IEC SRD 63417:2025
(Main)Guidance and plan to develop smart energy ontologies
Guidance and plan to develop smart energy ontologies
IEC SRD 63417:2025 provides guidance and a plan to develop smart energy ontologies and other domain-based ontologies within smart energy to achieve semantic interoperability through various standards, generic and specific ontologies projects. This includes but is not limited to the following.
• Assessment of a selection of existing ontologies for the purpose of smart energy applications:
– identification of developed ontologies within the energy sectors;
– limitations, best practices, and lessons learned;
– use and reuse of existing ontologies in the smart energy domain;
– cross-domain semantic interoperability support and link to other ontologies.
• Guidance and plan for smart energy ontologies development and usage including:
– key principles to map or transform existing reference models to the IEC ontology framework;
– definition of governance best practices for ontologies applied to process the smart energy domain;
– guidance for developing or extending a smart energy ontology.
Domain-based ontologies have been developed for semantic interoperability in a specific domain but the interaction of semantically equivalent objects in different ontologies has not been defined. This document helps users and ontology developers to define the complete relationship in different domains and different ontologies for the purpose of smart energy applications.
General Information
Standards Content (Sample)
IEC SRD 63417 ®
Edition 1.0 2025-06
SYSTEMS REFERENCE
DELIVERABLE
Guidance and plan to develop smart energy ontologies
ICS 29.020 ISBN 978-2-8327-0488-2
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CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 4
INTRODUCTION . 6
1 Scope . 8
2 Normative references . 8
3 Terms and definitions . 8
4 State of art on existing ontologies and their structure and architecture . 9
4.1 General . 9
4.2 Key concepts on semantic interoperability and ontologies . 11
4.2.1 Definition and key concepts in ontologies . 11
4.2.2 Definition and key concepts in semantic interoperability . 12
4.2.3 Structure of an ontology. 14
4.2.4 Ontology-based reasoning . 15
4.3 Languages used within ontology . 16
4.3.1 General. 16
4.3.2 RDF/RDFS . 16
4.3.3 OWL/RDFS-Plus . 16
4.3.4 SHACL . 17
4.3.5 SPARQL . 17
4.3.6 XKOS . 17
4.3.7 SKOS-reference . 17
4.3.8 DCAT . 17
4.3.9 The Reified Requirements Ontology . 17
4.3.10 Schema.org . 18
4.3.11 Articulation of languages in semantic through the semantic web layer
cake . 19
4.4 Landscape of ongoing ontology work in smart energy domain. 19
4.4.1 General. 19
4.4.2 SAREF4ENER . 20
4.4.3 IEC Common Information Model (CIM) . 23
4.4.4 Microsoft Energy Grid Ontology for Digital Twins . 23
4.4.5 IEC Interface Reference Model (IRM) . 24
4.4.6 Smart energy domain ontology (SARGON) . 25
4.4.7 SEPA's Smart Grid Ontology . 26
4.4.8 InterConnect ontologies . 27
4.5 Relevant work on ontologies in cross-domains with smart energy . 28
4.5.1 LOV4IoT-Energy Ontology Catalog . 28
4.5.2 OpenADR. 29
4.5.3 QUDT . 29
4.5.4 GeoSPARQL . 29
4.5.5 W3C SSN . 30
4.5.6 The Organization Ontology . 30
4.5.7 BRIDGE . 30
4.6 Smart energy data models key for semantic interoperability . 31
4.6.1 IEC Common Data Dictionary (CDD) . 31
4.6.2 IEC 61850 . 32
4.6.3 DLMS/COSEM . 33
4.6.4 Matter . 34
4.6.5 KNX . 35
4.7 Graphical representation and visualization of ontologies . 37
4.8 Future trends . 37
5 Smart energy cross-domain use cases involving ontology . 38
5.1 Common Grid model, ENTSO-E – CGMES . 38
5.1.1 Use cases description . 38
5.1.2 Use of the ontology . 38
5.1.3 Benefit to implement it . 39
5.2 Illustration on energy management in buildings . 39
5.2.1 Use cases description . 39
5.2.2 Use of the ontology . 39
5.2.3 Benefit to implement it. . 40
5.3 Illustration in electromobility . 40
5.3.1 Use cases description . 40
5.3.2 Use of the ontology . 41
5.3.3 Benefit of implementing it . 42
5.4 InterConnect . 42
5.4.1 Use cases description . 42
5.4.2 Use of the ontology . 43
5.4.3 Benefit of implementing it . 44
6 Proposal for a smart energy ontology framework . 44
6.1 Smart energy ontology framework . 44
6.1.1 General. 44
6.1.2 Requirements . 45
6.1.3 Processes on validation or evaluation of an ontology . 46
6.1.4 Governance requirements . 46
6.2 Guidance and best practices to build such a framework . 47
6.2.1 General. 47
6.2.2 Ontological requirements specification . 48
6.2.3 Ontology implementation . 49
6.2.4 Ontology publication . 49
6.2.5 Ontology maintenance . 49
7 Conclusion and recommendation for standardization work on smart energy
ontology in the IEC . 49
Bibliography . 51
Figure 1 – Four layers of interoperability . 13
Figure 2 – Links between interoperability layers. 14
Figure 3 – Ontology languages layer cake . 16
Figure 4 – RRO illustration of a requirement . 18
Figure 5 – Semantic web layer cake . 19
Figure 6 – Smart energy main data models and related ontologies . 20
Figure 7 – Overview of the SAREF ontology . 21
Figure 8 – Overview of the SAREF4ENER ontology . 22
Figure 9 – IEC standardized Interface Reference Model . 24
Figure 10 – Smart energy domain ontology (SARGON) network structure . 26
Figure 11 – SEPA project ontology overview . 27
Figure 12 – Ontology Catalog for Energy . 28
Figure 13 – GeoSPARQL vocabulary . 29
Figure 14 – European energy data exchange reference architecture DERA 3.0 . 31
Figure 15 – DLMS main data models . 34
Figure 16 – HBES elements . 36
Figure 17 – Main KIM source . 36
Figure 18 – Main KIM ontology classes . 37
Figure 19 – CIM-CGMES usage illustration . 38
Figure 20 – Energy in buildings scenario with semantic interoperability problems . 39
Figure 21 – Semantic interoperability problems solved without using SEN ontology . 40
Figure 22 – Semantic interoperability problems solved using SEN . 40
Figure 23 – Electromobility scenario with semantic interoperability problems . 41
Figure 24 – Semantic interoperability problems solved without using SEN . 41
Figure 25 – Semantic interoperability problems solved using SEN . 42
Figure 26 – InterConnect ontologies extending SAREF ontologies . 43
Figure 27 – Subset of the SAREF-compliant sensor dictionary applied
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