Esri and Safe Software Collaborate for Successful CIM Interoperability Test

Utilities Can Share Data between Esri's ArcGIS Utility Network and Different Systems with Unified Industry-Standard Format

Electric utilities have long struggled to share data among their planning, asset, customer, and operational systems. The processes are often costly, inaccurate, time-consuming, and ineffective. Expanding the ability of electric utilities to work from one standard interface, the Common Information Model (CIM) is a single trusted data management, analysis, and alignment solution that can heavily leverage geographic information system (GIS) technology.

Supporting the industry as the global leader in GIS, Esri, together with partner Safe Software, has successfully participated in an interoperability test for the CIM.

"While utilities have been exporting data from Esri's ArcGIS software into the CIM standard for nearly a decade, this test illustrates that the technologies are aligned," said Bill Meehan, Esri director of electric utilities solutions, who led this effort along with Esri solution architect John Alsup.

Some of the systems and tools that utilities wish to interoperate using CIM include the following:

• GIS
• Energy management systems (EMS)
• Advanced distribution management systems (ADMS)
• Outage management systems (OMS)
• Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA)
• Simulation analysis programs like power flow, short circuit, stability, relay protection, lightning protection, and surge analysis

The interoperability test was part of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) Grid Model Data Management (GMDM) initiative. It was held from June 14 to June 16 at EPRI's Charlotte offices. UCA International Users Group, a not-for-profit corporation focused on assisting users and vendors, witnessed, monitored, and provided test direction and reporting services. "EPRI's GMDM initiative creates an architecture that allows disparate technologies to share information in a neutral industry-standard format without building custom interfaces," added Meehan.

The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has adopted the CIM as an industry standard for electrical utility data interoperability since 2001.

To learn more about how Esri supports utilities in CIM interoperability, visit energycentral.com/o/esri/cim-cimplified-–-part-3.

About Esri

Esri, the global market leader in geographic information system (GIS) software, location intelligence, and mapping, helps customers unlock the full potential of data to improve operational and business results. Founded in 1969 in Redlands, California, USA, Esri software is deployed in more than 350,000 organizations globally and in over 200,000 institutions in the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, including Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, nonprofits, and universities. Esri has regional offices, international distributors, and partners providing local support in over 100 countries on six continents. With its pioneering commitment to geospatial information technology, Esri engineers the most innovative solutions for digital transformation, the Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics. Visit us at esri.com.

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