SGIP Supporting Statement

OMB Control No. # 693-0031 – NIST Generic Request for Customer Service-Related Data Collections

Survey to Determine the Satisfaction of the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel Voting Procedures and Communication Processes

FOUR STANDARD SURVEY QUESTIONS

1. Explain who will be surveyed and why the group is appropriate to survey.

We plan to survey the membership of the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP). The SGIP is a non-legal membership-based organization established by NIST as part of fulfilling its responsibility mandated by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.

In the Act, NIST is given “primary responsibility to coordinate the development of a framework that includes protocols and model standards for information management to achieve interoperability of smart grid devices and systems.”

It further states that “In developing such protocols and standards-- (1) the Director shall seek input and cooperation from the Commission, OEDER and its Smart Grid Task Force, the Smart Grid Advisory Committee, other relevant Federal and State agencies; and (2) the Director shall also solicit input and cooperation from private entities interested in such protocols and standards…”

The SGIP was created in November 2009 to provide a framework to support stakeholder participation and representation in order to further the development and evolution of Smart Grid interoperability standards. The SGIP is a public-private partnership established to identify, prioritize, and address new and emerging requirements for Smart Grid standards. The SGIP provides an open process for stakeholders to interact with NIST in the ongoing coordination, acceleration, and harmonization of standards development for the Smart Grid.

NIST funds the SGIP Administrator through a contract, which provides administrative and technical support to the SGIP. Membership to the SGIP is open to all interested parties, and is free. Typical members are stakeholders in the Smart Grid effort, such as utilities, manufacturers, and regulators. We have noticed that there has been a reduction in participation since the establishment, especially with participation in the voting process. In addition, we have received numerous requests to improve or expand the communication processes as a way to further engage the membership

We want to ask some questions to determine how satisfied they are in two specific areas: (1) voting processes and procedures and to identify any issues related to voting and (2) current methods of communication with members. The output of this survey will help us identify any issues related to the voting and communication processes of the SGIP so that appropriate changes can be made to improve the level of participation.

2. Explain how the survey was developed including consultation with interested parties, pre-testing, and responses to suggestions for improvement.

The questions were developed by NIST and the SGIP Administrator with significant input from the SGIP Communications and Marketing Working Group, made up of volunteers from the SGIP membership, and the SGIP officers, who were elected by the membership. We performed some pre-tests with these two groups to determine the length of the survey and the value of the questions. We received comments from these groups and made changes as appropriate, most significantly reducing the number of questions to keep the length to a 10-minute completion time.

3. Explain how the survey will be conducted, how customers will be sampled if fewer than all customers will be surveyed, expected response rate, and actions your agency plans to take to improve the response rate.

Our contractor will administer the survey through an electronic survey tool. The tool will be anonymous; in additon, the survey does not ask for any sensitive information, such as personally identifiable information.

It will be sent out to all approximately 1,800 members. We anticipate 15% of the membership to complete it, approximately 270 returned surveys. It will take approximately 10 minutes to answer, thus we estimate a burden time of 45 hours.

We will send announcements encouraging participation survey through the SGIP newsletter, which is sent out to all members on a weekly basis. In addition, we will publicize the survey at SGIP meetings and have the SGIP Governing Board Chairman send out an email encouraging participation.

4. Describe how the results of the survey will be analyzed and used to generalize the results to the entire customer population.

The analysis will include a statistical evaluation of responses, which will be performed by the SGIP Administrator. The results of all questions and a written analysis with recommendations for improving voting procedures and communication processes will be provided to NIST to act upon these recommendations as appropriate. A qualitative analysis will be conducted on all open-ended responses will also be included. NIST will provide all results to the SGIP Bylaws and Operating Procedures Committee and the SGIP Communications and Marketing Working Group, as well as to all SGIP members.