LiveData Deploys SCADA Integration With Oracle To Georgia Power Company
Cambridge, MA LiveData recently announced it has deployed with Oracle the companies' SCADA integration solution for distribution outage management by Georgia Power Company. The largest electric utility in Georgia, GPC has improved its response to outages and other distribution issues using Oracle® Utilities Outage Management SCADA and the LiveData ICCP Server.
GPC's Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system gathers information from remote sensors, learning the status of devices on the power network. The LiveData ICCP Server interfaces data to Oracle Utilities's network management adapter. Once SCADA data reaches Oracle Utilities Outage Management SCADA, the Oracle Utilities network management system integrates and analyzes it to identify power distribution issues.
The Inter-Control Center Protocol (ICCP) is an interconnection standard between SCADA and energy management systems (EMS). Oracle Utilities brings its expertise of analyzing SCADA data for distribution network outages, by interfacing to LiveData's ICCP Server. LiveData provides the ICCP protocol product and protocol expertise for ICCP data exchange with SCADA and EMS systems.
Providing outage management systems with SCADA data results in more efficient outage analysis, and immediately allows operators to see SCADA-detected outages in the outage management system. Seeing device status and changes allows user to react more quickly and with more flexibility than waiting for customer service calls.
In the past, customers suffering a power outage would call-in to GPC's customer care center, and then the system would try to discern the location and cause (a breaker, a transformer, downed power line, etc.). Using SCADA and network management software takes the guesswork out of it. Now, if a customer calls in, sensors may have already reported and isolated the problem. The system will enable the service desk to inform callers that GPC is aware that the power is out, and estimate time to restoration.
"It removes a layer of complexity, we can predict, don't need to use a series of customer calls to know what's going on. This helps improve reliability and customer satisfaction," said Duncan Livsey, senior applications analyst at Georgia Power.
"For the first time, outage information from SCADA events, such as feeder breaker lockouts, are identified in the outage management system," said Livsey. "Connecting our SCADA information with our outage management system reduces restoration time both directly, by accelerating the analysis of the outage, and indirectly by freeing operators from manually entering SCADA events."
"In the past SCADA data was limited to the SCADA system's consoles," said Ronald Lambert, manager of LiveData Utility Professional Services. "Our compatability with Oracle Utilities allows our customers to leverage their investment in SCADA infrastructure into improved outage management".
Georgia Power, the largest of four electric utilities that make up Southern Company, has been providing electricity to Georgia for more than a century, serving 2.25 million customers in all but four of Georgia's 159 counties. Georgia Power has invested more than $4 billion in transmission and distribution (power lines) since 1991.
Utilities throughout the world specify the Inter-Control Center Communications Protocol (ICCP) to provide data exchange between utility control centers, utilities, power pools, regional control centers, and non-utility generators. ICCP is also an international standard: International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Telecontrol Application Service Element 2 (TASE.2).
ICCP operates across LANs and WANs to enable the exchange of real-time and historical power system monitoring and control data, including measured values, scheduling data, energy accounting data, and operator messages. Data exchange can occur between and among: multiple control center energy management systems (EMS); EMS and power plant DCS systems; EMS and distribution SCADA systems; EMS and other utility systems; and EMS/SCADA and substations.
The LiveData ICCP Server understands the applications that monitor and control operations (SCADA, DCS, EMS, OMS) and how to flow data to and between them, across all major public and proprietary protocols. Customers worldwide rely upon LiveData to deliver real-time data for a wide range of mission-critical applications.
LiveData is now a member of the Oracle PartnerNetwork.
About the Oracle PartnerNetwork
Oracle PartnerNetwork is a global business network of more than 19,000 companies who deliver innovative software solutions based on Oracle software. Through access to Oracle's premier products, education, technical services, marketing and sales support, the Oracle PartnerNetwork program provides partners with the resources they need to be successful in today's global economy. Oracle partners are able to offer their customers leading-edge solutions backed by Oracle's position as the world's largest enterprise software company. Partners who are able to demonstrate superior product knowledge, technical expertise and a commitment to doing business with Oracle qualify for the Oracle Certified Partner levels.
About LiveData
LiveData, Inc. is the leading innovator of real-time integration and data visualization technology for the utility and energy services industries. LiveData RTI (Real-Time Integration) software spans diverse protocols and applications to capture, deliver, graphically present and archive real-time data, and to enable real-time response for mission critical operations. LiveData solutions continuously monitor, synthesize and respond to highly complex, multi-faceted processes in real time, spanning a broad mix of distributed devices, diverse vendors' systems, protocols and databases. Founded in 1991, LiveData serves customers in healthcare, electric power and utilities, and manufacturing industries, as well as state and local governments.
SOURCE: LiveData