The Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) and the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) have finished their merger, hoping to become the single fountain of knowledge for utilities looking to move to smart grids and renewable energy. Continuing under the SEPA name, SGIP’s integration adds some 80 new members to the already thousand-strong SEPA base. SEPA has mostly focused on encouraging research and collaboration in the smart grid ecosystem, while SGIP has had Distributed Energy Resource (DER) Management and cybersecurity as its priorities. The merger announcement was first made back at DistribuTech, but the two boards have now passed the required votes to complete the deal. The next year will see them integrated their operations in phases, with all SGIP staff…