Solving data integration challenges for web-based geographical power system data visualization using CIM

Interpreting ever increasing volumes of network data is a problem faced by utilities as computing and communications technology becomes cheaper and makes real-time monitoring of equipment affordable. This paper describes work undertaken for two utilities to produce an interface for visualizing network activity to help identify clusters of faults both geographically and temporally. This involved the development of a multi-user interface capable of showing both real-time and historical fault data on a geographical map and timeline at both distribution and transmission level. The use of an industry standard information model in the form of the common information model (CIM) allowed a solution to be developed that was able to use existing network topology data and processing software while producing a solution not reliant on a proprietary of utility-specific data format.