Smart Grid StandardsEXECUTIVE OVERVIEW

EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW

Pioneering Standards for the Smart Grid

Utilities are making great strides in modernizing the globalenergy infrastructure, to the benefit of economies worldwide. Smart energy networks are providing measureable results today, including greater energy efficiency, simpler integration of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, increased operational efficiency, and higher consumer satisfaction. These intelligent networks, essential to the smart grid effort, deliver their full potential benefits when built on a set of common, open technology standards.

For decades, network and related technology standards haveprovided vendor choice and innovation to numerous industries,from banking to telecommunications. Standards enableinteroperability. Consequently, customers can purchase a networkplatform, end devices, and applications separately, based ontheir business needs, with the assurance that all the productswill readily work together. Standards also open a market to newplayers and speed the pace of innovation as multiple vendorscompete to develop the best offering. Customers benefit fromgreater choice, higher-quality solutions, lower pricing, andreduced risk by avoiding vendor lock in.

From our inception, Silver Spring Networks has been a leading advocate for the adoption of relevant standards in the energy industry. Such standards are needed to unlock the benefits of choice and innovation for utilities and their customers and to enable migration away from costly, inflexible single-function solutions. Silver Spring has been deploying standards-based smart grid communications and software platforms for more than a decade, solving pressing problems and delivering real business benefits for utilities worldwide. Today, more than 12 million homes and businesses globally are connected over our Smart Energy Platform.

Working with customers to implement smart grid solutions has given us a real-world understanding of utility business and technology needs, along with tremendous field experience. We continually incorporate this information into our products and services and use it to help drive the creation of standards relevant to the industry.

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Silver Spring Smart Energy Platform

“BGE is pleased to partnerwith Silver Spring Networksin delivering the significanttransformational benefits ofthe smart grid to each of our1.2 million customers. Welook forward to benefitingfrom Silver Spring’s proventechnology – technology thatis the backbone of smart gridimplementations by leadingutilities throughout the U.S.and abroad.”

KENNETH W. DEFONTES, JR.

PRESIDENT AND CEO

EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW

As a result, Silver Spring has the industry’s most widely adopted smart grid platform. Proven at scale, our Smart Energy Platform can run multiple applications over a single open network. We have also cultivated the industry’s broadest ecosystem of partners, extending the value of our platform by offering customers an unparalleled choice of interoperable, best-in-breed solutions from more than 65 providers.

Many vendors subsequently followed our lead and now share a similar perspective on the importance of smart grid standards. But we remain unique in our focus on the energy industry combined with our depth of experience delivering millions of standards-based systems.

The Need for Smart Grid Standards

When Silver Spring entered the energy market in 2002, we found that utilities were eager to move to a smart grid but were limited by the proprietary, single-function solutions offered by incumbent vendors. If a utility wanted to purchase a metering solution, for example, all the components—the endpoint, network, and software—were tied together and came from a single vendor.

This vertically integrated model did not support separating out the network or other components, so utilities could not purchase pieces from different providers to optimize price, performance, and functionality. Utilities had limited choice and were forced to purchase and deploy multiple communications systems, each tied to one application.

In contrast, Silver Spring pioneered the use of standards-based technology in our Smart Energy Platform and has been a leading promoter of interoperable open standards for energy networks. In particular, Silver Spring has advocated an open network for machine-to-machine communications based on the layered approach to networking defined in the Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) model, which has been in use for decades.

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Silver Spring’s Standards Leadership With a decade of real-world experience in the utility industry to draw on, Silver Spring has helped spearhead the adoption and creation, where necessary, of standards relevant to the utility industry, along with interoperability testing and certification. These efforts include:

» Pioneering the use of IPv6 as a networking protocol for the smart grid, from the back office to the endpoint

» Forming OpenAMI, a forum for adapting IP to meet smart grid networking requirements

» Leading the development of IEEE 802.15.4g for RF mesh communications, including compliance of current installations

» Leveraging standard web services to simplify software integration

» Standardizing in-home device communications, including leadership on SEP 2.0 development

» Working to define interoperability testing and certification frameworks to ensure standards compliance and interoperability

EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW

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SEP 1.x

ZigBeeCluster

Libraries

ZigBeePro

802.15.4 MACs

802.15.4 DSSS

802.15.4gFHSS

2GGPRS 3G

IEEEL2R

GPRS

PPPRFC 1661

6LoWPANRFC 4944

Satellite

4G LTE3GPP TF25.913

WiMAX - IEEE802.16

IEEE802.3

IEEE802.11

MODBUS

TCP RFC 793/UDP RFC 768

IPv6 RFC 2460, IPv6 Addressing 4291IPv4 RFC 791IPsec

RFC 2401

DSCPRFC 2474

SunSpec

C12.18/C12.19

RESTWeb Services

CIMIEC 61968

EXICoAP/HTTP

RFC2616

TLS/RFC5246

DTLSRFC6347

DLMS/COSEM

IEC62056

PANARFC5193

SNMPRFC1157

NTPRFC5905

SSHRFC4251

DNSRFC1085

DNP3IEEE1815

RPLRFC6553

ICMPRFC4443

®

The following protocol stack highlights the standards Silver Spring is supporting for smart grid networks.

Layers allow for a clean separation of technologies. Standards at each layer ensure open communications and interoperability end to end across a network. As a result of this approach, IP-based applications can operate over multiple physical media, including wired, wireless, and cellular, with no change. Likewise, higher-layer software and applications function properly regardless of the underlying network.

However, not all standards are equally effective. Simply appropriating technologies and standards from other environments, such as enterprise or mobile deployments, won’t address the unique requirements of the smart grid, which include support for massive scale, geographic reach across diverse topology, high reliability, and long lifecycle. The utility market also presents unique challenges, including an unpredictable operating environment and difficult physical access to meters and other smart grid devices.

Pioneering an Open Platform

Silver Spring’s single-minded focus has been to bring the power of open standards to the energy market. Our commitment is reflected in our Smart Energy Platform, which is built on an open network optimized for machine-to-machine communications and an open software architecture.

We chose a platform-based approach so our customers could leverage a common set of technologies, including networking and security, to support multiple smart grid applications, with choice throughout.

“Cost, performance, and the ability to build atop a single, standardized platform are critical for WEL Networks’ next-generation utility grid. Silver Spring gave us the ability to deliver multiple smart grid applications over a single, open platform and utilize its advanced technology to meet the performance needs of our network, all with a cost profile that helps WEL effectively invest in modernization improvements for the benefit of our customers.”

JULIAN ELDER, CEO

EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW

This approach ensures our Smart Energy Platform is extensible and cost effective, providing utilities with a flexible solution at a very reasonable price per home and business connected. In addition, Silver Spring has a large ecosystem of partners whose products plug into our network or integrate with our software. Our more than 65 partners include providers of meters, distribution automation devices, in-home devices, electric vehicle charging stations and other devices as well as back-office applications such as Meter Data Management Systems, Customer Information Systems, and Outage Management Systems. Silver Spring works extensively with our ecosystem partners to thoroughly test that each product works with the others and is interoperable with our platform.

Our focus on and incorporation of standards-based technologies within our Smart Energy Platform ensures that our customers’ investments are protected. We can incorporate future networking and software standards into existing smart grid installations without hardware changes, using over-the-air firmware upgrades. Real Customers Reaping Real Benefits

Silver Spring’s focus on supporting open standards and nurturing an open ecosystem of partners has yielded significant benefits for our utility customers, including:

» Broad product choice: Our open, layered approach to networking and other platform services provides customers a choice of products at different layers of the OSI stack, which yields significant price and quality advantages and avoids vendor lock in.

» A flourishing partner ecosystem: Silver Spring’s ecosystem partners offer a wide array of products that interoperate with our Smart Energy Platform, enabling customers to build a smart grid system that best meets their business needs, budget, operational model, and other considerations.

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Silver Spring Partner Ecosystem

SOFTWARE

DEMAND-SIDE MANAGEMENT

DISTRIBUTION AUTOMATION

ADVANCED METERING

“We are very pleased to have Silver Spring Networks partner with us to bring an open, standards-based smart grid to Brazil. CPFL is adopting a Telecom infrastructure technology which will allow introduction of smart grids in Brazil and, for that, we are counting on Silver Spring to set a global benchmark in how we provide our clients with power and information.”

MAURO CARMELLO MANAGER OF OPERATIONS AND AUTOMATION

EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW

» Greater innovation: Silver Spring and its ecosystem partners can innovate at a given layer and quickly deliver new features and functionality to customers, independent of each other.

» No integration hassles: Silver Spring’s strong commitment to interoperability testing and certification with our partners means the products all work together and customers don’t have to commit time and resources toward integration.

Top 10 Questions to Consider

As you investigate potential suppliers for your smart grid deployment, getting answers to the following questions will help you discern the newcomers from the proven leader in smart grid standards:

1. How long has this solution provider offered a standards-based smart grid network?

2. At what scale has this provider connected standards-based devices, operating in full production mode?

3. How many customers can this solution provider offer as references running the standards-based system?

4. How are this provider’s customers leveraging the standards-based network to support multiple applications?

5. How much of this solution provider’s product focus is on the energy industry?

6. What leadership can this provider demonstrate in driving standards for the energy industry?

7. How many meters from different suppliers has this solution provider integrated onto its standards-based network?

8. How many back-office systems has this provider interoperated with in proven deployments?

9. How many solutions areas does this solution provider support, with interoperating products from other partners?

10. What certification and interoperability testing bodies has this provider helped create?

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Our Customers

EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW

Corporate Headquarters 230 W Tasman DriveSan Jose, California 95134 O +1 669 770 4000Toll Free +1 866 204 0200

www.ssni.com 7

About Silver Spring Networks

Silver Spring Networks enables the Internet of Important Things™ by reliably and securely connecting things that matter. Cities, utilities, and companies on five continents use the company’s cost-effective, high-performance IoT network and data platform to operate more efficiently, get greener, and enable innovative services that can improve the lives of millions of people. With more than 24.9 million devices delivered, Silver Spring provides a proven standards-based platform safeguarded with military grade security. Silver Spring Networks’ customers include Baltimore Gas & Electric, CitiPower & Powercor, ComEd, Consolidated Edison, CPS Energy, Florida Power & Light, Pacific Gas & Electric, Pepco Holdings, and Singapore Power. Silver Spring has also deployed networks in Smart Cities including Copenhagen, Glasgow, Paris, Providence, and Stockholm. To learn more, visit www.ssni.com.

Copyright © 2012 Silver Spring Networks. All Rights Reserved.

All trademarks are the properties of their respective owners. REV. 3/6/2017

At Silver Spring, we are proud of our answers to all these questions and our decade of real-world experience and track record of field-proven smart grid deployments. As new industry standards and technologies evolve, we will support them through firmware upgrades, so customers are never at risk of stranded assets.

You can read a detailed whitepaper on “Smart Grid Standards” for the latest information.

We welcome the opportunity to share with you our perspective on which standards are relevant to the smart grid and how open, standards-based solutions can help you meet your business objectives today.