The LF Energy Technical Advisory Council has voted to accept five new projects into LF Energy, bringing the total to 30. These projects address a variety of technical requirements across power systems, including battery storage, grid resilience, EV charging, transmission facility rating, and open source sustainability research. The addition of these projects further strengthens LF Energy’s overall tech stack, and provides additional open source resources for energy stakeholders looking to transition to renewables.

The new projects are:

• Battery Data Alliance – The LF Energy Battery Data Alliance was created to bring battery companies together to work jointly to unify how batteries are handled in terms of software. Battery data is core to creating a decarbonized economy and power systems, yet companies waste tremendous amounts of time implementing battery data schemas, integrations/conversions, typical calculations, etc. The Battery Data Alliance project was contributed to LF Energy by AmpLabs.
• CitrineOS – LF Energy CitrineOS offers a community-tested and reliable open source software for charger management which drives forward adoption of the OCPP 2.0.1 protocol resulting in more reliable charging networks worldwide. When implemented it will broaden access to and utilization of EV charging networks while making it more secure, intelligent and manageable. CitrineOS was contributed to LF Energy by S44.
• GRIP – GRIP (Grid Resilience and Intelligence Platform) is designed to help electric grid operators anticipate, mitigate against, and recover from the effects of extreme weather events. With GRIP, operators can reduce costs by optimizing grid hardening costs and lowering liability costs and shareholder exposure. These grid operator benefits will ultimately lead to lower electricity rates for customers. GRIP was contributed to LF Energy by the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, which is operated by Stanford University for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science.
• Open Sustainable Tech – Open Sustainable Technology is an informative platform and open science community that explores the impact, potential, and strategies of the open source movement for sustainable technology development, business and transition. Earlier this year, LF Energy partnered with the project’s maintainers to release the 2023 Open Source Sustainability Ecosystem Report.
• TROLIE – Transmission Ratings and Operating Limits Information Exchange or TROLIE aims to establish an open conformance standard and cultivate a software ecosystem to accelerate the implementation of reliable, secure, and interoperable systems for the exchange of transmission facility ratings and related information. Most organizations involved in the operation of the transmission system in North America now need to exchange ratings and related information in an automated, frequent manner. TROLIE will help accelerate their implementation and simplify interoperability. TROLIE was contributed to LF Energy by MISO Energy and GE Vernova.

Cybersecurity in Energy Infrastructure
Additionally, LF Energy along with the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) have released a free whitepaper providing best practices for cybersecurity in energy infrastructure. This new research and significant new technologies will help drive LF Energy and its mission of creating a technology ecosystem to support rapid decarbonization forward.

The whitepaper covers best practices for open source development within the energy sector with a focus on four key areas: The Evolution of Energy Systems, The Role of Open Source in Energy, Current State of Cybersecurity in Energy and Best Practices in Open Source for Cybersecurity.

Momentum Going Into the New Year
LF Energy has seen tremendous growth in 2023, including nine new members joining the foundation and nine new projects being accepted into the foundation. This brings the total membership close to 75, and projects to 30. This momentum is essential as 2024 dawns and the urgency of accelerating the energy transition continues to grow.