XML for data exchange

XML has taken the software industry by storm and its repercussions will continue to be felt for some time. The EPRI CCAPI has been developing specifications for interfaces to facilitate the interoperation of electric utility software from independent sources. A significant achievement of this effort is the creation of a common information model (CIM) for control center systems. The NERC Data Exchange Working Group (DEWG) has been tasked with coming up with a way to support the data modeling exchange needs of inter-regional security networks (ISNs). These models need to be node oriented in order to meet the needs of control center applications. Existing exchange formats are based upon planning models that are bus oriented. This leads to the formation of a new data exchange format. The approach proposed to NERC and now being pursued by the DEWG is to use the semantics from the CIM and render data populations in XML.