2020 Eighth International Conference on Advanced Cloud and Big Data (CBD)

Integrated Power Grid Management System based on Micro Service

2020 Eighth International Conference on Advanced Cloud and Big Data (CBD) | 978-1-6654-2313-7/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/CBD51900.2020.00016

Di Liu ChunYang Li Zhihang Jiang

State Grid Information & State Grid Information & Aoatar Information Technologies
Telecommunication Group Co.,Ltd. Telecommunication Group Co.,Ltd. Co.,Ltd.
State Grid Smart Grid Research State Grid Smart Grid Research Tianfu Software Park, 1800 Yi
Institute, North District, future Institute, North District, future zhou Avenue, High-tech Zone,
science and Technology City, science and Technology City, Chengdu , Sichuan P.R 610041,
Changping District, Beijing Changping District, Beijing China
102200,China 102200,China [email protected]
[email protected] [email protected]

Rui Kong Lei Wu Changhui Ma

Aoatar Information Technologies Aoatar Information Technologies Aoatar Information Technologies
Co.,Ltd. Co.,Ltd. Co.,Ltd.
Tianfu Software Park, 1800 Yi Tianfu Software Park, 1800 Yi Tianfu Software Park, 1800 Yi
zhou Avenue, High-tech Zone, zhou Avenue, High-tech Zone, zhou Avenue, High-tech Zone,
Chengdu , Sichuan P.R 610041, Chengdu , Sichuan P.R 610041, Chengdu , Sichuan P.R 610041,
China [email protected] China [email protected] China
[email protected]

Abstract—The power grid information management system thoroughly. Even though, the application data templates for
includes variety subsystems covering from user service, ERP, to the power grid system are introduced to ensure the
power grid control, and it is getting increasingly complex along standardization and accuracy of the interface data. However,
with the development of IoT technologies that can supply real- along with the increasing number of applications, their
time monitoring and controlling to the systems. It is a integration complexity and security requirements get more
challenging task to integrate multi-system and supply an and more diverse. It is difficult to directly input the multiple
intelligent power grid information service. In this paper, we
data resources and develop the new services or update the
describe a micro-service based framework to integrate the
different data sources in a power grid management system. The
existing ones.
proposed framework is implemented and tested in a project of To support the power grid service management system, an
China Grid. The experiment results indicate that the micro- enterprise-level cross-domain system based on an integrated
service based system can support data integration, supply better data platform and unified information model of electricity
performance (overall 30% faster) and save the development distribution network, we propose a micro service and micro
costs (24% less) for large companies. application based architecture built on the basis of full
integrated data center. The micro services are an architectural
Keywords—Electric power grid management system, data
integration, micro service
and organizational approach to software development where
software is composed of small independent services that
I. INTRODUCTION communicate over well-defined APIs. These services are
owned by small, self-contained teams. Micro services
The power grid system is an essential infrastructure
architectures make applications easier to scale and faster to
service for society. It is composed of the customer-oriented develop, enabling innovation and accelerating time-to-market
power supply service and collaborative management of
for new features. It is suitable for complex system such as
electricity distribution for reliable power supply. Through power grid management system and can integrate and
service assembling, information sharing, and system
evolution from the existing application system while not affect
integration, the power grid management system shall support
the running services. The micro service system functions can
the collection and response to customer requests, collaborative
not only supply the mainstream business applications of
management of distributed power stations, supervision, and
power supply network, but also implement the intelligent
control of power supply service quality. Considering the
analysis and decision-making applications by compose
complexity of the system, many subsystems are deployed to
multiple micro services even from outside companies.
manage the power grid. Most of these applications adopt the
web service mode, and each business workflow is In this paper, we describe a framework to develop and
implemented based on its own requirements and the implement the micro service based applications in the power
relationships among multiple applications are not studied grid management system. A principle of the micro service

978-1-6654-2313-7/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE 37

DOI 10.1109/CBD51900.2020.00016

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definition is suggested, and a typical application (power systems are difficult to replace. In this paper, we describe a
network repairing) is analyzed and its implementation with the micro service based framework to supply multiple electric
proposed micro service framework is demonstrated in detail. services in power grid system and compare it with existing
The proposed framework is then evaluated by experiment to frameworks in term of efficiency and cost.
illustrate the efficiency of the micro services. The rest of the
paper is organized as follows. Section 2 analysis the related III. METHODOLOGY
work on power grid management system and micro service. A. System Framework
The methodology of system design is described in Section 3.
Section 4 gives the implementation results and performance The power grid management applications are designed
comparison with traditional framework. Section 5 concludes based on micro service architecture, and the unified data
the whole paper. model is implemented based on the cloud data center.
Meanwhile, the security protection design is implemented
II. RELATED WORK according to the requirements of the standard regulation in
China Grid Company. The unified business data center stores
A. Power Grid Management the real-time measurement data and historical data from the
Power grid management system is related to economy, existing operational systems. Besides, It also provides various
environment and even polity. Chen et al. [1] introduced the business models and calculation components for the power
development of Investment Evaluation System with the help supply service with the cloud-based analysis and calculation
of Unified Information Platform to enhance the awareness the ability. For example, the power supply service can obtain data
technical, economic and social benefits of power grid through the network abnormal detection service by supply the
investment. Ambia et al. [2] presented a generic centralized system operation information. Through the mutual
supervisory control scheme for the power management of cooperation between the components of the cloud platform,
multiple power converters based hybrid micro-grid system. micro service can be developed, assembled, and iteratively
The system consisted of wind generators, photovoltaic system, updated to perform the complex management task in the
multiple parallel connected power converters, utility grid, ac power grid system. Figure 1 gives the implementation
and dc loads. Boukettaya and Krichen [3] proposed a dynamic framework for some typical tasks: customer service,
power management strategy to satisfy in most cases the load electricity distribution operation, and power supply quality
power demand, to check storage and grid constraints to control.
prevent blackout, to reduce energy costs and greenhouse gas
emissions, and to extend the life of the flywheel. Aktas et al. Applications
pp
[4] studied the power system arrangement and the dynamic Customer Network Network Service
Service repairing running Evaluation
energy management algorithm to vigorously supply the
dynamic load demand supported by the components of the
hybrid energy storage system, photovoltaic power and grid
connection. Zhang et al. [5] introduced a power grid safety Public MS Querying MS Business MS Event MS
supervision and management integrated platform software to
Customer Service IoT abnormal
perform eight safety related functions. Radhakrishnan and Map
Information Quality detection
Gopalakrishnan [6] discussed the IoT devices application in Querying Operation Power Grid
the power grid system to improve the stability. Even though Visualization
Network Management running info
increasing types of management framework are introduced operation Business
into power grid system, they are all focus on certain objects. Message Querying Cooperation
System access

There is few studies on the overall services of the power grid

management system. The application of unified data platform
and micro service in electric information system should be Production Business Unstructured
File Database
applied to integrate these different applications and supply a Database Database Database
smart and fast solutions for new requirements and tasks.
B. Micro Service Fig. 1. Micro service (MS) based framework for power grid management
system
Micro-service [7] has been applied in many different
applications such as company management, security system The customer reception service is responsible for
and etc. Sjödin et al. [8] studied four manufacturers and their responding to customer communications such as telephone,
customer relationships, and suggested that value co-creation website, mobile phone APPs, and others. Its main tasks are
in digital servitization is best managed through an agile micro- implementing the customer interaction management,
service innovation approach. Abidi et al. [9] applied the recording their requirements, carrying out service transfer,
Micro-Services Architecture to control, manager and ensure supervising the service quality, and responding to the user
that vulnerabilities are appropriately treated and the expected feedbacks. These tasks require support from both customer
security objectives are achieved in a web service. Zhou et al. communication service and electric services. Therefore,
[10] proposed a manufacturing cloud platform application multiple micro services are integrated to perform customer
research for small and medium-sized manufacturing service.
enterprises based on micro-service architecture. They found
out that micro service can solve the problems of business Electricity distribution service is the core function of the
expansion and user requirement cannot be quickly respond power grid. It carries out real-time monitoring and defect
caused by the huge application of traditional monolithic control of low-voltage, heavy overload, and other operating
architecture. In electric management fields, micro services and conditions of the distribution transformer. The system also
micro applications are not applied mainly because the existing conducts state evaluation and risk assessment, form early-
warning events to active inspection (rush) repair work. It is

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also responsible for receiving requests from the customer suggested to design an independent database for each micro
service center, conducting analysis and judgment, dispatching service.
the corresponding command, and evaluating the final
These principles can lead to different micro service
processing results. This system connects closely with the
definition results. Therefore, we suggest that the micro service
company ERP system to organize personnel, teams, vehicles,
framework should also be dynamically updated according to
materials, and other resources allocation, carry out daily
the overall system applications. First, a hierarchy graph of the
production command of power supply service, and emergency
invoking among the micro services and applications is created.
repair command of on-site equipment. To implement the
Then, the history of system invoking is recorded to reflect the
electricity distribution application, the micro service
connections between the micro services and the applications.
framework can save development costs and reduce the time.
Based on the record data, we can analyze the correlation
Power supply quality supervision service is responsible for between micro services. If the concurrence rate of two micro
customer service process interaction and information release. services is larger than 80% or a predefined threshold, they
It should support real-time early warning, coordination, and shall be aggregated to reduce the complexity of the system.
resource scheduling of online collaborative flow links in the On the contrary, if a set of functions of a micro service is not
whole process of business expansion. It also supervises correlated with the other functions, the subset should be
professional departments to carry out the inspection and segmented from the original micro service to form a new one.
supervision related to service quality such as electricity hall, Therefore, the historic record based micro service structure
network expansion and installation, fault repair, power supply creation can optimize the structure of the whole system and
reliability, voltage quality and so on. This application is also provide the basis for the system upgrade.
related to many different aspects of the power grid
C. Integrated Application
management system, and it is suitable to implement with
micro service framework. The electricity repair management system is related to
different equipment, customers, and workers, and so on.
For large enterprise such as China Grid, the business Messages or commands are transmitted from each part to
applications are deeply related to each other, and it is implement the workflow. Figure 2 gives the integration of
necessary to create a micro service based framework to micro services for the electric repair management system.
organize the overall services supplied by the information
management system. Network Repairing Application

B. Micro Service Definition

It is essential to define the micro service in the framework. Business
Which functions or tasks should be aggregated as a micro Coordination
service is critical for the high efficiency of the system. In this MS

paper, we propose a principle to define or split the micro

service as follows.
1. The application function unit with completed business Equipment Topology and
Work Load
Management
task and single responsibility should be divided into Message MS
Status MS Task MS MS
independent micro services. The unit can be organized as a
four-level structure to implement the micro services function,
Fig. 2. Micro Service (MS) based Application Integration Framework
such as "material management (Level 1) - > procurement
management (Level 2) - > bidding Management (Level 3) - > As shown in Figure 2, the electric repair management
tender upload (Level 4)". Usually, Level 4 is the base micro application is composed of five micro services: cooperation
service, and other higher level can be implemented as command, Message generation, equipment information,
composed services. topology querying, and workload distribution.
2. It is suggested that the basic number of micro services First, the power grid system failure information is
contained in business applications is 3-5 times that of level 3 collected from different channels such as customer reports,
application functions. IoT detection, regular patrol, and so on. These requirements
3. The reusable functions should be divided into for system repair can directly employ the message generation
independent public micro services. micro service to report the problem to the cooperation
command micro services that will coordinate other services to
4. The functions with large traffic, high resource perform the repair application.
consumption and longtime consumption should be divided
into independent micro services. Then through data integration, real-time power grid
operation data and the information of main power line tripping,
5. Do not split a group of strongly associated data objects distribution transformer fault, section (Branch) line tripping
into multiple micro services. (including current mutation), line grounding fault, distribution
6. Businesses with strong coupling and strong transaction transformer phase loss (line break), low voltage line fault and
consistency should not be split into multiple micro services, other information are collected with the equipment
and distributed transactions should be avoided as much as information micro service. The operation status of the power
possible. line network is further studied to generate the solution for the
system problem.
7. For the micro services that need to access the domain
database of the whole business unified data center, it is Next, the solution is divided into sub-steps that can be
applied to the power grid with minimum effects on the system

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stable operation. This is implemented with the topology B. Performance Evaluation
querying micro service. Based on the Power Grid GIS We compare the micro service based framework with the
topological relationship, operation, and distribution network existing service program in the power grid management
configuration, outage plan, existing fault repair arrangement system in terms of development cost, update cost and
and other basic data, a repairing strategy for the new problem efficiency. Table 1 gives the results of the comparison of five
can be arranged and create a task to implement. key functions.
Finally, the repairing task is received by the workload
management micro service, which confirms the requirements, TABLE I. COST AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
dispatches of the work assignment/repair team, and collects Development Update efficiency
feedback on the repair process. The whole process includes cost cost
receiving, confirming, dispatching, arrival, investigation, Customer service -35% -38% +43%
processing, confirmation and filing report. By optimizing the Repairing task -22% -31% +22%
work order verification, city and county work assignments are management
integrated and processed together, which saves the cost of the Distribution network -28% -23% +33
operation. management
This application indicates that a task in a large company is Service quality -13% -16% +27%
evaluation
related to many sub systems. The micro service based
Dashboard visualization -19% -12% +5%
framework performs better than traditional ways in which a
large number of development work assignments are necessary Overall -24% -28% +30%
for different applications and the reusability of these
applications is low.
We estimate cost reduction and performance improvement
Meanwhile, the hierarchy of the micro service should be
based on expert evaluation and daily statistics. The experiment
flattened to increase the speed of data processing. Especially
results indicate that the micro service based framework can
for applications that are built from micro services which
improve the power grid management system in both
cannot be asynchronous invoked, it is necessary to optimize
development and operation aspects.
their structures or create a new micro service to replace the
original serialized ones. Furthermore, to illustrate the efficiency of micro service
structure improvement, the performances of the five
IV. IMPLEMENTATION AND RESULTS applications in the power grid are compared with the ones
A. System Implementation without structure improvement. We can find that the
distribution network management and service quality
The implementation structure of the proposed framework evaluation applications have the most improvement since their
is given in Figure 3. The suggested micro services are micro service invoke stack is reduced from four to two. The
deployed in a cloud based server pool which is connected with response time reduced by 52% for the distribution network
the load balancer and firewall. The micro services can directly management application after the optimization.
access the core databases of the existing integrated data center.
The data center is further connected with the existing sub
systems some of which will be replaced by the new micro
service based framework. However, these existing
applications are still available during the transformation stage
to maintain the stable of the whole system.

Intra
net

User

load balancer Switch

Application Service Pool

Fig. 4. Responding time (seconds) of different applications
ĂĂ
Internet customer service Network repairing application V. CONCLUSIONS
Micro Service Pool
The micro service based information system is applied to
many companies. We demonstrate a power grid information
ĂĂ
management system built from micro services. The system
Information Querying Message
framework is explained and the micro service definition
principles are summarized. A power network repairing
application is analyzed to show the integration of multiple
Unstruct
Business Producti
micro services. According to the experiment test and expert
ured Big data Catch File
Network data
center Achieve on data
evaluation, the proposed framework can reduce 24%
development cost, 28% update cost and increase the running

Fig. 3. Power Grid Management System Implementation Structure

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speed by 30% on average. Moreover, we propose and test a [5] Jun Zhang, Dong Wang, Feng Su, Xinyang Han, Xiaoling Jin, Xin Tian,
micro service invoking stack reducing strategy that can Hongjun Fu, Xinzhao Tang, Design and Application Research of an
Power Grid Safety Supervision and Management Business Integrated
improve the performance of the power grid applications by Platform Based On SoTower3.0, Procedia Computer Science, Volume
50%. In the future, we will further monitor and improve the 131, 2018, Pages 676-682,
stability and security of the proposed framework. [6] G. Radhakrishnan, V. Gopalakrishnan, Applications of internet of
things (IOT) to improve the stability of a grid connected power system
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