The upcoming annual Metering Latin America will see the official launch of the IEEE (News - Alert) 2030 protocol. The accelerated rollout of the smart grid in Brazil will be supported by this protocol. Utilities, smart metering and smart grid experts, regulators and global technology giants are expected to be present at the annual meet which will be held in Sao Paulo starting October 25. Two regulations regarding the implementation of smart meters nationwide will be announced by Brazil’s energy regulator Aneel. The first regulation regarding the official launch of a billion dollar smart meter installation rollout in Brazil is expected to be announced in October.

In a release, Dr Claudio Lima, Vice-Chair of the IEEE P2030/TF3 Smart Grid Architecture work group, said, “This is the world’s first end-to-end, system-of-systems, foundational standard that has been created from the ground up to inform smart grid interconnection and interoperability. There is no such standard in the world that covers smart grid from a systemic and interoperability perspective.”

Dr. Lima added that a globally relevant smart grid interoperability reference model and knowledge base is established by the new IEEE 2030 standard. According to Dr. Lima, this standard took two years to create in a rapidly paced development environment. The integrated contributions of hundreds and hundreds of people from across the smart grid’s three primary disciplines were demanded for the development of 2030.

Many smart meter rollouts are expected to happen in the Brazilian market. Dr. Lima said, “The IEEE 2030 will provide a scalable, modular and flexible reference model for utilities, regulators, governments and companies who are developing their smart grid roadmaps. As we know, the smart grid is a large and complex system of multiple sub-system, protocols and technologies that need to communicate and interoperate.”

According to Dr. Lima, the core of smart grid development is the smart meter. As per the 2030 standard, the smart meter is however only seen as a sub-system which comprises the smart grid system. Dr. Lima added that after the official launch of IEEE 2030 protocol on September20, the team is currently working towards a global launch by working with several governments around the world.