This guide serves to assist manufacturers, Distributed Energy Resources (DER) operators, system integrators and DER aggregators to implement the Common Smart Inverter Profile (CSIP) implementation guide for IEEE 2030.5. CSIP was developed as an outgrowth of the California Rule 21 Smart Inverter process to create common communication profile for inverter communications that could be relied on by all parties to foster “plug and play” communications-level interoperability (outside of out-of-band commissioning) between the California IOU’s and 3rd party operated smart inverters or the systems/service providers managing those inverters. Rule 21 Smart Inverter proceedings segregated smart inverter functionality and implementations into three progressive phases: Phase 1, which comprises the Autonomous functionality and related settings which inverters must support when interconnected to California Investor Owned Utility’s (IOU) distributions system; Phase 2, which prescribes the communications between the IOUs and DER aggregators, DER management systems, and DERs themselves; and Phase 3 which details the use of Phase 2 communications for monitoring and control and other necessary uses. This implementation guides was a required outcome of Phase 2, which prescribed IEEE 2030.5 as the default protocol for Rule 21 Smart Inverter communications. This guide, along with the IEEE 2030.5 specifications, is also intended to be used to develop an IEEE 2030.5 Client conformance test plan and certification program which is required in California.
While the impetus and scope of this profile of 2030.5 was to meet the needs of the California IOU’s
requirements for communications, the profile implements widely applicable use cases making CSIP
generic and likely applicable to other regulatory jurisdictions beyond California‘s borders. With this in mind, the California Rule 21 specific terminology is genericized throughout this document. Additionally, it is important to note that while this guide intends to describe the full set of Rule 21 and IEEE 2030.5 DER Client requirements, much of the actual implementation details and requirements are expected to be derived from utility interconnection tariffs (e.g., Rule 21), Utility Handbooks, contracts or other regulatory or program-related vehicles. Where this is so, it is denoted throughout this guide.