Case Study: Modernizing SPEN's Tech Stack with Capula and InfluxDB

By Jessica Wachtel / Use Cases
Nov 05, 2024

Background

Scottish Power Energy Networks (SPEN) started a journey to improve its technology by working with Capula and using InfluxDB. Let’s explore the use case, goals, and the role of InfluxDB in this modernization effort.

In 2020, SPEN looked at its data historian systems and realized it needed a better solution to meet future data storage needs. With a focus on modernizing their systems and addressing business challenges through data, they sought a new technology solution.

Capula, a seasoned systems integrator familiar with SPEN’s infrastructure, recommended InfluxDB, a time series database that can manage high volumes of diverse data types. Capula provided comprehensive consultancy services, employing a layered approach to understanding organizational needs, design solutions, and apply technologies that enhance the convergence of operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT). Capula’s efforts included conducting tests and demonstrations to ensure system reliability and cybersecurity, such as Telegraf buffering, visualizing alarm data, and ingesting real-time data using OPC-UA protocols.

Capula undertook a two-phase proof-of-concept project focusing on learning the intricacies of InfluxDB’s architecture and its integration within SPEN’s systems. They performed functional benchmarking, addressed issues related to high data cardinality, optimized data ingestion processes, and tested the distributed architecture of InfluxDB to ensure system stability. Additionally, they assisted in designing data retention policies and preparing for future updates and cybersecurity enhancements.

This ultimately led to a successful initial proof of concept in 2021, which expanded into a more comprehensive integration with SPEN’s existing systems that aligned with their modernization goals and enhanced data quality, reliability, and scalability.

Goals

The specific goals SPEN aimed to achieve by modernizing its data historian systems included:

• Handling dramatic increases in data storage requirements.
• Consolidating analog and digital data into one system for easier comparison and analysis.
• Ensuring the system’s reliability and stability.
• Preparing for future data volume and requirements.
• Testing new technologies to build knowledge on technical requirements and inform future purchases.
• Enhancing decision-making processes by integrating diverse data types and improving data quality and integrity.

Role of InfluxDB

InfluxDB played a crucial role in modernizing SPEN’s tech stack by providing a scalable and efficient solution for handling high volumes of diverse data types. It enabled real-time data ingestion and processing, essential for managing energy sensor data. InfluxDB’s ability to blend different data types, such as field, asset, and operational data, facilitated easier access and integration, enhancing decision-making processes. Additionally, its advanced features for data cleaning, system interoperability, and the capability to design custom data retention policies further demonstrate its effectiveness.

Benefits

The new system ‌significantly improved SPEN’s data quality, reliability, and scalability. It allows for the ingestion of diverse data types without a specific data model (aka schema-on-write), which enhances data quality by enabling the blending of various data sources. The system’s distributed architecture ensures reliability by maintaining database access even if a node becomes unavailable. The system achieves scalability through its ability to handle high volumes of data and its optimization for write-intensive workloads, making it suitable for SPEN’s growing data requirements.

Wrapping up

Overall, the journey involved extensive testing, functional benchmarking, and the development of a scalable and efficient data management solution to support SPEN’s goal of achieving net zero carbon by 2050. InfluxDB stands to play a pivotal role in SPEN’s ongoing transformation, providing the necessary tools and capabilities to meet its current and future data management needs.

Go here to learn more about using InfluxDB for energy and utilities.