Compendium

Energy Market / Power-Systems / Smart-Grid DSLs Family Index

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Energy Market / Power-Systems / Smart-Grid DSLs Family Index

type: language-family-index family: energy-power languages_catalogued: 30 tags: [language-reference, family-index, energy-power, iec-cim, cgmes, openadr, ieee-2030.5, ocpp, ocpi, iso-15118, smart-grid, demand-response]

Energy Market / Power-Systems / Smart-Grid — Family Index

Family overview

The power-systems / smart-grid format family is anchored by the IEC Common Information Model (CIM) — a UML data model maintained as IEC 61970-301 (core transmission, currently Edition 8, 2022/2023), IEC 61968 (distribution extensions) and IEC 62325 (market extensions). CIM is unusual among industry data models: the canonical artifact is a UML model, but the wire-format serialisations are RDF/XML (XMI for the model itself), with OWL/RDFS and increasingly SHACL profiles. Nobody writes “CIM” directly — every consumer writes against a profile, of which the ENTSO-E Common Grid Model Exchange Standard (CGMES) is the dominant one in Europe. CGMES 3.0 (in combination with ENTSO-E CIM 17.2.0 and Network Code Profiles 2.3.x/2.4.x — NCP 2.4.0 approved by ICTC on 11 September 2025; NCP 2.4.1 agreed by CIM WG on 9 March 2026) is now the mandatory de facto standard for inter-TSO data exchange across the EU.

Sitting alongside the data-model layer is the simulator-format zoo: every major power-system simulator has its own native case format, and they don’t interoperate cleanly. Siemens PSS/E (current PSS®E 34.x; .raw / .sav / .dyr files) dominates North American transmission planning; PSCAD (Manitoba Hydro) owns electromagnetic transient simulation; PowerFactory (DIgSILENT) is the German and increasingly global commercial leader; on the open-source side, MATPOWER (v8.1, released 12 July 2025; Cornell/PSERC) is the academic reference for power-flow and OPF, OpenDSS (EPRI; .dss script files) is the dominant open-source distribution simulator, GridLAB-D (PNNL) brings agent-based modelling, PandaPower (v3.4.0, February 2026; e2nIEE/Fraunhofer) provides a Python+pandas wrapper combining a PYPOWER-derived solver with its own JSON case format, and OpenModelica/OMF (Open Modeling Framework) targets open distribution simulation.

The 2010–2025 arc added a third layer — smart-grid / demand-response protocols that ride on IP rather than substation buses. IEEE 2030.5 (Smart Energy Profile 2.0, also called CSIP in California — IEEE 2030.5-2023 published December 2024, CSIP 3.0 underway) became California’s mandated Rule 21 protocol for behind-the-meter DER smart inverters in June 2020 and has since spread to Hawaii (Rule 14H) and Utah. OpenADR 3.0 (launched 2024 by the OpenADR Alliance; 3.1.0 update September 2025) is the dominant automated demand-response protocol — a RESTful redesign of the older 2.0a/2.0b XML protocol. USEF (Universal Smart Energy Framework, Dutch-led) shapes the market-design layer for EU flexibility markets.

EV charging deserves its own layer. OCPP 2.1 (Open Charge Alliance; released 23 January 2025, backward-compatible with 2.0.1) adds bidirectional power transfer and a distributed-energy-resources functional block; OCPI 2.3.0 (EVRoaming Foundation, February 2025) covers EV-roaming between charge point operators and e-mobility service providers; ISO 15118 is the V2G (vehicle-to-grid) communication standard, with the bidirectional ISO 15118-20:2022 now anchoring V2G, and -10:2025 / -21:2025 / -202:2025 published in March/September 2025. The market-data layer is regionally fragmented: every US ISO/RTO (PJM, MISO, ERCOT, CAISO, NYISO, SPP, ISO-NE) publishes its own JSON/CSV/XML feeds; the ENTSO-E Transparency Platform unifies EU electricity-market data via a REST API + CIM-based EDI message profiles; AEMO’s MMS runs Australia’s NEM in CSV; ELEXON’s BMRS runs Britain’s balancing market.

In our deep library

None catalogued individually — these are domain DSLs / data formats, not general-purpose languages.

Cross-reference:

  • industrial-automation — sibling family. IEC 61850 SCL (Substation Configuration Language), DNP3, and Modbus are catalogued there. Cross-list here because IEC 61850 is increasingly the substation-layer companion to CIM (IEC 61970/61968/61850 form the “TC 57 reference architecture”), and DER protocols like IEEE 2030.5 borrow IEC 61850 information models.
  • construction-bim — cross-list: gbXML and EnergyPlus IDF are catalogued there as building-energy formats but overlap with the building-to-grid interface (DR signals into BMS).
  • api-description — most modern smart-grid APIs (OpenADR 3.0, OCPP 2.1, OCPI 2.3, IEEE 2030.5) ship OpenAPI / JSON-Schema definitions.
  • notation-spec — CIM is defined in UML; CGMES profiles use RDFS + SHACL.
  • python — host language for PandaPower, OpenDSS-Python, gridappsd-python, pypsa, and the dominant glue for EMS/SCADA scripting.
  • scientific — power-system simulation overlaps with the scientific-computing stack (NumPy/SciPy/pandas under PandaPower; MATLAB under MATPOWER).
  • network-protocol-dsls — IEEE 2030.5 / OpenADR / OCPP are all IP-protocol DSLs.

Tier 3 family table — Power-system data models (CIM family)

FormatFirst appearedOriginTypeStatus (2026)URL
IEC 61970-301 CIM (core, transmission)2003 (first ed.); Edition 8 (2022/2023)IEC TC 57 / EPRIUML model + RDF/XML serialisation; transmission-utility master data modelActive; Edition 8 is current; underpins CGMES and every EU TSO data exchangehttps://webstore.iec.ch/publication/61167
IEC 61968 CIM (distribution extensions)2003+; Ed. 2 of many parts currentIEC TC 57UML extensions to 61970 covering distribution, asset, work, customerActive; part 100 message-bus profile widely deployed for DMS integrationhttps://webstore.iec.ch/publication/6195
IEC 62325 CIM (market extensions)2005+IEC TC 57 / ENTSO-ECIM extensions for European-style and US-style energy markets; ESMP (European Style Market Profile)Active; underpins ENTSO-E EDI library and Transparency Platform messaginghttps://webstore.iec.ch/publication/6786
CGMES (Common Grid Model Exchange Standard)2009 (CGMES 1.0)ENTSO-EProfile of IEC 61970/61968 for European TSO data exchange (RDF/XML, SHACL)CGMES 3.0 with ENTSO-E CIM 17.2.0 and NCP 2.3.2/2.4.0 (NCP 2.4.0 approved 11 Sep 2025; NCP 2.4.1 agreed 9 Mar 2026)https://www.entsoe.eu/digital/common-information-model/cim-for-grid-models-exchange/
CIM/XML, CIM/RDF, CIM/OWL bindings2000sIEC TC 57 / EPRI / W3C SemWebConcrete serialisations: XMI for UML model, RDF/XML for instance data, OWL for ontologiesActive; RDF/XML is the dominant wire format in CGMES; SHACL profiles arrivinghttps://github.com/entsoe/application-profiles-library

Tier 3 family table — Power-system simulators

FormatFirst appearedOriginTypeStatus (2026)URL
PSS/E (.raw / .sav / .dyr)1976 (PSS/E v1)Power Technologies Inc. → Siemens PTINative binary + ASCII case formats for transmission planning; load flow, dynamics, short-circuitActive; PSS®E 34.x current (e.g. 34.9.6); dominant in North American TSOshttps://www.siemens.com/global/en/products/energy/grid-software/planning/pss-software/pss-e.html
PSCAD (.pscx / .psc)1976 (origins at Manitoba HVDC Research Centre)Manitoba Hydro InternationalElectromagnetic transient (EMT) simulation; project files describe time-domain network with detailed device modelsActive; the de facto EMT simulator; PSCAD v5 currenthttps://www.pscad.com/
PowerFactory (.dz / .pfd / .pfdx)1976 (DIgSILENT founded)DIgSILENT GmbH (Germany)Commercial integrated transmission+distribution simulator; proprietary binary project formatActive; PowerFactory 2024/2025 current; dominant in European utilities, widely used globallyhttps://www.digsilent.de/en/powerfactory.html
MATPOWER case format (.m / casefiles)1996Ray Zimmerman et al., Cornell University / PSERCOpen-source MATLAB/Octave case-file convention; struct-based power-flow and OPF inputActive; v8.1 released 12 July 2025; the academic referencehttps://matpower.org/
PandaPower JSON format2017 (paper)e2nIEE / Fraunhofer IEE + University of KasselPython+pandas network description; JSON-serialisable element tables (bus, line, trafo, load, gen, sgen)Active; v3.4.0 (February 2026), v3.3.0 (December 2025), v3.0.0 (March 2025)https://pandapower.readthedocs.io/
OpenDSS scripting (.dss)1997 (Electrotek) → EPRI 2008 (open-source)EPRI (acquired from Electrotek Concepts)Distribution-system simulator with line-oriented imperative scripting language; widely scripted via COM/Python (OpenDSS-Python, dss-python)Active; the dominant open-source distribution simulator; C++ re-implementation underwayhttps://opendss.epri.com/
OpenDSS-Python / dss-python / dss_python2017+Various (Paulo Meira et al.)Python bindings on top of OpenDSS engine (and pure-Python re-implementation, DSS-Python)Active; widely used in DER integration researchhttps://github.com/dss-extensions/OpenDSSDirect.py
GridLAB-D (.glm)2008 (PNNL OSS release)Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (DOE)Agent-based distribution-system simulator; .glm files describe object hierarchy (nodes, loads, climate, markets)Active; PNNL-maintained; v4.3 line currenthttps://www.gridlabd.org/
Open Modeling Framework (OMF)2014+NRECA / US DOEOpen-source web-based distribution simulator built around OpenDSS; JSON feeder description + analysis modulesActive; cooperatives-focusedhttps://www.omf.coop/
PyPSA / PSPMOD (.csv + .nc)2017TU Berlin / Karlsruhe Institute of TechnologyPython for Power System Analysis; pandas-based component model, NetCDF + CSV serialisation; widely used for energy-system planningActive; PyPSA-Eur reference dataset widely cited in EU policy workhttps://pypsa.readthedocs.io/

Tier 3 family table — Smart-grid / demand response

FormatFirst appearedOriginTypeStatus (2026)URL
IEEE 2030.5 / Smart Energy Profile 2.0 (CSIP)2013 (SEP 2.0 final) → IEEE 2030.5-2013, -2018, -2023IEEE / ZigBee Alliance / SunSpecREST over TLS/HTTP for DER, demand response, metering; IEC 61850 information model serialised as XMLIEEE 2030.5-2023 published December 2024; California Rule 21 mandate since June 2020; CSIP 3.0 underwayhttps://standards.ieee.org/ieee/2030.5/5897/
OpenADR 2.0a / 2.0b2012 (2.0a), 2013 (2.0b)OpenADR Alliance / LBNLXML-over-HTTPS or XMPP demand-response messaging; Profile A (1-way) and Profile B (2-way)Maintained but superseded by 3.0 for new deploymentshttps://www.openadr.org/specification
OpenADR 3.0 / 3.1.02024 (3.0 launched)OpenADR AllianceRESTful redesign of 2.0; JSON over HTTPS; OAuth 2.0; aligned with IEEE 2030.5 conceptuallyActive; 3.1.0 released September 2025; first 3.0 certified products shippinghttps://www.openadr.org/openadr-3-0
USEF (Universal Smart Energy Framework)2014USEF Foundation (Dutch consortium: ABB, Alliander, IBM, Stedin, etc.)Specification + reference implementation for demand-side flexibility markets; defines roles (Aggregator, BRP, DSO, Prosumer) and a flexibility-trading protocolActive; influences EU flex-market design; trialled in NL, UK, and elsewhere (e.g. FUSION project, Scotland)https://www.usef.energy/
Green Button ESPI (NAESB REQ.21)2011NAESB / Green Button Alliance / NIST / White House OSTPAtom-feed + XML schema for consumer energy-usage data sharing; based on IEC 61968 modelActive; ESPI v4.0 published by NAESB December 2023 with TLS 1.3 minimum; v3.3 still widely certifiedhttps://www.greenbuttonalliance.org/

Tier 3 family table — EV charging / V2G

FormatFirst appearedOriginTypeStatus (2026)URL
OCPP (Open Charge Point Protocol) 1.62015Open Charge AllianceJSON-over-WebSocket (1.6J) or SOAP (1.6S); charger ↔ central management systemMaintained; still the most-deployed version globally but new deployments target 2.0.1/2.1https://openchargealliance.org/protocols/ocpp-16/
OCPP 2.0.12020Open Charge AllianceJSON-over-WebSocket; ISO 15118 plug-and-charge support, smart charging profile, security profilesActive; the current baseline for new commercial deploymentshttps://openchargealliance.org/protocols/open-charge-point-protocol/
OCPP 2.123 January 2025Open Charge AllianceBackwards-compatible extension of 2.0.1 adding bidirectional charging (V2X) functional block, DER control functional block, ISO 15118-20 bidirectional supportActive; rapidly being adopted as V2G deployments scalehttps://openchargealliance.org/ocpp-2-1-is-now-available/
OCPI (Open Charge Point Interface) 2.2.1 / 2.3.02015 (2.0)EVRoaming Foundation (NL)REST/JSON; CPO ↔ eMSP roaming for tariffs, sessions, CDRs, smart-charging commandsActive; OCPI 2.3.0 released February 2025 (response to EU AFIR); 2.2.1 widely deployed; 3.0 in pipelinehttps://evroaming.org/
ISO 15118-2:2014 / -20:2022 / -10:2025 / -21:2025 / -202:20252014 (-2 first edition)ISO/IEC JTC1 + ISO TC22EV ↔ EVSE communication; -2 is original AC/DC charge; -20:2022 is the bidirectional V2G “2nd generation” standard; -10, -21, -202 published in 2025 add single-pair Ethernet PHY, conformance, and SECC discoveryActive; -20 is the V2G anchor; -1:2019 confirmed in 2025https://www.iso.org/standard/77845.html
Plug & Charge / VDE-AR-E 2802-100-12017+VDE / HubjectCertificate-based payment + identification piggy-backed on ISO 15118; Hubject “PlugSurfing”-style trust anchorActive; widely deployed in EU on ISO 15118-2; transitioning to -20https://www.hubject.com/

Tier 3 family table — Market / regulatory data

FormatFirst appearedOriginTypeStatus (2026)URL
ENTSO-E Transparency Platform (EDI / IEC 62325)2015ENTSO-E (EU TSOs)REST API + downloadable CIM-XML / ESMP message documents (publication, schedule, balancing, generation, transmission)Active; covers all EU electricity-market data; manual of procedures updated July 2025 (ACER Opinion 08/2025)https://transparency.entsoe.eu/
ELEXON BMRS (Balancing Mechanism Reporting System)2001 (NETA)ELEXON (UK)REST/JSON + CSV exports; balancing-market data for GBActive under the Balancing & Settlement Code; new Insights Solution API currenthttps://www.elexon.co.uk/data/balancing-mechanism-reporting-agent/
AEMO MMS (Market Management System) data1998 (NEM start)Australian Energy Market OperatorCSV file dumps (Data Model documented); 5-minute dispatch, pre-dispatch, settlementActive; backbone of the Australian NEM and (separately) WEMhttps://nemweb.com.au/
PJM Data Miner 22015+PJM Interconnection (US)REST API + CSV/JSON; LMPs, ancillary services, capacity market dataActive; reference data feed for US Mid-Atlantichttps://dataminer2.pjm.com/
MISO Real-Time / Day-Ahead Markets feeds2005+Midcontinent ISOCSV/XML/JSON; LMPs, congestion, reservesActivehttps://api.misoenergy.org/
ERCOT MIS public reports2002+Electric Reliability Council of TexasCSV/XML; nodal-market LMPs, ORDC, ancillaryActivehttps://www.ercot.com/mp/data-products
CAISO OASIS2007+California ISOREST/CSV/XML; market results, prices, congestion, demand responseActivehttp://oasis.caiso.com/
NYISO Real-Time / DAM2000+New York ISOCSV; nodal LMPs, market dataActivehttps://www.nyiso.com/energy-market-operational-data
SPP Marketplace data2014+Southwest Power PoolCSV/JSON; SPP integrated marketplaceActivehttps://marketplace.spp.org/
ISO-NE Web Services2003+ISO New EnglandREST/SOAP; LMPs, demand, capacityActivehttps://webservices.iso-ne.com/
NAESB WEQ / REQ standards2002+North American Energy Standards BoardEDI message standards for wholesale + retail electricity (and gas) — OASIS schedules, e-Tag, ESPIActive; ESPI v4.0 (Dec 2023) is the consumer-data piecehttps://www.naesb.org/

Notable threads

  • IEC CIM is the only data model that reaches end-to-end. Most domain data models stop at one layer (PSS/E is a simulator format, OCPP is a charger protocol, BMRS is a market feed). CIM, alone, spans transmission (61970), distribution (61968), and markets (62325), and is the model behind CGMES (TSO data exchange), much of IEEE 2030.5 (DER object models), Green Button ESPI (consumer data), and parts of ENTSO-E’s market messaging. The cost of that reach is that the canonical artifact is a UML model — nobody works with “CIM” directly, only with profiles (CGMES, ESMP, ENA Common Information Model, IEC 61968-100 message bus). The 2020s shift to RDFS+SHACL profile definitions (now in CGMES 3.0 via the ENTSO-E Application Profiles Library, v1.1.0 approved 11 Sep 2025) is making profiles machine-validatable for the first time.

  • The simulator-format incompatibility problem is the power-systems equivalent of CAD format wars. Every major simulator has its own native case format and they don’t interconvert losslessly: PSS/E .raw carries detail PSCAD doesn’t model and vice versa, PowerFactory’s project files are an opaque binary, MATPOWER cases drop dynamic-model fields, OpenDSS only covers distribution, GridLAB-D adds agent-based load semantics nobody else has. CGMES was partly an attempt to solve this at the data-model layer, but practitioners still report that round-tripping a real network from PSS/E → CGMES → PowerFactory loses information at every step. PandaPower’s converters (from PSS/E and CIM/CGMES) are the best open-source bridge in 2026 but only cover a subset.

  • OpenADR pre-empted demand-response fragmentation but is mid-generational-transition. Before OpenADR, every utility’s “demand response” was a custom XML or proprietary pager protocol. OpenADR 2.0a/2.0b (2012–2013) settled the field for a decade, then 3.0 (2024) rewrote it as REST/JSON to align with how modern smart-grid endpoints are actually built. The 2.0 → 3.0 transition is partial: many California aggregator-utility integrations still use 2.0b. OpenADR 3.1.0 (September 2025) adds device-side improvements and aligns more closely with IEEE 2030.5 conceptually.

  • OCPP 2.1 + ISO 15118-20 is the V2G interoperability backbone. Until 2025, V2G was demonstration-grade because OCPP 2.0.1 didn’t have a clean bidirectional charging functional block and ISO 15118-20:2022 was new. OCPP 2.1 (23 January 2025) finally added the Bidirectional Charging functional block and the DER Control functional block, and is fully backward-compatible with 2.0.1. Combined with ISO 15118-20:2022 on the vehicle side and OCPI 2.3.0 (February 2025, responsive to the EU’s AFIR regulation) for roaming/payment, the EV-charging stack now has a coherent interoperability story for the first time. Plug & Charge (via Hubject’s trust anchor) handles the payment-identity layer.

  • Market data is fragmented because markets are jurisdictional. Every US ISO/RTO (PJM, MISO, ERCOT, CAISO, NYISO, SPP, ISO-NE) maintains its own market platform under FERC oversight and its own data API, with overlapping but inconsistent schemas (LMP, ORDC, RUC, day-ahead vs real-time, nodal vs zonal — every region uses subtly different definitions). ENTSO-E’s Transparency Platform partly solves this for the EU by centralising a CIM-XML / ESMP feed across 39 TSOs, governed by EU Regulation 543/2013 and ACER oversight. AEMO (Australia) and ELEXON (GB) each run their own unified feeds. NAESB WEQ message standards (OASIS for transmission scheduling, e-Tag for inter-control-area transfers) are the closest US analogue to an inter-RTO data layer.

  • Green Button is the slow-burn success story of consumer-side energy data. ESPI started in 2011 as a White House OSTP / NIST / DOE initiative and was largely dormant for a decade outside California and the Pacific Northwest. NAESB REQ.21 v4.0 (December 2023) refreshed the security baseline to TLS 1.3 and is now seeing renewed certification activity (Consumers Energy, ERTH Power, others) as state PUCs in the US start to mandate it for residential third-party authorization. It remains the only widely-deployed, IEC-61968-derived consumer-energy-data protocol.

  • USEF is the EU’s market-design opinion expressed as a protocol. Where IEEE 2030.5 and OpenADR are device-layer / communication-layer protocols, USEF is a market-architecture specification — it defines the roles (Aggregator, BRP, DSO, Prosumer, AGR, ESCo) and the trading protocol by which flexibility is bought and sold. Its Dutch origin is not incidental: the Netherlands’ early commitment to distributed PV + heat pumps + retail flexibility pushed it to formalise the market structure earlier than other EU members. USEF concepts (specifically the BRP/AGR/DSO triangle) are visibly influencing EU Network Code on Demand Response drafting.

Citations

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