The Technical Work Group will be accepting public input through the end of 2015.

San Jose, CA, October 1, 2014 - Energy Storage North America (ESNA) show: The SunSpec Alliance (SunSpec) and the MESA Standards Alliance (MESA) have jointly released the first open, non-proprietary energy storage system specification for public review. The specification referred to as SunSpec Energy Storage Models Specification and incorporated in MESA specifications as a "MESA-Device," was developed through a joint effort and proposes standards for how the different components of an energy storage system (power meters, power conversion systems, and batteries) communicate with one another.

"As utilities upgrade their operations to effectively manage and integrate the next generation of distributed assets, standards like SunSpec and MESA, will be essential to successfully achieving the smart-grid vision," said Craig Collar, Assistant General Manager of the Snohomish County Public Utility District and MESA Board Member.

A Technical Storage Working Group met weekly over the past nine months to draft the specification. The Working Group included input from a variety of industry participants and built upon SunSpec's prior work on power meters and power conversion systems and then added battery models to that base.

"By using SunSpec's protocols as the foundation, the Technical Workgroup's efforts were greatly accelerated," said Tom Tansy, Chairman of the SunSpec Alliance. "SunSpec is proud to release the SunSpec Energy Storage Model adopted by MESA—it is a major energy storage industry innovation."

The draft specification can be found at www.mesastandards.org and www.sunspec.org. The Technical Work Group will be accepting public input through the end of 2015.

About SunSpec
The SunSpec Alliance is a trade alliance of developers, manufacturers, operators and service providers, together pursuing open information standards for the distributed energy industry. SunSpec standards address most operational aspects of PV, storage and other distributed energy power plants on the smart grid—including residential, commercial, and utility-scale systems—thus reducing cost, promoting innovation, and accelerating industry growth.

Over 70 organizations are members of the SunSpec Alliance, including global leaders from Asia, Europe, and North America. Membership is open to corporations, research organizations, non-profits, and individuals. For more information about the SunSpec Alliance, or to download SunSpec specifications at no charge, please visit www.sunspec.org.

To understand the philosophy of the SunSpec Alliance and its role in the industry, you can also download the SunSpec Alliance white paper describing the benefits of standards or the current SunSpec Alliance Backgrounder from www.sunspec.org.

About the MESA Standards Alliance
The MESA (Modular Energy Storage Architecture) Standards Alliance is an industry group whose mission is to accelerate the growth of the energy storage industry through the development of an open, non-proprietary set of specifications and standards for energy storage systems. MESA's component-based approach to energy storage gives electric utilities more choice, and allows battery, power converter, and software manufacturers to reach more customers and reduce costs.

Nine organizations have joined together to form the MESA Standards Alliances's first Board of Directors. These founding members, representing leading OEMs and utilities working on energy storage, will guide the organization's development and strategy.

* 1Energy Systems Inc
* Alstom Grid
* Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
* Parker Hannifin Corporation
* Puget Sound Energy
* Sacramento Municipal Utility District
* Seattle City Light
* Snohomish Public Utility District
* UniEnergy Technologies

For more information about MESA, or to join and participate in developing standards for the battery storage industry, visit www.MESAStandards.org.