San Jose, CA, October 1, 2014, Energy Storage North America (ESNA) — The MESA Standards Alliance (MESA) and the SunSpec Alliance have jointly released the first open, non-proprietary energy storage system specification for public review. The draft specification, referred to as SunSpec Energy Storage Model Specification, incorporated in MESA specifications as a “MESA-Device,” was developed through a joint effort and proposes standards for how the different components of an energy storage system (power meters, power conversion systems, and batteries) communicate with one another.

“As utilities upgrade their operations to effectively manage and integrate the next generation of distributed assets, standards like SunSpec and MESA, will be essential to successfully achieving the smart-grid vision,” said Craig Collar, Assistant General Manager of the Snohomish County Public Utility District and MESA Board Chair.

A Technical Storage Working Group met weekly over the past nine months to draft the specification. The Working Group included input from a variety of industry participants and built upon SunSpec’s prior work on power meters and power conversion systems and then added battery models to that base.

“By using SunSpec’s protocols as the foundation, the Technical Workgroup’s efforts were greatly accelerated,” said Tom Tansy, Chairman of the SunSpec Alliance. “SunSpec is proud to release the SunSpec Energy Storage Model adopted by MESA—it is a major energy storage industry innovation.”

The draft specification can be found at www.mesastandards.org and www.sunspec.org. The Technical Work Group will be accepting public input through the end of 2014.

 

About the MESA Standards Alliance

The MESA (Modular Energy Storage Architecture) Standards Alliance is an industry group whose mission is to accelerate the growth of the energy storage industry through the development of an open, non-proprietary set of specifications and standards for energy storage systems. MESA’s component-based approach to energy storage gives electric utilities more choice, and allows battery, power converter, and software manufacturers to reach more customers and reduce costs.

Nine organizations have joined together to form the MESA Standards Alliances’s first Board of Directors. These founding members, representing leading OEMs and utilities working on energy storage, will guide the organization’s development and strategy.

1Energy Systems Inc

Alstom Grid

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Parker Hannifin Corporation

Puget Sound Energy

Sacramento Municipal Utility District

Seattle City Light

Snohomish Public Utility District

UniEnergy Technologies

For more information about MESA, or to join and participate in developing standards for the battery storage industry, visit www.mesastandards.org.

 

About SunSpec

The SunSpec Alliance is a trade alliance of developers, manufacturers, operators and service providers, together pursuing open information standards for the distributed energy industry. SunSpec standards address most operational aspects of PV, storage and other distributed energy power plants on the smart grid—including residential, commercial, and utility-scale systems—thus reducing cost, promoting innovation, and accelerating industry growth.

Over 70 organizations are members of the SunSpec Alliance, including global leaders from Asia, Europe, and North America. Membership is open to corporations, non-profits, and individuals. For more information about the SunSpec Alliance, or to download SunSpec specifications at no charge, please visit www.sunspec.org.

To understand the philosophy of the SunSpec Alliance and its role in the industry, you can also download the SunSpec Alliance white paper describing the benefits of standards or the current SunSpec Alliance Backgrounder from www.sunspec.org.

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Media Contacts:

MESA Standards Alliance:
Darcy Wheeles
415-602-4213
[email protected]

 

SunSpec Alliance:
TJ Keating
650-804-2867
[email protected]