Call for Participation: OASIS Energy Market Information Exchange TC

[Mary McRae <mary.mcrae@oasis-open.org>]

To:  OASIS members & interested parties

   A new OASIS technical committee is being formed. The OASIS
Energy Market Information Exchange (eMIX) Technical Committee has
been proposed by the members of OASIS listed below. The TC name,
statement of purpose, scope, list of deliverables, audience, and
language specified in the proposal will constitute the TC's official
charter. Submissions of technology for consideration by the TC, and
the beginning of technical discussions, may occur no sooner than the
TC's first meeting.

   The eligibility requirements for becoming a participant in the TC  
at the first meeting are:

   (a) you must be an employee of an OASIS member organization or an  
individual member of OASIS, and
   (b) you must join the Technical Committee, which members may do by  
using the "Join this TC" button on the TC's public page at [a].

   To be considered a voting member at the first meeting, you must:
   (a) join the Technical Committee at least 7 days prior to the  
first meeting (date); and
   (b) you must attend the first meeting of the TC, at the time and  
date fixed below (date).

Of course, participants also may join the TC at a later time. OASIS  
and the TC welcomes all interested parties.

   Non-OASIS members who wish to participate may contact us about  
joining OASIS [b]. In addition, the public may access the information  
resources maintained for each TC: a mail list archive, document  
repository and public comments facility, which will be linked from the  
TC's public home page at [a].

   Please feel free to forward this announcement to any other  
appropriate lists. OASIS is an open standards organization; we  
encourage your participation.

Regards,

Mary


Mary P McRae
Director, Technical Committee Administration
OASIS: Advancing open standards for the information society
email: mary.mcrae@oasis-open.org
web: www.oasis-open.org
twitter: fiberartisan #oasisopen
phone: 1.603.232.9090


[a] http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=emix
[b] See http://www.oasis-open.org/join/


---------------------------------------------------

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
OASIS Energy Market Information Exchange TC

The name of the TC:
OASIS Energy Market Information Exchange (eMIX) TC

A statement of purpose, including a definition of the problem to be  
solved:
The purpose of the Technical Committee is to define information models  
for exchanging prices and product definitions in energy markets. As we  
all know, price is more than just a number. The characteristics of  
energy, such as quantity and units, generation source, carbon trading  
or tracing, power quality and reliability, and the schedule on which  
energy is available are information that is needed to make decisions  
in a market.

The committee will define neither market operations nor market  
structures; rather it will define how to exchange energy  
characteristics, availability, and schedules to support free and  
effective exchange of information in any energy market. In financial  
markets, this type of description is called a product definition.  
Although today's energy markets are almost exclusively wholesale, the  
product definitions will be usable in other scenarios including retail  
markets and "prices to devices" scenarios.

Distributed energy generation challenges the traditional hierarchical  
relationship of supplier and consumer. Alternative and renewable  
energy sources may be placed closer to the end nodes of the grid. Wind  
and solar generation, as well as industrial co-generation, allow end  
nodes to sometimes be energy suppliers. Energy storage, including that  
in plug-in electric vehicles, means that the same device may be  
sometimes a supplier, sometime a consumer. As these sources are all  
intermittent, they increase the challenge of coordinating supply and  
demand to maintain the reliability of the electric grid.

Dynamic pricing describes the situation where prices vary over time,  
in some cases as short as five-minute intervals. Dynamic pricing  
allows buildings, industrial facilities, homes, microgrids, and  
electric transportation to adapt to market conditions, rather than the  
much slower pace of regulatory change of authorized costs. Dynamic  
pricing is a reality in many markets for commercial and industrial  
customers, and is expanding for residential customers.  Technical  
solutions such as Open Automated Demand Response, deployed in  
California markets and now the basis for work by the OASIS Energy  
Interoperation Technical Committee, communicates both price signals  
and reliability signals; Energy Interoperation will carry signals  
related to Distributed Energy Resources as well.

This work extends the definition of a simple price to include other  
characteristics and information to enable more effective markets and  
communication of market information.

Of course, energy prices are in use today in various domains, business  
processes, and markets. The goal of the Technical Committee is to  
provide an effective means of exchanging price and other  
characteristics that can be used for transactions both across and  
within domains.

Better communication of actionable energy prices will help enable and  
expand efficient markets (including forward and futures markets) that  
satisfy growing demand for lower-carbon, lower-energy buildings, net  
zero-energy systems, and supply-demand integration that take advantage  
of dynamic pricing. Local generation and local storage require that  
the consumer (in today's situation) make investments in technology and  
infrastructure including electric charging and thermal storage  
systems. Businesses, homes, electric vehicles and the power grid will  
benefit from automated and timely communication of energy price,  
characteristics, quantities, and related information.

A consistent model for market information exchange can be applied,  
with elaboration or use of defined subsets, to allow essentially the  
same information communication for homes, individual appliances,  
electric vehicles, small businesses, commercial buildings, office  
parks, neighborhood grids, and industrial facilities, simplifying  
communication flow and improving the quality of actions taken across  
the broad range of energy providers, distributors, and consumers. A  
consistent information model will reduce costs for implementation.

This work is intended to define a means for effective information  
exchange that permits immediate decisions - market participants must  
independently understand the complexities of the markets in which they  
operate. But the quotation of price, quantity, and characteristics in  
a consistent way across markets has significant value, even though the  
participants must understand and anticipate market and contract terms  
and conditions.

In the evolving transactive power grid (the "Smart Grid") these  
communications will involve energy consumers, producers, transmission  
and distribution systems, and must enable aggregation for both  
consumption and curtailment resources. Market makers, such as  
Independent System Operators (ISOs), Regional Transmission Operators  
(RTOs), utilities, and other evolving mechanisms need to deliver  
actionable information in consistent formats as the Smart Grid  
evolves. With information in consistent formats, building and facility  
agents can make decisions on energy sale, purchase, and use that fit  
the goals and requirements of their home, business, or industrial  
facility.

The Technical Committee will focus on means of exchanging market  
information consistent with the OASIS Blue approach (see http://www.oasis-open.org/resources/white-papers/blue/) 
, including consistency, transparency, and security.

The information exchanged is critical to allow buyers and sellers to  
communicate, understand, and act on prices, quantities, and other  
characteristics of energy that is bought and sold.


The scope of the work of the TC:
This TC will leverage existing work wherever feasible, and will  
produce specifications for interoperation consistent with  
architectural principles including symmetry, composability, service  
orientation, and aggregation.

The TC will develop a data model and XML vocabulary to exchange prices  
and product definitions for transactive energy markets. Web services  
definitions, service definitions consistent with the OASIS SOA  
Reference Model, and XML vocabularies supporting the information model  
will be developed as needed for interoperable and standard exchange of:
* Price information
* Bid information
* Time for use or availability
* Units and quantity to be traded
* Characteristics of what is to be traded
* Deal/Bid/Acceptance confirmations
Other mechanisms being defined for Energy Interoperation may take  
advantage of the definition of price and characteristics as defined by  
this Technical Committee.

This work will facilitate interaction with energy markets, including  
but not limited to allowing participants to:
* Take advantage of lower energy costs by deferring or accelerating  
usage
* Enable trading of curtailment and generation at retail, wholesale,  
and aggregator markets
* Enable forward and futures markets and specific contracted time of  
use and provision
* Enable retail, wholesale, and aggregator market decisions based on  
characteristics of energy traded, including but not limited to source  
(e.g. renewable) and carbon characteristics
* Enable auditing of transactions and characteristics of what is traded
* Support symmetry of interaction between providers and consumers of  
energy
* Provide for aggregation of provision, curtailment, and use at the  
retail and wholesale level

The definition of a price and of other market information exchanged  
depends on the market context in which it exists. It is not in scope  
for this TC to define specifications for markets or how prices are  
determined, or the mechanisms for interoperation. The TC will  
coordinate with others to ensure that commonly used market and  
communication models are supported.

The TC will define the specific type and amount of information  
exchanged as well as define extensibility and subsetting. The TC does  
not intend to attempt to define all characteristics of complex  
markets, but to define sufficient information exchange for effective  
decisions by market participants, suppliers, and consumers, and to  
communicate price quotations.

The data models and XML vocabularies defined by this TC will address  
issues in energy markets and the Smart Grid, but may be defined so as  
to support requirements for other markets.

This work is intended to be usable by the OASIS Energy Interoperation  
TC and other Smart Grid standardization efforts.

Models and requirements for cybersecurity and privacy will be  
addressed in the TC's work.


A list of deliverables, with projected completion dates:
Projected times are from inception, the date of the initial TC meeting.

Insofar as possible the TC will coordinate its schedules with the  
OASIS Energy Interoperation TC, UCAIug and other initiatives including  
those supported by NIST and regulatory agencies.

Based on coordination with Schedule and Interval, Energy  
Interoperation, other standards efforts, and the NIST Smart Grid  
Priority Action Plan for interoperable price, the projected timetable  
is:

[1] Develop plan and identify funding for interoperability and  
conformance testing (1 month)
[2] Define eMIX price and product (4 months)
[3] Integrate eMIX with Common Schedule and Interval specification  
developed with others (5 months)
[4] Define profiles for use of eMIX in OASIS Energy Interoperation (6  
months)
[5] Define profiles for use of eMIX in FIXML (12 months)
[6] Continued maintenance and development of profiles for other areas  
as guided by identified needs including those in the United States  
Smart Grid Roadmap.

After deliverable [5] is complete, the TC will enter "maintenance  
mode" described schematically in [6]. The maintenance is intended to  
provide minor revisions to address inconsistencies and any necessary  
modifications in a way that does not affect core structure and  
functionality of the final deliverable, as well as to develop profiles  
for other areas as identified in the future. Such updates will take  
place at least annually. During the maintenance mode, the TC will  
continue to address the interoperation and use of eMIX in its multiple  
contexts.


Specification of the IPR Mode under which the TC will operate:
The TC shall operate under RF on Limited Terms.


The anticipated audience or users of the work:
Anticipated users of this work include:
* Implementers of facility agents, embedded controllers, decision  
management systems, and gateways
* Market makers such as Independent System Operators and Regional  
Transmission Operators
* Participants in energy markets at all levels (e.g. retail,  
wholesale, curtailment, and forward and futures markets for energy  
trading)
* Aggregators of energy provision, curtailment, and use
* Generators
* Energy storage facilities
* Smart devices and premises automation systems
* Consumers of energy, for acquiring energy in a cost-effective manner  
consistent with their business and/or personal activities


The language in which the TC shall conduct business:
The TC will use English as the language for conducting its operations.


Non-normative information regarding the startup of the TC:
(2)(a) Identification of similar or applicable work that is being done  
in other OASIS TCs or by other organizations, why there is a need for  
another effort in this area and how this proposed TC will be  
different, and what level of liaison will be pursued with these other  
organizations.

The intention of this work is to define integration data models and  
vocabularies that allow software to exchange energy market  
information, and may permit extensibility to similar markets in the  
future. A key goal is to ensure that vendors of appliances, control  
systems, and devices can support and take advantage of and act on  
price information. Since there is a range of device complexities and  
implementations, where feasible the data model and schema will be  
developed so that useful subsets can be used by devices.

The TC will work as part of the United States National Institute of  
Standards and Technology [NIST] Priority Action Plans for Smart Grid  
Interoperability. At the time of this writing, the relevant Priority  
Action Plan is at http://collaborate.nist.gov/twiki-sggrid/bin/view/_SmartGridInterimRoadmap/PAP03PriceProduct 
. Work under that Priority Action Plan is underway, with committed  
deliveries of vocabulary, use cases and UML continuing through 2009  
and early 2010.

Under the Priority Action Plan, the North American Energy Standards  
Board (NAESB http://naesb.org/) will survey existing price  
communications including those used in OpenHAN, IEC TC 57 Common  
Information Model (CIM), and ZigBee SEP. NAESB will work with their  
own members and with members of the Edison Electric Institute (EEI),  
the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM), the National  
Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), the ISO/RTO  
Council and the Financial Information Service Division. NAESB will  
contribute this survey to the EMIX TC.

There are many means for market information exchange of bids and  
prices, including XML vocabularies. The characteristics of energy,  
such as source (e.g. geothermal, hydroelectric, natural gas  
generation, hard coal, soft coal generators with stack scrubbers,  
carbon characteristics) are of high present and future interest.  
Today's energy markets command a premium for renewable energy, but  
there are no broadly interoperable means of consistently tagging  
energy with its source or characteristics. Specific markets, such as  
ISO New England's GIS - do handle tagging and administration of  
credit. The interoperable extension of such information models is a  
goal of this work.

We believe that close coordination and balancing among the full range  
of stakeholders is essential to ensure that a single, technology  
independent requirements specification and abstract information model  
can be developed that can be implemented by the OASIS TC and any other  
entities that may develop non-XML profiles, thus assuring  
interoperation at the semantic level in the future.

For one example, wholesale energy markets have specific requirements  
for submission and acceptance of energy offers including standardized  
business processes. The work of this Technical Committee is not  
intended to supplant those requirements but rather to work with them  
as a means of exchanging information among multiple entities. In  
particular, the utilities, Independent System Operators (ISOs),  
Regional Transmission Operators (RTOs), energy market makers, and  
wholesale energy market participants have defined models, business  
processes, and XML vocabularies that could support and contribute to  
this TC's work. We welcome them as stakeholders and contributors.

We anticipate input from technology, policy and business stakeholders  
and organizations, including but not limited to NIST Domain Expert  
Working Groups (NIST DEWG) and Task Groups  (http://www.nist.gov/smartgrid/ 
), The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC http:// 
www.ferc.gov), the United States Department of Energy (DOE http://www.energy.gov/) 
, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUChttp://naruc.org/) 
, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI http://www.epri.com),  
and UCAIug (http://www.ucaiug.org).

This TC will use an integration model to create interoperable price  
communication. The TC will not attempt to harmonize all pre-existing  
models. Instead, the TC will create a more abstract model,  
incorporating key characteristics as expressed in existing and  
possible future models, to ensure that key actionable information is  
communicated. The work of the TC will interoperate and work with the  
cited work, as well as provide actionable information to and from  
facilities.

The development of open, transactive energy is a goal of the GridWise  
Architecture Council (http://www.gridwiseac.org/). We expect to engage  
the members throughout the lifecycle of the TC, as well as with  
emerging Smart Grid Architecture efforts from NIST including the Smart  
Grid Interoperability Framework.

The definition of a market is a required context for understanding  
prices, characteristics, and bids. Market definition is outside the  
scope of this TC; we expect to interact with work developing out of  
the 2009 GridEcon conference (http://www.gridecon.com/2009/), NIST,  
and the evolving Smart Grid Interoperability Standards Framework (http://nist.gov/smartgrid/ 
).

The Financial Information Exchange protocol (FIX, www.FixProtocol.org)  
is an open specification intended to streamline electronic  
communications in the financial securities industry. FIX supports  
multiple formats and types of communications between financial  
entities including trade allocation, order submissions, order changes,  
execution reporting and advertisements. FIX is employed by numerous  
financial vendors and has emerged as the favored specification among  
trading partners. FIX is used in many markets, so defining the FIX  
product definition profile in EMIX would not pre-judge energy market  
design. Fix has sequencing, but not schedules, so both could take  
advantage of the proposed WS-Calendar work.

European markets have an additional area of economic interface,  
between Transmission and Distribution (in American terminology), which  
are typically under separate ownership. As time allows, or in a future  
update, the TC may address those needs.

Demand Response and other energy interactions may be used to deliver  
Price information; the TC will coordinate with the OASIS Energy  
Interoperation TC (http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=energyinterop 
) in this area with the expectation that that Technical Committee will  
use the output of EMIX. This work has different stakeholders and  
expertise needed than that for Energy Interoperation, but there is  
also substantial overlap in supporters and likely participants,  
assuring close coordination.

Work on defining business attributes of a service, being developed by  
the OASIS Service Oriented Architecture End-to-End Resource Planning  
TC (SOA-EERP TC), may apply to define attributes of energy.

The (proposed, in formation) OASIS WS-Calendar Technical Committee or  
other work (identified in this draft as "Common Schedule and  
Interval") will provide an interoperable XML vocabulary and semantics  
for time that is applicable to energy pricing and price communication,  
automated building management, and business process. We expect to  
coordinate and use that work.

Composability with the WS-Transaction family of OASIS Standards may be  
beneficial for consistent distributed outcomes, particularly across  
enterprises with diverse ownership.

Service definitions and the approach of the TC should be consistent  
with the OASIS Service Oriented Architecture Reference Model (http://www.oasis-open.org/specs/#soa-rmv1.0 
) and best practices in that area.


(2)(b) The date, time, and location of the first meeting, whether it  
will be held in person or by phone, and who will sponsor this first  
meeting:
The first meeting will be by teleconference on Thursday, 15 October  
2009 at 11am ET.


(2)(c) The projected on-going meeting schedule for the year following  
the formation of the TC, or until the projected date of the final  
deliverable, whichever comes first, and who will be expected to  
sponsor these meetings:

The TC will conduct its business via weekly teleconference calls. The  
time of the call will be determined during the first meeting of the  
TC. The TC will conduct face-to-face meetings as needed and determined  
by the TC. The TC participants will sponsor teleconference facilities  
and face-to-face meetings.


(2)(d) The names, electronic mail addresses, and membership  
affiliations of at least Minimum Membership who support this proposal  
and are committed to the Charter and projected meeting schedule:

Ron Ambrosio, rfa@us.ibm.com, IBM
Jean-Yves Bitterlich, Jean-Yves.Bitterlich@Sun.COM, Sun Microsystems
Anto Budiardjo, anto@clasma.com, Individual
Edward Cazalet, ed@cazalet.com, Individual
Chris Cheng, chris@primeton.com, Primeton
Toby Considine, Toby.Considine@unc.edu, University of North Carolina
William Cox, wtcox@CoxSoftwareArchitects.com, Associate
Sharon Dinges, sdinges@trane.com, Trane
Robert Dolin, bobd@echelon.com, Echelon Corporation
Rik Drummond, rikd@drummondgroup.com, Drummond Group
Craig Gemmill, craig.gemmill@tridium.com, Tridium, Inc.
Girish Ghatikar, GGhatikar@lbl.gov, Lawrence Berkeley National  
Laboratory
Stephen Hagan, stephen.hagan@gmail.com, General Services Administration
David Holmberg, david.holmberg@nist.gov, National Institute of  
Standards and Technology
Gale Horst, ghorst@epri.com, Electric Power Research Institute
Jeffrey Kegley, jkegley@tridium.com, Tridium, Inc.
Ed Koch, ed@akuacom.com, Akuacom
Michel Kohanim, michel@universal-devices.com, Universal Devices
Larry Lackey, llackey@tibco.com, TIBCO Software Inc
Michael Lavelle, mike@lavelleenergy.com, Individual
Wayne Longcore, wrlongcore@cmsenergy.com, Consumers Energy
Ralph Martinez, ralph.martinez@baesystems.com, BAE Systems Inc
Lance McKee, lmckee@opengeospatial.org, Open Geospatial Consortium
Terry Mohn, terry.mohn@baesystems.com, BAE Systems Inc
David Nemirow, david.nemirow@baesystems.com, BAE Systems Inc
Scott Neumann, SNeumann@uisol.com, Associate
Robert Old, bob.old@siemens.com, Siemens AG
John Petze, jpetze@gmail.com, Individual
Mary Ann Piette, mapiette@lbl.gov, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Farrokh A. Rahimi, Farrokh.Rahimi@oati.net, Open Access Technology  
International
Carl Reed, creed@opengeospatial.org, Open Geospatial Consortium Inc
Jeremy Roberts, jeremy@lonmark.org, LonMark International
Song Jingjing, songjj@bsw.gov.cn, Changfeng Alliance
Anno Scholten, anno@seefarconsulting.com, Individual
Terry Sick, tsick@enernoc.com, EnerNOC
Pornsak Songkakul, pornsak.songkakul@siemens.com, Siemens AG
Jane Snowdon, snowdon@us.ibm.com, IBM
Jake Thompson, jthompson@enernoc.com, EnerNOC
Matt Wakefield, mwakefield@epri.com, Electric Power Research Institute
David Wilson, DavidCWilson@trane.com, Trane
Leighton Wolffe, ljwolffe@verizon.net, Individual

(2)(e) The name of the Convener who must be an Eligible Person.
Edward Cazalet, Individual


(2)(f) The name of the Member Section with which the TC intends to  
affiliate
The Energy Market Information Exchange TC intends to affiliate with  
the OASIS Blue Member Section.


(2)(g) Optionally, a list of contributions of existing technical work  
that the proposers anticipate will be made to this TC.
None


(2)(h) Optionally, a draft Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document  
regarding the planned scope of the TC, for posting on the TC's website.
None


(2)(i) Optionally, a proposed working title and acronym for the  
specification(s) to be developed by the TC.
eMIX