132 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 30, NO.

1, JANUARY 2015

Business Process Model for Deriving CIM Profile:

A Case Study for Indian Utility
Laakshmana Sabari Chandramohan, Member, IEEE, Gelli Ravikumar, Student Member, IEEE,
Suryanarayana Doolla, Member, IEEE, and Shrikrishna A. Khaparde, Senior Member, IEEE

Abstract—Common information model (CIM) in vogue rep- ERP Enterprise resource planning.
resents transmission and distribution components, and market GIS Geographical information systems.
operations in the perspective of electrical system, as unified
modeling language (UML) objects. UML is object centric. CIM IDU Indian distribution utilities.
can offer interoperability and facilitate model exchange for large INR Indian rupee.
systems and is being adopted by many utilities. However, dealing
effectively with multiple business processes is the backbone of IPP Independent power producer.
the restructured power systems. Since CIM lacks chronological IT Information technology.
process sense, this has to be superimposed on CIM models, which
is not easy due to inherent limitations of UML. To overcome LTA Long term agreement.
this, this paper proposes to utilize business process modeling MCV Market clearing volume.
notation (BPMN) standards as a kind of pre-processor. BPMN is
used to represent process centric interoperability requirements MCP Market clearing price.
as business objects. UML object representation in CIM model is MTOA Medium term open access.
derived subsequently from it. The proposal is illustrated with an
application use case—deriving CIM model of day-ahead market NLDC National Load Dispatch Centre.
(DAM) transaction of distribution company, from its business OA Open access.
process representation. Semantic model of DAM transaction using
CIM IEC 62325 (Markets) and extensions required are presented PPA Power purchase agreement.
with a sample Indian system. DAM models in BPMN and CIM PX Power exchange.
can be utilized to build an efficient software application.
R-APDRP Restructured Accelerated Power Distribution
Index Terms—Business process modeling notation (BPMN),
common information model (CIM), day-ahead market (DAM),
Reform Program.
Indian distribution utility. RLDC Regional Load Dispatch Centre.
SLDC State Load Dispatch Centre.
STLF Short term load forecast.
NOMENCLATURE
STOA Short term open access.
ABT Availability based tariff. SGS State generating station.
BPM Business process model. UI Unscheduled interchange.
BPMN Business process model and notation. UML Unified modeling language.
CERC Central Electricity Regulatory Commission.
CIM Common information model. I. INTRODUCTION
CGS Central generating station.
CPP
DAM
Captive power plant.
Day-ahead market.
C OMMON information model is an object-oriented model.
It offers remarkable value addition for power systems and
has evolved steadily. CIM facilitates data reuse. Unlike the tra-
DMS Distribution management system. ditional point-point model, CIM is a hub-spoke model with CIM
placed over the hub. Hence, any changes in data definitions (or
DISCOM Electricity distribution utility.
addition of a new application) will lead only to changes (or cre-
ation) in interface mappings corresponding to that change (ap-
Manuscript received June 24, 2013; revised October 30, 2013, February 07,
plication). All other interfaces will remain unaffected. By this
2014, and April 22, 2014; accepted May 03, 2014. Date of publication May 29, way, it avoids vendor lock or technology lock, thereby enabling
2014; date of current version December 18, 2014. Paper no. TPWRS-00814- inter- and intra-utility information exchanges both at model and
2013.
L. S. Chandramohan is with Kalki Communication Technologies Pvt. Ltd.,
message levels. Whereas in point-point applications, informa-
Bangalore, India (e-mail: [email protected]). tion exchange may have to be rebuilt in such situations. CIM
G. Ravikumar and S. A. Khaparde are with the Electrical Engineering Depart- has been incorporated by IEC vide IEC TC 57 - IEC 61970, IEC
ment, IIT Bombay, India (e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]).
S. Doolla is with the Department of Energy Science and Engineering, IIT
61968, and IEC 62325. CIM enables users to find information
Bombay, India (e-mail: [email protected]). efficiently and ensures agreement over the content of informa-
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRS.2014.2324826 tion being exchanged [1]. Before we identify the data attributes

0885-8950 © 2014 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
CHANDRAMOHAN et al.: BUSINESS PROCESS MODEL FOR DERIVING CIM PROFILE: A CASE STUDY FOR INDIAN UTILITY 133

of the CIM profile in a software application, the business process business processes of a distribution system network in CIM
for which the application was designed must be defined. To de- and identifying the necessary objects in its CIM profile, one
fine a business process without ambiguity, a standard modeling may be able to build a software application environment with
approach should be used. Business process modeling notation seamless information exchange. DMS functions, GIS mapping,
(BPMN) is one such standard [2]. We here describe the applica- ERP mapping, scheduling, power purchase, measurement,
tion of BPMN for deriving a CIM profile of day-ahead market metering, accounting, boundaries, and control area definitions
(DAM) purchase system of an Indian distribution utility (IDU). enabling energy audit are some of the techno-business func-
The major power system reforms in India include trading of tions performed by utilities. CIM may not be required for any
bulk electricity and open access to transmission and distribution of them to do their individual functionality. However, while
[3]. The “term ahead market” and “day-ahead market” are al- performing a collective functionality, integration of data among
lowed in power exchange transactions in India [4]. Several IDUs these processes is essential, which is convenient if using CIM.
have acknowledged CIM to meet the challenge of interoper- With CIM, lesser time and efforts are needed to build the inter-
ability. Adoption of CIM depends much on process definitions, faces. For identifying the necessary objects in a CIM profile,
use case identification and adaptability of CIM to Indian ion sce- the business process that the CIM profile addresses must be
nario [5]. STOA transactions, both bilateral and collective, are properly defined.
important mechanisms in power grids in India. Currently, STOA CIM can be used without BPMN, but CIM is voluminous. So
is operational in five regional load dispatch centers (LDCs) and a subset of CIM model is needed. For example, the class Gen-
multiple state LDCs. It has led to differences in representation of eratingUnit has 43 attributes of its own and numerous inherited
STOA transaction information. A CIM representation of STOA attributes. All these attributes may not be useful in an applica-
is discussed in [6]. The Restructured Accelerated Power Distri- tion. Only the attributes necessary for fulfilling the objective of
bution Reform Program (RAPDRP) has identified CIM as the the application should be selected.
platform for exchange of information [7]. Essential classes and To identify necessary objects of the subset, generally known
objects required for defining a DMS, along with few extensions, as CIM profile, proper specification of identified business
can be derived from IEC 61970, IEC 61968, and IEC 62325 [8]. processes is essential. To define a business process, several
To build an effective software system for power system tools are available, including flow charts, functional block
applications, BPMN and CIM should be used in conjunction. diagrams, UML behavior diagrams, and BPMN. Among these,
While CIM provides objects, BPMN provides ways to develop UML behavior diagrams and BPMN are more productive. The
workflows and necessary algorithms using these objects to IEC standards refer to “use cases”. In IEC 61968, the use cases
perform business functions. BPMN provides a readily un- are represented in UML behavior diagrams, whereas here, the
derstandable notation to diverse users, including business use of BPMN to represent business cases is proposed. UML
analysts, technical developers, and entrepreneurs, to monitor behavior diagrams utilize actors, use, messages, and description
and manage business processes. Data association in BPMN of messages for defining business processes. For representing
is at an abstract level. Most business analysts study business objects in the CIM profile of an electrical system, the use of
processes through simple flow charts. However, to prepare UML structure diagrams is well acknowledged. However, the
programs and applications catering to business processes, a power of UML is inhibited due to its inherent limitations while
different approach is needed. BPMN uses a process-centric representing business processes in UML behavior diagrams.
approach. It is more business analyst-friendly [9]. In general, UML approaches applications in object-oriented static structure
market functions in IDUs include long-term contracts, STOA, upon which dynamic behavior of interaction among objects is
MTOA, and LTOA contracts, and power exchange markets. imposed. Business analysts prefer a process-centric approach
Presently, several software tools are available to cater to the to model business processes without ambiguity. BPMN is an
needs of distribution utility. However, interoperability among emerging standard for business processes. BPMN can represent
these tools is paramount for the integration of systems. This timelines very well so that they can be captured as objects. Im-
paper proposes the use of BPMN for identifying interoper- plicit representation of object model for the process is followed
ability requirements. It analyzes one of the business processes in BPMN. Options for explicit modeling of business objects is
of IDU for CIM adoption. available in BPMN. Business services can be used to expose
The rest of the paper is organized as follows: Section II em- them. This paper proposes the use of BPMN to represent the
phasizes the need and use of BPMN for deriving CIM profiles. business processes of an electrical utility and ultimately to
It describes the approach for utilizing BPMN. Section III an- obtain a CIM profile. The major disadvantage of the UML
alyzes and illustrates the DAM purchase business process for behavior diagrams is that it has issues with representing time.
an Indian distribution utility. Based on the BPMN, interoper- It represents time as an actor. The main disadvantage of use
case UML diagrams is the treatment of time. It treats time as an
ability requirements and derived business objects, CIM profiles
actor which creates ambiguity in the representation of a func-
along with proposed extensions in UML objects is discussed in
tionality involving time. In critical power systems applications
Section IV followed by conclusions in Section V.
like scheduling, power purchase, and load shedding, time is an
II. DERIVING A CIM PROFILE USING BPMN important factor which has to be represented clearly. BPMN
can help in representing time more clearly. For more clarity,
A. Need for BPMN the drawbacks associated with UML behavior diagrams and
A network model is ideal to build the functions of a DMS the benefits of using BPMN diagrams are explained with the
(both operational and business processes). By modeling the following example.
134 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 30, NO. 1, JANUARY 2015

TABLE I occurrence of either of the event, the task Receive LTA enti-
USE CASE: DISCOM RECEIVES LTA ENTITLEMENT FROM LDC tlement for day ahead from LDC can be initialized. If better
clarity is needed, then one more pool, namely LDC Scheduling
application from where LTA entitlement is sent, can be drawn.
The above example illustrates that by using BPMN diagram
instead of UML behavior diagram, use cases having time as a
critical factor can be described with more clarity.

B. Basics of BPMN 2.0

1) BPMN Models: BPMN, designed to support multiple
modeling types, facilitates the formation of end-to-end business
processes. An end-to-end BPMN model contains three basic
types of sub-models:
• Processes (Orchestration)
— Private processes
private non-executable (internal) business pro-
cesses
private executable (internal) business processes
— Public processes
• Choreographies
• Collaborations include processes and/or Choreographies
a) Processes (Orchestration): Processes fall into two
types, namely private and public. Private business processes are
internal to an organization and are generally called workflows.
There are two types of private processes, namely executable
and non-executable. An executable process is one that can be
executed according to the semantics defined by the Web Ser-
vices Business Process Execution Language. A non-executable
Fig. 1. UML behavior diagram of UseCase01. private process is modeled for documenting. It documents
process behavior. The level of detail is defined by the modeler.
A public process is one that involves interactions among pri-
Example: One of the main use cases of DISCOM function- vate business processes and/or participants. It may contain mul-
ality is “DISCOM receiving Long LTA entitlement from LDC tiple private business processes. In other words, a public process
before 10:00 AM or whenever LDC notifies schedule revision”. defines how a message flows in the external environment and
The time of receiving the LTA entitlement in this use case is how it interacts with that process.
very critical since wrong timing will adversely impact the grid. b) Collaboration: To show the flow of messages between
The use case is described in Table I. The corresponding repre- the public process activities and other participants, collaboration
sentation of the use case in UML behavior diagram is shown in can be used. Collaboration represents interactions among mul-
Fig. 1. tiple business processes/entities. Collaboration normally con-
From the UML behavior diagram, it can be noticed that the tains multiple pools of participants. A message flow will con-
Trigger condition given in Use Case which represents time nect two pools or objects within the pools. Collaboration can
cannot be modeled clearly. The following queries arise: contain different combinations of pools, processes, and chore-
1) Should the Scheduling Application at DISCOM start re- ographies.
ceiving LTA entitlement at 10:00 AM? c) Choreographies: A self-contained choreography (no
2) Is there a separate Application or the fictitious person pools or orchestration) defines the expected behavior between
named Time, that or who will receive LTA entitlement? interacting participants. Choreography is similar to a private
3) What will be the role of Scheduling In-charge? What is that process in that both consist of a network of activities, events, and
person's relationship with time? gateways, the difference being that choreography involves two
If the design of the functionality reaches the software developer or more participants, whereas a private process involves only a
in such an ambiguous diagram, it will result in development single participant.
of a software functionality which will not serve the intended 2) Elements of BPMN: The objective of BPMN is to pro-
purpose. Hence, there is a necessity for representing the Use vide a simple and understandable mechanism for building busi-
Case/Business Case with more clarity, especially on treatment ness process models and the complexity inherent to business
of time. processes. The five basic categories of BPMN elements are:
The representation of the same Use Case in BPMN is pro- • Flow Objects
vided in the Scheduling Interface in Fig. 6. In this BPMN • Data
diagram, within the scheduling interface, there are two start • Connecting Objects
events—timer event and message initializing event, and a • Swimlanes
parallel gateway. These notations clearly express that on the • Artifacts
CHANDRAMOHAN et al.: BUSINESS PROCESS MODEL FOR DERIVING CIM PROFILE: A CASE STUDY FOR INDIAN UTILITY 135

Fig. 3. BPMN and CIM.

Fig. 2. Steps for derivation of CIM profile from business process model.

A CIM profile of a business process is thus obtained. The

Flow objects define the behavior of a business process. There
interaction between BPMN and CIM is illustrated in Fig. 3. It
are three flow objects, namely events, activities, and gateways.
presents all categories of business processes of IDUs as adopted
Data are represented using four elements, namely data objects,
by RAPDRP. For the purpose of DAM transactions in an IDU,
data inputs, data outputs, and data stores. Four types of con-
a CIM representation is illustrated below.
necting objects are available to connect flow objects to each
other. They are sequence flows, message flows, associations,
and data associations. Using Swimlanes, primary modeling el- III. BUSINESS PROCESS MODEL OF DAM PURCHASE
ements can be grouped into either a pool or a lane. A pool rep-
resents participants in a collaboration graphically. It is used to A. Domain Model
partition a set of activities. A lane is a sub-partition within a A hybrid model depicting the domain in which a distribution
process, and sometimes within a pool. Lanes are used to orga- utility operates and its basic representation in CIM is presented
nize and categorize activities. in Fig. 4. The domain model is linked to the CIM using trace
relationship, which is a specialization of dependency. It links
C. Approach for Deriving CIM Profile From Business Process model elements or sets of elements that represent the same idea
Model across models. The boundary, functions, and interactions among
To derive a CIM profile using a business process model, the stakeholders are shown. It provides a basic understanding of the
following steps are used (see Fig. 2). distribution utility as a stakeholder in the Indian power system.
Step 1) Initially an analysis of the domain is performed to Based on the fuel/driving force, power generation is catego-
understand the control area and organizational structure of rized into thermal, hydro, nuclear, gas, and renewable. Based on
the distribution utility. ownership, producers may be classified into central sector, state
Step 2) A business process model of the chosen function is sector, independent power producer, and captive power plant.
prepared. LDCs may be categorized into national, regional, state, and area
Step 3) Based on the business process model, information LDCs. Beneficiaries may be the state, state-owned distribution,
(as business objects) needed to define the interoperability and private distribution companies. These utilities have to ex-
is sought. change a lot of information, including network model for load
Step 4) Whether the chosen CIM (e.g., IEC 62325) has flow studies, dispatch and draw schedules, bilateral open access
UML object representation for these information ex- schedules, power exchange bids and schedules, meter data, en-
changes and business objects is analyzed. Efforts should ergy accounts, and bills.
be made to utilize existing class definitions to the max- Fig. 5 depicts the flow of information exchange among IDU,
imum. LDC, and power exchange. The type of data exchanged can be
Step 5) Classes, attributes, and associations necessary for broadly classified into information regarding energy scheduling
the identified business objects are selected from the huge activity both day-ahead and day of operation, and information
set of classes available in CIM. CIMTool is used for this regarding bidding in power exchange. In an IDU, before initi-
purpose. [CIMTool is an open source tool that helps in ating the bidding process, i.e., submitting the purchase bid in
creating profiles of larger global information model like power exchange, it runs a software application to decide on the
CIM.] quantity and price of energy purchase from day-ahead market.
Step 6) Where existing definitions are inadequate, appro- It involves flow of information among various software appli-
priate UML object extensions are made. cations operating in the utility. For smooth functioning of these
Step 7)The resultant CIM profile is adopted for building software applications, intra utility interoperability is paramount.
the software application effectively. In Section III-B, business process model of energy purchase bid
136 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 30, NO. 1, JANUARY 2015

Fig. 5. Interactions of distribution utility with LDC and power exchange.

management, work management, GIS asset mapping, ERP inte-

gration, customer, billing, collections, and boundary definitions.
The present paper has focused on developing a DAM-based
purchase system model in CIM by using the power of BPMN.
The adoption of energy scheduling and balancing and settlement
processes into CIM representation are proposals to work in the
future.

B. DAM Representation Using BPMN

A DAM system at IDU works with information on purchase
Fig. 4. Domain and CIM. options available, forecast of demand, demand meeting obliga-
tions, compliance obligations, and revenue targets. Purchase op-
tions include long-term contracts, MTOA, short-term open ac-
decisions in day-ahead market is presented. It also highlights the cess contracts, and renewable energy contracts. The results of
interoperability requirements. demand forecasting algorithm and demand meeting obligations
In the proposed approach, BPMN represents the process-cen- are crucial for decision making. A DAM purchase system using
tric requirements and CIM represents the object-oriented infor- BPMN is represented in Fig. 6. This model has five main inter-
mation model. Essential classes for defining a distribution net- faces:
work are available in CIM packages IEC 61968 and IEC 61970. • Scheduling
These packages contain models for distribution management • Load forecasting
functions and business functions for power systems in North • Load shedding
America and Europe. The components of DMS and business • Open access
functions available in CIM are metering, data acquisition, asset • Market
CHANDRAMOHAN et al.: BUSINESS PROCESS MODEL FOR DERIVING CIM PROFILE: A CASE STUDY FOR INDIAN UTILITY 137

TABLE II
INTEROPERABLE DATA INPUT TO DAM
PURCHASE SYSTEM FOR DECEMBER 2012

which the draw request process should be initiated. A parallel

gateway depicts that the process starts at a scheduled time or at
the occurrence of a specified event, whichever is earlier.
The actual DAM purchase starts with receipt of the draw
schedule. It collects information on existing bilateral and col-
lective categories: LTOA, MTOA, and STOA transactions. The
sum of all these transactions provides the total availability (TA)
for day-ahead. The short-term load forecast (STLF) and load
shed limit (LSL) for day-ahead are received from load fore-
casting and load shedding interfaces. The regulatory compliance
limit for overdraw as per unscheduled interchange (UI) charges
regulation is obtained.
The load shed limit may be of technical or commercial na-
ture. STLF is subtracted by LSL to provide reduced short-term
load forecast (RSTLF). If TA is greater than RSTLF, then DAM
purchase for day-ahead is not required. In this case, LSL can be
reduced by the difference between total availability and STLF,
and hence meet more demand provided technical and commer-
cial conditions allow such reduction in load shed quantity and
area. If the total availability is less than the reduced short-term
load forecast, then regulatory compliance limit for over draw
is added to total availability and checked again. If this sum of
total availability and over draw limit is greater than reduced
short-term load forecast, then the decision is not to participate
in bidding. Instead, the planned load shed limit is reduced by
the difference between sum of total availability and over draw
limit, and reduced short-term load forecast. In this way, planned
load shed limit is reduced until it approaches zero. After that, the
difference is the sell bid. Otherwise, the decision is to purchase
DAM in power exchange, and the corresponding buy bid is pre-
Fig. 6. BPM model of day-ahead market purchase. pared for the quantity difference. The proposed BPM model for
day-ahead market purchase is illustrated for the case of a large
distribution utility in India, Maharashtra State Electricity Distri-
An LDC notifies entitlement of the distribution company for bution Company Limited (MSEDCL). The interoperable input
day-ahead based on the share agreement. The share agreement and output data (from 11:00 to 12:00 hours) of the DAM pur-
specifies the share of the beneficiary in a given generating sta- chase system for this utility are presented in Tables II and III,
tion based on long-term contracts. The distribution company respectively.
sends power requisition out of the entitlement to the LDC and The business process of the DAM purchase system running at
the LDC notifies the draw schedule. A process is initiated at a purchase center of MSEDCL involves both inter and intra utility
scheduled time or at the occurrence of a specified event. The interoperability. Various activities involved in this process are
10 AM block is the notified time as per the Indian grid code at shown in Fig. 7. Interfacing with load shedding system and
138 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 30, NO. 1, JANUARY 2015

TABLE III plan is 851 MW. When revised load shed plan approaches zero
INTEROPERABLE DATA OUTPUT FROM DAM PURCHASE SYSTEM MW, then the remaining quantity is opted for sell bid at power
exchange.
Case 2 (04-Dec-2012, Tuesday): Load shed plan is 500
MW. The draw schedule from combined long-term agreements
is 11 929 MW. The total open access schedules are 1583
MW. The compliance limit during scheduling is 0 MW. It is
applicable only for the day of operation. The quantity of total
availability and draw limit is the same (13 512 MW), and load
forecast is 14 362 MW. The approved load shed plan is reduced
from load forecast. It results in actual reduced short-term
load forecast (13 862 MW). Total availability is now less than
reduced short-term load forecast, and hence the shortfall (350
MW) should be met through purchase in DAM. The results are
shown in Table III.
On comparing Business Object and present CIM Profile,
the requirements and gaps, if any, can be identified easily. For
the DAM purchase process, the various business objects are
presented in Table IV. CIM Profile for DAM Bid is created
using CIMTool. It is presented in Fig. 8. Business object
number BO 15—DAM Bid in Table V has data equal to Trading
Cum Clearing Member against attribute Market Role. The
corresponding object in CIM profile created from existing CIM
is found to be MarketRole:kind where the attribute kind is enu-
meration MarketRoleKind. The kind of market role (Trading
Cum Clearing Member) identified in Business Object is not
available in the CIM Profile in Fig. 8. So, if message with
DAM Bid in present CIM profile is sent to Market settlement
software application running at the Power exchange, it will not
be processed due to non-availability of the required market role
Fig. 7. MSEDCL data exchange. kind. Such in depth details cannot be found out easily without
using a proper business process definition. Hence it is proposed
in this paper that BPMN should be applied in deriving CIM
load forecast system running at system planning center are intra profiles.
utility interoperability functions. Interfacing with energy sched-
uling system and open access approval system running at SLDC,
IV. DAM TRANSACTION IN CIM FRAMEWORK
and bidding system running at power exchange are inter utility
interoperability functions. Based on the business process model discussed, interop-
For the purpose of this paper, two cases/dates are used erability requirements and their business objects for DAM
(weekend and weekday: one for buy and other for no partici- purchase are derived. They include schedule data like long-term
pation or sell). agreement entitlement information and compliance limit for
Case 1 (01-Dec-2012, Saturday): The load shed limit per- overdraw from ABT scheduling software application, load fore-
mitted by the local regulatory commission (MERC) is high on cast information from load forecasting software application,
holidays. Load shed limit for weekends is highest (i.e., 900 rotational load shedding plan information from load shedding
MW). The state and central generation schedules are added to software application, LTOA, MTOA, and STOA transaction in-
compute draw schedules from long-term agreements (11 872 formation from Open Access software application, and market
MW). Wind, captive power plant/independent power producer transaction information from Market management software
schedules, and bilateral with Mumbai distribution company are application.
aggregated to compute the total open access schedule (1561 The existing CIM IEC 62325 Market Operations package is
MW). The sum of draw schedules of long-term agreements used for interoperability analysis. The resulting semantic model
and total open access schedules provides total availability. This and necessary extensions are presented here. Business objects
quantity aggregated with compliance limits for unscheduled identified for the BPMN model of DAM purchase are Schedule,
interchange provides draw limit (13 433 MW) and load fore- Load Forecast, Load Shed Plan Bid, and Market Role. Here,
cast (14 284 MW). The approved load shed plan is reduced business object Schedule is modeled as UML object in CIM IEC
from load forecast. It results in actual reduced short term load 62325 (package Informative; subpackage EnergyScheduling).
forecast (13 384 MW). Total availability is greater than reduced Business objects Load Forecast and Load Shed Plan are mod-
short-term load forecast, and hence there is no need to purchase eled in CIM IEC 61970 (package LoadModel). Business objects
in DAM. Instead, the difference is reduced from load shed Bid and Market Role are modeled in CIM IEC 62325 (package
plan to provide revised load shed plan. The revised load shed Informative; subpackage MarketOperations).
CHANDRAMOHAN et al.: BUSINESS PROCESS MODEL FOR DERIVING CIM PROFILE: A CASE STUDY FOR INDIAN UTILITY 139

TABLE IV
BUSINESS OBJECTS LIST IDENTIFIED FROM BPM

TABLE V
BUSINESS OBJECT FOR DAM BID

2) Trading and Self Clearing Member-Plus: These members

can trade on the Exchange on their own account and are
bound to clear and settle all trades done by them. How-
ever, they can assign an Advisory Member to deal on the
Exchange on behalf of them.
3) Trading cum Clearing Member: These members can trade
on the Exchange on behalf of their clients or on their own
Fig. 8. CIM profile for DAM load bid. account. They are bound to clear and settle all trades done
by them.
4) Advisory Member: These members can neither trade nor
These UML objects partially represent the business objects clear. They can only provide advisory services to their
arrived by the proposed BPMN model. The requirement identi- clients.
fied from the attribute Market Role of business object Bid is the The InfCommon: MarketRoleKind enumeration with respect
types of roles of membership defined in “Power Market Regu- to InfCommon: MarketRole: kind does not support these types
lations” notified by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commis- of roles. These market role kinds are required so that associ-
sion (CERC) [4]. ation between MarketOperations: Market and MarketOpera-
The different types of member and their roles defined by tions: Settlement can be utilized for bidding, market statement,
CERC are: billing, and payment. In CIM IEC 62325 (Markets), the enu-
1) Trading and Self Clearing Member: These members can merated market role kind purchasingSellingEntity can be used
trade on the Exchange on their own account. They are to define only a pure trader. The enumerated market role kind
bound to clear and settle all trades done by them. other is also insufficient to define these requirements. This paper
140 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 30, NO. 1, JANUARY 2015

proposed method involves identifying business objects from

BPMN based on the business process and then deriving cor-
responding UML objects, ultimately leading to a CIM profile.
The representation of DAM-based transactions in BPMN and
UML structure diagram is presented. The approach successfully
created a CIM profile of a DAM-based purchase system of a
distribution utility using key business objects such as Schedule,
Load Forecast, Load Shed Plan, Bid, and Market Role. For
modeling DAM purchase transaction in CIM, no new extension
UML object class is required. However, to represent the iden-
tified kind of business roles performed by utilities in a market,
four extension attributes are proposed to be incorporated with
CIM IEC 62325 MarketsOperations package in order to build
a CIM-compliant software application for DAM purchase. This
paper has explored the power of BPMN in enhancing CIM
application in power distribution. BPMN representation not
only makes the process information exchange easy but also can
be elegantly linked with CIM, which is widely adopted.

REFERENCES
[1] L. Field, S. Andreozzi, and B. Konya, “Grid information system in-
teroperability: The need for a common information model,” in Proc.
IEEE 4th Int. Conf. eScience, 2008 (eScience'08), Dec. 7–12, 2008,
pp. 501–507.
[2] BPMN Version 2.0, 2011—Official Website of OMG [Online]. Avail-
able: http://www.omg.org/spec/BPMN/2.0/PDF
[3] S. A. Khaparde, “Power sector reforms and restructuring in India,” in
Proc. IEEE Power Engineering Society General Meeting, 2004, Jun.
6–10, 2004, vol. 2, pp. 2328–2335.
[4] The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Power Market) Regu-
lations, 2009—Official Website of CERC, India, 2012 [Online]. Avail-
able: http://cercind.gov.in/Regulations/
[5] Y. Pradeep, J. Thomas, C. L. Sabari, V. S. K. M. Balijepalli, S. R.
Narasimhan, and S. A. Khaparde, “Towards usage of CIM in Indian
power sector,” in Proc. IEEE Power and Energy Society General
Meeting, Jul. 24–29, 2011, pp. 1–7.
[6] Y. Pradeep, K. Patariya, G. Ravikumar, and S. A. Khaparde, “Repre-
sentation of short-term open access transactions using common infor-
mation model,” in Proc. 2012 IEEE Power and Energy Society General
Meeting, Jul. 22–26, 2012, pp. 1–6.
[7] RFP Specification of R-APDRP—Official Website of APDRP, 2012
[Online]. Available: http://www.apdrp.gov.in/
[8] C. L. Sabari, V. S. K. M. Balijepalli, J. Thomas, G. Ravikumar, and S.
A. Khaparde, “CIM for power distribution reform program in India,”
in Proc. 2012 IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting, Jul.
22–26, 2012, pp. 1–8.
Fig. 9. Derived CIM interoperability requirements for DAM transaction from [9] BPMN and Business Process Management—Introduction to the
its business process model. New Business Process Modeling Standard, by Martin Owen
and Jog Raj—OMG Official Website, 2012 [Online]. Available:
http://www.omg.org/

proposes to introduce four more market role kinds under enu-

meration class InfCommon: MarketRoleKind. In Fig. 9, load bid
under a DAM-based purchase system is represented in CIM.
The proposed enhanced enumeration list is also included in the Laakshmana Sabari Chandramohan (M'10)
new structure. Thus, applying the business process model for received the master's degree in energy conserva-
deriving CIM profile is illustrated. tion and management from the School of Energy,
Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirapalli, India. He
is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree in energy
systems at IIT Bombay, India.
He is a Product Manager, at Kalki communication
V. CONCLUSION Technologies Pvt., Ltd., Bangalore, India. He is in-
strumental in the design and management of products
and solutions of Kalkitech for optimization applica-
This paper starts with explaining the basics of BPMN. The tions in power sector.
Mr. Chandramohan is a member of Working Group (WG3) on (CIM) of
approach of using BPMN instead of UML behavior diagram BIS LITD 10 Power System Control and Associated Communications Sectional
in developing a CIM profile is described in this paper. The Committee.
CHANDRAMOHAN et al.: BUSINESS PROCESS MODEL FOR DERIVING CIM PROFILE: A CASE STUDY FOR INDIAN UTILITY 141

Gelli Ravikumar (S'10) is currently pursuing the Shrikrishna A. Khaparde (M'87–SM'91) received
Ph.D. degree in the Department of Electrical Engi- the Ph.D. degree from the Indian Institute of Tech-
neering at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, nology, Kharagpur, India, in 1981.
India. He is a Professor with the Department of Elec-
His research include modeling and information trical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology,
architectures for power systems, business process Bombay, India. He has co-authored a book, Compu-
models, BPMN, architectures for CIM based tational Methods for Large Sparse Power Systems
SCADA/EMS systems, CIM oriented database Analysis: An Object oriented approach (Norwell,
design, EMS applications integration with CIM MA, USA: Kluwer, 2001). He is consultant to
database, CIM network model creation and topology MERC, Indian Energy Exchange, and Power Grid
processing, and design and development of power Corporation of India Ltd., etc. His current research
system graphics model. areas are restructured power systems, distributed generation, renewable energy
Mr. Ravikumar is an active member of CIM panel under Bureau of Indian policies, and CIM implementation in India.
Standards (LITD-10). He is a graduate student member of the IEEE Mumbai Dr. Khaparde is a member of advisory committees to Maharashtra Electricity
section. Regulatory Commission, India and Indian Energy Exchange, India. He is an
Editor of the International Journal of Emerging Electrical Power Systems. He
is member of IEC TC57 for working groups 13 and 16 representing India. He
is a BIS LITD-10 Committee Member, and Chair of Working Group (WG3) on
Suryanarayana Doolla (M'06) received the Ph.D. CIM.
degree in power systems from the Indian Institute of
Technology Delhi, New Delhi, India, in 2007 and the
M.Tech. degree in energy systems and engineering
from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay,
Mumbai, India, in 2002.
Currently, he is an Assistant Professor in the
Department of Energy Science and Engineering,
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai.
His research interests are in smart microgrids,
communication protocol for power systems, grid
integration of distributed energy resources, and demand-side management.