September 24, 2007 Information Technology Nodal’s Impact on IT EMS User Group Ron Hinsley ERCOT Chief Information Officer

September 24, 2007

Information Technology

Nodal’s Impact on ITEMS User Group

Ron HinsleyERCOTChief Information Officer

2 Enterprise ArchitectureAugust 21, 2007

Agenda

• Overview– ERCOT Primer– Nodal Primer– Bringing Strategy to Life

• What the RUP?!?– View from the Top– A Pattern for Everything– Better Living with Standards

• How it All Comes Together– Tracing the Requirements– Measuring Success– Right People, Right Place, Right Time

• Q&A• Important Sources


Overview: ERCOT Primer

• The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) manages the flow of electric power to approximately 20 million Texas customers

• Represents 85 percent of the state’s electric load and 75 percent of the Texas land area • As the independent system

operator for the region, ERCOT schedules power on an electric grid that connects 38,000 miles of transmission lines and more than 500 generation units

• ERCOT also manages financial settlement for the competitive wholesale bulk-power market and administers customer switching for 6 million Texans in competitive choice areas


Overview: Nodal Primer

• Moving to a nodal design will satisfy the PUCT order to directly assign local congestion

• In the nodal market, the grid will consist of more than 4,000 nodes, replacing today’s 4 Zones (5th NE zone consolidated to N effective 1/1/07 per PRR699)

• The Texas Nodal design is expected to deliver the following benefits:– Improved price signals– Improved dispatch efficiencies– Direct assignment of local congestion

• In today’s zonal market, the grid is divided into Congestion Management Zones, which are separated by the Commercially Significant Constraints

• Several limitations have been identified with the current zonal model:

– Resources grouped by portfolio

– Assignment of local congestion costs

– Insufficient price transparency



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The problem is very complex:• The system being controlled is complex and dynamic• Market rules are detailed, interdependent and difficult to understand• Detailed functionality and interactions of how systems support the process

were not well understood. System boundaries were blurred. • Moving from a 4 zone network to a nodal network with 1000s nodes• Extending siloed technical and business processes to an integrated solution• Increasing from a small number of “super” systems to best of breed

applications that control the network and operate the market• Product marketplace is dominated by a few companies• Changing from screen scraped interfaces to web services• Changing many point to point integrations to an Enterprise Service Bus• Publishing market interfaces 18 months ahead of go-live to ensure market

participation• Integration of 14 COTS apps from 6 vendors

The stakes are high:• $263M over three years and $10M for every month late• There is global interest in our success

Enterprise ArchitectureAugust 21, 2007

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Building a complex system in a dynamic environmentWithout a guiding architecture and

vision of the solution, prepare for the worst!!

Previous attempts to describe the architecture had “failed”

• Many stakeholders with different needs• Views of business process, data,

information flow, systems, infrastructure, security, and organization were all incomplete

We needed to know what had to be done

We needed processes, standards, and architectural tools to be successful

We needed to know ERCOT was ready

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Bringing Strategy to Life

The IT Strategy

Enterprise Architecture Approach

Align IT infrastructure, data, applications and processes (people) to ERCOT's

business strategy.

Business Within a Business

Change the focus of IT professionals to the level of external providers and to

consider all they deal with as customers. The business fully understands what it

receives for it’s IT dollars.

Operational Excellence

Raise the level of IT system delivery to meet or exceed customer expectations.

Provide a level of service that makes everyone feel as if they are the most

important customer of IT.

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Bringing Strategy to Life

EnterpriseArchitects

Business Architects

Enterprise Principles

Enterprise Principles are principles, applicable to all areas of ERCOT, that encapsulate the guiding philosophy of the organization and are driven by the Business and IT Strategies.

Business Strategy

ERCOT's Business Strategy developed by business leadership team. The business strategy is driven by the CEO and the Executive Committee.

Future State

The Future State building blocks show the tools and technologies ERCOT is targeting in the next 3 to 5 years. The future state is based on the Enterprise and Domain Principles and the initiatives required to achieve this state are prioritized within the Roadmaps.

1

5

Application Services

InfrastructureServices

Security

Operations

CIO

creates

Roadmaps

Roadmaps map short-term and long-term initiatives to the principles, business and IT strategies and the future state for each area.

4

creates

provide content for

creates

creates

approves

creates

creates

IT Strategy

ERCOT's IT Strategy developed by the CIO. The IT Strategy is driven by the Business Strategy.

Standards, Patterns and Frameworks

Standards and Patterns elaborate the details of the Domain Principles and describe the approach to implementation. Frameworks provide concrete implementation and infrastructure that is shared across projects.

provides content for

reviews

Executive Committee

CEO

creates reviews

Business Leadership IT Leadership Enterprise Architecture IT Services

reviews

reviews

100%

90%

Current State

The Current State building blocks show the tools and technologies ERCOT is currently using in a set of areas (blocks) and indicates if there are standards and base capability covering each area.

2

5%

50%

Domain Principles

Domain Principles are focused on the individual areas of ERCOT and help guide tool and technology decisions in those areas. Domain Principles are driven by the Enterprise Principles.

3

5%

Security Architects

creates

10

What the RUP?!?


The Rational Unified Process is a development framework created by Rational Software Corporation, now part of IBMRUP is an adaptable framework with several key principles:

•Adapt the process to the task at hand•Balance stakeholder priorities, focusing on risk and high value first•Demonstrate value early and often through iterations•Elevate abstraction through modeling•Focus continually on Quality

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What the RUP?!?

Inception Elaboration Construction Transition













Iteration 1

Iteration 2

Iteration 3

Iteration 4

Iteration n

Iteration 1

Iteration 2

Iteration 3

Iteration 4

Iteration n

Iteration 1

Iteration 2

Iteration n

Project A

Project B

Project C

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View from the Top


The current system architecture view was insufficient and we needed it extended to:

– Show the business processes at work– Indicate the dynamics of the model

• Market frequency includes real-time, day ahead, month ahead and even further

– Support multiple technologies & disparate systems from multiple vendors

– Show a Common Information Model– Support an Enterprise Service Bus with multiple

technologies– External SOAP based web services– Reflect multiple technology patterns

• P2P, Publish Subscribe, storage, security, virtualization …

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View from the Top


With IBM, we developed System of Systems Architecture (SoSA)• SoSA is a technique for modeling a complex system that is itself composed of

complex systems• SoSA starts with a behavioral model and extends to incorporate dynamics,

infrastructure, integration • SoSA benefits were:

Determine application interfaces in advance of detailed designEnd – End test case developmentMeans to communicate architecture to all stakeholdersPrescribed each of the system to system interactionsVerifying project developed designs, particularly the interface specifications

Enterprise Level

Nodal

System Level

EMS MMSSettlementsand Billing

CreditMonitoring

CRRFinancialTransfer

NMMSEntityRegistration

UserRegistration

FrequencyMonitoring

RPPOutageScheduler

AssetRegistration

MIS

MarketRules

ClientRelations

SeniorDispute Rep

Planning Legal

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A Pattern for Everything

JMS Consumer Adapter

Adapter(Response)

Application

Adapter(Request)

JMS Queue and/or Topic

2

1

3JMS

Queue

4

5

6

Producer

Consumer

Message Bus

2

3 5

6

1

4Communication Layer

External MP Client Application

Web Service Adapter2

1SOAP over

HTTPS

4

Standard Adapter

(Request)

3

JMS Queue, JMS Topic or HTTP

SOAP

Standard Adapter

(Response)

5

6

SOAP

Web Services Point to Point JMS Consumer

•SoSA shows 250+ internal integration points and 150+ external integration points

• This is far too complex to handle individually

• Each system had unique characteristics

• Most interfaces were only theoretical at first (some still today)

•The only way to address the problem is with patterns

• The project team created 18 integration patterns and addressed all integration points

• The code for these patterns was created ahead of the interfaces

• Implementation of a pattern is simply adding unique configuration attributes

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A Pattern for Everything

Whether servers or databases, we have

patterns and processes for right sizing

A few simple questions

provide a wealth of information

Virtualization allows for fine-grained sizing

Thorough instrumentation

is crucial

Small Med Large

Computational

Blended

Transactional

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Better Living with Standards

• With Nodal we’ve standardized on UML 2.0 as the modeling language for ERCOT

• UML is ideal for modeling application structure, data structure, business process, behavior, and architecture


…Ensure 60 Hz

QSEUpdate Frequency

QSE

Nodal

Adjust Generation

Main Success Scenario

1. QSE and Frequency Monitor send Nodal frequency data to Nodal.

2. At 4 second intervals Time requests Nodal execute Load Frequency Control

3. …

Use Case Use Case Specification Sequence Diagram

Operation Specification

Deployment Diagram

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Common Services

Transaction Monitor Mail

Interactive Prg. Env. Collaboration

Interactive Prg/Txt Ed Telephony

Event Services Dig Lib/Cont Mgt

Publish and Subscr. Enterprise Service Bus

Components EDI/EIE

Intelligent Agent Mgt. Web Content Mgmt

Internationalization Web Application Server

Virtual Machine Web Facilities

Workflow Web Services

BP Choreography Svcs


Data and Data Access ServicesData•Data Area 1•Data Area 2•Data Area 3•Data Area 4•Data Area 5•Data Area 6•Data Area 7Relational DatabaseHierarchical DatabaseObject-Oriented DatabaseMultidimensional DatabasePersistence ServicesFileStorage Management

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Communication Services•Conversational•Remote Procedure Call•Messaging and Queuing•HTTP

Common Transport Semantics

PhysicalEquipment

Subnetworking:•LAN•WAN

Distributed Services•Directory•Security•Transaction Manager•Time

Object Management Services•Object Request Broker•Life Cycle•Externalization•Collections

Transport Services•iSCSI•Wireless•TCP/IP

•NetBIOS •ICCP•ASC

Local OperatingSystems Services

ApplicationsBusiness Admin for ERCOTProduct Mgmt Cust Portfolio MgmtCust Svc & Sales for issuersProduct Mgmt & OpsCust Accounting for MPsFinancial Mgmt for ERCOT

AD Tools•3GL Tool Suites•4GL Tool Suites•OO Tool Suites•Cross-Suite Tools•Tagging & Scripting

Productivity Tools•Personal Productivity Tools

DistributedSystems Services

User Access andPresentationServicesUser Access Services

• Adaptation• Interaction Enabling Services • Connectivity

User Presentation Services• Human Computer Interaction• Print• View• Multimedia• Web Browser

Network Services

Resource Virtualization ServicesPhysical Network EquipmentPhysical Computing Equipment

Dynamic MM Comm. Control

Local Operating Systems

•Other

Utility Business Services•Metering•Rating•Billing•Peering and Settlement

EA Building Blocks

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Some Current Technology Standards

Operating Systems:

Windows Server 2003

RedHat Linux 3

IBM AIX 5.3L

Server Platforms:

IBM pSeries (Power)

IBM xSeries (Intel)

VMWare ESX (Intel)

Relational Databases:Oracle 10gMicrosoft SQL 2000/2005

Web Servers:Apache 2.0.46Microsoft IIS 6.0

Application Servers:JBoss 4.0.5Tomcat 5.5.20

Message Bus:

TIBCO BusinessWorks

Web Portal:TIBCO PortalBuilder

Web Search:Google Appliance

Languages:Ruby (on Rails)TIBCOJava

Build Tools:Apache AntHP PPM

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Tracing the Requirements

Trade Electrical Financial Instruments

Ensure Transmission Grid Stability

Transfer Money

Market Participants

QSE

CRR Participant

NOIE

Retail Participant

Ensure 60 Hz Grid Frequency

Ensure Adequate Capacity

Settle Disputes

Binding Documents Requirements Use Cases

DesignSW ComponentsDeployed Infrastructure

Change & Configuration Management

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Measuring Success


Yesterday Today Tomorrow

No SLAs

Limited Definitions of Services

Best Effort Capabilities

Limited Visibility

Performance Based SLAs for Nodal and Retail

Elaborate Service Catalog

Better Instrumentation

Granular Business Process Enterprise SLAs

Service Catalog Mapped to SoSA

Full Visibility with Thorough Instrumentation and Event Correlation

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Right People, Right Place, Right Time

• The people are ready

– The Zonal EMS Production Support Team is Active in Deployment and Testing of the new Nodal EMS

– IT Systems Support Staff are Certified on the New Technologies

• The IT organization is ready

– Revised processes and procedures documentation is underway

– New tools are in place to provide clean and consistent deployments and full visibility into the health of the system

– Organizational sizing models, by department, are being created to ensure that ERCOT is properly staffed.

• We are on schedule to be ready

– “Go Live” training is scheduled May to November, 2008. This is the System Support training delivered “just in time” by the program to the technical staff.

– On-going learning sessions are held twice weekly on various topics


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Questions and Answers


Handy Links:http://nodal.ercot.com All about Nodalhttp://uml.org OMG’s Official UML Site