HD-PLC Alliance announced that its Broadband Powerline Communication Technology called HD-PLC IEEE 1901 was approved for inclusion in the NIST Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) Catalog of Standards in the United States.

The U.S. National Institute of standards and Technology (NIST) initiated in late 2009 the public/private partnership SGIP to coordinate the development of standards for the Smart Grid.
Harmonization of power line communication standards was identified as SGIP Priority Action Plan 15 (PAP15). As a result, SGIP approved the inclusion of the IEEE 1901 Standard PHY and MAC specification for Broadband Powerline Communication and the inclusion of NIST IR 7862, which recommends that all PLC devices shall implement and activate the "coexistence protocol" defined in IEEE 1901 and ITU-T G.9972. HD-PLC Alliance has already provided certification service of this coexistence specification, known as Inter-System Protocol (ISP), which is mandatory in the IEEE 1901 standard. The same coexistence protocol was also approved as ITU-T G.9972 in June 2010. With the coexistence requirement of NIST IR 7862, the PLC products used in energy management systems and the consumer PLC products connected on the same powerline, will not interfere with one another, and will provide secure communication.

"It is gratifying that our HD-PLC technology jointly developed and standardized in the IEEE and spread over countries all around the world is now approved as a U.S. Smart Grid Standard," said Kazuhiro Tsuga, the President of Panasonic Corporation and HD-PLC Alliance adviser. "We will seek to take advantage of 'HD-PLC' for the realization of innovative 'Eco & Smart solutions.'"

Additionally, "The HD-PLC Alliance was first in the industry to support the EN50561-1 new European EMC Standard for PLC," said Jean Philippe Faure, CEO of Progilon SA, and Standards Board member of the IEEE Standard Association. "As a leader of the industry, in addition to HD-PLC product certification, we will actively promote the coexistence protocol recommended by NIST SGIP and compliance with international standards."

In order to develop the smart communication infrastructures of the future world, we will promote and disseminate the concept of "Green Ubiquitous solutions with PLC."