Meeting the Smart-Grid
Information Technology Challenge:
Leveraging the Cloud
One of the emerging and, perhaps, game-changing developments
in the IT industry has been the use of the Web
(the cloud) as the computing and information management
platform. This will allow the integration of data and capabilities
from multiple, diverse sources to deliver powerful
composite applications over the Web. These applications
are hosted in data centers that offer extensible computing
capabilities to provide the scalability and security needed
for many of the emerging new applications—without a
major impact on the legacy systems behind the utility enterprise
firewall. This will also minimize the need for additional
internal IT resources.
Using this model, new smart-grid applications can be
easily implemented to augment the existing utility capabilities.
The model also provides the fl exibility needed to add
new capabilities as the requirements arise. Figure 11 provides
a conceptual illustration of this model, in which the
Web is used as a platform for the incremental addition of
new smart-grid applications and their integration with utility
legacy systems and external systems and users.
A cloud-based smart-grid strategy can address many of
the challenges stated above.
It provides a cost-effective ✔ approach for an incremental
or phased rollout of functionality as needs arise,
without the need for forklift replacement of the legacy
systems.
✔ It provides the capability for securely integrating the
new capabilities with existing internal and external
systems, and connecting those to users and customers.
✔ It provides a framework for the easy integration of
third-party and partner capabilities.
✔ It allows the new capabilities to be implemented in
parallel with the existing operations and systems, while
minimizing the impact on the ongoing operations.
✔ It leverages the software as a service (SaaS) model,
minimizing capital outlays and project implementation
time.
Web services, service-oriented architecture (SOA), and
event-driven architecture (EDA) are integral elements of
cloud computing. They provide a wealth of proven capabilities
for systems integration. Efforts are under way to defi ne
standardized services for the power application integration,
e.g., IEC 61970 for energy management systems and the
common information model (CIM). Other standards also
exist, such as IEC TC57’s IEC 61850 for substation automation;
IEC 61968 for distribution management systems;
and IEEE standards, American National Standards Institute
(ANSI) standards, and other regional and utility standardsfor network design, distributed generation interconnections,
and operations. Even though these standards provide some
framework, they are not fully adopted and supported across
the industry.