Technical Overview

Pegasus 2008 consists of the Pegasus RDS™ and Pegasus RDM™ Platforms only. Pegasus 2008 is an Industry Quality, Full-Featured software system that provides Electric Utilities with an Outer-Tier, Real-time Data Store (RDS) and Near Real-time Data Mining (RDM) for EMS data (SCADA and Advanced Applications). Pegasus currently interfaces with Areva’s Generation, Transmission & Distribution eTerra platforms. Pegasus 2008 is compatible with both EMP 1.5.x and EMP 2.x systems running on Habitat 4.x and 5.x. For Habitat 5.x, Pegasus 2008 supports systems running on OpenVMS, Tru64 UNIX, and Windows Server 2003.

Because the interface between the Pegasus Data Collector and the Pegasus Data Servers is a well-defined set of Binary Files (that comprise the 4-Way Data Buffer, described later), it is possible to interface Pegasus to other EMS Vendor’s software by writing a new Pegasus Data Collector (a non-trivial, but doable task). The Pegasus Data Servers, Pegasus Smart Client, Public APIs, Web Reports, etc. are completely EMS Vendor Neutral.

The primary function of Pegasus 2008 is to collect, store, serve, and mine in near real-time, all SCADA Data (Analog, Limit, Accumulator, and Status Points). Additionally, Pegasus collects all SCADA Database Metadata, all System Activity Log Entries (System Events), and multiple Generic Data Sources (in Pegasus 2008, Generic Data Sources include Remote Terminal Unit (RTU) and EMS Server Availability Metrics).

Pegasus stores these data streams in a highly-integrated combination of proprietary binary file formats and SQLServer Databases on Pegasus Data Servers. Once data is resident on Pegasus Servers, it can be accessed by the Pegasus Smart Client, Web Reports, or via 2 Public APIs (PDA and PDA-RT). Data Access is very fast and requires minimal network loading. Pegasus Servers are massively scalable and routinely store 5 – 10 years of data, online, per Pegasus Server, using standard off-the-shelf Hardware & Operating Systems.

Of particular importance is Pegasus’ ability to retrieve Numeric SCADA data from the RDS (Real-time Data Store), with constant, predictable retrieval times (typically less than 200 Milliseconds for 1 day of data for several SCADA Devices) regardless of the size of the RDS. In other words, Pegasus Data Retrieval Performance is virtually constant regardless of the number of years of online data storage (virtually impossible to achieve with Relational Database Technology alone).

The following Sections discuss, briefly, these Key Features & Benefits

• Extremely Low Staffing & Administrative Overhead. Automatic collection & storage of all SCADA Analog, Limit, Accumulator, and Status Points values, in real-time, with Quality Codes. No Point Tagging or dead-band definitions required. Pegasus Data Servers perform virtually all routine RDS maintenance, automatically and unattended.
• Steady State Loading & Resource Utilization. Extremely efficient, reliable, steady-state data collection and storage. Data collection on an EMS host requires less than 2% CPU utilization, nominal, even on legacy systems. EMS Host and Pegasus Data Server loading are constant and do not vary as a function of Electrical Grid activity. Capturing “Data by Exception” inherently increases the volume of data captured as Electrical Grid Activity increases (during storms, equipment failure, etc.). Relational Databases are easy to “saturate” when storing new Records, because they are based on 2-Phase Commit (which doubles disk I/O.) Capturing Data by Exception, and using Relational Databases as the Primary Data Store, greatly increase the probability that the RDS will seriously lag real-time (and lose data) or fail completely during major Electrical Grid Events (when the RDS is needed most!!).
• All Data Captured with Quality Codes from The Enabled Host. Pegasus automatically detects, and logs, all EMS Failovers and SCADA Database Changes and permanently stores data from the, currently, Enabled EMS Host.
• SCADA Metadata Generation with Change History. As the SCADA database changes, Pegasus tracks all changes and creates a complete, auditable, Change History. SCADA Database Change History is fully integrated into the RDS, even across multiple Geographical Sites (SCADA Databases are typically not unique across Sites).
• 4-Way Data Buffering. All SCADA data is collected simultaneously on the EMS Primary and Standby Hosts, eliminating Pegasus Failover Transition time and possible data loss. All EMS data is buffered in a 30 day rolling window (configurable) on each EMS host, and transferred in real-time to each Pegasus Server Ring.
• Redundant Data Server Rings with Cross-Site Backup. Pegasus operates in a single or multiple “Ring” configurations, where each Data Server Ring provides a full data backup for other Rings, at or across Sites. Clients are automatically load-balanced across Server Rings.
• Extremely Robust, Massive Data Store. The Pegasus RDS™ presently holds over 5 Terabytes of EMS data and can be easily expanded, without changes to Pegasus software, to hold Hundreds of Terabytes of EMS data, representing Trillions of records, without degradation in performance.
• Multiple, Generic Data Feeds. Pegasus supports storing critical EMS Advanced Application Result Sets, and other Generic Data, online, using the same Advanced Data Partitioning techniques used to store EMS System Events.
• Web-based Reporting from Pegasus Advanced Apps. Select Reports that consolidate information across Geographical Sites are available in Web 2.0, AJAX-based Drilldown Reports.
• Simplified, High-Performance Data Retrieval. Two simple, Public APIs (PDA and PDA-RT) are provided to retrieve both Historical and Real-time SCADA data from the RDS. This provides the ability for Utilities to develop custom Pegasus applications that can analyze either real-time or historical SCADA data, or both, for far longer time periods than possible with any EMS-based Advanced Apps.
• Full-Featured, Graphical Smart Client. Graphing and export of any data from the Pegasus RDS™, with fully integrated views of Numeric SCADA Data, System Events, and Metadata describing SCADA Objects along with their entire change history. The Smart Client uses the same Public APIs as Custom Applications.
• Designed for Platform Longevity. Pegasus uses off-the shelf, reasonably priced hardware and Microsoft’s latest Operating Systems and Development Platform to insure Pegasus Platform Longevity. No Pegasus data storage technologies rely on any 3rd party software.
• Massively Scalable, Fully Distributed Architecture. Data can be stored in, and retrieved from multiple, geographically distributed Pegasus Data Servers from any Corporate Desktop (or from any VPN-enabled Desktop), with low network loading and very fast Display Call-up.