Nodal Architecture Overview Jeyant Tamby 20 Feb 2006

1. Nodal Architecture OverviewJeyant Tamby20 Feb 2006 February 20, 2006

2. Agenda • Background • Document Goals and Intended Audience • System Overview • Component Systems • Data Interface Requirements • Hardware Conceptual Design • User Interface Design • Hardware Costs • Objective • Methodology • Assumptions • Summary February 20, 2006

3. Document Goals and Intended Audience • Information Technology (IT) Centric view on Nodal Market Systems Architecture • Provide an understanding of ERCOT IT systems and their interrelationships to support the Nodal Market. • Base point for • Risk and Feasibility Analysis • HW and Data Center Plans • Project Delivery Patterns • Status: • Draft version • Living document that will evolve as we move forward February 20, 2006

4. System Overview • Functions that are changing • Infrastructure, Training, Testing • Energy Management • Market Management • Day Ahead Market Management • Real Time Market Management • Commercial Systems • Reporting/Archiving • Network Model Management • External Interfaces • Portal • XML • ICCP/RTU • Changes in one system may have impacts on other systems • Effects sequencing of projects • Impacts amount of regression testing • Functions that do not have major changes • Retail Transactions • Registration • External Interfaces - EDI February 20, 2006

5. Network Model Management System • Maintains the accuracy of the Transmission Model that underlies all grid calculations • Changes may come from new facilities or changes to limits • Critical in modeling congestion and outages and determining solutions February 20, 2006

6. Provides information and tools for the real time monitoring and secure operation of the grid Mission critical: fault tolerant and highly available Increased operator workload Redesign information presentation Increase decision support Energy Management Systems February 20, 2006

7. Market Management Systems • Provides tools and information for CRR auction, Day Ahead Markets, and Real Time Markets and congestion • Mission critical: fault tolerant and highly available • Complexity of correlating the various data sources with the tools will increase • Increased operator workload • Redesign information presentation • Increase decision support February 20, 2006

8. Commercial Systems • Generates Settlement Statements and Invoices, including revisions as required; manages load profiling, metering, andrenewable energy credits • Must be able to recover within 24 hours • Change in interval and granularity of bids will greatly increase amount of data February 20, 2006

9. Information Services – Enterprise Data Warehouse February 20, 2006

10. Data Interface Requirements February 20, 2006

11. Hardware Conceptual Design Three types of servers • Server A is powerful (typically 64 cpu) machine that can be configured to represent multiple servers in multiples of 4 cpu blocks and can address 1 TB RAM • Server B is a standalone server with up to 4 cpu and can address 32 GB RAM • Server C is a standalone with up to 2 cpu and can address 4 GB RAM February 20, 2006

12. User Interface Design • The design of the user interface will be based on a task oriented structure. This will involve the following: • task definition/analysis • workload analysis • job definition • tool requirements definition • tool design and testing • tool development and testing • console operations validation and testing February 20, 2006

13. Hardware Costs – Objective • Use a bottom up approach to come up with a total $ amount for hardware and standard software licenses. • To develop a budget • Document assumptions and reasons for later review February 20, 2006

14. Hardware Costs – Methodology • Analyze individual functionality and determine what level of computation power is required using the current production hardware as a reference. Use the “CELL” concept. • Document assumptions/reasoning for computation requirements • Evaluate the computation requirements for the following environments: Primary, Failover, ITEST, Development, MOTE, OTS, MOMS, Vendor • Server A type cells currently available in the market are 3 times more powerful than the ERCOT production environment equivalent Server A cells. Scale the cell requirements down by 3. • Server A cell type is a 4 cpu, 1 TB RAM unit of computation power ($150,653.35 per cell) • Server B cell type is a 4 cpu, 32 GB RAM unit of computation power ($27,500 per cell) • Server C cell type is a 2 cpu, 4 GB RAM unit of computation power ($6,500) February 20, 2006

15. Hardware Costs - Assumptions • This estimate does not include Supporting Infrastructure: • Facilities • Cabling • Networking • Storage frames • Switches • Tape backup • Disk storage • Certain functions may be partly funded by the PPL. • The Server A proposed for Nodal is the equivalent of an HP SuperDome • Nodal Application architecture is similar to Current Zonal Architecture • The number of cells and their type for individual functions is a measure of the required computation power. It does not necessarily mean the server type to be procured. • DB Software license is based on Enterprise Edition with RAC and partitioning. Per CPU and Per Named User license models are used. • Operating System Cost is imbedded in the “CELL” cost. February 20, 2006

16. Hardware Costs – Summary ($ million) Total = $26.12 million February 20, 2006

17. Hardware Costs – Summary DB Software Licenses: • Work in progress. Numbers are preliminary. • Licensing is one time, support cost is per year and depends on type of license purchased. • Per Processor license is $70,000, Support is $15,400. • Per Named User license is $1,400, Support is $308. • Existing licenses have not been discounted. Total DB Software License= $9.8 million February 20, 2006