About Device Events

Device events are developments that have taken place relative to a device, and can include power outages, power restorations, tampering alerts, command completions, among others.

Attributes used to define device events include the following:

  • Device Event Date/Time: the date and time of the event. This date/time is flexible in its interpretation. For single events it is the moment the event took place. For events that are paired, like a power up and a power down, it will represent the start of the event when received with the first of the pair and the end of the event when received with the second of the pair. For an event that includes the duration, where the device event end date/time is also supplied, this date/time represents the start date/time.
  • Device Event End Date/Time: the end date and time of events with durations. This will only be populated if the device event date/time is also populated.
  • In addition, device events also reference details specific to the head-end system that sent the event, including the following:
  • Sender: the head-end system (defined as a service provider in Oracle Utilities Smart Grid Gateway) from which the event was sent.
  • External Sender ID: the external ID for the head-end system that sent the event.
  • External Event Name: the external, head-end-specific name for the event. This name is translated into a "standard" event name within Oracle Utilities Smart Grid Gateway.
  • External Source Identifier: an identifier for the source of the event.

Standard Event Names

When the system is loading a device event, it first determines which head-end system sent it, and then determines which device produced it. The system then maps the device event name sent by the head-end system to a standard event name that corresponds to the event. Standard event names are beneficial because the event names sent by head-end systems vary, even when the events are essentially the same. What one head-end system calls "Primary Power Down," another system may call "Last Gasp." Creating a standard event name, such as "Power Outage - Device," makes it easier to send the device events to an external system such as Oracle Utilities Network Management System. In this way, the external systems that receive the events do not need to be configured to accept all of the possible names for a single type of event.

Refer to Understanding Device Event Types for additional information about how the device events are mapped using standard event names.