The OASIS open standards consortium has announced the formation of a new Member Section, OASIS Blue, saying that it will bring together a variety of open standards projects related to energy, intelligent buildings, and natural resources.

 

OASIS Blue is an international effort aimed at achieving meaningful sustainability, and is expected to leverage the innovation of existing electronic commerce standards and the power of the Internet. Moreover, it incorporates work that has been identified as a central deliverable for the U.S. government’s strategic Smart Grid initiative, according to consortium officials.

 

David Chassin of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, chair of the OASIS Blue Steering Committee, said that OASIS Blue provides a “safe, neutral environment where stakeholders can cooperate to define clear taxonomies and information-sharing protocols that will be recognized by the international standards community.'

 

Under this new Member Section, several technical committees are expected to coordinate efforts, including the Energy Interoperation Technical Committee; the Energy Market Information Exchange “eMIX” Technical Committee and the Open Building Information Exchange “oBIX” Committee.

 

“OASIS Blue extends the sustainability goals of the 'Green' movement to incorporate economic principles such as the value of greater efficiency, reduced infrastructure cost, more effective use of resources, and the benefits of economic growth,” said Laurent Liscia, executive director at OASIS.

 

Dirk Mahling, chief technology officer at CPower also believes that OASIS Blue represents an “outstanding opportunity” for the industries to provide facility operators with access to standardized, flexible and ubiquitous means of managing energy use, via vehicles that offer real business value to both the facility and the grid.