SCADA EMS DMS-a part of the corporate IT system

The static world with a closed control room within the utility industry is changing to an environment where the SCADA/EMS/DMS system is part of the corporate IT systems. The driving force for this is the need for utilities to have accurate data available for quick business decisions on a deregulated market. Cost reduction and quality improvement facilitated by increased information exchange is a strong incentive for utilities to require open system enabling integration. Constantly changing requirements force the utility industry to establish communication between new combinations of systems and changing sets of applications within a system. This results in new requirements on flexibility and openness for systems and applications. To meet these new requirements the solutions from the SCADA/EMS/DMS vendors is to adopt new technology that makes the systems more flexible and enable sharing of information in a fast and efficient way. This paper discusses the general requirements and trends and new SCADA/EMS/DMS solutions that will meet the customer requirements and aspects on delivery and system upgrades