Towards CIM based control centers

New generation of future power system control centers need a paradigm shift in their utility IT operations, coordinated use of applications and the architectural designs to meet new challenges. However, literature on comprehensive architectural design and implementation towards this direction is scarce. In this paper, an architecture design and implementation aspects are demonstrated for integrating applications and for migrating legacy control centers towards future generation smart grid. Appropriate adoption of open standards such as the common information model (CIM) is endorsed. Though the CIM standard is matured at model level, many utilities are facing difficulties in managing data exchanges. As a consequence of the lack of integration capabilities, difficulties are faced in delivering prompt and accurate decisions in response to grid disturbances. Standards-based integration of systems and applications has become imperative. This paper presents an approach for integrating inter-utility and intra-utility application systems through CIM framework. The architecture comprises components for data integration & access, CIM based plug-in adapters and third-party application integration. The details of this architecture along with the intricate relationships between various layers and the open source technologies are described. The proposed architecture includes components such as CIM XML creators, CIM XML database adapters, CIM XML application adapters for power system applications. The applications over this architecture work as web applications. A case study involving WR 400 kV network is illustrated to demonstrate migration strategy. Another case study involving load flow and topology processing applications is illustrated to elaborate the proposed architecture on data from a 400 kV 20-substation state network.