IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2016 - 36

✔ to validate a ciM standard as a part of the standard's

development process
✔ to validate the conformity of available software solutions with an approved standard.
the interoperability testing to validate the correctness of
the ciM standards started in 2000 with the first interoperability test sponsored by epri and held in las Vegas, nevada.
these tests were driven by nerc requirements in north
america and were focused on the ciM standards designed
to exchange common power system network models between
operational systems [supervisory control and data acquisition/
energy management system (scada/eMs) solutions]. later
on, activities expanded to cover validation of ciM standards
related to planning and the energy market as well as for message payloads to support system integration.
currently in europe, the entso-e plays a leading role
in organizing ciM interoperability tests related to both grid
model and market exchanges. since 2009, the entso-e has
organized five large-scale interoperability (iop) tests for
grid model exchange. in 2012, the entso-e organized the
first iop on ciM for the energy market and began a series
of iops related to the ciM for the european market style.
in 2014, the entso-e launched a conformity assessment
framework related to the cgMes, which is an entso-e standard based on the ciM and used by the entso-e tsos for
operational and system development exchanges. Using this
framework, the entso-e provides services to assess different
tools developed by vendors. this is an example of an effort that
targets validation of the available application against the specification of a standard. the cgMes conformity relies on processes
specified in the international organization for standard (iso)
standards on conformity assessment. due to the complexity of a
iso-based certification process, the entso-e decided to design
the cgMes conformity more as a service toward suppliers and

entso-e members rather than a full-scale certification process.
only first- and second-party assessment processes are applied.
according to iso, the first-party assessment activity is a conformity assessment performed by the organization (supplier) that provides the object (it application). in such a case, a supplier would
declare that his product(s) is conforming to the specified requirements by issuing a "declaration of conformity." the second-party
conformity assessment activity is performed by an organization
(user) that has a user interest in the object. in the setup applied by
the entso-e, the first parties are all vendors that would like to
conform to cgMes. the entso-e performs the role of a second party and issues an "attestation of conformity." this process
could be applied for iec ciM standards as well and could be
extended, if necessary, to fully apply the iso standards for certification where the assessment is performed by an additional third
party. the entso-e has already benefited from this effort by
ensuring tsos receive better-tested applications for integration
into the business processes in the tso environment.
conformity assessment also provides a solid base of test
data for future development of the ciM standards. Most importantly, the conformity process and the implementation of the
cgMes enables a roll out of system development studies and
the implementation of the european network codes. Figure 4
illustrates the cgMes conformity assessment process.
it is important to note that the current design of the cgMes
conformity assessment scheme allows for assessment of the
applications only on certain cgMes functionalities supported
by the assessed application. hence, declarations of conformity
and attestations of conformity cannot be used as a confirmation
that an application is fully covering requirements on a specific
business process. the entso-e is planning to further develop
the cgMes conformity assessment scheme to cover relevant
procedures and test use cases. this new development will allow
for assessing applications used by the european tsos against the

CGMES Conformity Assessment
CGMES
Test Data

m
om

Opinion No
Formation
Yes

Conformity Rules and
Test Procedures

CGMES Conformity Assessment Scheme Documentation

Recommendation

Review of the
Applications

Application
Testing and Checking Conformity
with CGMES Rules

Declaration
of
Conformity

First Party Assessment: Vendor Performing Tests and
Issues a Declaration of Conformity

Attestation
of
Conformity

Second Party Assessment: ENTSO-E Evaluates the
Application and Issues Attestation of Conformity

figure 4. The CGMES conformity assessment process.
36

ieee power & energy magazine

january/february 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2016