. The SGIP, a consensus-based group of more than 675 public and private organizations (with nearly 1,800 individual members), was created by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to coordinate the development of Smart Grid standards. While the SGIP does not develop or write these standards directly, a vote of approval signifies that its member organizations have agreed on the inclusion of a group of standards in the catalogue.

"These entries in the Catalogue of Standards constitute the first items in what will be a useful toolkit for anyone involved in the Smart Grid–whether they are utilities that generate and distribute power, companies developing new electronic devices, or consumers who buy and use them," says NIST's George Arnold, the National Coordinator for Smart Grid Interoperability. "While it will be of interest to regulators, it will primarily be important as a knowledge base for the entire grid community. It will eventually contain hundreds of consensus documents."