Thank you so much for your detailed and insightful feedback on the Energy sector. I really appreciate the clarifications and additional points you shared - they give valuable perspective and will help ensure the ontology accurately reflects real-world systems and emerging technologies.
Original Message:
Sent: 12-09-2025 09:13 AM
From: Mitchell Winkler
Subject: Request for Expert Feedback: Cross-Sector Supply Chain Ontology for infrastructure
Darya's reply and this response helped me get my mind around your request. My feedback on the energy sector not in any order follows below.
A battery storage system is more precisely known as a Battery energy storage system or BESS.
Beyond my expertise area, but I saw that China has built a massive DC based electricity transmission system. This implies discriminating electricity transmission into AC and DC. I might also do a deep dive into what's happening in China as IMO they are leaps and bounds ahead of the US on all things energy.
Permitting regulatory approval is more than environmental; it includes land use/zoning and safety. Other activities/impediments include legal challenges and Social license to operate.
The key phases for oil and gas exploration and production, aka upstream, are Find, Appraise, Develop, and Produce. These likely apply to any extractive resource but may have different names.
I'm not familiar with a Generic power plant.
Geothermal comes in two varieties: natural and enhanced. Natural geothermal resources are limited to hot spots that can sustain hydrothermal flow. Enhanced Geothermal Systems, aka ESG, augment heat from the earth with surface water and may require fracking to create sufficient heat/water contact.
Geothermal is also used for heating and/or power production. For heating, there is hydrothermal, as used in Iceland, and use of ground heat in conjunction with a heat pump. The later is something you may want to call out.
Nuclear is a form of thermal power generation. You might break out thermal power by fuel type and power generation method. Fuels could be coal, gas, oil, or nuclear. Gas plants can.be single cycle, gas turbine only, or combined cycle, gas turbine and steam turbine.
Wind turbines -> consider wind farm for consistency with solar farms. And for precision, you are probably talking about solar PV farms
Wind farms could be separated into onshore and offshore. Offshore could be further discriminated by fixed or floating.
LNG is another mode of gas delivery and alternative to pipelines for long distances/oceans
Small-scale, e.g., residential, bidirectional charging is up and could be a significant (positive) disruptor for EVs.
Lastly, there is ocean energy including turbines and heat conversion systems for completeness.
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Mitch Winkler P.E.(inactive), M.ASCE
Houston, TX
Original Message:
Sent: 12-08-2025 10:28 AM
From: Jesse Osborne
Subject: Request for Expert Feedback: Cross-Sector Supply Chain Ontology for infrastructure
Darya --
Thank you for the thoughtful response and your attention on the subject. This is good food for thought and I think will consider further representing the aspect of "cyber" or the digital control of assets that are independent from their physical form in the ontology.
You mentioned that your expertise lies more in the energy sector, so perhaps you could have a quick look at that portion?
Below is an example of how the Energy sector aligns with this model.
Energy - Supply Chain Stages & Sector-Specific Steps
1. Resource Exploration & Production (Stage: Resource/Input Acquisition)
Energy producers locate and develop oil, natural gas, coal, geothermal, wind, and solar resources. Activities include drilling, mining, surveying, turbine siting, and environmental permitting.
Representative assets: oil & gas wells, coal mines, geothermal wells, wind farms, utility-scale solar arrays.
2. Fuel Processing & Conversion (Stage: Processing/Conversion)
Raw resources are refined or processed into usable fuels, including crude oil refining, natural gas dehydration and fractionation, coal preparation, and nuclear fuel cycle operations such as conversion, enrichment, and fabrication.
Representative assets: oil refineries, gas processing plants, coal preparation facilities, conversion/enrichment plants, fuel fabrication facilities.
3. Electric Power Generation; Bulk Storage & Terminaling (Stage: Production/Generation)
Thermal, hydroelectric, solar, wind, and nuclear generating facilities convert primary energy sources into electricity. Generation assets must maintain grid synchronization, follow dispatch instructions, and meet NERC reliability and protection standards. Bulk storage & terminaling aggregates and manages large-scale storage of raw and finished chemical products for distribution and blending.
Representative assets: thermal power plants, hydro stations, wind turbines, solar farms, nuclear power plants, generic power plants, individual generators, tank farms.
4. Bulk Transmission & Fuel Transport (Stage: Transmission/Distribution)
High-voltage transmission lines and substations move electricity across regions, while pipelines, railcars, and marine vessels transport fuels to generating stations and markets. System operations depend on control centers, SCADA systems, and reliability coordination.
Representative assets: high-voltage transmission lines, transmission substations, control centers, oil/gas/product pipelines, rail tank cars, tankers/barges.
5. Local Distribution (Stage: End-Use Delivery)
Distribution utilities step down voltage or deliver natural gas to residential, commercial, and industrial customers. Automated metering and protective devices manage load, faults, and billing across the local grid.
Representative assets: distribution substations, feeders and transformers, AMI meters, natural gas mains/services, city gate stations.
6. Storage & Reserves (Stage: Storage/Maintenance)
Energy storage smooths variability and strengthens system resilience. Facilities include battery energy storage systems, pumped storage hydro, underground gas storage, and petroleum reserve sites that buffer supply disruptions and support contingency operations.
Representative assets: battery storage systems, pumped hydro facilities, strategic petroleum reserve sites, underground gas storage.
7. End Use & Efficiency (Stage: End-Use Delivery)
End-use sectors consume electricity and fuel, while demand-response, conservation programs, and efficiency technologies shape grid behavior and load profiles.
Representative assets: residence dwellings, buildings and facilities, industrial equipment, commercial products, etc. (non-exhaustive list)
I'm seeking input specifically on:
Whether these stages and steps accurately reflect functional/operational reality in the Energy domain
Any missing or miscategorized stages or steps that should be represented
Any additional assets or categories of assets that should be included
Because you're interested in following the project, for more context, I support a nonprofit organization called the NAPSG Foundation (National Alliance for Public Safety GIS or Geographic Information Systems) which builds free & open-source solutions for the public safety community. I am leading the design and development of a web application with an AI agent that uses a spatially enabled graph to answer questions about network infrastructures. The project is called "LINK" (Local Infrastructure Network Knowledge) which will be made available to anyone that is interested in using it but is primarily being designed for local government managers and emergency response. We are already working with some counties and emergency management offices in CO and CA to help with user-centered design and help shape the software, but if you're office has interest too, I can reach out to you on direct message.
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Jesse Osborne
MD, USA
Original Message:
Sent: 12-05-2025 04:36 PM
From: Darya Stanskova
Subject: Request for Expert Feedback: Cross-Sector Supply Chain Ontology for infrastructure
Jesse, this is a very thoughtful and structured approach. Even though my background is primarily in energy and construction, I can say that the way you've normalized the stages makes sense from a cross-sector perspective.
One thing that stood out is that many water and wastewater systems now rely heavily on digital and automation layers (SCADA, remote monitoring, cybersecurity nodes). These components aren't always represented as standalone "assets," but they are functionally critical and often create interdependencies with other sectors, especially energy and communications.
Including these as explicit asset categories or cross-cutting dependencies might make the ontology more representative of real-world operations - and also support the cascading-effects use case you mentioned.
I'm following the thread with interest; this is a valuable effort for resilience and interdependency mapping.
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Darya Stanskova M.ASCE
Cost Estimator, Construction Engineer, Power Engineer, Project Manager
Fort Myers FL
Original Message:
Sent: 11-26-2025 03:44 PM
From: Jesse Osborne
Subject: Request for Expert Feedback: Cross-Sector Supply Chain Ontology for infrastructure
Hello all - I'm reaching out to the community for feedback from experts within the Water and Wastewater Systems sector.
I'm currently developing a cross-sector supply chain ontology that models the end-to-end flow of infrastructure functions across all sixteen critical infrastructure sectors defined in Presidential Policy Directive 21 (PPD-21).
The goal is to build a unified, interoperable ontology that:
Clarifies functional interdependencies across sectors
Supports identifying cascading effects form asset disruptions for risk mitigation planning and shared situational awareness
Enables analytics through graph-based modeling
At the center of this effort, I have a set of seven normalized supply chain stages that I've created which apply to all sectors:
Resource/Input Acquisition
Processing/Conversion
Production/Generation
Transmission/Distribution
End-Use Delivery
Storage/Maintenance
Waste/Recovery/After-use
Each sector is then mapped into this structure through specific functional steps that are sector-specific with their associated infrastructure asset types.
Below is an example of how the Water and Wastewater Systems sector aligns with this model.
Water / Wastewater - Supply Chain Stages & Sector-Specific Steps
1. Source Water & Collection (Stage: Resource/Input Acquisition)
Surface water and groundwater sources feed intakes, canals, or aqueducts. Activities include watershed protection, source monitoring, and SDWA-required source water assessments.
Representative assets: reservoirs, rivers, aquifers, wells, intake structures, conveyance canals.
2. Treatment to Potable Standards (Stage: Processing/Conversion)
Raw water undergoes coagulation, sedimentation, filtration, and disinfection to meet EPA maximum contaminant levels.
Representative assets: water treatment plants (WTPs), clarifiers, filters, chlorination/UV units, water quality labs.
3. Storage & Pressure Management (Stage: Storage/Maintenance)
Treated water is stored in elevated tanks or ground reservoirs, and pumps/PRVs maintain pressure zones and meet fire-flow requirements.
Representative assets: water towers, ground storage tanks, high-service pumps, pressure reducing valves.
4. Distribution & Customer Connections (Stage: Transmission/Distribution)
Trunk and distribution mains deliver water to customers. Metering, valves, hydrants, and backflow prevention maintain safety and reliability.
Representative assets: distribution mains, valves, hydrants, meters, backflow devices.
5. Wastewater Collection & Treatment (Stage: Waste/Recovery/After-use)
Sanitary and combined sewers collect flows through gravity or lift stations, delivering them to WWTPs for primary/secondary/tertiary treatment before discharge or reuse under NPDES permits.
Representative assets: sewer networks, lift stations, WWTPs, outfalls, water reuse systems.
I'm seeking input specifically on:
Whether these stages and steps accurately reflect functional/operational reality in the Water/Wastewater Systems domain
Any missing or miscategorized stages or steps that should be represented
Any additional assets or categories of assets that should be included
If you have expertise in water/wastewater operations, civil/environmental engineering, SCADA/automation, regulatory compliance, or resilience planning your insights would be extremely valuable.
Thank you in advance for any suggestions or critique. The intention is to ensure that this ontology is not only technically accurate but meaningfully reflects the lived operational structure of the sector.
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Jesse Osborne
Data Scientist
Maryland, USA
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