A case study in change from a centralized energy management system to a decentralized one

The case study describes a situation in which a centralized configuration was changed to a decentralized configuration following initial operation. The initial system, based on a centralized configuration, became operational in October of 1985. The initial system had communication linkages to remote terminals, a power pool, regional control centers, power-plant control rooms, corporate computer facilities, and distribution dispatch offices. Subsequently the system architecture was modified to a more decentralized configuration to better address concerns of remote regional control centers regarding catastrophic communication outages. The modified design represents an evolution from the initial centralized system to a decentralized one. The decentralized architecture needed to support all of the terminals of the originally centralized system. It also needed to contain a strong skeleton for centralized and decentralized operation. The authors describe the two systems, the motivation in the transition, and the attributes of the specific architecture which lent themselves to making the transition a feasible one