Why Interoperability?

Interoperability is essential for the success of the energy transition and contributes to the investment protection for users as well as manufacturers and vendors. A normalized use of technical standards for interfaces and communication protocols is the central requirement for cost-effective system integration. All-over interoperability in the energy system is highly important as the transition takes place gradually and new components must be integrated into an existing system.

 

Interoperability at a glance

Interoperability is often defined as the ability of systems to exchange information: Letters on paper, telephones and fax machines enable organisations to cooperate. However, human receivers must actively read or listen to the incoming information, record it locally, and initiate further process steps. This additional effort of "media breaches" also increases the number of errors.

Semantic interoperability on the other hand is often defined as the ability of systems to share information so that the receiving system is able to automatically process the information without the need of human interaction. This adds substantial value to IT systems, so that users can better focus on applying their skills instead of wasting time on re-entering information that was already entered by somebody else before.

 

European Framework

IES builds on the well-established IHE-approach based on ISO/TR 28380 as well as the standards of the European standardisation organisations CEN-CENELEC-ETSI and the Smart Grid Architecture Model (SGAM) developed by the Smart Grid Coordination Group in the course of smart grid mandate 490.

The objectives of the IES-project are in line with the targets of the European Commission and its Europe 2020 strategy to create a cross-sector and cross-border Digital Single Market. The “European Interoperability Framework (EIF) for European public services” recommends formalised cooperation arrangements in interoperability agreements addressing legal, organisational, semantic and technical interoperability. Both the IHE process and the TOGAF-based EIF process represent a proper way to assess and test for interoperability of sector-independent ICT solutions.

The activities of IES are consistent with the European Commission's 'Rolling Plan for ICT Standardisation 2018'

 

Watch our videos!

 

"Interoperability is when the world becomes magic!"

Click on the picture and watch the interview with Alexander Merkowetz, Digitization Expert and Interoperability Advocate.

 

 

"IHE has already been to the interoperability moon, they were successful in health care. The challenge now is to transfer this know-how to other business domains and use the experience wisely!"

Click on the picture and watch the interview with Stefan Sauermann, Interoperability Expert and Founding Member of IHE Austria.