A Transparent Translation from Legacy System Model into Common Information Model

Advances in the smart grid are forcing utilities toward better monitoring, control, and analysis of distribution systems, and require extensive cyber-based, intelligent systems and applications to realize various functionalities. The ability of systems, or components within systems, to interact and exchange services or information with each other is the key to the success of smart grid technologies, and it requires efficient information exchanging and data sharing infrastructure. The Common Information Model (CIM) is a standard that allows different applications to exchange information about an electrical system, and it has become a widely accepted solution for information exchange among different platforms and applications. However, most existing legacy systems were developed using their own languages rather than CIM. Integrating such legacy systems is a challenge for utilities, and the appropriate use of the integrated legacy systems is even more intricate. Thus, this paper describes an approach and open-source tool developed to translate legacy system models into CIM format. The developed tool was tested for a commercial distribution management system and simulation results have proved its effectiveness.