Data and Network Management Task Team Resources
Contacts
| Paul Myrda, Lead (708) 749-5543 |
Kris Koellner, Co-Lead (602) 236-6441 |
Lynn Costantini, NERC Support (609) 452-8060 |
Ranata Johnson, Support (509) 375-6311 |
Review Data and Network Management's Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
| Date | Resource | |
|---|---|---|
| August 22, 2007 | Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) - TVA/NASPI connection methods (PDF 179KB) | |
| August 10, 2007 | Phasor Application Classification (Excel 67KB) | |
| Phasor Point Naming Convention (Word 76KB) | ||
| Technical Report on flexible and robust grid communications (PDF 800KB) | ||
| The Many Faces of Publish/Subscribe (PDF 500KB) | ||
| July 10, 2007 | California Institute for Energy and Environment (CIEE) Phasor Measurement Application Study. Prepared for the California Energy Commission by KEMA Inc., October 16, 2006 (PDF 672KB) | |
| Appendix A through F Version 4 (PDF 2627KB) | ||
| June 19, 2007 | Assessment of Application Taxonomy (PDF 19KB) | |
| Assessment of Application Taxonomy (Word 56KB) | ||
| April 20, 2007 | Architecture Template (Word 86KB) | |
| April 18, 2007 | Data & Network Management Task Team Charter (Word 28KB) | |
| Data Management Models (PowerPoint 289KB) | ||
| Data Management Architecture (PowerPoint 1,420KB) | ||
| Data Management Architecture (Word 779KB) | ||
| Phasor Applications Taxonomy, Version 2a (Excel 17KB) | ||
Data and Network Management's Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is required to establish communications with the SPDC from an individual PMU?
What type of delays can I expect in the real-time data stream?
Do you have a dial up option for PMU connections into the SPDC?
Does the EIPP arrange for the communication from our system to the SPDC?
Will there be a data concentrator located closer then TVA, if so where?
Will we be able to access the data? If so how much? What equipment will we need?
Is the TVA SDC using the PC37.118 protocol, or should we be looking at a different protocol?
OK, I’ve installed my PMU’s now what do I do?
What are the supported data access options?
Q: I have fiber capability from substation where my PMU is located to my corporate communications center, where does the data need to go from there?
A: You have two options: Send PMU data directly to SPDC or process and/or concentrate PMU data locally first and then send it on to SPDC.
Q: What is required to establish communications with the SPDC from an individual PMU?
A: All that is needed to send and receive real-time data is a secure VPN connection from a communications center or a direct leased connection over the internet directly from the PMU.
Q: What type of delays can I expect in the real-time data stream?
A: The real time data stream has the least amount of delay – its delay is programmatically introduced to make sure slowest data contributors actually get their data into the combined outgoing data stream – however, this delay is adjustable and as the project proceeds we are striving to keep this delay as small as possible. Right now the delay is set at 5 seconds, but the goal is 3 or less.
Q: Do you have a dial up option for PMU connections into the SPDC?
A: No. If you think this is desirable contact Paul Myrda.
Q: Do you have a firewall at the SPDC and did you have problems in conditioning the signal so it could be sent through the firewall? (i.e., did your IT people have to do anything to the streaming data before allowing it to pass through the firewall?
A: A firewall and VPN solution would be used together to produce a bidirectional data stream (i.e., you send PMU data and then receive a full combined data stream back across the same connection). Nothing special is required to make this happen – just one time configuration of the lan-to-lan VPN’s.
Q: I haven’t signed the NERC agreement; can I still provide data to the SPDC and use a visualization tool like RTDMS-lite (shows PMU visualizations but cannot export data) to see PMU data?
A: Yes. At your own discretion you can provide your PMU data to the SPDC without signing a NERC agreement; this data could then be made available for use in RTDMS if desired. Even if your data wasn’t published, this step might still be beneficial because getting the communications infrastructure in place is sometimes the most time consuming part of these efforts and at least this way you could immediately receive data as soon as your NERC NDA is signed.
Q: Do you need to be able to initiate communications from your office to each PMU or do you just need to receive data that is sent from each PMU?
A: Usually, on a per PMU basis you connect directly to the device (typically over TCP when connecting directly to PMU) and tell it to start sending data – it then sends the data on the response stream, and you just keep this connection open. If the connection, drops you just repeat the connection.
Q: Does the EIPP arrange for the communication from our system to the SPDC?
A: We can make recommendations for establishing the needed network communications, but you will incur the costs of establishing and maintaining your connections.
Q: Will there be a data concentrator located closer then TVA, if so where?
A: It’s very possible that there will be other mirrored EIPP data concentrators to come online closer to you, check with the EIPP leadership about any information on timelines for implementation of these systems.
Q: Will we be able to access the data? If so how much? What equipment will we need?
A: You will be able to access the data over a variety of methods – some require only Internet access, others VPN access (comprehensive list below).
Q: Outside of the PMU’s being installed and the equipment necessary to get the information to the SPDC, what else am I expected to do?
A: After everything has been established, we ask that when your PMU configuration changes that you help us maintain the PMU demographics and meta-data using the EIPP demographics web-site: https://eipp.tva.com/. We also ask that you strive to keep the PMU online – we will automatically notify you via e-mail when the PMU goes offline.
Q: Is it an issue to change the data structure we are sending? In other words, should we wait until the data concentrator is installed at our end, or can we start sending data from a single PMU and then later convert to the data concentrator and send a larger data set?
A: This is not an issue, data coming in over several ports or over one port all together makes no difference – this is just a simple configuration change. However, one thing to keep in mind is that each concentrator creates its own lag time (the delay needed to wait on all PMU’s to report data) – each delay gets cumulative as it passes through multiple concentrators. To avoid the extra lag time and still have the benefit of using a local concentrator you can route the source data to the SPDC and to your local concentrator simultaneously by rebroadcasting the source data stream to two locations – it is neither complicated nor expensive to rebroadcast the data like this.
Q: Is the TVA SDC using the PC37.118 protocol, or should we be looking at a different protocol?
A: The TVA SDC does support the PC37.118, however, note that this protocol is still in testing as the draft has just recently been finalized. This is definitely the preferred protocol and we will gladly accept data in this format, just realize that you might be the “guinea pig” for sending data in that format.
Q: My company has no problem sharing this data with other transmission system operators. However, it was mentioned that a non disclosure agreement has to be signed. How do I do that?
A: There is a new NERC non-disclosure agreement that will need to be signed before you can “receive” data from other utilities. Check with the EIPP leadership about getting the document.
Q: OK, I’ve installed my PMU’s now what do I do?
A: The main thing you need to do is decide how you are going to get your data to the SPDC – again, this typically occurs using a lan-to-lan VPN connection using data routed to the VPN from your PMU using an existing network connection to your substation. There are other options, some utilities are either considering or installing a direct frame relay connection from their substation directly to the SPDC because establishing a network connection to their operations center was for whatever reasons much more expensive or tedious.
Q: What are the supported data access options?
A: Currently they are:
For real-time sub-second streaming data output:real-time GPS synchronized data with the least amount of lag time
- PC37.118 UDP data broadcast over VPN of all real-time data
- BPA PDCstream UDP data broadcast over VPN of filtered data
- PC37.118 UDP data broadcast over VPN of filtered data
- Individual virtual IEEE1344 connections over VPN to PMU’s
- EPG Phasor Data Web Service (fed directly from PDCstream output)
data that is available as soon as its archived by the historian
- OPC Data Access
- OPC Historical Data Access
For historical access to archived data:
- OPC Data Access to sub-second archive (subject to disk space availability)
- OPC Historical Data Access to sub-second archive (subject to disk space availability)
- XML/CSV formatted data download from EIPP web site (*all* sub-second data is accessible permanently from here)
