I attended the 20th NASPI Working Group meeting in Knoxville, TN on March 11-12, 2014. The NASPI Working Group is a voluntary organization of electric power engineers, technical managers in power-related corporations, vendors of products supporting power transmission, and academics in the power field.

NASPI (North American SynchroPhasor Initiative) has been funding a large-scale deployment and application of Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) in the electric power grid. This relatively small advance in technology is expected to lead to major improvements in the reliability and efficiency of the grid. The NASPI Work Group, an informal organization of the people concerned with NASPI, has been meeting two or three times a year since 2006. This organization has been developing standards and interoperability guidelines needed to meet the NASPI goals.