The Consumer Electronics Association® recently launched a new Smart Grid committee to advance standardization of the Modular Communications Interface (MCI) specification. The new standard will benefit manufacturers, utilities, service providers and consumers as it leads to more Smart Grid-ready products.
The MCI specification, created by the Universal Smart Network Access Port (USNAP) Alliance and based on research from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), will enable manufacturers of consumer products to build Smart Grid-ready products that can obtain energy information from digital meters and energy system interfaces regardless of the communication technology used.
The USNAP Alliance will work with the CEA committee, CEA R7.8 Modular Communication Interface for Energy Management, to support the industry adoption of the MCI standard through certification and test programs. EPRI will continue to provide valuable research, conducting interoperability workshops through which prototype devices and demand response programs can be evaluated.
