ENMAX Power
ENMAX Power gets an electrifying new SCADA system built with Microsoft® software
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Company Overview
Established in 1998, ENMAX Power Corporation owns, operates and maintains the electricity distribution and transmission network that supplies power to more than 1 million people in the Calgary, Alberta region.
Business Challenge
The health of the electricity system is critical to Calgary. To effectively oversee this vast power grid, ENMAX relies on its Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) technology to monitor a wide range of activity, including the precise voltages, currents and power loads running through its transformers and breakers at any given time. The resulting raw data needs to be compiled, analyzed and shared with the rest of the company.
To present this information, ENMAX relied on a desktop application that lacked a graphical interface, making it difficult for those not familiar with the software to collect and analyze data. There was also no way for employees outside of the main ENMAX control room to access power grid data - it often remained siloed in the department where it was analyzed. The large volumes of information ENMAX monitored, combined with the out-of-date software made it difficult to share the results in a timely manner, which led to delays in decision making.
Analysis of this data would enable ENMAX to respond to incidents more quickly, and effectively schedule proactive maintenance and prevent future failures. “The data we mine from our network systems is crucial to our business. It helps us determine whether we need to schedule maintenance on a particular transformer, for example. We needed a more flexible and intuitive data processing system that would allow us to make these decisions faster,” says Todd Driediger, Sr. Engineer, ENMAX Power Corporation.
ENMAX also needed a solution that enables employees to easily view power grid information at any location, which meant it had to be presented in a way that was easy for everyone to use, and accessible over the web.
“We wanted a user-friendly interface that would provide data in graphical form so it would be easier to interpret,” says Driediger. “The interface would show us critical information we needed to make decisions and allow us to share it across the company.”
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Solution
ENMAX turned to Microsoft® technology partner Survalent to help build a mission-critical SCADA desktop solution with a web component for offsite accessibility.
Survalent developers used Visual Studio® 2008 to build the a new, Web-enabled SCADA web application as quickly and securely as possible, taking advantage of the integration and secure coding and testing features of .NET Framework 3.5. To help reliably manage and share critical data, Survalent built a database based on SQL Server® 2005, which is tightly integrated with Visual Studio.
As well, to help design a more compelling and graphic-rich online user interface, Survalent took advantage of Expression Blend® and the beta version of Silverlight™ 2.0 “ENMAX needs to access the data in real time, so we needed to allow for constant communication between the client and the server, and normally this doesn’t happen. Silverlight is unique in its ability to help put a real-time data system on the web,” says Munteanu.
Business Benefits
Today ENMAX has a new data management system that enables people to share crucial data securely and in real time across the company, regardless of their location. “The new system was ready in six months and was very easily integrated into our existing systems,” says Driediger. “We already have great feedback from our employees.”
Real time information
Previously, ENMAX had to make decisions based on outdated information, as raw data had to be compiled, formatted and pushed out to employees. Now, with the new SCADA system in place, employees have access to real time data and can share information with ease.
“Today we have a real time view into our power distribution capacity. If there is an issue we can instantly drill down to see what the problem is, prevent down time and save money,” says Driediger. “At any time we can run reports, schedule maintenance, and make asset management decisions - all through a familiar interface.”
Enhanced security and support
With the Silverlight-based user interface, employees enjoy a full range of data-access features in a way that minimizes security risks.
“The web portion allows us to see and share the data in real time without installing anything on the computer, but the desktop application is where the password-protected control lies,” says Driediger.
The online component also makes it easier for ENMAX to make adjustments or maintain the system on the fly. “Before, if we added a breaker or another asset to our network, we had to manually add that component to the interface on each installed client computer. Now with Silverlight we can upload an asset once and everyone can view it right away,” says Driediger.
Intuitive interface
ENMAX needed a SCADA solution with a highly graphical representation of the control rooms and grid lines so that employees would be comfortable reading and retrieving the information. It also needed to easily integrate into ENMAX’s existing IT infrastructure.
Future expansion
The mobile capabilities of the Silverlight 2 platform are designed to scale with ENMAX as its operations grow.
“We are excited to incorporate mobile computing into our business,” says Driediger. “We have a lot of field personnel that travel to the different control rooms and it would be great for them to have a mobile system and be able to send and receive data with their smart phone from the road.”
Microsoft Visual Studio 2008
Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 is the world’s most popular development environment for designing, developing, and testing next-generation Windows-based solutions and Web applications and services. By improving the development experience for Windows, the Web, mobile devices, and Microsoft Office, Visual Studio 2008 helps organizations deliver a variety of solutions more productively than ever before. Visual Studio Team System expands the product line with new software tools that enable greater communication and collaboration throughout the development life cycle. With Visual Studio 2008, businesses can deliver modern service-oriented solutions more efficiently
For more information about Visual Studio 2008, go to: msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com
For more information about Survalent Technology products and services, call 905-826-5000 or visit the Web site at www.survalent.com
For more information about ENMAX Power Corporation products and services, 1-877-579-7999 or visit the Web site at www.enmax.com
