SunSpec Offers Response to CALSSA Letter About IEEE 1547-2018 Compliance Date

In a recent letter to the CPUC Energy Division by Brad Heavner, Policy Director for California Solar + Storage Association (CALSSA), the organization protested Advice Letters (ALs) by Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), Southern California Edison (SCE), and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), which set a compliance date of January 1, 2022 for systems to be certified to IEEE 1547.1.

Heavner’s argument was that “more time would be needed to conform product designs with the final details of standards, perform testing, and manufacture and ship products.” Citing the status of the SunSpec Modbus 700 Series DER Information Models, a lack of automated testing capabilities in the Test Labs, and other contributing factors as obstacles, Heavner made a case for moving the compliance date to March 1, 2022.

While the SunSpec Alliance has no objection to CALSSA’s statements, there are several recent developments of relevance. 

1. SunSpec Modbus 700 Series DER Information Models are set to be finalized on April 20, 2021. Manufacturers seeking to complete SunSpec Modbus for 1547 Certification may reference the new models in their implementations immediately following that date. The new models can be found at https://sunspec.org/sunspec-modbus-specifications-2.
2. The SunSpec Modbus for 1547 automated test suite is currently in BETA as a “Plus Pack” for the SunSpec System Validation Platform (SVP) Dashboard software application, and is available to members of the SunSpec Alliance at no cost. Coinciding the SunSpec Modbus 700 Series DER Information moving from TEST to APPROVED status on April 20, 2021, the software will be available to purchase at https://sunspec.org/sunspec-svp-dashboard. 

SunSpec is committed to providing the industry with the tools needed to implement, certify and deliver SunSpec Modbus-enabled devices compliant with IEEE 1547. In order to achieve this goal, SunSpec is hosting an informational webinar on March 23rd, 2021 as well as an online course titled, “Implementation of SunSpec Modbus” through UC San Diego Extension. To attend the webinar and register for the course, visit https://sunspec.org/events.