An ontology-based reasoning approach for electric power utilities

Abstract

Because of the semantic conflicts, the exchange of information between heterogeneous applications remains a complex task. One way to address this problem is to use ontologies for the identification and association of semantically corresponding information concepts. In the electric power industry, the IEC/CIM represents the most complete and widely accepted ontology. We attempt to show through three concrete examples how the CIM can reap advantages from a formal representation of knowledge in order to support complex processes. We present a semantic approach for finding ringlets in the distribution network, for checking specific data inconsistencies and finally for identifying CIM topological nodes. We conclude by stating that the combination of CIM and RDF has the main advantage of offering valuable flexibility in processing complex tasks. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.