Microsoft in Power and Utilities Smart Grid & Delivery Microsoft Smart Energy Reference Architecture: Guiding Transformation

of the Electric Grid

To support your transformation, Microsoft has developed the Smart Energy Reference Architecture (SERA) to help the respective work Our industry has been fortunate to experience years of durable transmission groups responsible for implementing the smart grid narrow the gap and distribution systems, including a workforce intimately familiar with their between operation and information technologies. Our SERA Workshops unique features, functions and capabilities. complement this process by improving the speed to business value that is possible through use of SERAs industry-specific reference architecture. Our teams have adapted practices in the field that ensure safety and energy The workshops can accomplish this because SERA includes our vision for delivery to consumers. But as our systems have aged and our workforce the Smart Energy Ecosystem, one which combines, for example, outage has matured, regulation and consumer information with financials, conditiondemand has influenced utilities to embased asset management with brace the idea that the grid could beprocurement costs, and metering/ Prescriptive Architecture come smarter. billing with Demand Response.

New Devices, New Challenges

Today, change is inevitable for the utility. Dramatic improvements in microprocessor, software, and communications technologies have created new devices that empower transmission and distribution grids with new innovations and capabilities, which ultimately enable a smarter grid. The devices can take measurements, respond to commands, and react independently or cooperatively with other field devices in a coordinated manner. Such device-oriented collaborations now extend past the substation to devices on feeders, to distributed resources, and to consumers. Beyond the smart grid, utilities are thinking about how they will approach the new challenges posed by the advent of a Smart Energy Ecosystem, one with renewable power generation, two-way network communications, smart meters, plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, and the informed and empowered consumer.

Addresses Key Capabilities Across Full Value Chain As a blueprint, offers framework for Microsoft partners and system integrators

Guidance for Utilities and Microsoft Partners Ongoing flexibility and capability to adapt to changing business and operations needs

Holistic Design Facilitates data and business process integration. Architecture must necessarily include security, regulatory compliance and user-experience.

Reduced Risk Minimize implementation risks in always-on business Path to Cloud Through Azure, Utilities have investment protection and power of choice in application implementation and maintenance.

SERA illustrates concepts that can dramatically lower total cost of ownership (TCO) by helping utilities leverage and extend existing investments throughout the enterprise to deliver a platform that supports the business initiatives. Microsofts Smart Energy Reference Architecture offers utilities the And SERA provides utilities and our opportunity to understand how an integrated information technology partners with the guidance they need solution is possible in implementing the smart grid. The challenge is that, when combining to implement new solutions. Partners these new factors with the autonomous receive the added benefit of being behavior of consumers, it may not be enough to try to manage renewables able to tailor existing solutions in alignment with SERA, to maximize their variability with 15-minute meter reads. Indeed, utilities may need to become products value to utilities. comfortable with major generation output changes in one- or five-minute timeframes, a dynamic that could cause havoc for the unprepared organization. Based on industry standards and best practices, SERA helps utilities ensure that products and solutions they choose for their smart grid needs will work across boundaries and provide a scalable and secure platform for a seamless Microsoft Smart Energy Reference Architecture and effective experience. With the evolution of the smart grid and the advent of the Smart Energy Ecosystem, utilities are faced with making extensive changes and investments in current business processes and technologies. They shouldnt go it alone.

Reduction of Total Cost of Ownership Maximizing existing investments with increased integration reduces overall implementation costs

SERA creates a comprehensive view of the core technologies available to utilities for enhancing their existing architecture foundation with greater agility, providing them with the ability to adjust their information technology solutions quickly in response to changing business requirements in a rapidly changing new energy economy. Based as it is upon the expertise of Microsoft and the innumerable experts involved in its creation and review, the use of SERA can offer a level of increased confidence in its relevance to the utility organization.

SERA: Principled Approach to enabling the Smart Energy Ecosystem:

Approach Microsoft SERA is based on five foundational pillars: Performance Oriented Infrastructure, Holistic Life-User Experience, Energy Network Optimization, Partner Enabling Rich Application Platform, and Interoperability. User Experience Beyond the basic requirements to ensure interfaces provide users with access to information and services appropriate for their business group or role, SERA address the characteristics to deliver the ultimate user experience throughout the Smart Energy Ecosystem, including visualization, analytics, business intelligence, and reporting. Collaboration The Smart Energy Ecosystem drives an opportunity for people, organizations, applications, and devices to actively participate and interact upon sets of inter-related business processes and events. Collaboration models in Utilities are evolving and not limited to Energy markets, Aggregation, Demand response, and Load balancing. The various information and data exchange styles reviewed in SERA to address collaboration requirements for Utilities include: Collaboration, Orchestration, Notification, and Notification + Workflow. Information Smart Energy Ecosystem will require a wide variety of information to be managed, accessed, and analyzed. This information will come in many forms, including logical and physical models used to describe database schemas, message structures, and interface definitions. SERA reviews the impact of information specific to Standards and Domain Models, IECs Common Information Model, Metadata Management, Master Data Management, Historians, Operations Databases, Data Warehouses, Interoperability, Messages and Interfaces, and Event Cloud. Integration SERA recognizes the different types of utility integration, including process-centric application integration, database-centric application, smart grid integration, and Web integration. SERA introduces the notion of turning data into information through Complex Event Processing which can drive business process and help utilities manage the avalanche of new data being introduced by the new devices and business processes of the Smart Energy Ecosystem. SERA also addresses Integration Patterns, Service-Oriented Architectures, Enterprise Service Bus in SOAs, Applications, Network Operations Centers, Business-to-Business Integration, Customer Integration, Power System Grid, and Cloud Services. Application Architecture Application Architecture Application frameworks can be either all-encompassing or specialized for the needs of the certain types of software development. Application architecture implemented using modern application frameworks provide for the use of managed code to improve application portability and security. Security Given the mission-critical nature of the Smart Energy Ecosystem, Security is extremely important. SERA considers a holistic approach and design for Security, including Secure Development and Secure Operational practices. SERA embraces industry standards and best practices for Security.

standards can effectively overcome any potential challenges. Microsoft offers the following services and technologies to assist Utilities in enabling the Smart Energy Ecosystem: Microsoft SERA Workshops are customized engagements designed to assist Utilities improve the speed to business value by leveraging SERA architecture guidelines. The Workshop-to-Roadmap program is led by Microsoft industry leaders and architects with aligning Microsoft technologies and services with Smart Grid initiatives. Microsoft BizTalk Server is Microsofts Integration and connectivity server solution. BizTalk Server allows organizations to more easily connect disparate systems. Including over 25 multi-platform adapters and a robust messaging infrastructure, BizTalk Server provides connectivity between core systems both inside and outside your organization. Microsoft Office is the familiar productivity experience for PC, phone, and browser that enables people to: connect and collaborate with co-authoring in Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Microsoft OneNote; work virtually anywhere with Microsoft

More utilities will see value in moving applications that run operations to the Cloud using Windows Azure. The Cloud will provide Utilities the power of choice around which applications to maintain on premises or which may be provided by partners in the Cloud.

Office Web Apps, the online companions to Word, PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel, and OneNote; help bring ideas to life with video, text, and image editing, new broadcast capabilities in PowerPoint, auto-previewing in Word; and, transform everyday work data into valuable information by quickly accessing data to make real-time decisions using the business intelligence capabilities in familiar Office applications. Microsoft SQL Server is a complete set of enterprise-ready technologies and tools that help people derive the most value from information at the lowest total-cost-ofownership. Enjoy high levels of performance, availability, and security; employ more productive management and development tools; and deliver pervasive insight with self-service business intelligence (BI). Microsoft SharePoint makes it is easier for people to work together by offering a single infrastructure for all your business Web sites. You can share documents with colleagues, manage projects with partners, and publish information to customers. SharePoint gives everyone access to information in databases, reports, and business applications. SharePoint provides a unique combination of relevance, refinement, and social cues to help people find information and contacts they need to get their jobs done.

Microsoft Technology for the Smart Energy Ecosystem

Microsoft believes the Smart Energy Ecosystem could be implemented end-to-end using Microsoft technologies in conjunction with solutions provided by third-party companies, including Microsoft partners. Microsoft also recognizes the use of interoperability

www.microsoft.com/SERA www.microsoft.com/utilities

About The Microsoft Worldwide Power and Utilities Group

The Microsoft Worldwide Power and Utilities Group offers platform and partner solutions that empower utilities to thrive in todays market-driven environment by optimizing their business operations in customer care, generation, trading and risk management, transmission and distribution, regulatory compliance and enterprise services. For more information, about SERA contact your local Microsoft sales representative or visit www.microsoft.com/utilities.

This data sheet is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. 2011 Microsoft Corporation.