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IKB Use Cases
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Grouping of Use Cases Transmission Operations Distribution Operations Market Operations Customer Communications Cross Cutting for Cyber Security, Network Management, ... Use Case Template Please Enter Any Comments Here	EPRI Use Case Repository - Now with Upload Capability Industry Use Cases by Grouping Category Additional Use Cases by Grouping Use Cases by PAPs, DEWGS, etc. CAISO Use Cases Use Case Template Return to Use Cases Main Page

Grouping of Use Cases

The Smart Grid will ultimately require hundreds of standards. Some are more urgently needed than others. The IKB will collate and organize Use Cases to make research into the requirements and applications of standards straightforward. To prioritize its work, NIST chose to focus on six key dimensions plus cyber security and network communications, aspects that are especially critical to ongoing and near-term deployments of Smart Grid technologies and services. Four priority applications were recommended by FERC in its policy statement(1). Additionally, the Conceptual Model organizes seven (7) Domains which group applications.

Note: In structuring the Use Cases section of the IKB, one needs to select an organization (see http://collaborate.nist.gov/twiki-sggrid/bin/view/SmartGrid/IKBUseCases ). No grouping for Use Cases is perfect and should not be attempting to be. That is, you might find a Distribution function that cuts across all Domains. However, what we are talking about here is the organization of a Use Case catalogue. Nothing more.

Therefore, the Use Cases of the IKB are grouped by the following categories:

Transmission Operations

Transmission Operations encompasses functions related to the integration of Generation (Central Generation and Large Scale Storage and Renewable) with Transmission Operations and including Transmission Substation operations. This domain includes Sub-Transmission System operations down to 39kV equipment. It should be noted however that some applications will require integration with Distribution System Operations as well as some customer integration (at Transmission Voltage levels). This domain is predominantly a real time and near real time operations environment however some field equipment communications will include integration with back office and information system environments. Categories of Transmission Operations Functions include but are not limited to the following:

• Wide-area Measurement and Control (WAMAC) This category includes the FERC priority functions titled Wide-Area Situational Awareness but also includes the functions of control related to Wide Area Measurements. Monitoring and display of power-system components and performance across interconnections and over large geographic areas in near real-time. The goals of situational awareness are to understand and ultimately optimize the management of power-network components, behavior, and performance, as well as to anticipate, prevent, or respond to problems before disruptions can arise.

• Central Generation Integration This category includes the integration of central generation into future automated T&D operations. Functions include matching generation and load as well as dispatch of available resources and maintaining generation reserve margins.

• System Protection This category includes the sets of functions necessary to manage electric system protection functions carried out by protection relays and support equipment. System protection functions are not limited to Transmission systems and include Distribution operations as well as customers with power injection capabilities

• Substation Automation Substation Automation includes management of substation switching, control and protection functions both within the control station as well as in the immediate substation switchyard. Increasingly substation integration includes integration with automation systems beyond the fence including enterprise systems that support the transmission energy management system as well as with Distribution Automation systems.

• Ancillary Service Provisioning Ancillary services includes a variety of FERC defined functions ranging from black start to reactive power support functions. Future ancillary services may be provided by energy consumers through various contractual arrangements.

• Large Scale Renewable Integration Large scale renewable generation integration includes technologies such as wind, photovoltaic and solar thermal that are implemented on large scales. Advanced communications and control are necessary to manage the intermittent nature of the energy resource.

Distribution Operations

Distribution Operations generally includes operations below 39kV and encompasses advanced distribution automation. Distribution Operations is critical to linking the next generation of dynamic customer operations with Transmission and Central Generation operations. For this reason, applications in Distribution Operations cross over into adjacent technical domains. Distribution Operations includes both real time field equipment monitoring and control as well as integration of field equipment with back office and information systems. The following are a few categories of distribution operations. The following are examples of major categories of Distribution Operations functions including Distribution Automation and Advanced Distribution Automation.

• Distribution grid management: Focuses on maximizing performance of feeders, transformers, and other components of networked distribution systems and integrating with transmission systems and customer operations. As Smart Grid capabilities, such as AMI and demand response, are developed, and as large numbers of distributed energy resources and plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) are deployed, the automation of distribution systems becomes increasingly more important to the efficient and reliable operation of the overall power system. The anticipated benefits of distribution grid management include increased reliability, reductions in peak loads, and improved capabilities for managing distributed sources of renewable energy.

• Fault Location Isolation and Restoration (FLIR): This category focuses on the management of system faults including functions necessary to isolate and restore service to customers. For Distribution systems that are by nature widely dispersed this is a key set of customer service restoration functions both during nomal and severe weather conditions.

• Integrated Voltage and Reactive Power Support: This category includes the functions necessary to manage the correct delivery of voltage to electric customers. It also includes the functions necessary to manage reactive power within the distribution system.

• Energy storage: Means of storing energy, directly or indirectly. Smaller forms of energy storage are anticipated within distribution systems as well as bulk power systems. New storage capabilities—especially for distributed storage—would benefit the entire grid, from generation to end use, but the resources need to be correctly integrated into T&D operations.

• Distributed Energy Resources: Management of Distributed Energy Resources will increasingly be deployed within distribution systems. Increasing penetration of rooftop photovoltaic systems and customer owned generation resources must be correctly integrated into T&D operations to not only enable future advanced operations such as managed islanding but to ensure safe operations.

Market Operations

Market Operations includes the functions necessary to operate existing and future energy markets and associated services. Market Operations functions range from operating electric pricing and information exchange to establish electric and energy services pricing such as day ahead energy, ancillary services and exchange of bulk power. Market operations requires interaction with energy and service providers as well as Independent Systems Operators and Regional Transmission Operators.

Customer Communications

Customer Communications includes metering functions to support revenue cycle services as well as customer internetworking communications. Customer interface development enables functions such as demand response, automated response to real-time pricing, and advanced energy services such as energy efficiency and performance monitoring. Advanced customer communications with customer sited generation and electric vehicles will need to appropriately integrate with distribution operations to enable management of power injection.

• Demand response and consumer energy efficiency: Mechanisms and incentives for utilities, business, industrial, and residential customers to cut energy use during times of peak demand or when power reliability is at risk. Demand response is necessary for optimizing the balance of power supply and demand.

• Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI): Currently, utilities are focusing on developing AMI to implement residential demand response and to serve as the chief mechanism for implementing dynamic pricing. It consists of the communications hardware and software and associated system and data management software that creates a two-way network between advanced meters and utility business systems, enabling collection and distribution of information to customers and other parties, such as competitive retail suppliers or the utility itself. AMI provides customers real-time (or near real-time) pricing of electricity and it can help utilities achieve necessary load reductions.

• Electric transportation: Refers, primarily, to enabling large-scale integration of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs). Electric Vehicles can be viewed as a special case of mobile customer communications or can be aggregated by fleet operations. Electric vehicles can also be considered both an electric load as well as a form of electric storage with the potential for power injection capabilities. Integration of Electric Vehicles is subject to interoperability with market and revenue cycle services as well as real time distribution operations.
  

Cross Cutting for Cyber Security, Network Management, ...

Cross Cutting functions include categories of capabilities that cut across the technical domains. These functions include the categories of cyber security as well as systems and network management. These functions are necessary for systems administration and security personnel to properly manage the communications networks, and implement and manage security policies.

• Cybersecurity: Encompasses measures to ensure the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the electronic information communication systems and the control systems necessary for the management, operation, and protection of the Smart Grid’s energy, information technology, and telecommunications infrastructures.

• Network and Systems Management: The Smart Grid domains and subdomains will use a variety of public and private communication networks, both wired and wireless. Given this variety of networking environments, the identification of performance metrics and core operational requirements of different applications, actors, and domains--in addition to the development, implementation, and maintenance of appropriate management systems. Management functions include but are not limited to Fault Management, Accounting Management, Configuration Management, Performance Management.

Use Case Template

The file, IKBUseCaseTemplateV1_0.doc, is the common format for the capture of Use Cases for the IKB. Make sure that the file name has no spaces or special characters. Additionally:

1. Make sure that the narrative is self contained and that everything mentioned in the narrative appears in the remaining sections. Ensure that the nomenclature used in the remaining sections matches that used in the narrative. This means that any actor or information object used in the sequences of section 2 are mentioned in the narrative.
2. If this document is related to other documents done by the author or others, the narrative should begin with a summary of this relationship. Introductory material that is taken from the other documents to allow this document to have a context should be clearly identified as such so that its description is not expected in the rest of the template.
3. Make sure the names of the actors as listed in Section 1.5 are consistently used throughout the document (specifically in Sections 1.8 and 2.1). Note that the automated routine is not a spell checker, nor is it a reasoning engine to discover what the author really meant. Check also for common capitalization, small differences in usage, abbreviations vs. whole words (i.e. ESP and elsewhere Energy Service Provider).
4. In Section 1.8 of the use case, the policies belonging to a contract should immediately follow that contract in a table. Thus, for any contract in the contract table, there could be a set of zero or more policies that follow it immediately. Check with the domain expert to make sure that all the contract/policy pairing is observed. A common mistake is to put all contracts first in a table, follow by all policies in the next table. In such a case, the policies will all be placed part of the last contract on the contract table.
5. Ensure that each subsection of section 2 (i.e. 2.1, 2.x, 2.y) adheres to the newer structure: 2.x Steps to implement function, 2.x.1 Preconditions and Assumptions, 2.x.2 Steps normal sequence, and 2.x.3 Post-conditions.

6. In the sequence tables of Section 2.x.2. make sure that :

   1. There are primary, information producer and information receiver actors and further they are all valid actors of 1.5.

   2. The primary actor is either an information producer, or receiver. By definition a primary actor is one that initiates the activity.

   3. Delete empty rows and empty tables.

7. Sections that are marked "Future" are not currently imported into the IKB UML Database but are useful to populate (version, references, etc...)

Please Enter Any Comments Here

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Notes

1 : Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Smart Grid Policy, 128 FERC 61,060 [Docket No. PL09-4-000] July 16, 2009.

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