Data exchange in asset management applications for electric utilities using XML

The competition induced by the deregulation in electricity markets forces utilities to effectively manage their assets and resources. The emerging information technologies (IT) provide the means to integrate data islands within utilities, and to build applications that can help in optimizing the return on investment related to assets. In this paper two applications from a Power Utilities Asset Management (PUAM) suite are presented, with emphasis on data exchange between them for seamless access to information across the different departments within a utility. For linking the available data, an XML description is used. Finally, the benefits of networking the information are addressed.