North York Hydro DMS Replacement (EDICS II)

In the summer of 1993, North York Hydro conducted a replacement of their existing legacy distribution management system. The Electrical Distribution and Information Control System (EDICS) was the first of its kind in the world and had been in production 24x7 for over eleven years, but its custom hardware and software was becoming unreliable, expensive, and difficult to maintain.

Because of recent and rapid technology advances, the entire system was completely replaced. New hardware and software were combined to replace the world's first distribution management system with a new version that became known as EDICS II. The project was extensive and included: data conversion, writing interfaces to existing corporate systems (e.g. SCADA), specifying, designing, and writing new tools and applications, implementing and administering a new suite of servers, providing user training and product support.

The Role of ExtenSys

ExtenSys was invited to participate in the DMS replacement project. As part of the team, several ExtenSys members offered project management support and participated in the hardware and software implementation. Specifically, members of ExtenSys participated in:

• project management support, including:
• developing a migration strategy,
• coordinating resources,
• performing a GAP analysis,
• writing and executing a test plan,
• serving as intermediary between the client and vendor.
• hardware specification and design.
• hardware implementation and connectivity.
• system administration and configuration.
• database administration and schema design.
• software installation, configuration and customization.
• design, writing, and implementing new user applications and tools.
• system interface design and implementation.
• network model build software configuration.
• integration testing.
• documenting system features and abilities.
• troubleshooting and directing the vendor on problem fixes.
• training users and support staff on the new system