Architecting the Smart Grid Using the Industrial Internet of Things
Figure 5: OpenFMB Microgrid Demonstration One Line Diagram
The demonstration’s participating vendors include General Electric, PowerHub Inc, Real-Time
Innovations (RTI), Omnetric Group, National Instruments, Xtensible Solutions, EPRI, and Green
Energy Corp, a combination of SGIP and IIC members. Integration of this system occurred in
multiple locations and was staged at the Knoxville EPRI Labs prior to the SGIP 2015 Annual
Conference in November.
For this demonstration of the Open Field Message Bus, the team leverages RTI’s Connext DDS
platform to build out the adapters for both Modbus and DNP3. Future versions of the OpenFMB
framework will support multiple IoT pub/sub technologies, but the November demonstration at
the SGIP 2015 Annual Conference and Duke Energy’s OpenFMB demonstration at DistribuTech
in February 2016 both use Data Distribution Services (DDS). DDS interfaces were also developed
for applications that include the Optimization Engine, Load Simulators, the Point of Common
Coupling (PCC) transition logic and other required simulators to drive the demonstration. The
demonstration proves that IIoT interoperability is a practical, achievable path for fielded utility
devices and systems by implementing a cross platform system with multiple operating system
targets and CPU architectures creating true non-proprietary interoperability.
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December 2015