On March 2nd 2015, the international standardization organization ISO/IEC, the IEEE 1888 standard, with BII as the president and jointly launched by China Telecom and other enterprises both at home and abroad, was officially approved through the last round of voting by ISO/IEC/IEEE 18880, which enabled it to become the first international ISO/IEC standard in internet of energy, and the final issue No. is ISO/IEC/IEEE 18880. Over the past 3 years since 2012, ISO/IEC/IEEE 18880 has met many difficulties, went through the Seoul Conference in South Korea, the Chongqing Conference in China, the Ottawa Conference in Canada, and the London Conference in UK, and finally the IEEE 1888 internet of energy standard has won success in becoming the ISO/IEC standard, with unanimous consent by all voting member states.

Photo: Mr. Liu Dong (right), President of ISO/IEC/IEEE 18880 and President of BII with Steve Mills, Chair of IEEE-SA

The first international standard for internet of energy in the world

As the network technology is booming and internet has exerted disruptive effect in many industries, an increasing number of people are now turning the focus of conventional energy industry onto and making breakthroughs in the internet of energy. ICT

In the process of developing internet of energy, tens of billions of devices needs interconnection with the network, and at the same time, oceans of data generated by these devices needs uniform format to safeguard the data security. In the process, the formulation and uniformity of the standards have always been the concern across the industry. In order to solve the “islet problem”—the connection between devices, between devices and networks, and between information and data, to enable the global deployment of internet of energy, the first international ISO/IEC standard in internet of energy, led by China, has come into being, and has enabled the access to the internet of energy, which draws global attention.

ISO/IEC/IEEE 18880 is also referred to as the ubiquitous green community control network standard, the TCP/IP in internet of energy. With the ISO/IEC/IEEE 18880 standard, power, water and gas can be digitized, with applied big data, cloud computing, and other emerging internet technology, to boost energy efficiency, enhance energy conservation and emission reduction. Based on the ISO/IEC/IEEE 18880, there will be an industrial chain that ranges through end products, multi-protocol gateways, storage systems, smart analysis platforms, interface of visualization, certificating and security systems, network administration and billing systems, system integration, certificating and testing, and contracted energy management service.

ISO/IEC/IEEE 18880, throughout its development till now, has successfully deployed many pilot projects and commercial solutions in China, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, India, and other places across the globe. Some of the projects not only bolster the productivity among many companies, but save more than 45% energy, which has given birth to many new commercial opportunities and business models.

It can be said that ISO/IEC/IEEE 18880 not only conforms to the technical trend, but also serves the needs of carrier development, which meets the demand of the industrial development in China and development of energy conservation and low-carbon economy.

China’s standard recognized by the international community

In view of the IEEE 1888 international influence and its industrial trend, in 2012, IEEE-SA submitted the application for approving the standard to the international standard organization—ISO/IEC, which accepted and started to process the application. This marks a major breakthrough in the international standardization of the green ICT technology led by China.

International coordination is the most difficult, says Mr. Liu Dong, president of BII who launched the ISO/IEC/IEEE 18880 international standard. In the process of approval, the Chinese delegates (BII and China Telecom) from the standardization administration IEEE 1888 working group attended many international conferences and CESI has been responsible for the liaison of ISO/IEC JTC1 SC6, during which, they navigated all the barriers and fielded the doubts from South Korea, the US, etc. In order to maximize the success of ISO/IEC approval, not only multiple consultations and coordination are needed, but also key persons should be identified, who should be convinced to cast a vote for the standard. It is impossible to realize all the success only by one or two Chinese entities. The standardization of the ISO/IEC/IEEE 18880 has won support from the Zhongguancun Administrative Committee, China Telecom also devoted a great amount of efforts to the international liaison, and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) also attached importance to the process. Zhongguancun Administrative Committee used its platform to liaison with large companies from Europe and America to give its support. The Standardization Administration of China also gave support to the formulation and processing of the standard. NDRC also attached importance to energy conservation standards, therefore, it played a role of coordination.

After the last round of voting through five months by all the member states, ISO/IEC officially declared, on March 2nd, 2015, that the IEEE 1888 international standard, led by China, had been approved with a high rate of approval, and that it became the ISO/IEC standard. Now, the first ISO/IEC international standard in internet of energy has been officially launched.

According to Mr. Liu Dong, China’s standardization has gone through the stages of learning international standards and introducing international standards, and finally to the stage of actively promoting China’s technically advantageous standard worldwide. Now, China is heavily engaged in international standardization events and activities, which promotes the global technical innovation and boosts the development of global internet of energy, enabled by the increasing comprehensive strength of China, by rising levels of industrial development, and by the rising awareness of society to take part in international standardization. In the future, there will be more China-led standards like the ISO/IEC/IEEE 18880 going global.

The inception of the ISO/IEC/IEEE 18880 internet of energy

Now, the National Public Service Platform of Smart Energy, on the basis of ISO/IEC/IEEE 18880, has been initiated, which will get through the smart energy industrial chain, and the internet of energy comes into its preliminary shape. The Platform will accumulate and store the energy data nationwide, break down the barriers of energy data, share energy data and reduce waste of data resources. The Platform explores the value of data to provide support of internet to the energy-producing and energy-consuming entities, and also to facilitate the governments to purchase service from a third party, which helps promote highly efficient utilization of energy, energy conservation, and low-carbon economy, in order to propel the energy revolution, address climate change, curb environment pollution, and cap the carbon emission in China by 2030.

The Platform has won great support from all government bodies. The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (GAQSIQ) guarantees the standards, metering, testing, certificating, etc. MIIT devotes its support in network operation, information security, and industrial internet. The subsidiary platforms in nine provinces and cities, namely, Shandong, Beijing, Hubei, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Sichuan, Fujian, Gansu, and Foshan, have been established by entering into agreements. Other regional and local platforms will be developed and established, in the tailwind of the development of the national platform.