Applicability of RESTful web services in control center software integrations

This paper shows the result of an analysis pertaining to the applicability of RESTful web services (RESTful WS) in solving various software and data integration scenarios in control centers for the electric power system domain. There are many possible ways to enhance power system software/data integration by combining RESTful WS and the IEC 61970 set of standards. The goal of this paper is to highlight those lines of integration in control centers, where the benefits of leveraging RESTful WS are most noticeable. The importance of selecting the most prominent integration scenarios from the viewpoint of RESTful WS stems from the fact, that not all integration problems are naturally fitted for RESTful WS. Assuming a type of RESTful WS, which wraps the resource oriented power system data model defined in the IEC 61970–301 Common Information Model (CIM) and the generic query interface defined in IEC 61970–403 Generic Data Access (GDA), the paper demonstrates that such a RESTful WS may be successfully utilized in many concrete integration situations. As an added advantage, a RESTful WS atop of existing IEC 61970 standards can significantly loose the couplings between different software packages used in power system control centers. We have realized several pilot projects using real life power system data models (some used in CIM interoperability tests) to assert the outcome of our feasibility study. This study clearly shows that RESTful web services are a powerful tool for solving numerous power system software and data integration problems in control centers.