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Abstract— This paper aims at providing an insight into the Smart

Grid Information Clearinghouse (SGIC) web portal sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. Developed by Virginia Tech Advanced Research Institute in Arlington, VA, with assistance from the IEEE Power & Energy Society and EnerNex Corporation, the SGIC web portal was officially launched to the public in September 2010. It is designed to be the first stop-shop for smart grid information that acts as an essential gateway to connect smart grid communities to relevant sources of information. This paper highlights the SGIC content database and its development details that allow intuitive knowledge discovery by users with different backgrounds and interests.

Index Terms—Smart Grid, Smart grid information clearinghouse (SGIC), database, knowledge discovery model

I. INTRODUCTION HE Smart Grid Information Clearinghouse (SGIC) web

portal (www.sgiclearinghouse.org) was developed under a contract from the U.S. Department of Energy, and

launched in September 2010. The Clearinghouse web portal is managed by and run from the Virginia Tech Advanced Research Institute in Arlington, VA.

The SGIC portal is designed to provide comprehensive smart grid information to relevant smart grid stakeholders. It contains a variety of smart grid related content, ranging from basic smart grid information to advanced smart grid topics dealing with standards, technologies, cyber security, legislation and regulation to projects in operation or under development. The target audience includes electricity customers, electric utilities, and those engaged in smart grid-related standards, policy and technological development. State and federal regulators can benefit from the deployment experience section on SGIC (which contains documents on use cases, business cases, lessons learned and cost-benefit analyses) in their deliberations for rule-making and evaluating the impact of their investments in the smart grid technologies and software. As a result, the Clearinghouse can be considered as a tool for smart grid stakeholders to utilize in advancing smart grid knowledge and project implementation.

This work was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy under

contract number DE-OE0000031. S. Rahman is professor and director of Virginia Tech – Advanced

Research Institute, Arlington, VA 22203 USA (e-mail: srahman@vt.edu). M. Pipattanasomporn is with Virginia Tech – Advanced Research Institute,

Arlington, VA 22203 USA (e-mail: mpipatta@vt.edu).

II. CONTENT AND ITS ORGANIZATION

A. The Clearinghouse’s Content

Through a series of discussions among representatives from various smart grid stakeholder groups, the top-ten content categories were identified to have high value and can deliver benefits to the smart grid communities. These content categories are summarized in Fig. 1.

1. Smart Grid 101 2. Technologies 3. Standards 4. Cyber security 5. Legislation and regulation 6. Education and training 7. Smart grid projects 8. Deployment experience 9. International information 10. Additional resources

Fig. 1. Top-ten content categories identified by relevant smart grid stakeholder groups.

Representatives who contributed to the development of SGIC came from research organizations, equipment manufacturers, professional and trade associations, consumer advocates, utility/ISO/RTO, service providers, standards organizations, regulators, federal/ state legislators, environmental groups, end users and the media.

B. Content Organization

The Clearinghouse sitemap was created based on the above top-ten list and discussed below. See Table I.

• Landing Page: the landing page of the SGIC web portal contains smart grid stories (RSS feeds), events calendar, frequently asked questions (FAQ), site map, and link to the contact us page. The SGIC content submission platform can be accessed from the landing page. The use of the SGIC content submission platform is further discussed in Section V.

• Smart Grid 101: The 101 page aims at providing an overview of smart grid, and frequently used smart grid acronyms and definitions. It is designed for the beginners who would like to learn more about the smart grid, how it works, and its characteristics through understandable reading materials and videos. It hosts the resource library that brings together smart grid-related documents published by various stakeholders. A summary of the NIST smart grid conceptual model [1] is available here to

Smart Grid Information Clearinghouse: A Content Collection and Knowledge Discovery Model

Saifur Rahman, Fellow, IEEE, and Manisa Pipattanasomporn, Member, IEEE

T

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TABLE I. SGIC CONTENT ORGANIZATION

give the big picture of the smart grid. The 101 page also provides links to consumer awareness programs offered by the U.S. federal/state/local governments, and the private sector.

• Projects: The SGIC project page archives information about smart grid projects in the U.S., including the project lead organizations, locations and a short synopsis. It is a good starting point to learn more about both government-funded projects and those sponsored by the private sector.

• Deployment experience: This page contains synopses and access to available use cases, lessons learned, cost-benefit analyses, business cases, and performance data. These are practical information pioneered by many utilities. Such information can be used as examples for implementing future smart grid projects. Utilities and decision makers can refer to the available cost-benefit analyses to create business cases for their smart grid investment.

• In-depth information: This page contains information on smart grid standards, technologies, cyber security, legislation and regulation, educational courses and training materials available in the U.S., as well as demand response-related documents. It is designed to offer a comprehensive understanding of the smart grid concept for those who have technical know-how.

• International information: The SGIC international information page archives information about smart grid projects in Africa, Americas (excluding the United States), Asia, Europe and Oceania. It is designed to provide a brief summary of smart grid projects implemented outside the U.S.

III. CONTENT DATABASE & KNOWLEDGE DISCOVERY MODEL The Clearinghouse offers a variety of content types, each of

which is discussed in further details below, together with its database drill-down capability offered by the SGIC web portal.

A. SGIC Resource Library [1]

Description: The SGIC resource library brings together smart grid related documents, including those submitted by individuals, which have been reviewed for relevance. Documents available in the resource library are in the form of audio and slide presentations, technical papers, newsletters, short courses, webinars, fact sheets, reports or white papers. As of June 2011, 1081 smart grid-related documents and multimedia reside in the SGIC resource library.

Browsing and drill-down options: Documents and multimedia in the resource library are searchable by smart grid domain, document classification, document type, and year. See Fig. 2.

Fig. 2. Drill-down capability for the SGIC resource library [1].

Smart grid domain [2] represents a high-level grouping of what NIST has deemed as actors in the smart grid space. There are seven (7) key smart grid domains, namely generation, transmission, distribution, customer, operations, markets, and service provider.

Document classification includes 101, business cases, cost-benefit analyses, demand-response, international information, lesson learned, cyber security, education, legislation, projects, standards, technology and use cases.

Document type includes audio presentation, book, docket, fact sheet, hearing/testimony, HTML, magazine articles, newsletter, proceedings, report, short course, slide presentation, standard information detail, technical paper, webinar and white paper.

Search results are available in a list-view format, which allows users to conveniently sort the documents by title, information source and year. See Fig. 3.

Fig. 3. List view of documents in the resource library.

Landing page Smart Grid 101 Projects Deployment Experience

In-depth information International Information

- Contact Us - Smart Grid stories - Content Submission - Events Calendar - Forums - FAQ

- Smart Grid 101 (1) - Acronyms - Smart Grid Resources (10) - NIST Smart Grid Conceptual Model - Consumer Awareness Programs

- Map - Projects (7)

- Use cases - Lessons learned - Cost-benefit analyses - Business Cases - Performance Data (8)

- Cyber security (4) - Education (6) - Legislation & Regulation (5) - Standards (3) - Technologies (2)

- Map - Africa - Americas - Asia - Europe - Oceania (9)

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A detailed page for each document entry in the resource library is also available, as shown in Fig. 4. A user can retrieve the document title, front cover image, author, year, a brief summary of the document, and information source. Full documents are available for download by clicking at the download link.

Fig. 4. Detailed page for each document entry in the resource library.

B. Consumer Awareness Program URL: http://www.sgiclearinghouse.org/ConsumerAwareness

Description: The SGIC web portal is dedicated to being a comprehensive resource for consumers. The consumer awareness program page contains various awareness programs offered by federal and state agencies, as well as those provided by the private sector. As of June 2011, the Clearinghouse contains over 60 consumer awareness programs. Browsing and drill-down options: The content in the consumer awareness program page are organized by:

• U.S. - Federal government - Private sector and non-profit organizations

• States - State and local governments - State private sector and non-profit organizations

C. Smart Grid Projects URL: http://www.sgiclearinghouse.org/Project

Description: The SGIC project page archives both government-funded smart grid projects and those sponsored by the private sector in the U.S.

Browsing and drill-down options: All project entries are classified by project categories defined by the U.S. Department of Energy, which are:

- Advanced Metering Infrastructure - Transmission Systems - Distribution Systems - Customer Systems - Equipment Manufacturing - Integrated Systems - Regional Demonstration - Storage Demonstration

The smart grid project database is displayed in a map-view format (see Fig. 5) and a list-view format (see Fig. 6). The map-view format enables users to visually see the projects by state, and enable browsing by project category. The list-view

format allows users to browse the projects by state and project category. At the same time, the list-view format allows users to conveniently sort the projects by project title, lead organization, and location.

Fig. 5. Map view of smart grid projects [3].

Fig. 6. List view of smart grid projects.

A detailed page for each project entry is available, which allows a user to retrieve the project title, project map, lead organization, location, project contact information, project category, project summary and project URL, if available.

D. Deployment Experience URL: http://www.sgiclearinghouse.org/Deployment

Description: The deployment experience is captured under the following topics: use cases, lesson learned, cost-benefit analyses, and business cases.

• Use cases are descriptions of smart grid applications that define the important actors, systems and technologies, and their requirements that are a part of the smart grid applications. The Clearinghouse provides links and synopses to available smart grid-related use cases. As of June 2011, there are over 200 use cases in the SGIC database.

• Lessons learned documents are collected from various utilities to provide information on field experience. This information includes best practices and faults and fixes that can provide experience, guidelines, and pointers from past and present deployment of smart grid

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technologies. As of June 2011, there are over 100 lessons learned documents in the SGIC database.

• Cost-benefit analysis documents are gathered from various stakeholders. Such analyses provide useful information for utilities and decision makers to create business cases for their smart grid investment. Each cost-benefit analysis is expected to contain metrics that identify cost and benefit components of a particular project. As of June 2011, there are over 120 cost-benefit analysis documents in the SGIC database.

• Business cases combine a variety of current and historical sources to capture the logic behind moving forward on a smart grid project. Business cases provide the justification for supporting a business need. Not all business cases are based on projected profits, this is especially true for developmental, testing, and pilot projects or projects designed to improve customer satisfaction. As of June 2011, there are over 30 business case documents in the SGIC database.

Browsing and drill-down options: These deployment experience documents can be browsed by smart grid domain and year. See Fig. 7. Search results are available in the list view format, with a brief description and an access to download a full document.

Fig. 7. Drill-down capability for the deployment experience library [4].

E. Standards URL: http://www.sgiclearinghouse.org/Standards

Description: The SGIC standards page provides information and links to smart grid-related standards from various Standards Development Organizations (SDOs).

Browsing and drill-down options: All standards are categorized and can be browsed by smart grid domain, issuing organization, and year. See Fig. 8.

Fig. 8. Drill-down capability for the SGIC standards library [5].

As discussed earlier, smart grid domains include generation,

transmission, distribution, customer, operations, markets, and service provider. At present, issuing organization options in the SGIC standards library includes AEIC, ANSI, DHS, IETF,

NRECA, OGC, DNP, IEC, IEEE, ISO, LBL, NEMA, NERC, NIST, SAE, UCAIUG and Zigbee Alliance. As of June 2011, the total of 162 smart grid-related standards are available in the SGIC database.

F. Technology URL: http://www.sgiclearinghouse.org/Technologies

Description: The SGIC technology database lists various technologies that enable the smart grid operation.

Browsing and drill-down options: These technologies are grouped into five key technology areas, identified by the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) Modern Grid Strategy [6]. These categories are:

- Advanced components - Advanced control methods - Sensing and measurement - Improved interfaces and decision support - Integrated communications

As of June 2011, there are over 70 technologies listed in the SGIC database. For each technology, a brief description, applications and information of sample vendors and products are provided. Some vendors provide their own product information through the SGIC product registration page (URL: http://www.sgiclearinghouse.org/ProductRegistration).

G. Legislation and Regulation URL: http://www.sgiclearinghouse.org/Legislation

Description: The SGIC legislation and regulation page provides a comprehensive source of information on U.S. legislation and regulations at both federal and state levels. The smart grid-related legislation and regulation activities at the federal level include, for example, the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, and the FERC Smart Grid Policy [Docket No. PL09-4-000]. The summary of the relevant sections is provided, together with the link to download the full document.

Browsing and drill-down options: The browsing and drill-down options are only available at the state level. The smart grid-related legislation and regulation activities at the state level are categorized by state. For each state, the legislation and regulation activities are summarized, together with the list of utilities within the state and links to their rate schedules, state-level incentives, as well as links to the state energy office or state authority dealing with energy regulation.

H. Education and Training URL: http://www.sgiclearinghouse.org/Education

Description: The SGIC education page archives DOE-sponsored workforce training programs for manpower development. These programs target at preparing the next generation of workers in the utilities and electrical manufacturing industries for the successful deployment of the smart grid at all levels.

Browsing and drill-down options: The education and training programs available can be browsed by training location and training type. See Fig. 9.

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Training Location includes both online and live options (50 U.S. states, including Washington DC and U.S. Territories).

Training Type includes (a) Non-degree program: training and certificate courses; (b) Degree program: community college and higher education.

Fig. 9. Drill-down capability for the SGIC education and training database [7].

For each database entry, the program title, organization offered the program, training locations, contact information, program description, training level are displayed, together with the URL to the program (if available). As of June 2011, information of 54 education and training programs is available in the SGIC database. Other smart grid related education materials, such as short courses, webinars, and tutorials offered by various providers, are also available. These are accessible through the SGIC resource library.

I. International Information URL: http://www.sgiclearinghouse.org/International

Description: The SGIC international information page archives smart grid projects worldwide. All project entries are classified by continent and project category.

Browsing and drill-down options: Similar to the U.S. smart grid project page, the international smart grid project information is displayed in the map view (see Fig. 10). This enables users to visually see the projects by continent, and enable browsing by project category. Continents are Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania. Project categories are advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), transmission systems, distribution systems, customer systems, equipment manufacturing, and integrated systems.

Fig. 10. Map view of international smart grid projects [8].

As of June 2011, information of 59 international smart grid projects is available in the SGIC database. These include 1 project in Africa; 2 projects in Americas (excluding the U.S.),

8 projects in Asia, 31 projects in Europe, and 17 projects in Oceania.

IV. ADVANCED SEARCH AND OTHER SUPPORTING FEATURES In addition to a variety of browsing and drill-down options

provided by the Clearinghouse, the SGIC team has developed the search capability, as well as other SGIC supporting features, including web portal social networks, MySGIC page, and the content submission platform.

A. Search Capability

The SGIC search function is accessible through the search box located on the top right side of all SGIC pages. Using the advanced search, a user can enter a keyword to search the content available in the SGIC web portal by content types. The SGIC advanced search page can be accessed directly here: http://www.sgiclearinghouse.org/search/.

B. Web Portal Social Networks

The team has developed the SGIC social networking capabilities, including RSS feed, events calendar, as well as the ability to share documents through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and many others. These features are briefly discussed below: 1) RSS feed, discussion forums, and events calendar:

• RSS subscription (http://ww.sgiclearinghouse.org/RSS) allows users to stay informed by retrieving the latest information and new content added to the SGIC library. In addition to its own content, SGIC also provides live feeds from various smart grid news sources, such as the U.S. Department of Energy, IEEE, EPRI and others.

• Events calendar (http://www.sgiclearinghouse.org/Calendar) gathers relevant smart grid-related events such as conferences, workshops, seminars, technology symposiums, education opportunities and tutorials.

2) Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others: All documents available in the SGIC web portal can be shared through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, email and others. This feature allows a visitor to the SGIC web portal to share their favorite documents among peers and colleagues.

C. MySGIC

MySGIC page is a unique feature of the Clearinghouse web portal. It allows authenticated users to save their favorite documents and create their own online library of documents. All documents saved by a user are displayed in MySGIC page for that user and this is password-protected. MySGIC page also contains history of content submitted by the user, as well as the status of content submission (approved or in review).

D. Content Submission Platform

A strong feature of this SGIC web portal is its capability to allow users to contribute their smart grid information to the SGIC library using the online content submission platform. The SGIC content submission platform (URL: http://www. sgiclearinghouse.org/node/add) allows registered users to submit relevant content and automatically notify the SGIC

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content reviewers for review and approval. As of June 2011, an authenticated user can submit the following smart grid-related content: use cases, product registration, documents and multimedia, consumer awareness program, and project information for both domestic and international projects. Once the content is submitted, users can view their submission status (approved or in review) in MySGIC section.

V. WEB PORTAL STATISTICS Google Analytics, a website statistics monitoring tool, is

installed in the SGIC web portal. The objective is to monitor the user activity and to obtain web portal statistics. This has helped us understand user preferences, and take corrective actions, whenever appropriate. The SGIC web portal statistics from the beta launch of the portal on July 7, 2010 to May 31, 2011 is summarized below:

• There were the total of 256,226 page views. • There were the total of 57,355 visits, coming from

137 countries/territories. United States 37,429 visits (65.3%) India 2,163 visits (3.8%) Canada 1,998 visits (3.5%) Japan 1,369 visits (2.4%) Germany 1,112 visits (1.9%)

VI. SUMMARY This paper describes the content collection available in the

SGIC web portal, and its underlying intuitive knowledge discovery engine. It describes how the content is grouped and cataloged that allows multiple browsing and database drill-down options. Site structure and accessibility issues, as well as unique features offered by the web portal are also discussed. The Clearinghouse is designed to deliver comprehensive smart grid information to relevant smart grid stakeholders. Feedbacks received from the public are positive, and the high level of usage of the Clearinghouse suggests its values to the end user. Documents in the Clearinghouse can be saved by a user in an electronic filebox, or shared among colleagues via many site social network tools. The content submission platform has been extensively used as many documents are submitted for review and approval.

VII. REFERENCES [1] SGIC Resource Library Page [Online]. Available: http://www.sgi

clearinghouse.org/resources. Retrieved: May 2011. [2] NIST - Office of the National Coordinator for Smart Grid

Interoperability, “NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards”, January 2010.

[3] SGIC Smart Grid Project Page [Online]. Available: http://www.sgi clearinghouse.org/Project. Retrieved: May 2011.

[4] SGIC Deployment Experience Page [Online]. Available: http://www.sgi clearinghouse.org/Deployment. Retrieved: May 2011.

[5] SGIC Standards Page [Online]. Available: http://www.sgiclearinghouse. org/Standards. Retrieved: May 2011.

[6] National Energy Technology Laboratory, “The NETL Modern Grid Strategy Powering our 21st-Century Economy: A Compendium Of Smart Grid Technologies”, July 2009.

[7] SGIC Education and Training Page [Online]. Available: http://www. sgiclearinghouse.org/Education. Retrieved: May 2011.

[8] SGIC International Project Page [Online]. Available: http://www.sgi clearinghouse.org/International. Retrieved: May 2011.

VIII. BIOGRAPHIES

Saifur Rahman (S’75, M’78, SM’83, F’98 - IEEE) is the director of the Advanced Research Institute at Virginia Tech where he is the Joseph Loring Professor of electrical and computer engineering. He also directs the Center for Energy and the Global Environment at the university. In 2011 he is serving as the vice president for New Initiatives and Outreach of the IEEE Power & Energy Society and a member of its Governing Board. He is a member-at-large of the IEEE-USA Energy Policy Committee. Professor Rahman is currently the chair of the US National Science Foundation Advisory Committee for International Science and Engineering. He has served as a program director in engineering at NSF between 1996 and 1999. In 2006 he served as the vice president of the IEEE Publications Board, and a member of the IEEE Board of Governors. He is a distinguished lecturer of IEEE PES, and has published over 300 papers on conventional and renewable energy systems, load forecasting, uncertainty evaluation and infrastructure planning.

Manisa Pipattanasomporn (S'01, M'06 - IEEE) joined Virginia Tech's

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering as an assistant professor in 2006. She is working on multiple research grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Energy, on research topics related to smart grid, microgrid, energy efficiency, load control, renewable energy and electric vehicles. She received her Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Virginia Tech in 2004, the M.S. degree in Energy Economics and Planning from Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand in 2001 and a B.S. degree from the Electrical Engineering Department, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand in 1999. Her research interests include renewable energy systems, energy efficiency, distributed energy resources, and the smart grid.