Unifying the common information model (cim)

Abstract

The Common Information Model (CIM) is an IEC standard which defines an object model for Energy and Distribution Management Systems (EMS/DMS). The OPC Unified Architecture (UA) is an emerging specification from the OPC Foundation that utilizes service oriented architecture (SOA) and various other new technologies. This paper proposes to unify these two architectures by creating the mapping between the object models of the CIM and the OPC UA. The solution describes the implementation of CIM variables and objects in OPC UA address space, allowing the use of an existing and detailed object model (CIM) in a standardized service oriented way (OPC UA). The proposed architecture brings added value to both "worlds" where the users of CIM software (e.g. power utilities) would have the most benefits: they would get a secure, reliable and scalable system based on the latest software technologies allowing them to lower maintenance costs and make their systems easier to extend. The proposal is practically tested with a converter application which was developed to transfer model data from existing CIM based systems to systems which adopted the OPC UA specification.