Dynamic integration foundation for the utilities industry

The integration of applications has been a longtime goal of electric utilities, their business systems providers, and operations systems providers. In the past, application integration has been proposed but not successfully implemented because it failed to accommodate future technologies. This paper describes a computer architecture that not only delivers enterprise application integration solutions today, but also provides a framework that enables an easy evolution to tomorrow's technologies. This framework: is dynamic, because it allows for flexible workflow management and data re-mapping capabilities; enables application integration by providing interoperability of both data and functions across and between enterprise applications; and provides a foundation for expansion and evolution to new technologies using ANSI standard building blocks with proven integration capabilities today. This architecture, the utilities dynamic integration foundation, is illustrated by focusing on a solution for the needs of power distribution management.