HomePlug (News - Alert) Alliance, Wi-Fi Alliance and ZigBee Alliance announced their agreement to formalize the Consortium for Smart Energy Profile 2 (SEP 2) Interoperability.

The agreement enables the industry to have a formal structure for the consortium. The Consortium will be developing an interoperability testing suite for the Smart Grid ecosystem.

These three partners -- HomePlug PowerLine Alliance, Wi-Fi Alliance and ZigBee Alliance --announced their plans for the Consortium in August 2011.

The Smart Grid ecosystem – including utilities, product vendors and consumers – will benefit from the finalization of the agreement for the Consortium. The industry stakeholders will have more confidence in application and device interoperability.

"Product interoperability is essential to the realization of the smart grid. The Consortium will work to enable interoperability validation across the diverse smart grid ecosystem," said Edgar Figueroa (News - Alert), chairman of the Consortium, in a statement.

The Consortium will focus on improving the market availability of interoperable Smart Energy Profile 2 products. As a result, consumers will be able to enjoy energy management benefits of the smart grid via wired and wireless networks.

"Leveraging the collective expertise of every Consortium member will ensure that SEP 2delivers a positive experience that helps consumers make smart choices about their energy use," said Bob Heile, vice chairman of the Consortium for SEP 2 Interoperability.

SEP 2 is an Internet Protocol-based application selected in 2009 by the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as a standard for home energy management devices.

Recently, The ZigBee Alliance, one of the members of the Consortium, announced that the latest Smart Energy Working Group letter ballot approved the Smart Energy Profile version 2.0 draft 0.7. The approval is seen as a major milestone in the completion of the Smart Energy 2.0 standard.