Linux as OS for Real-Time control of Electric Systems

[Gene Holmerud]

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Having been in the programming, testing, networking,
etc., etc. of the electric industry for more than 25
years, I can say we can bask in the glory that the
attached announcement implies.  I'm not promoting the
company, just cheering that a recognized vendor has
jumped onto Linux.

Yes, the SCADA systems, as they are known in the biz,
have been running on commercial UNIX platforms for
about 10 years now (after an excruciating morph from
mainframes, and from specialized computers 10 years
before that).  However, the stability, redundency,
security and processing load needed to do this kind of
job is staggering.  Making it awsome that it will be
done with Linux.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 22, 2003
OSI and Big Rivers Electric Corporation Partner to
Implement Industry's First Linux-Based Energy
Management System 
(Minneapolis, MN) Open Systems International, Inc. (OSI), an industry 
leader
providing open and
high-performance automation solutions to electric utilities worldwide, 
has
been awarded a contract
by the Big Rivers Electric Corporation (BREC) of Henderson, Kentucky 
for
implementation of a modern
Energy Management System (EMS) based on the Linux platform.
The proposed project is comprised of a redundant Energy Management 
System, a
redundant backup
control system, as well as an Operator Training Simulator. The system 
is
based on the Linux operating
system and MySQL database management system. 
"The Linux platform provides a very viable alternative to proprietary 
Unix
systems which have been
traditionally used for mission critical SCADA and EMS applications. 
Linux is
a robust, highly secure
and high performance operating system able to perform mission-critical
applications. We are very
excited about our partnership with Big Rivers Electric to implement the
industry's first comprehensive
Energy Management System based on Linux," said Bahman Hoveida, OSI's
President and CEO. 
"Big Rivers Electric has been using Linux throughout its enterprise for 
many
years and standardizing on
the Linux platform for its Energy Management System now will benefit 
our
company immensely in terms
of lower cost of ownership, lower cost of maintenance and uniformity 
across
our enterprise systems. We
are very pleased that OSI was able to offer an EMS system based on our
preferred operating system
platform and we are looking forward to be hosting North America's first
Linux-based dispatch operation,"
said Marshall Bissonnette, Big Rivers Electric's Information Senior 
Systems
Engineer of Technology.
The proposed system includes Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, 
ICCP
and DNP Data Communications,
Automatic Generation Control, Transmission Network Analysis, Operator
Training Simulator, and Load Forecasting
applications. The system will be implemented in stages over a 24-month
period.
OSI (www.osii.com & www.e-scada.com) provides open, state-of-the-art,
high-performance automation solutions
to electric utilities worldwide. These solutions include Energy 
Management
Systems (EMS), Distribution
Management Systems (DMS), Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition 
(SCADA)
Systems, and Generation
Management Systems (GMS), as well as individual software products and
e-business solutions for
electric utility operations.
Big Rivers Electric Corporation (www.bigrivers.com 
<http://www.bigrivers.com/> ) located in Henderson Kentucky, is an 
electric
generation and
transmission cooperative providing reliable wholesale energy to its 
three
member cooperative owners who serve
approximately 103,000 customers in 22 western Kentucky counties. Big 
Rivers
owns, operates and maintains
nearly a 1,200-mile transmission system, and has a generation capacity 
of
1459MW. 
For additional information regarding this News Release please contact:
Robin Anderson, Communications Specialist, at randerson@osii.com 
<mailto:randerson@osii.com> .
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