CASE STUDY - The New York Independent System Operator Offers Electricity Market Transparency with Real Time Data
Commentary by John Bub, Product Manager, Business Intelligence Platform, the NYISO
and Michele Armstrong, Senior Database Administrator, the NYISO
The New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) is the not-for-profit corporation responsible for operating New York’s bulk electricity grid, administering the state’s competitive wholesale electricity markets, and conducting comprehensive long-term planning for its electric power system.
The NYISO manages the efficient flow of power on more than 10,800 miles of high-voltage transmission lines on a minute-to- minute basis, 24 hours a day, every day of the year. As the administrator of competitive wholesale electricity markets, it also conducts auctions that match the buyers and sellers of power.
Challenge
The NYISO is dedicated to building and maintaining trust in its operation of the bulk electricity grid, in the information it provides, and in its role as the independent, impartial administrator of the state’s electricity markets. The NYISO offers a variety of marketplace information, such as pricing data, to help those who buy and sell electricity in New York’s open, fair, and competitive energy markets.
At the forefront is the Comprehensive Bid Management System—a cutting-edge, Web-based platform where more than $70 billion in transactions have been made since 1999. The NYISO’s Price Validation Group performs a high rate of analysis, using the system to track the pricing, bidding, and purchasing of electricity that takes place every day in New York State, and also to ensure that the market is functioning properly.
Previously, analysts had to run reports against the production system, which could negatively impact system performance. Thus, the team was restricted to running small queries. Alternatively, the group would have to wait for the nightly batch loads to reach the reporting server before it could access information for analysis. This could cause delays in uncovering potential issues.
The IT team at the NYISO began its search for a technology solution that would move its mission-critical data in real time, from the organization’s production system running on Oracle 9i to an operational data store (ODS) running on Oracle 10g, for reporting, analysis, and quicker resolution of any market discrepancies. The NYISO IT team set out to find a partner that could meet all of its technical requirements, including the ability to handle high volumes and scale over time, low-latency data movement, minimal intrusiveness on the production system, and the ability to support its various hardware environments.
Solution
The NYISO performed a proof of concept (POC) with GoldenGate Software. “The team was very seasoned and was able to immediately troubleshoot and remedy any issues we encountered, while streamlining the replication process and making the POC a complete success—ultimately sealing the deal to move forward with GoldenGate,” said Michele Armstrong, senior database administrator for the NYISO.
Access to the real-time data allowed the NYISO’s Price Validation Group to review transactions quickly and take action accordingly.
Shortly thereafter, the NYISO was live with the GoldenGate real-time data integration solution for live reporting to capture transactional data from the source application, the Comprehensive Bid Management System, and streaming it in real time to a secondary Oracle operational data store for look-ups, reporting, and analytics. Access to the real-time data not only allowed the NYISO’s price validation group to review transactions quickly and take action accordingly, but it also allowed the IT team at the NYISO to automate certain alerts and processes to improve overall efficiency and make life even easier for the analysts.
John Bub, product manager for the NYISO’s business intelligence platform, concluded: “The software solution that GoldenGate offers significantly impacts our business. It has delivered value quickly and we look forward to seeing additional value as we roll it out for other projects across the organization.”
For a free white paper on this topic, click here and choose the title “Real-Time Data Integration for Data Warehousing and Operational BI.”