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Electric Energy T&D - Index

Electric Energy T&D - EEMag May June 2008 - Index

Utility Horizons TM
Time, that is, for the Holistically Integrated
Enterprise. It’s been a longtime coming,
but I think it has finally arrived. For
decades utilities have viewed the various
components, systems, platforms and
networks as stand-alone, isolated islands
of technology and applications that shared
little in common. And, although that was
perhaps an appropriate view 0+ years ago
when the various automation platforms bore
little or no resemblance to one another, it is
certainly out of step with the standardized,
interoperable and extensively interconnected
automation/IT solutions at our disposal
today. No, you can’t do it all at once, but you
do need to envision it all – holistically across
the enterprise. Anything less is going to cost
you, big time.
But it isn’t just the technology that has
changed. A drastically changed regulatory
environment coupled with sea change
responses to reliability, security, compliance,
sustainability and various other challenges
have necessitated a comprehensively
choreographed and closely coordinated
change in how we can – and indeed must
– address and overcome the challenges
utilities face in the 1st century.
A lot of the people I talk to these days
– users and suppliers alike – are quick to
tell me that Smart Grid is the thing that is
going to fix the morass of tangled products,
platforms and technologies that has been
incrementally assembled over the past half
century. Everyone seems to be jumping on
the SGI (Smart Grid Initiatives) bandwagon
It’s HIE Time…
like desert dwellers flocking to an oasis.
Problem is, I think that a lot of them have
the cart before the camel. Here’s what I
mean…
Back in the day (i.e., before we all got
‘Wintelled’), automation platforms not only
didn’t talk to each other – they hated each
other. Okay, not really hated, but there were
certainly no such things as widely accepted
protocol standards, substation LANs (local
area networks) or COTS (commercial off-theshelf)
hardware and software. Everything was
pretty much a custom effort as evidenced
by routine budget overruns and badly
blown delivery dates. (Remember, I’m only
talking historically here…) Because of those
limitations, projects were treated – arguably
appropriately – on a case-by-case basis.
Every project was a new design, and every
old project was a pain in the butt to support,
but it was all painfully consistent with the
times. (Believe me, those of us who were
around for all the fun still remember!)
And then along came standardization:
Common information models, off-the-shelf
hardware and shrink-wrapped software.
Everything talks to everything; wired or
wirelessly. Problems solved! Well, um, not
quite. It seems that although the suppliers
eventually delivered those standardized,
compatible and interoperable solutions
– just as users had always wanted – the
project planning, budgeting, designs and
implementation process remained stuck in
the traditions of the 1970s. (I really wanted
to say, Stuck on Stupid, the phrase that Lt.
General Russel L. Honoré memorialized here
in New Orleans during the Hurricane Katrina
aftermath, but I certainly wouldn’t want to
offend anyone who might not appreciate the
humor in that analogy.)
1 I May-June 2008 Issue
By Michael A. Marullo, Automation/IT Editor
Suffice to say that the automation project
methodology employed at most (no, not all…
I said most) utilities remains the same old
sequential model. That is, each year the utility
targets and budgets a specific dimension of
their automation infrastructure (GIS, SCADA,
OMS, etc.) with the knowledge and intention
that the rest of the task will be addressed
in future years; a process I’ve referred to
in earlier editorials as “compartmentalized
budgeting.”
To me, this is sort of like deciding to cook
a meal but not settling on what the meal is
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