This document discusses using advanced analytics and object-oriented database technology to increase situational awareness for the smart grid. It provides examples of how lack of situational awareness contributed to the 2003 North American blackout and recommends establishing real-time monitoring. The document demonstrates an approach using synchrophaser measurement data to track phase angle divergence during the blackout evolution. It also discusses the data challenges of handling synchrophaser and other utility data sources and presents a solution using a NoSQL database that showed performance advantages over a relational database.