One of the keys to making the Smart Grid economically viable is developing standards for communication. Communication between devices and operators. Communication between operators and balancing authorities. Communication for the markets. The need for standards is driven by economics. Without standards, a tremendous amount of time and energy goes into “point-to-point” integrations of technologies. This time and energy is a waste, as this labor is better spent adding value elsewhere. Standards help, because a little effort spent up front in defining the standard, coupled with a little effort implementing and verifying the standard, allows redirecting this labor.
Congress has chartered the National Institute of Standards and Technology to foster standards for the Smart Grid. The NIST has formed the SGIP to drive this process. The SGIP is not a standards body itself. Instead, it examines relevant standards and suggests Smart Grid related improvements. The SGIP is working very hard to make sure that there is representation from most of the major industry segments involved in the Smart Grid. It is also very open in its process, and welcomes participation. The best place to get an overview of what the SGIP is up to is to look at its wiki site: http://collaborate.nist.gov/twiki-sggrid/bin/view/SmartGrid/WebHome.
Lots of good technical information there. I personally find the Interoperability Framework and the Smart Grid Cyber Security Guidelines very useful background material for how the Smart Grid will ultimately work.