Use of CIM for workflows across network operation, asset management and Network planning systems at a distribution utility

The CIM Standard IEC 61970, originally conceived for transmission systems, and IEC 61968 for distribution systems, share a common model set defining basic properties of an electrical network, such as topology modeling, power system resources class hierarchy, equipment containment, wires, measurements, naming and other basic packages. This paper shows the evolution of a distribution management system (DMS) based on an early version of the IEC 61970 CIM standard, from a standalone system for maintaining paper schematics, to an online system, integrated with a SCADA, for managing the current network state and network extensions, and finally its integration with a GIS/asset management system for reducing duplicate data entry, increasing data quality, and enabling data export to a planning system. It shows how the use of CIM simplified later system extension and interface definition, and how a method was conceived to efficiently and reliably establish the correlation between instances in the DMS and the GIS/asset management system, with a substantial reduction in engineering effort compared to a manual approach.