SunSpec Ecosystem Newsletter October 2021

Dear *|FNAME|*,

At the core of the SunSpec Alliance ecosystem is a steady momentum of progress driven by the dedicated efforts of our seven primary Work Groups. Consisting of representatives from SunSpec member companies, a designated Work Group leader, and a SunSpec employee, these groups meet weekly or bi-weekly to engage in the active process of standards making. As the year barrels towards a close, we’d like to acknowledge some of the major achievements of these groups and their impacts on the SunSpec ecosystem as a whole.

Over the past several months, the SunSpec/Sandia DER Cybersecurity Work Group has conducted a Patching Subgroup to investigate appropriate recommendations for DER patching. Focusing on DER equipment, but also applying to DERMS tools and other OT equipment used in the end-to-end DER communication environment, the sub-group recently published a formal Recommendations for Distributed Energy Resources Patching document. This report establishes a set of best practices that may be used as a basis for future national or international patching guides or standards.

Addressing the electric transportation opportunity, SunSpec is collaborating with the Society of Automotive Engineering (SAE) to integrate DER communication protocols with electric vehicle charging and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) solutions. To that end, the SunSpec IEEE 2030.5 / SAE J3072 EV Charging Profile Work Group has been meeting since April and is making steady progress toward delivering a draft profile document that can be used to certify products. If you are interested in participating in the review of this document, please let us know.

The SunSpec Modbus Work Group recently contributed to a development of major significance in the SunSpec Modbus for 1547 initiative.  Namely, the publishing of the SunSpec Modbus IEEE 1547-2018 Specification, Profile and Implementation Guide, which has officially superseded the SunSpec Modbus Conformance Profile document. We encourage all teams implementing a SunSpec Modbus device interface to download the document and stay tuned for future updates. 

Finally, the work of the SunSpec Modbus Work Group has contributed to the launch of a SunSpec Modbus for 1547 Certification program, which is the simplest and most important step to reducing the time needed for IEEE 1547.1-2020 clause 6 interoperability testing and for achieving UL 1741 SB compliance.

If you are interested in becoming a member of the SunSpec Alliance in order to participate in one of these initiatives, please send and email Membership@sunspec.org or visit our Member Benefits page.