Challenges, solutions and lessons learned for centralized model management at california ISO

The maintenance update cycle for power system reference models is a major business process for utility/RTO/ISO companies, requiring substantial manpower and technology. Discussed herein are the related objectives, strategies for new solutions implemented at California Independent System Operator (CAISO). The primary objective with these investments is to reduce the time needed to execute the end-to-end cycle of a network model change, from submittal of data to live models in production systems. The means to achieving this objective involves new technologies and realigning business processes. The cornerstone technology is a centralized model management system with flexibilities and automation for submitting, testing, and deploying new transmission system and generation project models. Within the centralized system and, equally importantly, the systems integration, a key concept is to explicitly model the time domain. Once establishing end-game systems architecture and integration strategies, implementing the transition from legacy systems is complicated by the high risk concern for the assured continuity of the core business processes that depend on the accuracy of the models.