Challenge
Electrical disruptions can have a critical impact on individuals, businesses, schools, and hospitals, so it's necessary for energy providers to have the reliable, secure technology in place to reduce disruptions and mitigate risk. To meet updates in regulatory requirements, a well-known energy provider needed to update their technology. However, they also wanted to use this as an opportunity to go much further to add functionality and reduce costs.
They wanted a solution that would provide a configuration workflow that didn't require code manipulation, a vehicle for "health checks for uptime monitoring, and include email notifications to enhance system functions. To meet these objectives while ensuring regulatory compliance and lower costs, they consulted with New Era Technology as they partnered with us on several projects and trusted our experts to take their tech to the next level.
Solution
Over the past decade, New Era Technology has partnered with this energy leader on numerous projects, including implementing Office365, building out the server environment and a SharePoint site, as well as installing an Oracle ERP system, and launching a smart-meter program. Now, the organization was required to transition from one platform for utility response and switch to a completely different platform to meet new industry regulatory requirements. After looking at their objectives and new regulations, we worked with them to determine that platform optimization was the best option, though it would be a tremendous undertaking.
New Era’s approach was to design a configurable, resilient Windows service that would:
- Securely communicate with the new platform
- Transfer and archive all messages from PJM to the file system
- Integrate with PJM through file drops
- Allow for health checks through a web service port
- Provide email notifications for both successes and failures
- Provide logging that can be later aggregated
New Era successfully implemented the platform optimization project before the tight deadline expired on the legacy platform. While the results of this implemented solution were significant to the daily operations of this company, the project was indicative of something much greater — a long-standing partnership built on industry expertise, trusted advice, and a continued commitment to providing infrastructure and integration.
