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:
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Price information
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Bid information
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Time for use or availability
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Units and quantity to be traded
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Characteristics of what is to be traded
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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:
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Take advantage of lower energy costs by deferring or accelerating usage
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Enable trading of curtailment and generation at retail, wholesale, and aggregator markets
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Enable forward and futures markets and specific contracted time of use and provision
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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
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Enable auditing of transactions and characteristics of what is traded
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Support symmetry of interaction between providers and consumers of energy
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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.
