IEEE Standards Association global expert delegation in India for knowledge and best practices exchange

BANGALORE, INDIA: IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA), a globally recognized standards setting body within IEEE, is currently having an expert delegation consisting of industry experts in India this week focused on knowledge and best practices exchange.

The delegation visit co-incides with the India visit of the Corporate Advisory Group (CAG) of IEEE-SA which is the second only such visit to India. The broader focus is also to explore ways to have India participate in the standards process more actively and ways to evolve standards that factor in the local context.

The expert delegation will hold meetings with key government organizations driving the Smart grid space here like National Thermal Power Corp. (NTPC) and Power Grid Corp. of India. In addition, the delegation is meeting leading private players and academic institutions active across its areas of focus.

The delegation visit builds on the remarkable progress achieved by IEEE-SA and its India SIG (Standards Interest Group) over the past year in increasing standards awareness and facilitating exchange between multiple stakeholders. IEEE-SA has also in this period introduced in India, key Smart Grid standards like the IEEE 2030TM for interoperability, IEEE 1701 and IEEE 1702 advanced Smart Metering standards, IEEE 1902 for Broadband over Power Line, and IEEE 1547 guideline for deployment of Micro Grids.

Srikanth Chandrasekaran, chairperson, India SIG, IEEE-SA, said: "Smart grid is a complex concept and requires reasonable financial investment to implement as well. That is why learning from other markets who have been there before is both beneficial and critical. The CAG visit is also of significance as it amplifies and enables better participation of India in the standards process besides flowing local inputs into standards currently being evolved."

Karen McCabe, senior director, Strategic Marketing & Product development, IEEE-SA and a delegation member, said: "The approach taken and many smart grid pilot projects currently underway or being initiated in India are unique and learning from them is of global relevance. This outreach only goes to reinforce the macro, facilitation role that IEEE-SA has taken upon itself with respect to development of technology spaces in India such as smart grid."

The Corporate Advisory Group (CAG) advises IEEE-SA Board of Governors (BoG) and corporate members. It strives to represent a broad spectrum of industry interests/global perspectives and provides strategic direction and recommendations to the BoG based out of industry inputs on the IEEE standards process.

The CAG delegation will be India till end of this week and the outreach includes multiple events across these two cities including a full meeting of the India SIG in Bangalore. Another objective of the CAG visit is to reach directly to India-based companies, focusing on the fields of power, communications and information technology to encourage participation in IEEE varied standards activities.