Spectrum Power™ Shared Architecture

Siemens' Spectrum Power™ Shared Architecture provides the infrastructure for a utility to integrate software systems that support reliability and market operations using the principles of a Service Oriented Architecture. 

In the typical utility environment, software systems are purchased from different vendors and/or internally developed, resulting in a diverse computing environment with point-to-point interfaces between these systems. Spectrum Power™ Shared Architecture provides a platform that includes an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) and an expanded set of Spectrum Power™ Shared Architecture services, which may be used to upgrade the utility computing environment. 

Spectrum Power™ Shared Architecture also includes a set of services that are commonly needed for in the operations environment such as support for high availability, system resiliency, cyber security and archive/audit.  

Spectrum Power™Shared Architecture was co-developed by Siemens Energy, Inc. and PJM Interconnection, LLC.

Business Service Components communicate via the ESB and adapters supplied by Siemens (Siemens Adapter Framework/Siemens Communications Framework) or by the user.  BSCs may use the following common or shared services:

Spectrum Power™ Shared Architecture is based on existing and emerging standards that are important to utilities, namely the International Electrotechnical Commission’s (IEC) Technical Committee 57 standards for Power System Management and Associated Information Exchange.  These standards include the Common Information Model or CIM series of standards.

Spectrum Power™ Shared Architecture is a strategic choice for utilities that allows improved management of software systems and lower total costs of ownership including maintenance, training, and support as well as initial acquisition costs.  Existing legacy systems are “service enabled” and converted to Business Service Components (BSC), which provide data and services to other software systems throughout the utility computing environment using Spectrum Power™ Shared Architecture ESB/web services for communications. Your utility can make use of the services provided in the Spectrum Power™ Shared Architecture instead of expending the time and effort to redevelop them multiple times in each of your operations systems.

Spectrum Power™ Shared Architecture allows your utility to pursue a gradual approach to modernization of your computing systems by service-enabling existing legacy applications and adopting standard interfaces.  Legacy applications may  be changed out at a later date more simply because they have standard interfaces. This strategy is more manageable and cost-effective than attempts to perform a simultaneous wholesale replacement of existing systems.

The Spectrum Power™ Application Programming Interface is available to the public free of charge and may be downloaded from this website.   The API consists of an external document that allow the application developer to develop programs which utilize the services provided by the Shared Architecture.   

Spectrum Power™ Shared Architecture binaries may be licensed from Siemens by using the Contact Us feature of this website.