Electirc Utility AMIFM and the Internet
Randy Becker
Intergraph Corporation 7400 East Orchard Road, Suite 3000 Englewood, Colorado 80111
Dave Kruse
Portland General Electric 121 SW Salmon St. Portland, Oregon 97204
Growth of Internet, Intranet, and World Wide Web Server technologies is prompting widespread
experimentation, with good results. AM/FM/GIS system and project-related information can
now be conveniently delivered to other divisions and even other companies, producing additional
benefits. This paper will describe a few Web basics and explore how this technology can be used
in AM/FM related operations. A discussion of Web Technology at Portland General Electric will
provide a real world example of how it is being used to enhance an AM/FM project.
Introduction
Clearly, the volume of information available on Web sites today is significant, and the number of
users are growing at an exponential rate. In May 1996, Internet Solutions 1estimated there were
over 59 million people on the Internet who accessed over 300,000 Web sites. With corporations
claiming large benefits, it is certain that the number of Web sites and Web users will grow.
The World Wide Web is a global, seamless environment in which all information can be
accessed in a consistent and simple way by using a standard set of naming and access
conventions. Information can be in the form of text, images, graphics, audio, video, or
computing functions. The user (or surfer) can now use one piece of software to access
information from many different systems.
Bruce Caldwell suggested that the World Wide Web will
fundamentally transform the way we think about
managing computer services.
3
Peter Tarrant, IBM's VP of client server marketing says client-server isn't dead, but is a "stepping stone to network centric computing" James Cannavino, president and CEO of Perot Systems Crop. and a former IBM strategist, says that "those who say network centric is just an extension of client-server... are missing the boat", With network-centric computing, cannavino asserts, businesses will stop buying prepackaged software and move instead to a subscription
model in which computing is a utility and companies pay fees to vendors, based on actual usage.
1 http://www.netree.com/netbin/internetstats
2Is manager responses in a survey. "Client-server,Can it be Saved", Information Week, April 8, 1996, Page36.
3"Client-Server, Can it be Saved",Information Week, April 8, Page 37.
Technology
The basis forthe Webisthe Interned. The Webisbuilt onthe Internet andmakes useofmanyof
the Internet-provided mechanisms. The Internet isthe physical piece. Computers, networks,
and services are used to provide an abstraction and common set of services known as the Web.
The Web is a set of protocols and tools that allow information to be shared with a “universal
readership.” Figure 1 represents a general overview of how the Intemet provides connections to
Web Servers. This is similar to the type of networking that is employed by utilities today.
There are roughly 2,300 Internet Service Providers in the United States
4. If necessary, huge fiber
optic networks provide faster transmission speeds with more capacity. These carriers (e.g., MCI,
Sprint, Uunet) provide long distance, high-bandwidth networking.
The Web has a simple architecture clients (or browsers) send messages to web Servers which are referred to as Hyper Text Transfer Protocol daemons (HTTPD) and requestedinformation is then returned to the client. The messagesare short bursts that get terminated after each response.
