Data Integration for Energy: SCADA, AMI, OMS, GIS, and CIS Connected

Utility integration navigates systems that span decades and cross the OT/IT boundary. SCADA communicates through DNP3, Modbus, IEC 61850, and increasingly OPC UA. The historian (OSIsoft PI/AVEVA PI) stores time-series with its own tag naming convention. AMI data flows through the head-end system (Itron, Landis+Gyr, Aclara) in meter-vendor-specific formats. The OMS tracks outages with device-level granularity through its own data model. GIS holds the spatial and connectivity model in ESRI ArcGIS. The CIS (Oracle CC&B, SAP IS-U, NISC) manages the customer-to-meter relationship. Each system has its own asset identification scheme. None of them share conventions. And some of the data crosses the NERC CIP boundary, which adds access control and audit requirements that generic enterprise integration patterns don't address.

Utility integration patterns that work follow specific rules. OT data (SCADA, substation) stays within the CIP boundary for collection and gets transferred to the IT side through controlled, documented interfaces. Time-series data uses streaming patterns with back-pressure handling. Asset master data is aligned through a hub that maps across all systems. Geographic hierarchy (system → substation → feeder → transformer → meter) provides the common spatial framework. Monitoring catches failures within minutes. And the integration architecture is documented for the NERC CIP compliance review. Done with this discipline, utility integration becomes sustainable. Done as ad hoc point-to-point connections, it produces architecture that breaks on every system upgrade and can't survive a NERC audit.