Electric Co-op Today

The MultiSpeak® Initiative’s newest member, Southern Co., provides a boost to the NRECA-led collaboration’s efforts to further the integration of software on which the smart grid depends, according to MultiSpeak technical coordinator Gary McNaughton.

Southern Co. has joined an NRECA-led collaboration’s efforts to integrate software on which the smart grid depends. (Photo By: Southern Company)

The giant Atlanta-based IOU’s participation in MultiSpeak “will be a key consideration” for other large utilities considering membership, McNaughton said. “Southern’s choice is an indication that MultiSpeak is applicable to one of the largest utilities in the country.”

MultiSpeak was launched in January 2000. The initiative involves NRECA, utilities and software vendors serving the utility market. Participants developed and continue to expand a specification that defines standardized interfaces among software applications commonly used by electric utilities.

The specification defines what data must be exchanged between software applications in order to support commonly applied business processes.

This enables software from different suppliers to interoperate without the use of extensive custom interfaces.

While MultiSpeak was originally targeted at small utilities and covered a limited number of back-office applications, the effort has expanded and now offers applications for utilities of all sizes. The National Institute of Standards and Technology has recognized MultiSpeak as one of the foundational smart grid interoperability standards.

Despite this expansion, some large utilities have continued to believe that an alternative interoperability model is more scalable than MultiSpeak. Southern was in this group until it selected a vendor’s smart grid-related software product that builds on MultiSpeak’s version 4.1, the most recent offering.

The IOU wanted an interface that worked with that product for other software applications it ran. To obtain access, it became a MultiSpeak member.

“Southern’s choice demonstrates that scalability is not an issue,” McNaughton said. “This lends a high degree of credibility for MultiSpeak to other large utilities making that decision.”

“This latest member continues the trend of expanding the MultiSpeak Initiative’s reach beyond co-ops and small utilities,” said Bob Saint, NRECA principal distribution engineer and MultiSpeak program manager.

At the same time, Saint added, “We would like to see more co-ops get involved and support the integration initiative” by becoming members. NRECA member co-ops can sign up online, he noted.

Tags: MultiSpeak, Smart Grid