CIM oriented graph database for network topology processing and applications integration

Though CIM brings an integration of proprietary software applications of a utility, managing a sheer volume of data between the software application systems is still challenging for utility operators. With the advent of high performance database technologies and real-time big-data processing tools available, CIM oriented database can play important role in the operation and processing of the power system data. As the power system resembles connected-data, the choice of the database technology has to be based on the performance measures such as high-speed data retrieval of the connected-data and efficient storage. This paper presents a CIM oriented graph database (CIMGDB) by the object-graph mapping methodology. The integration of the CIMGDB with power system applications is discussed by the developed implementation architecture. The network topology processing (NTP) application is implemented on the CIMGDB. The NTP is tested on the six IEEE test systems and on one practical power system network. The six IEEE test systems are considered in evaluating and comparing the time complexity of CIMGDB with the CIM oriented relational database framework. The practical power system network is considered to demonstrate the implementation architecture and the CIMGDB integration with power system applications.