CIM-based standards and CIM evolution

The Common Information Model (CIM) has evolved over the past ten years or so into a substantial body of work. Begun (and still sponsored) by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) as part of an effort to promote component flexibility in control centers, it has achieved considerable engineering attention leading to both field applications and formal IEC standards. Formalizing standards is now a primary focus of CIM activity, but CIM continues to evolve, which creates a special challenge to the standards process. This paper suggests an important change that will facilitate evolution of CIM in the context of standards. Embracing this change will allow the industry to adopt CIM-based standards at lower cost and risk.