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CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION

5.1

INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, the significance of the proposed Scalable and

Enhanced Remote Services for Power System Reliability Estimation in

various distributed environments using JAX-WS, SOAP communication and
Cloud Computing and the performance measures obtained by the present
work are discussed and suggestions for future research are deliberated.
Before proceeding with the highlights of the work done, the objectives of the
thesis stated earlier in the introductory chapter are recalled.
A detailed review has been carried out to emphasize the importance
for representing and solving power system applications in distributed
environment paradigms.

The main objective of this research work is to

develop Web enabled automation of deploying, launching and anytime

anywhere accessible power system reliability estimation services based on the
client requirements.

The research is focused on the development of

innovative distributed services for not only solving the power system
reliability estimation problems but also reliable notification of events that
could be happened during power system operations and maintenance.
The principal objective of the research is to develop scalable and
enhanced distributed services for estimation of power system reliability
indices. It is proposed to have a universal data representation scheme using

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XML annotations to represent simple test systems and annotated Web

services to represent real time systems to enhance interoperability and to
implement dynamic XMLised data generation model for power system
reliability estimation. The reliability estimation services are proposed based
on the requirements of SOAP communication and the services have been
invoked whenever there is a change in the system operating condition, i.e.,
from normal to failure state and then from failure state to its restoration. An
effective, secure and reliable event notification system is proposed to
communicate the critical and restoration events to the operators and the
consumers and to convey whether the system is meeting the operating
conditions at desired levels to satisfy the customer demand.
5.2

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WORK DONE

This thesis offers novel ideas for solving power system reliability

estimation problems by the way of providing scalable and enhanced remote

services in a heterogeneous environment. A brief survey of the literature
pertaining to the topics of research considered in this thesis is reported and the
motivation for the present work is also brought out in the introductory
chapter.
An innovative and comprehensive strategy has been implemented
for power system reliability data representation, which is capable of accessing
power system data from any data source and converts them into a common
format using pre-defined XML document template. An XML annotation
scheme is adopted for power system reliability data generation service. The
XMLised representation of power system data offers reliable data exchange
between legacy power system applications. The power system reliability
estimation data is represented comprehensively that conforms to the W3C
standards of XML representation using XML annotations. This annotation

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model for representing power system data is efficient only to small systems or
test cases.
In order to have reliable and consistent data sharing for large power
systems in platform independent manner, an XMLised power system
reliability data generation service is successfully deployed that acquires the
required power system data dynamically from a database server and creates
necessary XML documents, thus enhancing the interoperability between
power system services. The data conversion model is implemented in JAXWS

platform

using

annotations.

The

implementation

class,

XMLisePSDataImpl, is annotated as a Web service endpoint using the

@WebService

annotation

and

it

defines

method

named

generateXMLData(), annotated with the @WebMethod annotation, which

exposes the method to Web service clients. The service utilizes a middleware
component to communicate to the database server to obtain the required
generation system reliability data and load data and converts the data into an
XML document. The power system clients communicate with the data
generation service endpoints for invoking the services.
A Web enabled automation model has been formulated to upload
reliability estimation services, which automates the process of deployment in
the application server and decouples the service provider from the deployment
procedure.

This automation model is experimented using Tomcat Web

Server. The service developer is capable of uploading the power system

reliability estimation services, modify them and test them without any
constraints in order to provide reliable Web enabled services to the service
consumers. Custom annotations have been created for uploading reliability
estimation services. In this automation model, the service provider allows the
service developers to deploy their services in off-line mode in the appropriate

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application server or to deploy dynamically while the application server is

running.
The Web enabled automation model for power system reliability
estimation services is extended using SOAP communication to launch the
uploaded services onto the client itself, whenever needed for execution. The
need for launching the reliability estimation services on the client side arises
in certain situations. Most of the power utilities do not want to disclose the
planning data. The SOAP communication based service launching model
allows the clients to set a priority value in their requests while invoking the
service.
At critical conditions, when the power system operator needs to
take effective and immediate decision based on the response of the service in
order to avoid abnormalities, a high priority value has to be set to the required
service. When the server receives the request with the priority value set and if
it is not able to provide service immediately, the model enables the server to
launch an instance of the requested service on the client side. The core of the
SOAP MessageContext, i.e., the invokeBusinessLogic() procedure has been
modified to decide about the invocation of execute or launch procedures
based on the priority value set by the client. The implementation of the
reliability estimation service is added as an attachment to the SOAP message
and the same is received on the client side and the service is invoked using a
reflective middleware. In order to keep the integrity and security of the
service, the services which are to be launched are designed to be self
destructive so that the requester cannot copy or modify the downloaded
service whose response is needed to take decision in time to avoid any
abnormality. Thus an innovative concept of Reliability Estimation as a
Service has been achieved.

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A Service Oriented Architectural model using layered composition

has been developed and implemented for generation system reliability analysis.
The SOA stack of the developed generation system adequacy evaluation
model is composed of transport, information, service, discovery and
packaging layers, in which each layer is performing its intended task and
interacts with each other to evaluate the generation system adequacy.
The transport layer provides a communication medium through
which the SOAP envelope which comprises of reliability data as a message
can be sent using the connectivity information to the subsequent layers.
When the input message is received, the request payload in the SOAP
envelope is parsed to handle appropriate action.

The firewall friendly

protocols, HTTP and secure HTTPS are used for SOAP message exchanges to
invoke generation system reliability evaluation services with HTTP Request
and Response.
The information layer is used to access the external systems such as
relational database or text file which contains raw power system data and it
provides the procedural means to transfer the raw power system reliability
data to XML representation for which XML schema is defined. The generated
XML document is encapsulated within the SOAP envelope and it is given as
input parameter to the service layer through transport layer.
In the service layer, the Generation System Reliability services are
described using WSDL. The reliability indices namely Loss of Load
Probability, Loss of Load Expectation, Loss of Energy Expectation and Loss
of Energy Probability are used to assess generating capacity adequacy and the
methods for estimating them are declared in the user-defined reliability
service interface. A service configuration file is defined using XML that
includes appropriate interfaces through which the Web Service Description

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File for generation system reliability services is generated. It contains the

information about the data type, binding and network endpoint information
for invoking the services. This is in the form of XML that makes the services
available in the discovery layer through power systems Service Registry.
The generated reliability service descriptor is deployed and
published to the power systems service registry which is universally visible
and accessible by the power system clients. Based on the Web services
discovery mechanism, the binding between the power system clients and the
generating system reliability estimation service has been established. Once
the connection is established between the power system client and the service
provider, the exchanging of SOAP request and response messages takes place
at the packaging layer.
The power system clients communicate with the generation system
reliability service provider using SOAP messages. The payload of SOAP
request message contains the generation system reliability data and load data
in terms of XML documents, which are attached as input parameters. The
SOAP response message carries the computed output of generating system
reliability indices used for estimating the adequacy of the generating system.
Both analytical and simulation methods have been used to evaluate
the reliability of generation system. The implementation of the SOA model
with layered composition has been tested for Roy Billinton and an IEEE
Reliability Test systems. The developed distributed model is extended to
deploy into an Internet based software system such as a public cloud
environment for estimating the power system reliability.

Performance

analysis has been carried out to compare the Round Trip time, throughput and
the usage of resources with respect to different distributed models developed
for power system reliability estimation and the results are reported.

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The predictive reliability assessment of radial distribution feeder

system using Failure Modes and Effects Analysis has also been presented and
analyzed in the distributed environment. The reliability data pertaining to the
radial feeder test system is represented using XML annotations and the
corresponding XML document and its XML schema are generated.

The

generated XML document that contains the load point, protective device
identification, failure rate of each component, mean time to repair and forced
outage rate is included as request payload in the SOAP envelope.

The

implemented service oriented model using SOAP communication in the form

of document style provides a common computational environment for
interaction between various power system clients and reliability service
providers. The execution of the distribution system reliability estimation
service is controlled by SOAP handler chains. The sequence of reliability
estimation services are listed in the hanlder-chain.xml in order to control
the sequence of invocation of services starting from data generation to
sending the SOAP response to the requested clients.

Each handler is

associated with the error handling procedure to report the exceptions to the
clients while executing the services in sequence. Analytical techniques for
distribution system reliability assessment are effectively used to evaluate the
wide range of system reliability indices.
A secure and scalable Web application framework has been
developed using SOAP communication for continuous monitoring of power
distribution systems and to maintain outage history information which is
required for planning while further expansion. The model is designed to
report the status of the power distribution system with respect to outage and
restoration state in a synchronized way. This model enhances the security of
operational data of different power sectors in the deregulated environment and
protects the history of outage information as the clients are not aware of the
location of the operational database.

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The SOAP communication model uses sharable bean components

and Web services to update the power system operators automatically with
outage or restoration information due to data changes with respect to the
operational status of the power systems.

The service that resides in the

database server is informed about the new information by triggering a

function. The reporting facility is extended to various devices to enhance the
reliable communication.
The scalable and enhanced remote service models, which have been
investigated, designed and implemented for power system reliability
estimation are loosely coupled, that is, they hide their implementation details
and only expose their interfaces. The power system client need not be aware
of any underlying technology or the programming paradigm which the service
is using. The loose coupling between services allows for a quicker response to
changes than the existing conventional applications for power system
operations. This results in a much faster adoption to the need of power
system industries.
5.3

FUTURE RESEARCH
The current work focuses on developing scalable and enhanced

remote services for solving power system reliability estimation problems

especially for generation and distribution systems. The analysis performed in
this work is based on two published test cases, IEEE-RTS and RBTS systems.
The proposed work shall be extended to represent a composite real time
power system network including transmission system. Distributed services
have to be developed to analyze composite bulk power systems with
reliability perspective.
The reliability data generated by the XML annotated Web service is
encapsulated within the SOAP envelope as request payload in the proposed

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layered composition of service oriented model for solving generating system

adequacy evaluation. The XML annotations based reliability data generation
model has to be integrated with the information layer of the proposed service
oriented model.

The model proposed for Web enabled automation for

providing reliability estimation services completely decouples the service

provider from deployment procedure and this model has been tested with
Tomcat Web server. In order to have complete deployment independent
paradigm, the proposed model should be extended to consider the
specifications of other Web and Application servers. The proposed Web
service for launching reliability estimation service checks only the priority
value set by the client and the authentication of the client is not being
checked. The launched service is self destructive and in some cases it is
needed to have time bound services to avoid frequent requests from the
authorized clients.
The layered composition of service oriented model is extended to
public cloud environment and further has to be extended by implementing the
reliability estimation services in the private cloud and the performance of the
same can be measured. In the event notification system, the triggering of
message communication services is simulated by the way of inserting or
modifying the values in the outage history table manually i.e., the SCADA
monitored values are not directly fed into the proposed system. The SCADA
system and the proposed event notification system shall be integrated to have
complete monitoring system to avoid abnormalities. In general, the proposed
scalable and remote services have to be generalized in order to have complete
automation environment to provide power system reliability services and
should be flexible to deploy or plug-in additional power system services.