1. Windows Azure AppFabric
Customer Solution Case Study
Windows Azure AppFabric Enables
Smart Grid Energy Savings for
Manufacturers
Overview “The Azure AppFabric Service Bus can
Country or Region: United States
Industry: Manufacturing provide a valuable vehicle for expediting
the implementation of smart-grid
Customer Profile
Invensys Operations technologies wherever needed.”
Management is a leading
David Hardin, Staff Engineer, Invensys Operations Management
provider of automation and
information technologies, Invensys Operations Management, a leader in
systems, software solutions,
services, and consulting to
providing manufacturing execution systems to
global manufacturing and industry, needed a smart grid communications
infrastructure industries. Based
in Plano, Texas, Invensys has
platform to provide real-time electricity pricing
9,000 employees. data from utilities that could be integrated with
Business Situation
metering and automation systems on the factory
The company required a floor. One barrier was the reluctance of utilities—
scalable, secure way to enable
two-way data exchange
and their customers—to allow direct Internet
between electric utilities and communication links to their IT systems. Invensys
their commercial customers to
enable a smart grid approach to
solved the problem by incorporating the Service
power distribution. Bus and Access Control features of Windows
Solution
Azure AppFabric. AppFabric Service Bus provides
Invensys has created a smart a publish/subscribe platform enabling two-way
grid solution using the
AppFabric Service Bus and
communication between utilities and customers,
AppFabric Access Control without requiring direct endpoint connections. The
features of Windows Azure
AppFabric.
solution gives energy users real-time pricing
information to guide scheduling of energy-
Benefits
• Optimization of energy use
intensive industrial processes, and helps utilities
• Interoperability with other reduce spikes in demand.
systems
• Efficient data delivery with
Service Bus
• Faster development, lower
costs
• Massive scalability

3. “Within industrial Situation plants and facilities. The company
The once staid fields of electrical has approximately 9,000
settings we know generation, distribution, and employees and is a division of
consumption have sprung to London-based Invensys, which
there will soon be greater prominence in recent makes industrial and railway
millions of devices . years with the advent of smart grids control systems.
and smart meters to help all parties
. . Depending on involved make better decisions Smart meter deployments around
about power usage. A smart grid the world are measured in the
the flexibility of the refers to the digital technology tens of millions, and industry
manufacturing being built into power distribution analysts predict the number will
systems to provide massive data soar past 100 million within the
processes, devices that can be used in a spectrum of next few years. While much of the
ways to provide greater efficiency adoption is driven by utilities
can schedule and reliability, as well as to upgrading residential meters to
themselves to support pricing models that encourage conservation,
encourage non-peak usage. industrial operations have also
operate during Smart meters refer to a new been quick to see the value of
generation of digital technology combining a smart grid with
periods of lower- that give users real-time or near- smart meters to reduce electrical
demand, and real-time usage information, usage and—by incorporating
including—especially within pricing data—reduce
hence lower-cost industrial settings—detailed expenditures on electricity
information on the quantity of through scheduling use at non-
electricity.” power used, and the quality of peak times whenever possible.
power supplied.
“Within industrial settings we
The combination of smart grids, know there will soon be millions
smart meters, and related of devices, as one plant could
systems promises to open new have dozens or hundreds of
potential for energy conservation monitoring devices throughout
around the world. Invensys their operations,” says Paul
Operations Management is a Forney, System Architect at
leading provider of automation Invensys Operations
and information technology, Management. “Each of these
systems, software, computer- devices will need pricing
based hardware, and consulting information. That’s the beauty of
for the global manufacturing and what can be done with
infrastructure industries. connecting smart devices with
Headquartered in Plano, Texas, the smart grid. Depending on the
its solutions are used by more flexibility of the manufacturing
than 40,000 customers around processes, devices can schedule
the world with more than 200,000 themselves to operate during

4. periods of lower-demand, and infrastructure typically associated
hence lower-cost electricity.” with smart grid initiatives. The
total power grid in the United
Another benefit is that industrial States, and in most other places
operations, with the right pricing around the world, consists of a
information, will be able to pick patchwork of electricity
the best time to sell to the grid producers and distributors. With
excess electricity they can increasing interest in developing
produce from their own power new energy sources, such as
generation facilities. The key to solar and wind, the number of
such solutions is the ability to grid participants is expected to
freely exchange information. increase.
Invensys needed to create a
smart grid communications “Making smart grid a reality has
platform, but faced the challenge required that utilities have a
of how to support the data significant computational capacity
exchange, especially with to receive, calculate, and
security-minded utilities—and their rebroadcast pricing data to the
Smart Solution - Energy pricing equally security-minded constituents,” says David Hardin,
information from the utility commercial customers—that are Staff Engineer at Invensys
is combined with metering resistant to opening up Internet Operations Management. “We
data within the communication ports. want to help utilities—and their
manufacturing plant to customers—participate in a smart
facilitate the smart grid Yet another challenge was grid right away without having to
solution. helping smaller utilities overcome wait years or making large capital
the hurdle of investing in the IT investments.”
Solution
Invensys has taken a step into the
future by deploying a smart grid
and smart metering solution in an
industrial setting. Invensys is
working with what it describes as
a “very large manufacturing
company with global operations”
to deploy a pilot project. The first
phase of the project, being
deployed now, involves placing
smart meters within one of the
customer’s large manufacturing
plants, and providing a smart grid
solution to the electrical utility
that supplies power to the plant.

5. “Our cloud-based enforces user authentication. The
The Invensys solution delivers solution stores pricing, MES data,
solution uses the pricing information downstream and other information using
from the utility to the Microsoft SQL Azure, a relational
Service Bus feature manufacturing plant. Prices are database for Internet-based, or
and the Access automatically updated every time cloud computing.
a price change occurs, which in
Control service unregulated power distribution The company sees use of the
markets can be as frequent as Windows Azure platform as
feature of Azure every 5 minutes or less. Price greatly reducing the cost of entry
AppFabric to change information is consumed for utilities and commercial
by Invensys metering equipment customers seeking the benefits of
enable utilities to throughout the plant, which uses smart grid participation. Rather
Invensys Wonderware than having to build and manage
publish pricing manufacturing execution system dedicated data centers,
information onto a (MES) software. organizations can simply
subscribe to the cloud-based
fabric that can be The Invensys solution also Invensys services.
measures variation in the quality
securely of the power delivered, as spikes “There are a limited number of
subscribed to by in power intensity can disrupt utilities, but hundreds of
equipment or processes. thousands of manufacturing
smart devices." Automated onsite monitoring plants that have huge energy bills
enables a manufacturer to verify each month and could benefit
Paul Forney, System Architect,
whether service level from using real-time pricing
agreements (SLAs) with electric information to optimize their
utilities have been met. energy management,” says
Forney. “Our cloud-based
A key component of the Invensys solution uses the Service Bus
solution is its use of Windows feature and the Access Control
Azure AppFabric’s Service Bus service feature of Azure
to enable an Internet-based AppFabric to enable utilities to
neutral container to which utilities publish pricing information onto a
can publish pricing data, and to fabric that can be securely
which customers can subscribe. subscribed to by smart devices.
This enables distribution of near- This frees industrial customers
real-time pricing information from having to expose endpoints
without either party having to for subscription callbacks which,
open their IT infrastructures to for security purposes, most are
direct endpoint connectivity—a reluctant to do.”
major relief to those charged with
enforcing digital security. Invensys works with the Open
AppFabric Access Control Access Same-Time Information

6. System (OASIS), the National can send messages without
Institute of Standards and worrying about closed
Technology (NIST), and other inbound ports.”
organizations to help guide • Access Control. Invensys uses
development of a standards- the Access Control feature of
based smart grid. Windows Azure AppFabric to
extend identity information to
The service-oriented architecture users of the Service Bus.
(SOA) cloud-based solution AppFabric Access Control
Invensys is deploying in its pilot provides authorization
project contains a number of services for applications
design elements, including: connecting over the Internet.
It provides an easy way to
• AppFabric Service Bus. Invensys
control Web applications and
uses the Service Bus feature
services while integrating with
of Windows Azure AppFabric
standards-based identity
to provide a neutral
providers. Authorization
messaging relay space to
decisions can be pulled out of
enable connectivity across
the application and placed in
trust boundaries.
a set of rules that can
TheAppFabric Service Bus
transform incoming security
makes it easy to connect
claims into claims that
applications over the Internet.
applications understand.
Services that register on the
• Publish and subscribe. Invensys
Service Bus can easily be
uses the Windows
discovered and accessed
Communication Foundation
across virtually any network
(WCF) to support the publish
topology. “The Azure
and subscribe model within
AppFabric Service Bus solves
Service Bus. WCF supports
some very important
publish and subscribe
problems,” Hardin says.
connectivity through a
“Usually with a notification
directory structure based on
technology, you have to worry
URLs. This technology,
about getting around inbound
coupled with AppFabric
ports that are guarded by
Access Control, provides a
firewalls. Also, for some IP
scalable infrastructure that
addresses, you have to use
can technically support the
network address translation
secure delivery of dynamic
stations to get to devices.
pricing information, down to
These barriers make it difficult
five-minute pricing updates,
to send messages from one
from the wholesale markets
machine to another. The
to manufacturers and other
Service Bus solved these
problems for us because we

7. “The Azure consumers on a massive database. SQL Azure can also
scale. be used as an aggregation
AppFabric Service • Application server. The Invensys point for organizations with
application server receives multiple facilities that store
Bus and Access continually updated pricing data onsite. Information from
Control Service are information from the utility as local databases can be
well as data from Invensys brought together in the cloud
features that we Wonderware System Platform to enable enterprise-wide
which provides real-time analytics. The large
feel are unmatched operations management manufacturer Invensys is
in other cloud software to enable customers working with for the current
to synchronize their project will transfer on-
offerings.” production operations with premises data to the SQL
business objectives. Plant Azure database which
David Hardin, Staff Engineer,
Invensys Operations engineers can work directly supports a dashboard for
Management with the Invensys application plant engineers and others
server from the dashboard interacting with the
interface of the application, information.
using pricing information, for • Local database. The Invensys
example, to schedule energy- design includes the option for
intensive operations. The SOA organizations to store data on
design also supports premises using Microsoft SQL
programmatic control so Server 2008 R2 Enterprise
tasks can be self-scheduling, database software running on
depending upon electricity the Windows Server 2008 R2
pricing and other criteria. For Enterprise operating system,
plants with supplemental in addition to using SQL
power generation capabilities, Azure. Locally stored data
the application can schedule can be analyzed for historical
the optimum times for selling and trending information to
electricity back to the grid. gain insights into reducing
The application tracks when electricity needs for different
processes were run, applies manufacturing operations.
the electrical rates that were • Dashboard interface. Invensys
in force, and gives an exact used the Microsoft Silverlight
energy cost. browser plug-in to create a
• Cloud database. Organizations graphical user interface for
not wanting to manage their interacting with its smart grid
database locally can use a application.
cloud-based data store using
SQL Azure, part of the The combination of AppFabric
Windows Azure platform that Service Bus and AppFabric
provides a full relational Access Control proved to be a

8. “The general winning combination as Invensys significant tools in helping its
explored its options for customers realize the smart-grid
movement of the developing and deploying its promise of optimizing energy use.
smart grid solution. “We Combining Invensys Wonderware
price of energy evaluated Amazon EC2 and monitoring information with smart
seems to be Google cloud products, but no grid pricing data through the
one had anything comparable to AppFabric Service Bus will help
upward, and the the Azure AppFabric Service customers reduce their energy
Bus,” Hardin says. “The Service costs by giving them the
higher the costs Bus has the functionality, information required to better
go, the bigger the interoperability, and scalability plan when to launch energy-
required to provide a intensive processes. The solution
rewards will be communications infrastructure also provides savings by flagging
that can be used for large-scale the best times to reduce
from optimizing smart grid applications. The electrical use (sometimes
energy use." Azure AppFabric Service Bus and referred to as energy shedding),
Access Control service are and identifying the optimal times
Bill Schiel, Industry Solution features that we feel are to sell back into the grid any
Manager, Invensys Operations unmatched in other cloud excess energy a plant creates on
offerings.” its own from a co-generation
infrastructure including diesel
Benefits power plants, solar power, wind
The smart grid communications generation, or other sources.
platform Invensys was able to
create using Windows Azure “We think this is a very important
AppFabric technology will enable market to be in,” says Bill Schiel,
its industrial customers to Industry Solution Manager at
achieve optimization of energy Invensys. “The general
use, and interoperability with movement of the price of energy
other systems, while benefiting seems to be upward, and the
from efficient data delivery. higher the costs go, the bigger
Invensys has enjoyed faster the rewards will be from
development and lower costs by optimizing energy use. Some
incorporating Windows Azure plants have a relatively constant
AppFabric into its design, while its energy demand, but in many
customers benefit from the cases there is sufficient flexibility
massive scalability the solution to schedule energy-intensive
provides. operations for low-demand, and
hence, lower-cost, hours. With
Optimization of Energy Use some operations spending $1
Invensys sees the Service Bus million or more a month for
and Access Control features of electric power, even a 3 percent
Windows Azure AppFabric as

9. savings through optimization manufacturing execution systems
adds up.” could enable a deeper degree of
interoperability that could result in
As more organizations create lower energy costs while
their own power generation retaining optimal productivity.
solutions, there will be increased
interest in determining the “The ERP system dictates when
optimal time to sell electricity a manufacturer needs to build
back into the grid. “Many automatic transmissions, for
operations already have backup example, to fill an order,” Forney
generators,” Forney says. “And says. “Incorporating costing
if an operation has warehouses information from the utility can
covering acres of ground, with enable the manufacturing
solar panels on the roofs, they execution systems to schedule
may want to maximize the value something like the energy-
of the power they sell into the demanding extrusion process to
grid by day and move as much of be accomplished during hours
their energy-intensive operations when energy was at a lower
as possible to the night.” cost.”
Interoperability with Other Systems The same kind of interoperability
Invensys sees the benefits of its could enable a system to delay
smart grid solution being the beginning of a complex
magnified the more deeply an manufacturing process if
organization integrates the information from the smart grid
information with its other indicated that demand was so
operations, including the MES high that a brown-out could
solutions that Invensys develops occur, which could interrupt the
and deploys using the Microsoft process, causing the loss of all
Application Platform, and the raw materials.
enterprise resource planning
(ERP) solutions that customers “If someone makes an error and
have in place. runs a big process that's energy
intensive at the wrong time, they
Of course, manufacturers can’t could basically kill the profit they
schedule operations solely on the were going to be making on that
basis of the cost of energy, as product run,” Forney says. “This
they need to satisfy orders, deal sort of energy management—tied
with backlogs, maintain inventory, to dynamic pricing information
and respond to other real-world that we're getting from the
pressures. But combining smart- independent system operators,
grid data with ERP ordering as well as qualitative information
information, and linking this with on anticipated power supplies—

10. “We are using combined with needs from MES “Utilities and their industrial
and ERP systems, could have a customers all have stringent IT
Azure AppFabric to big impact. Imagine if every plant security measures in place,”
had 500 meters monitoring all Forney says. “Whether it is a
create real-world different aspects of a process nuclear-powered utility on one
solutions for today, and each of these meters had side or a chemical plant on the
connectivity to Azure AppFabric other, no one wants to expose
and we are using to pull down their pricing endpoints to enable services to
information and do their cross the firewall. A virtual private
the same tools to calculations and then send the network (VPN) couldn’t really
create the energy information over to their SQL replace what the Azure AppFabric
Azure databases. Invensys Service Bus does because a VPN
solutions that will already makes intelligent opens a network to everything on
manufacturing execution the other end of the tunnel.
be needed in the systems. Adding smart-grid Another alternative would be
future.” information and ERP data will pinging an outgoing response
make them even more service, but if that one endpoint is
Bill Schiel, Industry Solution intelligent.” being pinged by millions of
Manager, devices, you run into scalability
Looking ahead, Schiel notes, problems in a hurry. The
“We are using Azure AppFabric enhanced security provided by
to create real-world solutions for our approach to deployment is
today, and we are using the same one of the reasons the Azure
tools to create the energy AppFabric Service Bus is so
solutions that will be needed in important to us.”
the future.”
The efficiency of the AppFabric
Efficient Data Delivery with Service Bus Service Bus could help open the
AppFabric Service Bus proved to doors to smart grid solutions
be exactly the solution that throughout the industry. “The
Invensys needed because it Azure AppFabric Service Bus can
enables data transfer without provide a valuable vehicle for
having to expose endpoints on expediting the implementation of
either the utility’s side or the smart-grid technologies wherever
manufacturer’s side. The needed,” Hardin says. “It can be
solution also enables smaller accessed widely and securely,
utilities to immediately deploy paid for as used, and expanded
smart-grid solutions without as needed. It provides the
having to invest in the creation security, interoperability, and
and management of data performance required for large-
centers. scale smart grid applications, at a
significantly lower cost than
building data centers.”

11. "We benefit from Windows Azure AppFabric and
Faster Development, Lower Costs SQL Azure.
the fact that, Invensys says that using the
AppFabric Service Bus and “We require the scalability and
because our AppFabric Access Control not reliability to supply information to
solution only lowered its development an ever-growing number of
costs, but made the solution subscribers,” Forney says. “We
incorporates Azure possible in the first place. need scalability, robustness, and
“Without the Azure AppFabric the ability to offer whatever SLAs
AppFabric and Service Bus, we might not even might be required. We benefit
other parts of the have tackled this project,” Hardin from the fact that, because our
says. “Building an Internet-based solution incorporates Azure
Azure platform, service bus with this capability AppFabric and other parts of the
and performance would have Azure platform, Microsoft is the
Microsoft is the been a monumental development one responsible for keeping the
one responsible for challenge and expense costing services up and running, secure,
hundreds of thousands of up-to-date, scalable, and
keeping the dollars.” available. That’s a whole lot of
data center responsibility that we
services up and Massive Scalability don’t have to worry about.”
running, secure, Using the AppFabric Service Bus
as their communications highway, Summary
up-to-date, utilities using the Invensys In summary, Invensys was able to
solution can easily scale their create the smart-grid
smart grid infrastructure to keep communications platform it
pace with need. “The Service needed, including the solution for
Bus has massive scalability at securely exchanging data
very reasonable costs and can between utilities and commercial
elastically scale up or down as customers, by building its solution
need demands,” Hardin says. using the Service Bus and Access
“There’s no physical on- Control features of Windows
premises infrastructure to deploy Azure AppFabric.
or depreciate, and a utility can
bump up capacity on demand,
paying only for the
communications traffic that they
use.”
The company sees scalability—
and reliability—benefits in the fact
that Microsoft hosts the Windows
Azure platform that supports

12. For More Information Windows Azure AppFabric
For more information about Windows Azure AppFabric is a
Microsoft products and set of application services
services, call the Microsoft focused on improving the
Sales Information Center at performance and management of
(800) 426-9400. In Canada, call cloud-based applications. To
the Microsoft Canada deliver these benefits, Windows
Information Centre at (877) Azure AppFabric comprises
568-2495. Customers in the AppFabric Service Bus to provide
United States and Canada who a neutral messaging relay space
are deaf or hard-of-hearing can to enable connectivity across
reach Microsoft text telephone trust boundaries, and AppFabric
(TTY/TDD) services at (800) Access Control to extend identity
892-5234. Outside the 50 information to users of the
United States and Canada, Service Bus.
please contact your local
Microsoft subsidiary. To access For more information about
information using the World Windows Azure AppFabric,
Wide Web, go to: please visit:
www.microsoft.com www.microsoft.com/windowsazu
re/appfabric/
For more information about
Invensys Operations
Management products and
services, visit the Web site at:
www.invensys.com
Software and Services • Technologies
• Windows Azure Platform − Microsoft Silverlight for
− Windows Azure AppFabric Windows
− SQL Azure − Windows Communication
• Microsoft Server Product Foundation
Portfolio
− Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Hardware
R2 Enterprise • Varies by customer
− Windows Server 2008 R2
This case study is for informational
purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO
WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN
THIS SUMMARY.
Document published May 2010