Architecture Defined

An architecture is directed toward the development, integration, organization, and life-cycle management of information technologies and advanced automation systems. The architecture community has developed a few working definitions that can be applied to IntelliGrid Architecture project:

An architecture is the fundamental organization of a system embodied in its components, their relationships to each other, and to the environment, and the principles guiding its design and evolution.[3]

Though there are several different definitions for architecture, all include the following recurring themes:

High-Level Perspective

The most common theme defining an architecture is that it must have a high-level perspective. This perspective enables an organization to view its operations in the context of how it integrates with multiple systems, both within the enterprise and outside of it. The IntelliGrid Project is unique from this perspective as it views the operations of the future electric energy services industry from a high perspective level that cuts across traditional boundaries.

Need for Common Language on Different Levels

The high-level perspectives of an architecture often expose challenges when attempting to integrate business or operational entities that have not considered operations beyond their traditional domain. Bringing these systems together requires effort to develop a common language across all business and operating domains. A common language is required for both business discussions and technical ’computer to computer’ communications.

Life Cycle Strategies

An architecture seeks to develop strategies by which new levels of integration can be achieved across the enterprise and across the industry. Additionally, an architecture examines the system from a long term perspective with an eye to how the system may evolve. A good architecture should require little change over time. Indeed, a strong architecture plans for change and includes a process to adapt and evolve, lest it become obsolete itself.

Integration of Standards and Technologies

The essence of an architecture is the use and integration of standards and technologies into an interoperable framework. In this project, the reader will see several references to standards, technologies and best practices as the building blocks of an industry architecture. However, an architecture is not simply about making better use of standards and associated technologies. Today’s standards and infrastructure are often developed with narrow scopes or with specific groups of applications in mind. In comparison, architecture development implies working within the standards communities to develop methods and strategies through which the standards can work together more effectively. It also means that in some cases, those working on standards and their associated technologies will discover new capabilities and requirements.

Integrating standards strategies is, therefore, one outcome of architecture development. Several examples of standards and technology integration needs have surfaced within IntelliGrid Architecture. The IntelliGrid Architecture framework, if followed by those implementing technologies, will provide a strategic pathway by which systems that were once islands can become integrated.

Recognizing a Variety of Audiences

An architecture addresses technical issues that arise at an enterprise or industry level. The implications of these issues may be manifest at various levels within an enterprise. Architecture development carries implications for both business operations and technical operations within an enterprise. For this reason, architecture development has implications for the high level business process, as well as for lower level tasks, such as just getting two products to interoperate. As such, architectures must address a variety of audiences, ranging from business strategy planners to field engineers. The primary audience, however, is system architects who are concerned with enterprise level systems integration. These individuals are typically associated with either information technology systems or advanced automation systems.

Integration with other developing architectures

IntelliGrid Architecture’s enterprise and industry-wide scope necessarily means that other architectures undergoing development in parallel will become part of the implemented form of IntelliGrid Architecture. For example, other key architectures in development at federal, state and even international levels will need to be integrated with IntelliGrid Architecture to some degree.

Emerging federal and state information technology architectures are establishing policies to integrate information systems within government agencies. IntelliGrid Architecture’s reach will include the combination of information and advanced automation systems needed to integrate with developing federal and state level architectures. Examples of possible integration include business-to-business, electronic commerce, and basic consumer service functions. Policies, including system management and security, must be compatible across architectures to achieve the desired levels of system integration and interoperability. The energy provisioning industry must integrate strategically with other developing architectures to achieve the visions put forward by the industry.

Several emergent architectures that are predicted to be integrated with the energy services architecture are discussed below. It should be noted that these architectures are driven by federal legislation, Government Accounting Office (GAO) guidance, and other mandates that are key drivers:

Federal Enterprise Architecture

The Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) was developed as the result of federal legislation passed during the 1990s. The FEA’s purpose is to integrate the information systems of all federal agencies. While it predominantly targets information systems environments, the policies that FEA presents, such as the development of e-commerce and e-government, have implications for integrating energy industry initiatives. The FEA has been undergoing development for the past several years and represents a serious effort to integrate federal agency systems. Information systems installed by federal agencies must show compliance or migration to the FEA in order to continue to receive funding to support these systems.

Department of Defense Architecture Framework

The Department of Defense Architecture Framework (DODAF) is the architecture intended to integrate the systems of the Pentagon and all branches of the U.S. military. This architecture prescribes policies for integrating information systems and advanced automation systems with military buildings and business systems. Energy systems seeking to interoperate with Federal DoD buildings (for example, building automation systems) will be subject to the policies within the DODAF.

State Level Architecture Development

Many states have begun developing architectures to integrate systems and services at the state level. These architectures are directed toward integrating state office functions and public services, including, but not limited to, state and local public services. Similarly, these architectures will address business and government electronic commerce systems. States, such as Arizona, Ohio and others, have begun establishing enterprise architectures and policies for information systems. In addition, organizations, such as the National Association of State Chief Information Officers, endorse the concept of architecture development. Policies emerging from state architecture development related to security policy management, systems integration, e-commerce and e-government can be foreseen to impact the implementation of energy related functions with government buildings and information systems. 

International Level Architectures

Architectural elements and rules of governance are under development by international communities to address issues such as models of governance and commerce across national lines.

The Products of an Architecture

An architecture is comprised of a variety of elements including requirements, models, analyses, terminology, and recommendations. All of these elements were addressed during IntelliGrid Architecture project.

Recommendations

It has been stated that an architecture is a journey and not a destination. One of the most important outputs from an architecture development effort is a clear view of what lies ahead, as well as the path to get there.

As such, the IntelliGrid Architecture provides a collection of recommendations for using and applying a variety of standards and technologies, which, in turn, can be used as the building blocks of integration. Also included are best practices for the energy industry to follow as the integrated architecture is implemented. In addition, IntelliGrid Architecture project has highlighted technical issues that must be addressed to ’complete’ the standards, technologies, and best practices for the future energy services industry to operate effectively. An example of these issues can be seen in the variety of requirements now emerging for industry operations, which pose unique challenges to future advanced automation systems. Integrating the required technologies is an emerging technical need. These recommendations are presented in Volume IV of this series.

Analyses

The IntelliGrid Architecture also contains analyses that support the project team’s recommendations. The analyses may utilize a variety of methods to understand future energy industry operations. This project used a variety of analysis methods that were based on the requirements gathered during the project, as well as on the team’s experience within the industry and standards communities. However, all analyses, no matter how rigorous, are grounded in human, subjective terms. It is therefore imperative that all decision points are traceable back to requirements. Only in this way are the conclusions meaningful.

Requirements for future systems

For this project, a series of future operational scenarios and their associated requirements were developed. The requirements were developed through a combination of studies and interactions with some stakeholders of the future energy system. The set of requirements captured within this project do not exhaustively cover every possible application of advanced automation or information technology. A comprehensive list of applications could number in the thousands.

It should be noted that the requirements considered in this project were developed for a select set of applications that were believed to carry ‘architectural significance’ for the industry. These requirements and associated operations scenarios, known as ‘use cases’, form a framework of functions that encompasses most architecture challenges faced by the energy industry. Architecturally-significant issues addressed in IntelliGrid Architecture project included challenges arising from implementing systems on a large scale and over a wide diversity of businesses and technical operating environments. These issues include integration and interoperability issues, implementing consistent policies and developing the techniques to manage systems on large scales.

A Model of Future Operations

The IntelliGrid Architecture project also developed a model of future operations using a combination of two sets of standards for architectural modeling. The complexity of the future energy system requires modeling to effectively capture relationships and integration between systems. Developing a model for an Integrated Energy and Communications Systems Architecture prior to its detailed design and implementation is as essential as having a blueprint for a large building. Good models assure the robustness of the design and are necessary for communicating among stakeholders.

Terminology

One of the largest challenges any architecture project faces is bringing forward a common set of terms that are useful for discussions across traditional operating boundaries. Just as a model is critical to communicating among stakeholders, so too is standardized terminology. It is impossible to have consensus on meaning and intent without first establishing definitions for the terminology. It is equally important to have definitions traceable back to standards bodies in order to maintain consistency in meaning across disciplines and industries.

To that end, terminology is presented and used in the model of future industry operations. Ideally, terminology is traceable to the standards that are adopting the terms. Within IntelliGrid Architecture project, priority is given to terminology being developed within key standards organizations.

Vision and Process for a Seamless, Managed Architecture

IntelliGrid Architecture’s vision for the architecture uses an integrated approach to describe the enterprise requirements. An approach focused solely on applications does not easily yield the type of interoperability needed or desired. Instead, a rigorous systems engineering approach was adopted for soliciting requirements from key stakeholders. Enterprise domains tell us what the top level requirements are, and analysis reveals key applications that could realize those requirements. Key applications with the promise of exposing common services to enable interoperability are further explored. Analysis of those common services can allow the team then to enumerate the communication requirements for interoperable systems.

When conducting analysis at different levels (enterprise, application, services, communication), it is important to understand the context of each requirement. A formal framework for capturing the full context of each requirement was adopted. The methodology used by the team separated the description of the systems and subsystems into five different viewpoints. Just as a building plan relies on differing views (plumbing, structural, electrical, etc.) to represent the whole, so too does a communication architecture rely on different descriptions. As seen in Figure 3, the model breaks down into five viewpoints that can be roughly portrayed as describing (1) Who participates, (2) What information is exchanged, (3) How is the data processed or interpreted, (4) Where are the interacting devices located and (5) Which technologies are used to facilitate or manage the exchange.