Technology at the service of integrated information flow management
The customer
It is a public company set up in order to guarantee the supply of electricity to the customers of the protected market.
Need
The project that involved Exprivia concerns the production of an information system aimed at the centralized management of information flows for the electricity and gas markets in order to ensure impartial management and the lack of discrimination between operators. The IIS is characterized by a centralized structure that interacts with the operators, guarantees security and promptness in the management of information flows and encourages competition on the entire market.
Objectives
The project consisted of the construction of brand new hardware and software infrastructure, its systemic management and the implementation and management of the information system. After an initial phase to create the Official Central Database (RCU), for both the electricity and gas markets, the main processes laid down by the Italian Regulatory Authority for Electricity and Gas (AEEG) were carried out, guaranteeing secure and reliable interaction between the operators on the market. Interaction with the operators is carried out both via the portal and in A2A mode, guaranteeing service levels suited to the needs of the various operators, supporting the management of large quantities of data and a large number of transactions.
The solution
The solution implemented by Exprivia is based on Open Source environments in conformance with the Government's guidelines for the development of the Information Society. In line with the Open Source policy, the solution also includes the distribution of free software for applicational integration with the IIS (Communication port). Exprivia's response to the need for "Rapid Development" expressed by the customer was the adoption of an Agile approach to the software development, which is based on the Scrum framework, in full compliance with the Quality requirements, contributing also to the obtainment of CMMI Dev Level2 certification. The provision of the services is based on the best practices and ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) standards, with integrated use of open source tools and main market standards for the security, networking and DBMS infrastructure.
Benefits and results obtained
After 5 years of operation, the infrastructure set up can withstand a load level of more than 300% of the maximum peaks indicated in the tender specifications and at the basis of the contractual KPI calculation, in conformance with the contractual SLAs guaranteeing the robustness of the solution provided. The reliability of the solution, recognized by the various stakeholders, also made it possible to use the IIS infrastructure for purposes other than those indicated in the contract. In fact, the database managed within the framework of the SII was used as a source of the databases for setting the RAI television licence fee, as laid down in the 2016 Stability law.
