New conformity testing services for smart grid vendors and utilities

Risk management and assurance company DNV has been authorised as a testing laboratory to provide Common Grid Model Exchange Standard (CGMES) V3.0 conformity testing services by the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E).

The two entities signed a contract as part of which DNV’s testing tool CIMbion will ensure that the implementation of new power system applications complies with the standard of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Common Information Model (CIM).

“We are very pleased to announce the agreement between ENTSO-E and DNV on Conformity Assessment Services for the Common Grid Model Exchange Standard (CGMES),” ENTSO-E said in a statement.

Conformance testing is a crucial step to demonstrate that all new grid applications from different vendors are compliant to the standard and can interoperate by exchanging grid operations data flawlessly.

“This agreement sets the terms for DNV to act as CGMES Conformity Assessment body to enable IT vendors to obtain the attestation of conformity for CGMES. ENTSO-E remains the owner of the Conformity Assessment Scheme as well as the Opinion Body. Thus, ENTSO-E will ensure the CGMES conformity assessment process is performed correctly,” the network said.

Conformance testing will enable the smooth data exchange between Smart Grid operating and planning systems from different vendors, thereby supporting the integration of more renewable energy into power grids to accelerate the energy transition.

“DNV’s conformance testing service gives vendors the ability to develop and test their applications to acquire an independent verification of their CIM implementation during Factory Acceptance Test (FAT),” said Lucy Craig, Executive Vice President Growth, Innovation and Digitalisation, Energy Systems at DNV.

“Having certified CIM compliant applications will improve the product’s marketability and ultimately the vendor´s market share. DNV can provide Services to TSOs and DSOs to improve the data quality to ensure the conformity as part of Site Acceptance Testing (SAT). The CIMbion testing tool will also be used for conformance testing and data quality assessment during factory and site acceptance testing in project implementations,” she added.