Webinar: LF Energy GEISA: Addressing edge interoperability at the meter

This webinar will introduce the Grid Edge Security and Interoperability Alliance, or GEISA, an effort within LF Energy to address application interoperability at the very edge of the utility network: meters and other distribution automation devices. Over the last decade platform manufacturers have introduced the ability to run applications on electricity meters and other edge devices. Unfortunately, while many of these efforts have been built on Linux, they haven’t been interoperable. APIs and execution environment have varied from one manufacturer to the next making it impossible for utilities to obtain applications that they can run across a fleet of different devices. For utilities that want to minimize their supply chain risk by obtaining equipment from multiple suppliers, they are forced to run and maintain multiple separate management systems. Applications available for one device may need to be ported to run on another, or they may not be available at all.



GEISA addresses this by creating a vendor neutral specification for utility edge computing environments. This webinar will discuss why GEISA is important to utilities, the specific issues GEISA will solve and the new opportunities it creates for utilities, platform vendors, and application vendors.

1. GEISA: Addressing edge interoperability at the meter Mo Al-Ahmar, Southern California Edison Matt Hubbard, Portland General Electric Marissa Hummon, Utilidata

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3. Agenda Introductions Importance of Edge Interoperability Role of GEISA Platform Provider’s Perspective Technical Overview Project Overview Q&A for Panelists

4. Introduction Mo Al-Ahmar Southern California Edison Principal Manager for AMI 2.0 Marissa Hummon Utilidata Chief Technology Officer M att Hubba rd Portland General Electric Manager, Distributed Device Strategy

5. What is GEISA? Mission Statement Enabling secure interoperability at the grid edge to accelerate adoption of advanced analytics Vision GEISA creates the secure, interoperable ecosystem to streamline the cybersecurity, deployment, scaling and operation of next-generation grid edge computing and applications. This computing and application ecosystem focuses on capabilities around grid operations, DER orchestration, AI, and other advanced functionality, with standard metering and billing out of scope. The G rid E dge I nteroperability and S ecurity A lliance is a project under the auspices of the Linux Foundation to define an interoperable specification for Grid Edge c omputing.

6. Utilities Have Addressed Interoperability Before Addressing i nteroperability in the Utility world is not new: AC vs DC 50/60 Hz (vs. 16, 25, 33, 40, 133) NEMA plugs & sockets DLMS / COSEM IEEE 1547 & 2030.5 Interoperability will develop when it makes sense for all involved Natural evolution within an industry maturing with multiple parties The right time for edge computing interoperability is now Image from https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/let-there-be-light-bulbs/

7. Edge Interoperability: Supply Chain Security Industry is working to increase grid resilience due to geopolitical and catastrophic events. Supply chains are more fragile than we thought Long established international norms are in flux Utilities have a duty to serve no matter what Interoperability allows utilities and vendors to pivot when necessary

8. Edge Interoperability : Unlocking Innovation Open environments create opportunities for everyone: Utilities can mix-and-match, deploying exactly what they need when they need it Platform vendors can sell new innovations now and to anyone, rather than waiting for the next upgrade cycle Software providers can target a wider and more dynamic market Engineering time and talent can be invested where it adds value, rather than infrastructure or porting Interoperability increases reuse and adoption, making it more likely that GEISA can expand beyond meters to distribution automation

9. Edge Interoperability: Future Proofing Utility assets are usually measured in the span of decades lasting a generation Some of these systems have useful lives that can outlast that of the vendors that build them Support of proprietary systems, without interoperability makes it difficult for new vendors to support Proprietary systems can make existing vendors struggle support old product lines as the supply chain and people who designed them makes it hard to support it with new product designs.

10. Edge Interoperability: Industry Efficiency Interoperability at the edge enables the industry to focus on developing new and better products, without worrying about redesigning the software each time. Lets vendors focus on adding real value for the grid Open standards reduces the cyber risk and net costs Developing software is expensive, reusing it is cheap Defining a Common Operating Environment is beneficial for everyone

11. The Role of GEISA

12. The Role of GEISA: Defining a Common Baseline Specify the CPU Architecture and minimum required features Specify the minimum RAM & storage required Specify minimum kernel version Specify base libraries Specify required interfaces

13. The Role of GEISA: Selection Over Invention Most of what utilities need for edge applications already exists: Kernel, Libraries, Services Open source projects provide lots of options C Library (e.g. musl, uClibc, dietlibc, glibc) System initialization (Systemd, Upstart, SysV init, BSD init, OpenRC) File system layout Application management GEISA strives to build on what already exists, selecting the most appropriate technologies and standards GEISA is focused on specifying what matters for interoperability , implementers are free to go beyond the specification

14. The Role of GEISA: Enabling an Ecosystem Provide clear definitions that ensure interoperability Provide attestation through conformance testing Develop a community that can continue to evolve the specification as needs change and new products are brought to market

15. The Role of GEISA: Industry Assurance Utilities can purchase an open architecture that is bigger than any single vendor or provider GEISA addresses security in a consistent , uniform, and visible manner Vendors can invest knowing there is industry-wide commitment

16. Platform Provider’s Perspective: C haracteristics of the grid make distributed computing a challenge … Critical infrastructure Rugged physical conditions Long lived assets Highly variable edge operating conditions Strict resiliency requirements Strong privacy and security needs Inconsistent communications access Cost sensitive

17. Platform Provider’s Perspective: Characteristics of the grid make distributed computing a challenge… Critical infrastructure Rugged physical conditions Long lived assets Highly variable edge operating conditions Strict resiliency requirements Strong privacy and security needs Inconsistent communications access Cost sensitive

18. 2015 Deployed the utility industry’s first real-time machine-learning grid optimization solution 2019 Developed first applications for meter company software platforms 2021 Partnered with NVIDIA to develop first distributed AI platform for the electric grid 2023 Early adopters secure $100M funding from Department of Energy to scale Karman 2024 Hubbell becomes first hardware provider to embed Karman Utilidata has operated real-time machine learning software on the grid for over a decade - our experience of delivering and maintaining that software is the basis for our platform 2024 Partnered with Advantech to design and build a custom SOM for the grid edge with the NVIDIA Jetson Orin SoC

19. 2015 Deployed the utility industry’s first real-time machine-learning grid optimization solution 2019 Developed first applications for meter company software platforms 2021 Partnered with NVIDIA to develop first distributed AI platform for the electric grid 2023 Early adopters secure $100M funding from Department of Energy to scale Karman 2024 Hubbell becomes first hardware provider to embed Karman Utilidata has operated real-time machine learning software on the grid for over a decade - our experience of delivering and maintaining that software is the basis for our platform 2024 Partnered with Advantech to design and build a custom SOM for the grid edge with the NVIDIA Jetson Orin SoC

20. Utilidata’s Karman Software Layers Utilidata builds applications to seed the platform and develop distributed AI tools TOPOLOGY • SOLAR DETECTION • EV DETECTION • POWER QUALITY EVALUATION • HOSTING CAPACITY ANOMALY CLASSIFICATION Applications Algorithms that analyze high volumes of data on a continuous basis and publish useful statistics to the application layer. These include: DSP ENGINE • ANOMALY DETECTION • DATA INTEGRITY • DER GATEWAY Core Algorithms Karman Platform - this will meet GEISA specifications Firmware : board support; integrated power, thermal and data management OS : Linux OS plus NVIDIA tools, integrated with security and OTA capabilities Services : resource, application and data management Karman module

21. Utilidata’s Karman Software Layers Utilidata builds applications to seed the platform and develop distributed AI tools TOPOLOGY • SOLAR DETECTION • EV DETECTION • POWER QUALITY EVALUATION • HOSTING CAPACITY ANOMALY CLASSIFICATION Applications Algorithms that analyze high volumes of data on a continuous basis and publish useful statistics to the application layer. These include: DSP ENGINE • ANOMALY DETECTION • DATA INTEGRITY • DER GATEWAY Core Algorithms Karman Platform - this will meet GEISA specifications Firmware : board support; integrated power, thermal and data management OS : Linux OS plus NVIDIA tools, integrated with security and OTA capabilities Services : resource, application and data management Karman module

22. Technical Overview: Hardware ARM A7 (or better) 512 MB of RAM / 1 GB of Storage One or more network interfaces One or more sensors Zero or more actuators Zero or more environmental sensors Image By © Raimond Spekking / CC BY-SA 4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons), CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=107975205

23. Technical Overview: Operating System & Isolation Linux Host Operating System Containers for Isolation Lightweight containers

24. Technical Overview: Application Management GEISA will provide a uniform mechanism for managing applications: Provisioning Deploying Starting Stopping GEISA is selecting a specific API so that the utility experience is unified cross-vendor management GEISA will select uniform security mechanisms so that application management is both interoperable and secure Resetting Patching Purging / Resetting Decommissioning

25. Technical Overview: APIs GEISA will provide consistent well-defined APIs for accessing data including: Register Data Metrology Data Sensor Data Implementations will be vendor provided, but can take advantage of GEISA stub code as a starting place if desired

26. Technical Overview: Conformance GEISA will provide a conformance testing application which can be used to validate whether an environment is compliant We expect to rapidly iterate the conformance testing application as the specification develops At this time, there is no conformance organization or user association; vendors wishing to demonstrate conformance can provide the output from the conformance tool to any purchaser looking for evidence

27. Project Overview - Deliverables Roadmap

28. Project Overview: How to Participate Open to anyone that wants to participate Click the Get Started Option via the Website: https://lfenergy.org/projects/geisa/ Send members of your technical team to the Technical Sessions Register an LF energy account to comment & contribute to the Wiki Join the Mailing List Join the Slack channel Contribute content to the Specification Experiment with the technology to validate the Specification