Technology Analysis Overview

If one were to envision a utility where an IntelliGrid Architecture based architecture had been completely adopted, one would see that it provides an ideal platform for higher-level analysis across the entire enterprise. A simple analogy might be that a utility executive ideally wants to drive a utility much like a pilot might fly an airplane during cloudy conditions. In this case, a pilot can use just instruments to get a complete picture. That is, all required aspects of fight operation are visible via a well laid out set of instruments.

Similarly, since most utility operational information and risk is not visible unaided, a utility manager uses a set of software components as instruments to get a complete picture. The instruments condense and summarize all the required information. To actually direct the airplane, the pilot uses a mechanical interface consisting of a limited set of petals, switches, leavers, and “steering wheel”. How the instruments and mechanical interface connect to the airplane and outside world is in someway irrelevant to the pilot. One could say that pilots only care that a set of inputs lead to a set of desired results via comprehensive user interface. Similarly, a utility executive wants a simple set of applications to help direct the utility enterprise.

It is this unified comprehensible user interface that IntelliGrid Architecture ultimately seeks to enable. This interface may exist at many levels of the utility. For example, an executive may be primarily concerned with balancing profit and risk whereas an operational supervisor may be primarily concerned with balancing income and reliability. However, it is clear that the primary goals of IntelliGrid Architecture are to enable a comprehensive view of operations and analytics in a secure manner.

These end-to-end analysis applications are new because without a single unifying architecture they would be too expensive to develop. Because of the great variety of systems in a utility, and because in order to get a true picture of the entire utility all utility software applications and data need to be integrated, development of the end to end analysis application can be hugely expensive. Therefore in the past, even though they could have been developed they weren’t just because the expense was prohibitive. It is IntelliGrid Architecture Team’s belief that only via the deployment of a unified architecture and standard solutions can the new analysis applications be economically deployed. The IntelliGrid Architecture provides a unified architecture to realize this vision.