2023 saw nine new members and nine new projects join LF Energy, while contributor strength grew by 30% and lines of code hosted by 22%, demonstrating growing support for open source solutions for power systems
SAN FRANCISCO – December 5, 2023 – LF Energy, the open source foundation focused on harnessing the power of collaborative software and hardware technologies to decarbonize our energy systems, is pleased to announce that five new open source technical projects have been accepted into LF Energy, which will provide the industry with new resources around battery storage, grid resilience, EV charging, transmission facility rating, and open source sustainability research. Additionally, LF Energy along with the Open Source Security Foundation 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.
Five New Open Source Projects
The LF Energy Technical Advisory Council has voted to accept five new projects into the foundation, 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 – TROLIE (Transmission Ratings and Operating Limits Information Exchange, pronounced like “trolley”) 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 Whitepaper
As energy represents infrastructure critical to the operation of modern society, it is essential that stakeholders take all available steps to ensure its security. This is why LF Energy and OpenSSF have released a free whitepaper on how critical open source software is to the innovation and transformation of our energy infrastructure, and how to use it in a way that shields against cyber threats.
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
- Best Practices in Open Source for Cybersecurity
Concrete best practices are outlined in the paper to help stakeholders understand how to improve their cybersecurity and protect valuable energy assets. Cybersecurity is strongest when it is built in from the start rather than added on as an afterthought, and this paper can serve as a resource to help utilities, vendors, and other stakeholders do just that.
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.
Other growth statistics over the past 12 months include:
- Unique aggregate contributors across all hosted projects increased by 30% to a total of 1,720.
- Commits made across all monitored repositories increased by 26% to 58,740.
- Lines of code added across all unique commits increased by 22% to 67.4 million.
“LF Energy’s momentum is truly astounding, however we cannot move fast enough to build the technologies necessary to accelerate the energy transition,” said LF Energy Interim Executive Director Arpit Joshipura. “I call on all energy stakeholders to get involved by open sourcing their internal tools, contributing to open source communities both at LF Energy and elsewhere, and to generally collaborate with one another to ensure we make every effort to decarbonize power systems to reduce the worst outcomes of climate change.”
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About LF Energy
A first-of-its-kind initiative, LF Energy provides a 21st century plan of action to solve climate change through open frameworks, reference architectures and a support ecosystem of complementary projects. Strategic Members include Alliander, Google, Microsoft, RTE and Shell, in addition to over 60 General and Associate Members from across the energy industry, technology, academia, and government. Find further information here: https://www.lfenergy.org
