Overview[]
The GridWise Architecture Council (GWAC) was formed by the U.S. Department of Energy to promote and enable interoperability among the many entities that interact with the nation's electric power system. The Council maintains a broad perspective and provides industry guidance and tools that make it an available and practical resource for the various implementations of Smart Grid technology.
The Council, representing a wide array of utility and technology stakeholders, has been working closely with the NIST to develop common principles and an interoperability framework spanning the entire electricity delivery chain. Already, the work of the GridWise Architecture Council and other organizations such as ANSI (American National Standards Institute), IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and the ZigBee Alliance have enabled a smarter grid to readily accept innovation across a wide spectrum of applications.