The electric utility industry is front and center for one of the most revolutionary technological challenges: the Smart Grid. Extensive system integration will be necessary for realizing the potential of the Smart Grid. Major policy and product changes are happening across the U.S. from Austin Energy who completed all 410,000 smart meter upgrades this past year to Pacific Gas & Electric estimating that 5.2 million meters in California will be "smart" by the end of 2011. In Washington, D.C., the National Institute of Standards and Technology is now coordinating standardization efforts through the establishment of the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) and has identified the need for strong collaboration as a key factor in accelerating the Smart Grid concept into reality across the country.

The OpenSG Users Group (OSGug) was formed for users to get information on the progress of Open Smart Grid (OSG) issues and to share their project experiences. The OSGug holds four face-to-face meetings each year. Recognized experts share their insights and resolve key technical issues. Each meeting also includes pre-conference "boot-camps", where those who are new to the OSGug can be brought up to speed on the accomplishments of the groups to date. You can expect to get an overview of the many work products of the OSGug published and under development. This year the first quarterly meeting is held February 1-4 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The afternoon of February 1 is dedicated to the OSGug Boot Camp.

Who Should Attend

Utilities that are using standards-based integration to meet their business challenges will find this conference invaluable. Project managers, system architects, business and IT managers, and control center personnel will all benefit from this meeting.

The meeting is open to all current or potential OSG users - you do not have to be a OSGug member to attend. Attendees gain firsthand access to OSG experts and come away with new insights on the power of OSG activities.

There is a nominal "boot camp only" fee for Grid ComForum delegates wishing to attend the February 1st boot camp as a pre-event activity. Register for the OSGug Boot Camp at the following link: http://osgug.ucaiug.org/sf2010/default.aspx