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OSI to Implement a Next-Generation Hot Standby Backup Control Center System for Salt River Project

Open Systems International, Inc. (OSI) has been chosen by the Salt River Project (SRP) of Phoenix, Arizona to supply SRP's enhanced next-generation Backup Control Center (BCC) System.

OSI's High Availability monarch™ Backup Control Center architecture, which supports virtual Hot Standby operation with the primary control center, is the core technology employed.

SRP provides electricity to more than 935,000 customers in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area. It is part of the critical Southwestern transmission grid that includes large inter-area transfers due to the unprecedented growth in the Southwestern USA. This growth and mandated new industry regulations necessitate an enhanced and modern BCC solution that not only maintains NERC regulatory compliance, but also increases system reliability, safety, availability and control.

Benefits SRP can realize by upgrading to OSI's Hot Standby BCC solution include faster synchronization time, seamless disaster recovery and seamless database and display updates, as well as automatic failover capability and inter-site process monitoring for optimal control of applications at the backup site. In addition to OSI's standard applications, the Hot Standby environment enables custom user applications to be executed at each site and remotely health monitored.

"We believe SRP has raised the industry bar for Backup Control Centers by implementing a Hot Standby configuration and a virtual distributed resilient control system. This will allow SRP to go beyond basic mandated NERC guidelines for its BCC. We are excited about partnering with SRP to implement this industry trendsetting architecture," said Bahman Hoveida, President and CEO of OSI.

"After installing the monarch system in less than 10 months, we are looking forward to a successful implementation of the BCC with OSI," said Gary Strickler, Manager of System Operations Applications at SRP.

SRP (www.srpnet.com) operates or participates in 11 major power plants and numerous other generating stations, including thermal, nuclear, natural gas, hydroelectric and renewable sources and provides electricity to more than 935,000 retail customers in the greater Phoenix area. SRP has a peak generation capacity of nearly 6,000 (the balance is purchased power) MW and its service territory spans 2,900 square miles, including an expansive transmission network.

OSI (www.osii.com) provides open, state-of-the-art, and high-performance automation solutions to electric utilities worldwide. These solutions include Energy Management Systems (EMS), Distribution Management Systems (DMS), Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) Systems, and Generation Management Systems (GMS), as well as individual software products and e-business solutions for electric utility operations. OSI is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.

For additional information regarding this news release please contact news@osii.com.