Power system planners (transmission and distribution
planners, protection engineers, substation engineers, control center engineers,
etc.) are tasked with determining what new functionality is needed to improve
power system operations for their utility or other companies. To undertake this
task, planners must review their own needs, but can use IntelliGrid Architecture Power System
Functions to get new ideas on how best to provide the functionality that they
desire.
Power system planners can use IntelliGrid Architecture Power System
Functions to investigate new power system functionality and can incorporate
these power system requirements into functional requirements for near-term
plans and longer term goals. These Power System Functions were intended to
elicit architectural level issues within the domains so they do not have all
the details necessary for system designs. However, the Power System Functions
illustrate the extent of integration that is foreseen, as well as the sets of
interrelated requirements that should be considered as future advanced
automation and consumer communication systems are planned. These Power System
Functions are presented in Volume II, and can also be accessed electronically
through IntelliGrid Architecture website.
Power system planners can review any IntelliGrid Architecture
Power System Functions that are similar to the power system functions in which
they are interested. These Power System Functions can be found on ‘paper’ in
Volume II, and ‘electronically’ in IntelliGrid Architecture website. In both the paper version
and the web version, each Power System Function contains:
§
A comprehensive narrative that describes the function in detail in plain
language.
§
A diagram of the interactions of the Power System Function.
§
A sequence of detailed steps that analyzes each interaction of the
function that involves the exchange of information.
Each step indicates the event that caused the interaction, a description
of the process triggered by the event, the source of the information, the
recipient of the information, and a description of the information exchanged.
Each step also indicates in which IntelliGrid Architecture Environment the interaction took
place. These Environments provide the links to the standards, technologies, and
best practices that are recommended, alternative, or possible.
In addition, the paper version and the detailed
UML Use Case pages in IntelliGrid Architecture website contain:
§
Contractual issues, regulatory issues, and other non-technical issues
§
Abnormal sequences of steps if these are significantly different from
the normal sequence
§
Additional other Power System Function constructs, including Actors,
Power System Function Diagrams, and Collaboration Diagrams
In the paper version, power system planners will
use the table of contents to find the most appropriate Power System Functions.
In IntelliGrid Architecture website, a power system planner can navigate from IntelliGrid Architecture website
home page (see Figure 17) to
the appropriate Power System Function using standard browser hyperlink
techniques to jump from IntelliGrid Architecture home page to the Power System Functions
overview page, and from there, using the lower left index frame, to the overview
page of one of the six domains (Market Operations, Transmission Operations,
etc.). From the overview page, the planner can select the desired Power System
Function.
Each Power System Function Website contains the
Narrative, along with pictures and diagrams, and followed by the Steps with
links to the appropriate Environments. Some Power System Function websites
contain multiple sub functions; some only contain one. A table of contents or
sub-function links at the top of the page provide hyperlinks if more than one
sub function is described.
Utilize
Power System Functions to Expand Understanding and Provide New Ideas
Although no single Power System Function may
completely reflect all requirements for a specific implementation, power system
planners and architects can gain a significant understanding of the issues
involved with implementing their function, can gain new ideas for improving
this function either immediately or in the future, and can use this
understanding to more succinctly define the power engineering requirements for
the function that is to be implemented.
The power system planner should utilize the
same Power System Function techniques to describe the function, as this
provides the best method for ensuring the description is clear and complete.
However, even without doing this, the power system planner can develop clearly
defined functional requirements (which should normally not specify any specific
technologies), and include a reference to one or more of IntelliGrid Architecture Power System
Function as a means of clarifying these requirements.
The power system planner then hands these
functional requirements, along with the referenced Power System Function(s) to
the project engineers, who may be ‘in-house’ or may be outsourced vendors who
are contracted to implement the function. (If the latter, the functional
requirements would form part of a Technical Specification that would be used to
contract with the selected vendor.)
