A Use Case for Ontology Evolution and Interoperability: The IEC Utility Standards

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Within this chapter, the authors provide two use cases on semantic interoperability in the electric utility industry based on the IEC TR 62357 seamless integration architecture. The first use case on semantic integration based on ontologies deals with the integration of the two heterogeneous standards families IEC 61970 and IEC 61850. Based on a quantitative analysis, we outline the need for integration and provide a solution based on our framework, COLIN. The second use cases points out the need to use better metadata semantics in the utility branch, also being solely based on the IEC 61970 standard. The authors provide a solution to use the CIM as a domain ontology and taxonomy for improving data quality. Finally, this chapter outlines open questions and argues that proper semantics and domain models based on international standards can improve the systems within a utility.