POE: Who’s using the Power?

There has been a lot of talk in the The Continental Automated Building Association (CABA) in Cisco Connected Commercial Real Estate (CCRE) and other venues about the collapsing of building wiring plans into a single wiring plan that handles all communications, whether within the building systems, or for voice communications, or for computer networking. The presumptive protocol for all this is IP (as in TCP/IP).

Superficially, this is a compelling vision. Certainly the combination of Voice and Data networking is well under way. Wiring is a large part of the systems expense for every building. Reducing the number of wiring systems offers opportunities for cost reduction.

I have trouble putting the components of building systems in this category. I think each building systems provide an integrated service. Defending and supporting the provision of that service is the mission of each system. Components of that system do not really make sense outside of that system. Defining security for these system components is nonsensical.

Security and Access can only reasonably be defined at the level of the service. What is the security posture for a sensor that reveals an unidentified temperature? What does the value of a sensor mean if isolated from its system. How can we define access to a setpoint if that setpoint is isolated from the service it controls?

One counterpoint might be if the wiring went beyond networking to provision of power. This might reduce cost enough to make such systems worth-while. I do not know if anyone is using Power Over Ethernet (POE) to reduce the wiring costs of sensors or actuators.

Is anyone using POE to power sensors or actuators within a control system? Can onyone point out to me anyone whi is actually doing POE to control systems? Or does this entire field remain in the realm of “marketecture”.

Grid Interop Coming up

I submitted an abstract for a talk at Grid Interop today. I have been near academia too long. Abstracts bring out the most pompous side of my writing. Even so, I am sharing this abstraction with you.

Business Innovation and Service Abstractions

True Scalability and interoperability require abstraction and security. Most control systems today expose name/value tag pairs as their interface. This poses two problems. Interaction with exposed tag pairs requires a deep understanding of the underlying systems. Secure interaction with sets of tag pairs can only practically be exposed as monolithic yes/no decisions for the entire set.

The smart grid will require integration with smart buildings and their associated power capabilities. We will need to develop abstract models for system interaction to enable such large-scale system integrations. These abstract models will hide underlying system detail while exposing the diversity of systems for orchestration.

None of this will happen without mature security models. Significant segments of people and businesses will not give up autonomy over their private resources to any third party. System abstractions will make building systems appear as printer drivers do, exposing themselves to owner agents able to negotiate with the intelligent grid.

A service can abstract the operations of each system. This service defines the mission of the internal operations each system. Each building system should defend its mission. Systems that are quite different in complexity and technology can provide the same service. Owners and integrators will be able to compare different systems as to how safe, effective, and economic their operation is without changing the higher level integration.

Services enable security, and security enables allowing the tenant or owner to interact with building systems. Agents can be restricted to which services they interact with, and what performance they request using understandable business rules. This level of abstraction will support internal tenants or third party service managers to safely and effectively interact with the building systems.

Service oriented architectures and integrations make possible large scale interactions. Service discovery enables ad hoc interactions. Services hide implementation details. Service oriented architecture to will enable orchestration of building systems including site-oriented energy generation and storage. New business models will take advantage of these new interactions to drive energy use reduction through innovation.

Are you looking ahead to the Grid-Interop?

GridWise looks to transform the production, delivery, and consumption of energy by adopting an open standards-based architecture across the entire power grid. GridWise makes no assumptions that future power markets will look as they do now. GridWise applies the latest approaches of Information Technology to the problem or Electrical distribution. GridWise anticipates that opening up the interfaces to each business activity of the Grid will open electric power markets to innovation.

Interoperability is key to successful markets. Every level of the electric market from generation, to transmission, to local distribution to the customer will support interoperability through open interfaces. Interoperability opens markets, and GridWise will open markets and create business opportunities across the electrical power markets. Renewable power, differential pricing, near-grid buildings, and many other technologies addressing the most pressing issues of our time will be set free by interoperable standards.

So what does IT bring to the Grid?

1. By working at the surface of Power Generation, we hope to create a live NASDAQ of power purchases, augmented by a formal ontology traditional value like reliability and emerging values like sustainability.
2. By working at the interface between transmission and distribution, we anticipate enabling the development of micro-grids offering superior reliability supporting local generation.
3. By working at the end of the distribution grid, we will deliver real-time usage and live pricing information to the home and office, offering incentives for more efficient energy use and storage.
4. By working on the outside of the home and office, we anticipate new value propositions such as orchestration of on-side production and storage as well as competitive third-party management of power.
5. Federated Identity Management. Look at 1-4.

The opportunities are large. The goal is to enable the creation of whole new markets., ones that will offer incentives to drive innovation instead of to throttle it.

Many were first introduced to the principles of GridWise at GridWeek in Washington last spring. Grid-Interop is a more technical discussion of interoperability and the energy markets. It is an opportunity for the executive or the technical staff to learn more about how interoperability will open up new markets and enable innovation across the whole electrical supply chain.

Keep an eye out for details

http://www.gridwiseac.org/interop/gridinteropforum.stm

New Daedalus says “Check it Out!”

Second Generation Outsourcing

“Work will be done where it makes the most sense” Nandan Nilekani, CEO, Infosys

Today’s so-called enterprise systems for building management are like first generation outsourcing. It seemed like a good idea move the work to where it was the cheapest to do. It was all sourced to one set of developers because it seemed easiest. No one asked what the service metrics really were; no one asked about quality and efficiency. Now, as communications problems mount, the customers are feeling a little queasy about the whole process.

Some respond by in-sourcing. The problem is, there was never a model for system development before we turned over everything to the control companies and their single purpose software. There was no commonly accepted approach to communications between facilities and the rest of the enterprise. Business managers sense there is a lot of value there, but can find no way to unlock it. As Tom Sanzone, CIO of Credit Suisse has said “…cost in and of itself isn’t going to get anyone a competitive advantage.”

In the second generation of outsourcing, smart companies look to more than cost. They look to organizations that can provide a deep bench of talent skilled in a particular domain. Smart companies disaggregate functions and look to by whom and where each function can best be provided. Processes are isolated. Processes are broken into tasks and the tasks reviewed for how much value they add and how much they need to interact with core processes of the enterprise. Each task is assigned to where the most value can be achieved, not merely to where the cost is cheapest.

As building systems start to communicate with the enterprise, we need to look at them in the same light. Some of this happens far from IT. Engineers should design new systems, not low bid contractors. Talent should be transferred from commissioning to design. The ability of systems to communicate with the enterprise in the language of the enterprise must become paramount.

Most companies do not have an in-place team able to effectively manage building system performance. Once clean communication standards are in place, building performance analysis should be sources to organizations that have enough depth to pay attention and enough breadth to do it well.

Whether actual maintenance is performed by in-house staff or by outside service, it should be driven by knowledge, not by schedule and anecdote. On outsourced building performance analysis group is an excellent driver for the work, as well as an auditor for how well the work is done. It the maintenance is outsources, appropriate and term limited access to the building should be managed by clear communications between the requester, the dispatcher, and the building security systems. This can only work of those communications are well defined and formal – in other words, abstract.

When we achieve standard for formal service-oriented analysis and tracking of the services of building maintenance and operations, we will have also achieved standards for proper interaction with the enterprise. This will let building systems move beyond least cost as the sole metric.

Until we do, we will continue to view building systems as we do poorly outsourced help desks: unresponsive, infuriating, and unintelligible.