Common Information Model (electricity)
Encyclopedia
In electric power
transmission and distribution, the Common Information Model (CIM), a standard
developed by the electric power industry that has been officially adopted by the International Electrotechnical Commission
(IEC), aims to allow application software
to exchange information
about the configuration and status of an electrical network
.
The CIM is currently maintained as a UML
model. It defines a common vocabulary and basic ontology
for aspects of the electric power industry. The central package within the CIM is the 'wires model', which describes the basic components used to transport electricity. The CIM can be used to derive 'design artifacts' (e.g. XML Schema
, RDF Schema
) as needed for the integration of related application software
.
The standard that defines the core packages of the CIM is IEC 61970
-301, with a focus on the needs of electricity transmission, where related applications include energy management system
, SCADA
, planning and optimization. The IEC 61970-501 and 61970-452 standards define an XML
format for network model exchanges using RDF
. The IEC 61968
series of standards extend the CIM to meet the needs of electrical distribution, where related applications include distribution management system, outage management system
, planning, metering, work management, geographic information system
, asset management, customer information systems and enterprise resource planning
.
Electric power
Electric power is the rate at which electric energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is the watt.-Circuits:Electric power, like mechanical power, is represented by the letter P in electrical equations...
transmission and distribution, the Common Information Model (CIM), a standard
Standardization
Standardization is the process of developing and implementing technical standards.The goals of standardization can be to help with independence of single suppliers , compatibility, interoperability, safety, repeatability, or quality....
developed by the electric power industry that has been officially adopted by the International Electrotechnical Commission
International Electrotechnical Commission
The International Electrotechnical Commission is a non-profit, non-governmental international standards organization that prepares and publishes International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies – collectively known as "electrotechnology"...
(IEC), aims to allow application software
Application software
Application software, also known as an application or an "app", is computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks. Examples include enterprise software, accounting software, office suites, graphics software and media players. Many application programs deal principally with...
to exchange information
Information
Information in its most restricted technical sense is a message or collection of messages that consists of an ordered sequence of symbols, or it is the meaning that can be interpreted from such a message or collection of messages. Information can be recorded or transmitted. It can be recorded as...
about the configuration and status of an electrical network
Electrical network
An electrical network is an interconnection of electrical elements such as resistors, inductors, capacitors, transmission lines, voltage sources, current sources and switches. An electrical circuit is a special type of network, one that has a closed loop giving a return path for the current...
.
The CIM is currently maintained as a UML
Unified Modeling Language
Unified Modeling Language is a standardized general-purpose modeling language in the field of object-oriented software engineering. The standard is managed, and was created, by the Object Management Group...
model. It defines a common vocabulary and basic ontology
Ontology
Ontology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, existence or reality as such, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations...
for aspects of the electric power industry. The central package within the CIM is the 'wires model', which describes the basic components used to transport electricity. The CIM can be used to derive 'design artifacts' (e.g. XML Schema
XML Schema
XML Schema, published as a W3C recommendation in May 2001, is one of several XML schema languages. It was the first separate schema language for XML to achieve Recommendation status by the W3C...
, RDF Schema
RDF Schema
RDF Schema is a set of classes with certain properties using the RDF extensible knowledge representation language, providing basic elements for the description of ontologies, otherwise called RDF vocabularies, intended to structure RDF resources...
) as needed for the integration of related application software
Application software
Application software, also known as an application or an "app", is computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks. Examples include enterprise software, accounting software, office suites, graphics software and media players. Many application programs deal principally with...
.
The standard that defines the core packages of the CIM is IEC 61970
IEC 61970
The IEC 61970 series of standards deals with the application program interfaces for energy management systems . The series provides a set of guidelines and standards to facilitate:...
-301, with a focus on the needs of electricity transmission, where related applications include energy management system
Energy management system
An energy management system is a system of computer-aided tools used by operators of electric utility grids to monitor, control, and optimize the performance of the generation and/or transmission system...
, SCADA
SCADA
SCADA generally refers to industrial control systems : computer systems that monitor and control industrial, infrastructure, or facility-based processes, as described below:...
, planning and optimization. The IEC 61970-501 and 61970-452 standards define an XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
format for network model exchanges using RDF
Resource Description Framework
The Resource Description Framework is a family of World Wide Web Consortium specifications originally designed as a metadata data model...
. The IEC 61968
IEC 61968
IEC 61968 is a series of standards under development that will define standards for information exchanges between electrical distribution systems. These standards are being developed by Working Group 14 of Technical Committee 57 of the IEC...
series of standards extend the CIM to meet the needs of electrical distribution, where related applications include distribution management system, outage management system
Outage management system
An Outage Management System is a computer system used by operators of electric distribution systems to assist in restoration of power.- Major Functions of an OMS :Major functions usually found in an OMS include:...
, planning, metering, work management, geographic information system
Geographic Information System
A geographic information system, geographical information science, or geospatial information studies is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present all types of geographically referenced data...
, asset management, customer information systems and enterprise resource planning
Enterprise resource planning
Enterprise resource planning systems integrate internal and external management information across an entire organization, embracing finance/accounting, manufacturing, sales and service, customer relationship management, etc. ERP systems automate this activity with an integrated software application...
.
Difference between CIM & SCL
CIM and Substation Configuration Language (SCL) are developed in parallel under different working groups of TC57. Though both have the ability to exchange model and configuration information between different equipment or tools and use XML for storage, there are lot of differences between both the standards.- CIM is completely developed based on UML which is developed on the basis of inheritance. SCL representation is sequential or hierarchical in nature.
- Although the CIM is not limited to modeling equipment, the CIM approach gives emphasis on the equipment inheritance and its interconnection whereas SCL starts from a functional point of view.
- CIM is broadly applied to enterprise integration and related information exchanges between systems including, but not limited to, EMS, DMS, Planning, Energy Markets and Metering, where SCL is limited to exchange of data within substation equipments and tools.
Harmonization of CIM & SCL
There are applications which use both these standards and there will be significant improvements on interoperability and data exchange between the applications if SCL model can be transformed into CIM based models. Without the harmonization of these standards, the development and implementation of systems and applications will result in a significant amount of engineering and design that applies to only one implementation. The harmonization can be done by mixing equipment topological approach of CIM and functionality approach of SCL. IEC TC57 WG19 is involved in the harmonization CIM & SCL. This will involve the following steps- Mapping of logical nodes of IEC 61850 (SCL) to equipment defined in CIM.
- Use Web Ontology LanguageWeb Ontology LanguageThe Web Ontology Language is a family of knowledge representation languages for authoring ontologies.The languages are characterised by formal semantics and RDF/XML-based serializations for the Semantic Web...
to define the mapping patterns for the areas to which the automatic mapping cannot be performed. - The complete approach should not modify the existing models to large extent.
See also
- CIM ProfileCIM ProfileA CIM Profile is a subset model of the CIM UML model. These profiles are designated as parts documents in the IEC 61970 standard by working group 14...
- Substation Configuration Language (SCL)
- IEC 61970IEC 61970The IEC 61970 series of standards deals with the application program interfaces for energy management systems . The series provides a set of guidelines and standards to facilitate:...
- IEC 61968IEC 61968IEC 61968 is a series of standards under development that will define standards for information exchanges between electrical distribution systems. These standards are being developed by Working Group 14 of Technical Committee 57 of the IEC...
- IEC 61850
- MultiSpeakMultiSpeakMultispeak is a specification / standard that defines standardized interfaces among software applications commonly used by electric utilities. It defines details of data that need to be exchanged between software applications in order to support different processes commonly applied at utilities...