Power System Communication

This paper proposes a new coupling solution for transmitting narrowband multicarrier power line communication (PLC) signals over medium voltage (MV) power lines. The proposed system is based on an innovative PLC coupling principle, patented by the authors, which exploits the capacitive divider embedded in voltage detecting systems (VDS) already installed inside the MV switchboard. Thus, no dedicated couplers have to be installed and no switchboard modifications or energy interruptions are needed. This allows a significant cost reduction of MV PLC implementation. A first prototype of the proposed coupling system was presented in previous papers: it had a 15 kHz bandwidth useful to couple single carrier PSK modulated PLC signals with a center frequency from 50–200 kHz. In this paper, a new prototype is developed with a larger bandwidth, up to 164 kHz, thus allowing to couple multicarrier G3-PLC signals using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) digital modulation. This mo...

The paper proposes and verifies the performance of an innovative and low cost coupling system for power line communication (PLC) on medium voltage (MV) smart grids. The coupling system makes use of the capacitive divider of the voltage detecting systems (VDS) to inject and receive the PLC signal. VDS are usually already installed in the MV switchboards of the major electrical manufacturer all over the world according to IEC 61243-5. VDS are used to detect the presence of the mains voltage to guarantee personnel safety. An interface circuit has been developed to be connected between the PLC transceiver and the VDS socket. In this way, the PLC signal can be coupled to the MV network without installing a dedicated MV coupler, thus avoiding the related costs of the coupler, the installation, and the temporary service interruption. The innovative device is able to couple digitally modulated narrowband PLC signals with modulation rate up to 19.2 kbit/s. In the paper, firstly a description of the proposed solution is reported. Secondly, its communication performance has been tested in laboratory. Finally, different tests have been carried out in two MV smart grid real installations under normal operation, i.e in the presence of the mains voltage.

With the increasing interaction between physical devices and communication components, the substation based on the IEC 61850 standard is a type of cyber-physical system. This paper proposes a reliability analysis method for substations with a cyber-physical interface matrix (CPIM). This method calculates the influences from both the physical device failures and the communication devices failures. Two indices, Probability of Load Curtailments and Expected Demand Not Supplied, are used in the reliability analysis. Given the simplified model of the practical substation based on the Chinese IEC 61850 standard, the results show that the substation system had a potential risk of cascading failure under the cyber-physical fusion trend, as the failure in cyber layer would increase the power loss of the whole system. The changing magnitude of Expected Demand Not Supplied increased significantly with increasing transmission delay rate of the process bus.

Communication Based Fault Detection (CBFD)
that used to detection faults in POWER SYSTEM .
s a technique used primarily in systems where communication plays a critical role in operation and performance monitoring. It involves monitoring and analyzing the communication signals and data between components of a system to detect faults or abnormalities.

Communication protocols play a pivotal role in the substation automation system as they carry critical information related to asset control, automation, protection, and monitoring. Substation legacy protocols run the assets’ bulk data on multiple wires over long distances. These data packets pass through multiple nodes, which makes the identification of the location and type of various malfunctions a challenging and time-consuming task. As downtime of substations is of high importance from a regulatory and compliance point of view, utilities are motivated to revisit the overall scheme and redesign a new system that features flexibility, adaptability, interoperability, and high accuracy. This paper presents a comprehensive review of various legacy protocols and highlights the path forward for a new protocol laid down as per the IEC 61850 standard. The IEC 61850 protocol is expected to be user-friendly, employ fiber optics instead of conventional copper wires, facilitate the applicati...

Smart grid system protection can be divided into wide area network, WAN, and substation area protections. The IEC 61850 Ed.1 standard contains models for SV and GOOSE messages that can be used in intra-substation protection. This paper investigates the WAN and substation area protections based on a travelling wave with IEC 61850 that have not been used in a product since 2016. The high sampling frequency for processing the travelling wave may block the communications channel and reduce security. In order to address this problem, an approach is proposed that is based on using real-time travelling wave signal packing with lossless compression and travelling wave feature extraction. The performance of these techniques has been tested using an OPNET modeler, while their validity has been tested through computer simulation. The application of WLAN based on transient travelling wave for real-time protection has also been investigated. The lower sampling, or transformed, data can be used for the applications of transient waves in digital substations. The comparison protection based on travelling wave between the Ethernet and second-generation WLAN results has also been discussed. An IED design is proposed for fast tripping that can be used in WAN protection based on the travelling wave. This work paves the way for other research to start developing fast protection systems based on travelling wave with IEC 61850.

Slovenian distribution system operator, Elektro Primorska from Nova Gorica, started distribution grid automation back in 1997. by installation of remote control disconnector switches. Main goal of remote control disconnector switches is to insure in time protection and disconnection of power line feeders in case of a failure and quick power restoration in the distribution grid. Up today Elektro Primorska has installed over 80 Remote Controlled Disconnector Switches (RCDS) in its 20 kV distribution grid. Old UKV radio communication infrastructure that was used to integrate the RCDS into the SCADA/DMS system could not meet the modern SCADA system requirements and demands like real time data collection. Looking into a way to improve the data collection a new project was launched by the end of the 2010. The new project is based on using the existing GPRS/EDGE mobile communication network to integrate the existing RCDS into the SCADA/DMS. The paper describes the technical architecture and the functionality of the data acquisition system and characteristics of the communication protocols used. Based on the experience of such a system clear benefits to the DSO will be discussed.

The Technology today is changing at a fast pace. The growth of computers and telecommunications over the past three decades has been extraordinary. We today are at the point where all technologies related to communication and data transfer are ...

Using IEC 61850 standard would increase the reliability and availability of electricity network and put a huge impact on network automation. Even though much research works have been done in substation system reliability, there are few works in automated substation control system reliability. This paper evaluates the reliability of IEC 61850-based substation automation system comparatively considering vender's different intelligent electrical devices. The technique is based on fault tree analysis approach and the tie sets methodology is used to evaluate quantitatively. In this paper, the proposed method is implemented on Mianeh Aydoghmush substation automation system in 5 different scenarios. Comparative studies are used to establish the most reliable architecture compared with the others. Using IEC 61850 standard in substation automation system provides us to use different manufacturers' products with identical protocols. Furthermore, producers of different intelligent electrical devices, in 3 different ranges of mean time between failures, are tested in various scenarios and reliability of system is evaluated quantitatively. The proposed method provides rate of change of system mean time to failure index. Using this index can be a useful tool to choose the best range of intelligent electrical devices.

Communication protocols play a pivotal role in the substation automation system as they carry critical information related to asset control, automation, protection, and monitoring. Substation legacy protocols run the assets’ bulk data on multiple wires over long distances. These data packets pass through multiple nodes, which makes the identification of the location and type of various malfunctions a challenging and time-consuming task. As downtime of substations is of high importance from a regulatory and compliance point of view, utilities are motivated to revisit the overall scheme and redesign a new system that features flexibility, adaptability, interoperability, and high accuracy. This paper presents a comprehensive review of various legacy protocols and highlights the path forward for a new protocol laid down as per the IEC 61850 standard. The IEC 61850 protocol is expected to be user-friendly, employ fiber optics instead of conventional copper wires, facilitate the applicati...

In past years, the growing complexity of the electrical system and the rise in the number of Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs) have increased the data network management complexity in power substations. A pressing need to improve the reliability of such environments has pushed energy companies to increase the investment in the operation of their communication networks. This paper proposes to use the Software Defined Networking (SDN) paradigm into the communication networks of power substations to implement novel redundancy techniques based on redundant multicast trees, in order to replace the traditional redundancy mechanisms in power substation communication networks resulting in capital and operational costs reduction. We apply pre-planned protection based on redundant trees and formulate an Integer Linear Programming (ILP) model to provide redundant multicast trees in the network trying to minimize the number of used network links. Redundant trees transmit duplicate traffic under the same underlying LAN in isolation, to guarantee zero recovery time and improve the use of network resources. Simulation results show that our approach achieves the same performance as traditional redundancy mechanisms using half of the network resources (i.e., compared against the Parallel Redundancy Protocol, PRP). ✩ This work has been partially funded by the Colciencias Doctoral Fellowship, Call 647. We also thank the Universidad de Antioquia for the financial support through the ''Sostenibilidad'' program. We also gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the Colombia Scientific Program within the framework of the call Ecosistema Científico (Contract No. FP44842-218-2018). It has also been partially supported by the project Red temática CYTED 519RT0580 funded by the Ibero-American Science and Technology Program CYTED.

Automated substations and distribution networks are key element of smart grid, however not all substations and distribution networks are automated to date due to the numerous reasons such as cost related to automation and scarcity of skilful workforce. With the drive to integrate renewable energy to the national smart grid, the advanced and innovative integrating methodologies need to be investigated. Automating the power system is the effort to improve power supply security, availability and reliability. Reliability is very important in substation automation systems and is achieved through real-time monitoring of the substation data. The interconnection of substation through substation automation devices is crucial because it provide the backup link to the network in case one substation fails. The utilities has developed a remarkable interest in substation automation due to the benefit its offers such as; reduction in maintenance and, operating cost and improved revenues due to sta...

IEC 60870-5 is mainly used in Utilities of European Countries in SCADA networks. Following the development of network technologies, IEC 60870-5-104, which covers transmission over TCP/IP, is nowadays growing in use for communications between RTUs and Control Centres. In this paper we intend to: (i) introduce and discuss the requirements supporting both PID and requirements for wireless (ii) present the present status of the pilots to address such requirements.

Abstract:-Smart Grid Networks present a modern solution for network automation and digital communication in order to improve the efficiency, sustainability and reliability of electricity distribution. The development of Smart Grid networks is not a simple matter. Electronic grids consist of a large number of systems, intelligent and regular electronic devices, substations, switching stations, dispatching centers and many other elements. This paper analyse the technological requirements of intelligent Smart Grid network with a focus on networking ...

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to explore some aspects of utilization traditional computer networks in power substation automation. This paper is divided into two main parts. First we analyse the interconnection between IEC61850 standard, TCP/IP network stack and ethernet technologies. Second part of this paper presents proposed solution for substation automation in the Czech Republic in cooperation with the national distributor ČEPS, as Key-Words:-Substation, IEC 61850, remote access, network topology, security, network topology

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to analyse the utilization and technological aspects of remote control systems and access in power substation automation with a focus on the IEC 61850 standard. This paper is divided into two main parts. At first we analyse the possibilities, protocols and technologies from the datanetworking point of view. Finally we present the solution for the power substation automation in the Czech Republic based on the IEC 61850standard. Key-Words:-Substation, IEC 61850, remote access, network ...

The goal of this Technical Information Bulletin (TIB) is to examine Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems and how they may be used by the National Communications System (NCS) in support of National Security and Emergency Preparedness (NS/EP) communications and Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP). An overview of SCADA is provided, and security concerns are addressed and examined with respect to NS/EP and CIP implementation. The current and future status of National, International, and Industry standards relating to SCADA systems is examined. Observations on future trends will be presented. Finally, recommendations on what the NCS should focus on with regards SCADA systems and their application in an NS/EP and CIP environment are presented.

IEC 60870-5 is mainly used in Utilities of European Countries in SCADA networks. Following the development of network technologies, IEC 60870-5-104, which covers transmission over TCP/IP, is nowadays growing in use for communications between RTUs and Control Centres. In this paper we intend to: (i) introduce and discuss the requirements supporting both PID and requirements for wireless (ii) present the present status of the pilots to address such requirements.

This paper proposes a new coupling solution for transmitting narrowband multicarrier power line communication (PLC) signals over medium voltage (MV) power lines. The proposed system is based on an innovative PLC coupling principle, patented by the authors, which exploits the capacitive divider embedded in voltage detecting systems (VDS) already installed inside the MV switchboard. Thus, no dedicated couplers have to be installed and no switchboard modifications or energy interruptions are needed. This allows a significant cost reduction of MV PLC implementation. A first prototype of the proposed coupling system was presented in previous papers: it had a 15 kHz bandwidth useful to couple single carrier PSK modulated PLC signals with a center frequency from 50–200 kHz. In this paper, a new prototype is developed with a larger bandwidth, up to 164 kHz, thus allowing to couple multicarrier G3-PLC signals using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) digital modulation. This mo...

The IEC 61850 standard provides methods of developing best engineering practices for substation protection, integration, control, monitoring, metering, and testing. Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) chose to build their newest integrated transmission protection and control network with IEC 61850 and evaluated the technology for possible future inclusion into their design standards. The primary IEDs chosen for protection were selected from the devices that have been approved by the customer and that also support IEC 61850. For the La Venta II project, the primary focus was to include IEC 61850 devices from as many vendors as possible rather than using traditional design criteria. In addition to the primary protection and control equipment, the customer invited all vendors to submit IEDs to be connected to the network to demonstrate their ability to communicate IEC 61850. Additional IEDs were added in an auxiliary bay because the design constraints required that the core of the network be useful and effective; it is not a demonstration control system but a pilot project to gain experience with the new standard. This system integrated 24 devices from 9 different product platforms provided by 6 different vendors. The implementation was completed in four months and included newly released products from some vendors, involved staging device communications over the Internet, and relied on contributions from engineers in seven time zones. IEC 61850 is a very large standard with seven different protocols within it. End users implement different combinations of the protocols and the different features they provide. Therefore, it is important that end users not only specify that they want to use IEC 61850, but also what parts of the standard they want to use and, more importantly, how they want the system to perform. Throughout the implementation of this project, it became apparent that implementation details left to the discretion of the vendors and not dictated by the standard needed to be documented as requirements to attain the required system functionality. The following is a sample of these details:

There is a need for a high-performance, flexible substation automation system (SAS) that is easy to incorporate. The increasing use of Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs) in substation protection, coordination, control, monitoring, metering, and testing offers interoperability and enhanced communications capabilities. The IEC Technical Committee 57 worked to create IEC 61850, an open standard for substation modelling and communications. The international adoption of the standard has grown in popularity. This article explores the use of IEC 61850 in conventional substation automation. It introduces the experience of a real SAS modernization scenario. This instance emphasizes how useful the IEC 61850 is for operating and monitoring substations.

The IEC 61850 standard provides methods of developing best engineering practices for substation protection, integration, control, monitoring, metering, and testing. Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) chose to build their newest integrated transmission protection and control network with IEC 61850 and evaluated the technology for possible future inclusion into their design standards. The primary IEDs chosen for protection were selected from the devices that have been approved by the customer and that also support IEC 61850. For the La Venta II project, the primary focus was to include IEC 61850 devices from as many vendors as possible rather than using traditional design criteria. In addition to the primary protection and control equipment, the customer invited all vendors to submit IEDs to be connected to the network to demonstrate their ability to communicate IEC 61850. Additional IEDs were added in an auxiliary bay because the design constraints required that the core of the network be useful and effective; it is not a demonstration control system but a pilot project to gain experience with the new standard. This system integrated 24 devices from 9 different product platforms provided by 6 different vendors. The implementation was completed in four months and included newly released products from some vendors, involved staging device communications over the Internet, and relied on contributions from engineers in seven time zones. IEC 61850 is a very large standard with seven different protocols within it. End users implement different combinations of the protocols and the different features they provide. Therefore, it is important that end users not only specify that they want to use IEC 61850, but also what parts of the standard they want to use and, more importantly, how they want the system to perform. Throughout the implementation of this project, it became apparent that implementation details left to the discretion of the vendors and not dictated by the standard needed to be documented as requirements to attain the required system functionality. The following is a sample of these details:

The term digital substation refers to the process of managing operations between intelligent primary devices and distributed Intelligent Electric Devices (IEDs) interfaced with a highly secure communications network. The process bus is the first part of the interface between the primary instruments (such as the current and voltage transformers and protection devices) and is an important part of digitalization. This paper describes a method for constructing an interface between measurement instruments and protection devices based on the IEC 61850 standard. Two scenarios are considered to examine the performance of the power system protection in a transmission line between two substations. Both a conventional and an IEC 61850-9-2 (sampled values) approach are implemented to feed the measured values to the protection devices. Trip signals are then also sent to the circuit breakers using IEC 61850-8-1 (GOOSE message). Comparing this method with conventional technology, the outcomes for the digital substation are more accurate and reliable thanks to the rapid reaction of protection devices and the speed at which the trip signal is received. The new process bus method has been tested by implementing a hardware-in-the-loop platform, consisting of a real-time simulator (OPAL-RT eMEGAsim), StandAlone Merging Units (SAMUs), and line differential protection.

Power systems have grown to become complex energy networks, they consist mainly of substations connected by transmission lines. These lines are key components of the networks and need to be protected to ensure the integrity and reliability of the system. The control and protection of equipment within a substation has evolved from manual to hardwire automated to Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) enabled to Intelligent Electronic Device (IED) enabled and finally now digital automation. The present standard of substation automation globally accepted is the International Electrotechnical Commission 61850 Standard. While this standard has guidelines and rules for the mechanisms within a substation, it does not fully address the use of digital communication for Transmission line protection. This paper shall explore the possibility of transmission line protection using digital substation automation concepts.

Substantial changes have occurred in the Information Technology (IT) sectors and with these changes, the demand for remote access to field sensor information has increased. This allows visualization, monitoring, and control through various electronic devices, such as laptops, tablets, i-Pads, PCs, and cellular phones. The smart phone is considered as a more reliable, faster and efficient device to access and monitor industrial systems and their corresponding information interfaces anywhere and anytime. This study describes the deployment of a protocol whereby industrial system information can be securely accessed by cellular phones via a Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) server. To achieve the study goals, proprietary protocol interconnectivity with non-proprietary protocols and the usage of interconnectivity services are considered in detail. They support the visualization of the SCADA system information, and the related operations through smart phones. The intellige...

Modern technology enhancements have been used worldwide to fulfill the requirements of the industrial sector, especially in supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems as a part of industrial control systems (ICS). SCADA systems have gained popularity in industrial automations due to technology enhancements and connectivity with modern computer networks and/or protocols. The procurement of new technologies has made SCADA systems important and helpful to processing in oil lines, water treatment plants, and electricity generation and control stations. On the other hand, these systems have vulnerabilities like other traditional computer networks (or systems), especially when interconnected with open platforms. Many international organizations and researchers have proposed and deployed solutions for SCADA security enhancement, but most of these have been based on node-to-node security, without emphasizing critical sessions that are linked directly with industrial processing and automation. This study concerns SCADA security measures related to critical processing with specified sessions of automated polling, analyzing cryptography mechanisms and deploying the appropriate explicit inclusive security solution in a distributed network protocol version 3 (DNP3) stack, as part of a SCADA system. The bytes flow through the DNP3 stack with security

Production control system communication protocols used in subsea fields are primarily proprietary to the subsea vendor. Due to the proprietary nature of this communication system, the operators encounter many challenges including obsolescence management, knowledge management and conformity assessment. This paper presents an investigation of the option of using open standard protocols for subsea production control communication system. The features, functionality and standardization of existing communication protocols used in subsea control system are analyzed and compared with open standard protocols such as DNP3 (Distributed Network Protocol) and IEC60870-5-101 and their variants used with Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). The features of open standard protocols were also analyzed along with the possibility of its use in subsea production control system communication. The analysis showed that the open standard protocol DNP3 and DNP3 over TCP/IP could provide significant advantages over proprietary protocols as the specifications of DNP3 are publicly available and controlled by nonprofit user group. DNP3 supports unsolicited response messages, time stamping, peer-to-peer communication and its implementation can be verified by external bodies. Furthermore, DNP3 allows the operator to integrate multiple vendors' products on a single subsea network and allows the integration of slower network with faster network without losing the data throughput.

At this pointIw ouldl iket ot hank all thosep eoples whos upported and motivatedm e duringm ys tudies and thew riting of this diploma thesis. First, my thanks go to Mr.A o.Univ.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.techn.T hilo SAUTER, who has supervised and reviewedt his work. Furthermore, Iw ouldl iket ot hank the company OMICRONe lectronicsG mbH 2 and in particular my companya dvisers Mr. Dipl.-Ing. Tilman TRÄXLER and Mr.D omenSELINEC,MSc because they gave me theopportunity to do this industrial diploma thesis. In addition to thec aregivers, Iw oulda lso liket ot hank my friendsa nd colleges from universityt hath aveh elped me with questionso ra mbiguities. Finally,Iwould like to thank my parents, who made my studies possiblea nd alwaysh ad an open ear for my worries.

High-speed peer-to-peer IEC 61850-8-1 GOOSE and IEC 61850-9-2 sampled values based information-exchange among IEDs in modern IEC 61850 substations have opened the opportunity for designing and developing innovative all-digital protection applications. The transmission reliability and real-time performance of these SVs and GOOSE messages, over the process-bus network, are critical to realize these all-digital IEC 61850 substation automation systems (SASs) protection applications. To address the reliability, availability, and deterministic delay performance needs of SAS, a novel IEC 61850-9-2 process-bus based substation communication network (SCN) architecture is proposed in this article. Reliability of the proposed as well as the traditional process-bus based SCN architectures is evaluated using the reliability block diagram (RBD) approach. Network components are modeled, and end-to-end (ETE) time-delay performance is also evaluated for all-digital protection applications running on the SCN architectures simulated in the OPNET modeler platform. The reliability and performance results of the proposed architecture compared to the traditional architectures confirmed its highly reliable, fast, and deterministic nature.

This paper chronicles a recent test of replacing padmounted switch RTUs with IEC 61850-compatible scalable, programmable automation controllers (PAC) by a utility distribution group. New functionality was added and tested, including wireless Ethernet connections between the switchgear and remote control center as well as peer-to-peer communications between switchgear locations to support remote automation with coordinated protection and autorestoration schemes. This paper discusses the three types of switches and the variation in I/O requirements based on switch type, scalable configuration, and mounting features to support technician access and troubleshooting. The switchgear are an integral part of the utility’s 15 kV underground distribution expansion. The increase in the number and size of switchgear make remote monitoring and control, local automation, peer-to-peer coordination, and remote engineering access critical for system reliability. To meet all their requirements, the u...

Recently in the context of Smart Grid, it has worked to IEC 61850 standard, which application is getting more common. This standard defines an initial step towards a smarter grid. IEC 61850 "Communication networks and systems in substations", will bring open and interoperable systems for the automation domain substations. The development of the standard has generated requirements for manufacturers of devices compatible with it. These manufacturers are forced to have their equipment meets certain requirements regarding the functionality of the devices. The aim of this work is to specify the standard techniques for the development of conformance testing. The idea is to make a comparison between the concepts and guidelines that define the standard IEC 61850 for the development of conformance tests, compared to other guidelines and methodologies established in the electricity sector for compliance testing of different industrial communication protocols.

One of the key benefits of IEC 61850 is that it can facilitate interoperability between Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs) from different vendors. However, at present, the scope of interoperability is constrained to communications data, such as Sampled Value (SV) and Generic Object Oriented Substation Events (GOOSE) messaging, and has not been extended to protection setting information. The protection functions are implemented using proprietary parameters and are typically stored in vendor-specific binary files, which make it very difficult to manipulate these data directly from external applications. Engineers must also understand the meaning and implications of modification of all proprietary setting parameters and often need to be trained in the use of vendor-specific tools, which is time consuming and potentially increases the risk of introducing protection setting errors. Furthermore, the existing IED configuration process is complex, involves many steps, and requires the us...

Substation Automation Systems are distributed command and control systems that operate equipment in electrical substations. Traditional automation systems were built as turnkey systems based on proprietary technology but recent developments in automation and networking have created a new wave of interoperability requirements. This paper addresses some of these topics and focus on recent standardization activities in the field, in particular in relation with the incorporation of object technology in this area. In particular, it describes a real implementation of the emerging standard IEC 61850 using CORBA networking in the European R+D project DOTS.

The purpose of this presentation is to describe the ongoing work of evaluation and implementation of Ethernet as a real-time network. Ethernet would be integrated into a high performance distributed Remote Terminal Unit (RTU), the RTU500. Results of shared Ethernet performance tests are presented and an upper-layer proprietary protocol architecture is proposed.

This paper presents a study concerning the implementation of the 61850 standards (TCP/IP based standards for electric substations). The integration of communication networks in critical or safety applications is nowadays a strategic research problem. The approach consists of the proposition of new architectures according to the new standard IEC 61850. We also present the development of new devices in electrical

In present day utility and industrial power systems, there is an increasing need for special protection and control schemes. The stability of power systems is the prime motivation for these schemes. Due to the wide area of operation, such a scheme is referred to as a wide-area monitoring, protection, automation, and control system (WAMPACS), wide-area protection system (WAPS), system integrity protection scheme (SIPS), remedial action scheme (RAS), or emergency control system (ECS) and is implemented with various types of communications channels. These power management systems implement essential control schemes, such as generator load balancing, islanding control, and precise load shedding. Special protection and control schemes take a variety of shapes and magnitudes. A simple transfer trip for breaker failure is actually a special protection and control scheme. A sophisticated power management system in a large industrial installation performing islanding control, load-shedding m...

The use of hydro energy to generate electric power is crucial to meet the increasing energy demand of a modern
economy and maintains the stability of power supply for unstable sources of power like solar, and wind. In newly constructed
hydropower plants (HPPs), the trend among control systems is to adopt contemporary digital and cyber-based systems at the
expense of obsolete analog hard-wired systems. Therefore, cyber-physical security is a critical issue in reliability-constrained
HPPs. In this paper, we present different levels/layers of protection to manage cyber security. We adopt generalized
stochastic Petri nets to quantitatively evaluate the intrusion probability. We then propose a new cyber framework and show
that the proposed framework conforms to NIST cybersecurity regulations. Finally, we discuss dependability through three
metrics, i.e., reliability, maintainability, and availability. A case study is presented to demonstrate that the proposed cyber
framework is highly dependable through analyzing steady-state probabilities.

The need for reliable and quick communication in the power grid is growing and becoming more critical. With the Smart Grid initiative, an increasing number of intelligent devices, such as smart meters and new sensors, are being added to the grid. The traffic demand on the communications network increases as these new devices are being added. This can cause issues such as longer delay, dropped packets, and equipment failure. The power grid relies on this data to function properly. The power grid will lose reliability and will not be able to provide customers with power unless it has correct and timely data. The current communications network architecture needs to be evaluated and improved. In this thesis, a simulator program is developed to study the communications network. The simulation model is written in C++ and models the components of the communications network. The simulation results provide insight on how to design the communications network in order for the system to be robu...

To solve the configuration issue when using International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 61850 for distributed intelligence in Distribution Automation Systems (DAS), this paper proposes the configuration solution in terms of semantic models and processing methods. Firstly, the special requirements of the DAS configuration are analyzed, consisting of the system boundary of a configuration project, the topology configuration for distributed applications, and the automatic identification of the Intelligent Electronic Devices (IED). The new models of Process, Line, and other elements are then presented based on the System Configuration Language (SCL) to describe the distribution network topology. The planned contents are allocated into a new format of the Configured IED Description (CID) file to realize the distributed applications. A register service is designed, which fulfills the automatic identification of IEDs when they are remotely placed into a DAS. The service checks the configuration status in real-time and automates the whole configuration engineering process. The case study shows that the proposed solution allows an IED to detect the real-time topology and re-establish the data flow configuration with peer IEDs independently from the master station; thus the distributed applications can be performed more autonomously and efficiently.

Slovenian distribution system operator, Elektro Primorska from Nova Gorica, started distribution grid automation back in 1997. by installation of remote control disconnector switches. Main goal of remote control disconnector switches is to insure in time protection and disconnection of power line feeders in case of a failure and quick power restoration in the distribution grid. Up today Elektro Primorska has installed over 80 Remote Controlled Disconnector Switches (RCDS) in its 20 kV distribution grid. Old UKV radio communication infrastructure that was used to integrate the RCDS into the SCADA/DMS system could not meet the modern SCADA system requirements and demands like real time data collection. Looking into a way to improve the data collection a new project was launched by the end of the 2010. The new project is based on using the existing GPRS/EDGE mobile communication network to integrate the existing RCDS into the SCADA/DMS. The paper describes the technical architecture an...

While special protection systems (SPSs) often shed load, recent sophisticated remedial action schemes (RASs) reduce or terminate generation output during an emergency condition. Under certain load conditions, generation newly added to previously balanced transmission grids creates system conditions that violate accepted reliability criteria. At Southern California Edison (SCE), RAS systems are implemented to ensure reliable power system performance following outages on a transmission grid network. They include fast, automatic control actions to mitigate thermal overloads and system instability upon the loss of one or more transmission lines. With these automatic protection features, RAS systems are used in place of expensive alternative measures, which include reconductoring transmission lines, building new lines, and/or adding new transformers. Testing at SCE demonstrates the successful use of IEC 61850 GOOSE (Generic Object-Oriented Substation Event) messages over a distance up to...

International standards are being developed to promote rapid configuration and integration into the utility automation system. In order to take advantage of modern technology to provide new benefits to users of substation automation, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has developed and released a new global standard for substation automation, named IEC 61850. This aim of this paper is to provide a basic technical overview of substation automation and the standard IEC 61850. It will discuss the benefits of each major aspect of this standard and it will describe how these concepts can be used in the development and implementation of tools related to Substation Automation. The application of communication standards and protocols to facilitate data exchange within the substation environment is presented. In addition, the model is implemented using a small distribution system that plans to utilize new communication technology following the IEC 61850 standard. Finally it proposes a set of laboratories to be used as the core of an undergraduate course. Results illustrate that the communication approach as proposed by IEC 61850 fulfills the real-time requirements for control and protection of distribution system.

This paper describes the successful replacement of an existing legacy PLC (programmable logic controller)-based substation automation design with integrated mission-critical protection intelligent electronic devices (IEDs). The new design replaces existing ...

This paper describes software realization and its implementation for the communication, according to the IEC61850 standard, between the module for monitoring teleprotection devices and the control/monitoring server in a power substation. Teleprotection devices have an important role in the transmission of messages for power line section tripping. The software is implemented on the "MSC nanoRISC-S3C2416 MB2" hardware platform type, which belongs to the COM (computer on module) systems.