(NIST: Gaithersburg, Maryland) -- The U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has announced a three-phase plan to expedite development of key standards for a smart grid, a nationwide network that uses information technology to deliver electricity. The recently passed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) contains investments critical to spurring the smart grid development process.

“The smart grid will create green jobs and stand as a cornerstone of the national effort to achieve energy independence and curb the emissions changing our climate,” says Patrick Gallagher, NIST's deputy director. “We are working with a sense of urgency to expedite the development of standards critical to ensuring a reliable and robust smart grid.”

On January 8, 2009, in a speech announcing his recovery and reinvestment plan, then President-elect Obama made the transition to the smart grid a high priority in his strategy to move the nation toward energy independence. The Department of Energy is the lead agency on the federal smart grid effort and NIST is charged with coordinating the development of standards for the project.

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