(Europe) The 3^rd annual IEC CIM Week 2022 hosted by Smart Grid Forums brought together pioneering utilities, system integrators and technology suppliers for a review of recent implementations of the Common Information Model for data exchange within the power grid. The programme kicked off with an insightful presentation from UK Energy regulator Ofgem, demonstrating how they are supporting the adoption of Open Data initiatives through CIM to drive the Energy Transition faster in the UK. It went on to showcase CIM implementation experiences from utilities worldwide, including from the likes of California ISO (USA), SP Group (Singapore), TRANSCO (Abu Dhabi), Statnett (Norway), Alliander (Netherlands), 50Hertz (Germany), UK power Networks (UK), among others. The event, organized in The Lensbury, London took place March 21 through March 25.

The message was clear: the majority of utilities are now fully invested in CIM, both for the connection of their internal operational systems and for data exchange with external parties such as new flexibility market players and other critical infrastructure operators. Siemens who were platinum sponsors of the event, demonstrated their commitment to CIM through their suite of operational systems and encouraged competitors to adopt the standard to support true multi-vendor interoperability.

“The sector has come a long way in its understanding and appreciation of CIM” said Mandana White, CEO of Smart Grid Forums, organisers of the event. “In just 3 years we are hearing a very different message from the utilities in this community, they are more overtly asking the supplier base to adopt CIM or to be excluded from future operational system procurement consideration”.

The next IEC CIM Week event will take place in October 2023, as a track within a broader IEC conference being planned by Smart Grid Forums, to bring together a number of IEC communities for parallel discussions on the adoption of CIM for the control centre environment, IEC 61850 for the substation environment, and IEC 62443 for cybersecurity across the OT asset base.