Smart Grid World Forum28-29 September, 2011 Beijing, China

INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION

Dr Klaus WuchererIEC President

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Canada

USA

Brazil

China

Australia

France

ItalyJapan

Korea

Sweden

GermanySwitzerland

DenmarkUK

Spain

key Smart Grid projects

Smart Grid World Forum28-29 September, 2011 Beijing, China

INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION

Dr Klaus WuchererIEC President

Smart Grid World Forum Beijing, China Keynote talk 28 September 2011 11:00 - 12:00 Klaus Wucherer 7 September 2011- revised

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am happy to be with you here in Beijing. To start with, I will provide you with a brief overview of the IEC and then talk to you about IEC work for the Smart Grid.

The IEC was created in 1906 in London. The commission now has a truly global reach and includes 163 countries. We offer a platform to close to 10 000 experts globally.

IEC International Standards fulfil a variety of needs: They define minimum requirements for products in terms of performance, reliability, efficiency, but also safety and the environment, and they include testing methods and measurement procedures to assess a product’s ability to operate. They encourage interoperability. Today, most companies, who want to build products, which are accepted worldwide, use IEC International Standards and Conformity Assessment Systems.

Most of the 153 World Trade Organization member states use IEC International Standards as the technical basis for their laws and regulations for electric and electronic devices and systems. This allows them to reduce technical barriers to trade.

The United Nations via the UNECE now recommends the IEC and its Conformity Assessment Systems as the world’s best practice model for the verification of conformity to International Standards.

Let me give you a brief overview of some relevant IEC work:

The IEC is involved in all electrical appliances, home entertainment, lighting, cooling and heating systems and their components;

Information and communication technology;

Batteries, fuel cells;

Energy transmission and distribution;

All forms of power generation, including renewables;

Transportation and electric vehicles;

The IEC provides the solid technical foundation, universally accepted metrics and specifications that enable the fast and efficient roll-out of new technologies.

As part of its engagement in the energy supply the IEC has analyzed the entire energy chain and concludes that it needs to be fundamentally redesigned. If we want to be able to satisfy future energy needs we must apply a systems approach and use smarter technologies: the Smart Grid will play an important role in this equation.

Most Smart Grids are built on top of legacy systems, using what’s there and adding new elements. Investing in Smart Grids is expensive and those investments need to last for many

years. The best bet for utilities and governments is to use International Standards which offer built-in interoperability on a global scale.

Today many technologies are merging and Smart Grid standards now need to be built in a systems approach. To achieve this, the IEC Smart Grid programme brings together many different Technical Committees.

The IEC Smart Grid Strategy Group coordinates the work of these Technical Committees,

providing strategic guidance and developing and maintaining a consistent portfolio of standards. It has prepared the necessary framework and continuously assesses the main drivers which will impact Smart Grid standardization work over the next decade.

The IEC is deeply involved in all major Smart Grid projects around the world and IEC International Standards play an important role in all of them. It is fair to say, that the IEC now provides the large majority of technical standards needed to build a Smart Grid many of which are recognized as being crucial to the development of Smart Grids. A partial proof of this is that all published roadmaps in China, Germany, Japan, Korea, the European Union and the US are built in part or fully on the IEC Smart Grid Roadmap.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I hope that with this short presentation I have been able to bring the IEC and its work for the Smart Grid closer to you. Thank you for your attention.