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Optimized SCADA systems for electrical substations

Conference Paper · May 2013

DOI: 10.1109/ATEE.2013.6563509

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THE 8 INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON ADVANCED TOPICS IN ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
May 23-25, 2013
Bucharest, Romania

Optimized SCADA Systems for Electrical

Substations
Vlad-Cristian GEORGESCU
IMPERIAL ELECTRIC S.A., Blvd. Camil Ressu nr. 27B, 031736 Bucharest, Romania
vlad.georgescu@imperialelectric.ro

Abstract- A modern SCADA system (hardware and software)

with specific characteristics for electrical substations is
presented. This system leverages the newest technologies
available and shows the correct way to implement them in order
to have a precise and fault secure power grid. The technologies
included in the system are: network time synchronization,
network communication redundancy through different types of
ring topologies, specific SCADA software for electrical
substation.
At the end there is a proof of concept through which the
practical way of implemeting these 3 technologies together is
highlighted.
Keywords: SCADA, Electrical Substation, network time
synchronization, communication redundancy.

I. INTRODUCTION
The Smart Grids have evolved in the last years and new
technologies were developed regarding all aspects of the
system. This is why a unified approach is needed in which all
these new breakthroughs can be put together in an optimized
manner.
This paper proposes an architecture of a SCADA
(Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) system for
electrical substations which will leverage the benefits of the
newest technologies available.
A modern Power Network (Smart Grid) must have this type
of a system or similar, which ensures some critical properties:
- short time of deployment;
- optimized and easy to use HMI (Human-Machine
Interface) screens for the operators;
- redundant computers; Fig. 1, A Typical SCADA System Architecture [1].
- synchronized equipments at nanosecond level; acquisition equipments (DAQ) and finally sensors,
- redundancy at communications layer, with less than 20 transducers and control devices.
milliseconds recovery time.
A classic SCADA system will be presented with the new A. Servers and HMI
technologies available and a way to implement them in order Usually there is more than one server for the SCADA
to obtain an efficient and optimized system for electrical software. Also, for projects in which downtime is a big
substations will be proposed. problem, a redundancy option must be implemented so when
there is a certain fault at one server, the other will
II. ARCHITECTURE OF A SCADA SYSTEM automatically take over. A critical part of the redundancy
A typical SCADA system (Fig. 1) is a hierarchical system option is the software's ability to synchronize the data
composed of: one or more Processing Servers with Human between the servers so at any given moment one of them
Machine Interface (HMI), communication equipments, data could control the system.
The HMI is the way operators interface the system.
Depending on the type of the operator, the interface may vary
from a simple LED indicator to wide, colored, animated - interfacing with different types of hardware equipments,
touchscreens. Also the HMI can be local (in the plant) or from different vendors;
remote (connected through the Internet). Another - archiving large data flows, in a compressed fashion, at
classification criteria is the authority of the user: a simple high data rates;
user, a user who can insert manual data or a user who can - easy and user-transparent network topology changes;
configure the server [1]. - redundancy;
- real-time visualization, for local or remote users;
B. Communication Equipments
- providing quality, efficiency and performance indicators;
The SCADA servers must gather real-time data from the
- providing data for predictive maintenance [1].
field. For this to happen you need a reliable and fast network.
An important issue with SCADA systems is that they are
The routing and switching equipments must be linked
often vertically integrated, closed and restricted. That is why
together in a redundant network (e.g. ring topology) with a
open protocols and greater openness with data is strongly
small recovery time. The transmission environment may be
wanted [5][6].
cable (e.g. copper, fiber) or wireless (e.g. GSM, GPRS,
To achieve all of these functionalities, a suite of software
HSDPA, WiFi) depending on the location of the devices.
products is installed, which are operating as a system, sharing
Usually high capacity, core switches are used in the center of
the data in an intelligent manner, in order to provide the user
the system, near the servers and edge switches at the
with the correct information at the right time.
extremities, near the data acquisition equipments [1].
IV. ENHANCING SCADA WITH PROFICY IPOWER
C. Data Acquisition Equipments
Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) are the main The iPower system is installed over a SCADA system to
devices used for acquiring data. With their modular provide specific functionalities required by electrical stations.
construction and different interfaces, the PLCs have been The key features of Proficy iPower that are not available in
used in industry for a long time[2][3]. In recent years, other a classic SCADA solution are [7]:
similar equipments like Programmable Automation - an electric industry ”dynamo set” with animations for
Controllers (PAC) or Remote Terminal Units (RTU) have network components such as circuit breakers and
evolved. Together with remote I/O devices they made the transformers;
SCADA systems more versatile and easy to deploy. - automated configuration process for iPower dynamos;
The communication between DAQ devices is made using - a menu system that allows users to navigate through
different industrial protocols like Profibus, Hart, CAN, pictures you have created;
Modbus, Profinet, Industrial Ethernet, over 2 or 4 wire cable - tools to aid in the drawing of pictures (bus re-coloring,
or over UTP cable. A specific protocol for electrical ground display, electrical bus-work drawing tools);
substations is DNP3 (Distributed Network Protocol). - improved multi-monitor support;
For interconnecting with the final devices (sensors, - list manager;
transducers, control equipments), the DAQ devices have - zooming and layering configuration;
different types of inputs and outputs: analog (voltage, current, - multiple languages support.
RTD, thermocouple), digital (contacts, counters) or relay All of these options mentioned above are shortening the
(power, FormA, FormB, FormC) [4]. time of deploying projects.
Another important set of features is enhancing the user
D. Sensors, Transducers and Control Equipments experience, providing the operator with optimized HMI
These kind of devices are specific to a certain application screens:
and are chosen with respect to the types of values that must be - automatic main menu population based on picture naming
monitored and controlled. For example, some of the most convention;
used devices in power plants are: current transducers, power - automatic population of operator dialogs;
analyzers, etc[2][3]. - managing the position of dialog pop-up in multiple
Another important type of devices is the so called monitor systems;
Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs). These have control - automatic closing of unused dialogs after an user
functions, like circuit breaker, but also self monitoring, configured timeout;
autoreclosing and communication functions. - right-click menu including pan, zoom, acknowledge
III. SCADA SOFTWARE FUNCTIONALITIES picture and silence horn;
- maintenance of manual overwrite, control and information
Besides the hardware architecture of a SCADA system, the
tags and disabled alarms data;
software implemented is what makes all the difference.
- prevention of simultaneous control of a single device.
Although each industry is different and for each application
the software must be customized, there are some V. SYNCHRONIZING TIME IN THE NETWORK
characteristics that a SCADA software must support: Besides speed and easy configuration, another important
part in industrial automation is precise synchronization
between network equipments. This is even more critical in (STP) recovery usually takes 15 seconds after the spanning
electrical power distribution because precise time stamps are tree is established. Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP)
used to calculate and balance the energy transfers. shortened the recovery speed to 1 second.
The most frequent time synchronization protocols are: However, for some real-time and mission critical industrial
- Network Time Protocol (NTP): is based on a hierarchical applications, such as military and process control systems,
system to spread the correct time in the network; recovery time must be under 100 milliseconds to ensure the
- Global Positioning System (GPS): The signals from the reliability of the network [9]. There are some ring
satellites are sent to earth with the speed of light and redundancy technologies featuring a guaranteed recovery time
corrected by the principles of relativity. The problem is that of a few milliseconds offered by industrial Ethernet solution
every equipment needs a GPS receiver, thus making the total providers, such as Moxa’s Turbo Ring. Ring redundancy
cost of deploying such a technology restrictive. ensures non-stop operation of networks with an extremely fast
- IEEE1588v2 (Precision Time Protocol - PTP): is a recovery time. For example, using Turbo Ring, if any
standard protocol used in industry for precise synchronization segment of the network is disconnected, the network system
of time and frequency through an Ethernet network based will recover in less than 20 milliseconds by activating the
using data packages [8]. backup path in a ring.
The PTP protocol synchronizes the local slave clocks of Another interesting technology is Turbo Chain (Fig.2)
each network equipment with a Grand-Master Clock, through which works by connecting several Ethernet switches
special PTP data packages. The Ethernet switches are acting together to form a daisy-chain, where a Head-Switch and a
as transparent devices. Tail-Switch (the edge switches at the two sides of the chain)
An Ethernet switch with PTP protocol can provide a 1 are configured first, then the remaining switches are
microsecond resolution and can be configured to function as a configured as member switches. Next, the two ends of the
master, as a slave or as a transparent device. For the network chain must be linked to an Ethernet network, and then the
to be able to provide nanosecond accuracy, every equipment setup is done.
in the network must be a PTP device (including the Once a chain-segment fails, the blocked path (link between
computers). the tail-switch and the outside network) will activate
An excellent synchronization of electrical substations instantaneously with a recovery time of under 20
networks provides some key advantages: milliseconds. This fast recovery will ensure that the industrial
- prevent interruptions of electricity supply through early Ethernet network remains available, with almost zero
detection of problems in the distribution network (like downtime [9].
network distortions); Some of the advantages of Turbo Chain are:
- real-time transition in "Power Islands" mode (this mode of flexible/scalable construction, unrestricted expansion, fast
operation occurs when a portion of the network is fault recovery, cost-effective deployment, unrestricted
disconnected from the national distribution system. It consists expansion to form scalable redundant networks, can be
of one or more generators and is designed to maintain control connected to a network using any other redundant technology,
distribution to users in a subnet); such as STP, RSTP or Moxa’s Turbo Ring.
- fault recording and archiving of events to enable accurate Another self-healing technology that enables fast fault
analysis (because it can control events to the nanosecond recovery of under 20 ms (at a full load of 250 switches) is
level); Moxa's Turbo Ring. Turbo Ring supports three topology
- more efficient use of resources by improving congestion options: ring coupling, dual-ring, and dual homing.
and the monitoring of equipment condition [8].
VI. NETWORK COMMUNICATION REDUNDANCY
The availability of data is a requirement which is highly
needed in various industrial fields (e.g., wind power, oil
pipelines, and railway automation networks). In these
applications, large Ethernet networks with complex redundant
connections are often required and the network may
encompass multiple locations over substantial distances and
require more flexible topologies.
There are many existing mechanisms that can enhance
fault-tolerance in an Ethernet network. The most common of
these are Mesh networking, STP, RSTP, and proprietary ring
redundancy.
A Mesh network has larger communications overhead and
Fig. 2, Turbo Chain Topology [8].
there are increased costs from the cables required to connect
all the nodes to each other [9]. In Spanning Tree Protocol
 Ring Coupling helps separate distributed devices into
different smaller redundant rings, without any control line,
but in such a way that the smaller rings at different remote
sites will be able to communicate with each other.
Dual homing involves coupling two separate rings with a
single EDS switch connecting to two independent connection
points. The back-up path will be activated if the operating
connection (or main path) fails.
Dual Ring adds reliability by using a single EDS switch to
connect two separate rings for applications that present
cabling difficulties [10].
VII. RESULTS - PROOF OF CONCEPT
This subchapter proposes a practical architecture of a
SCADA system (hardware and software) for electrical
substations, with a unified approach, which will leverage the
benefits of the technologies mentioned in the previous
subchapters (Fig. 3). Fig. 3, An Optimized SCADA System for Electrical Substations.
A modern Power Network (Smart Grid) must have this type Grand-Master Clock is a special equipment which receives
of a system which ensures some critical properties: data through a GPS interface.
- short time of deployment; Another important aspect is the Turbo Ring technology
- optimized and easy to use HMI screens for the operators; which assures the recovery of any connection in less than 20
- redundant system at computers level; milliseconds, in case a segment of the network is interrupted.
- synchronized equipments all over the network at VIII. SUMMARY
nanosecond level;
- redundancy at communications layer, with less than 20 In order to cope with the evolution of technologies
milliseconds recovery time. regarding Smart Grids and electrical substations a unified
First of all, the system uses the typical architecture approach is proposed in this paper in which all these new
presented in Fig.1, adapted for the electrical substations breakthroughs can be put together in an optimized manner.
necessities. A complete system architecture (hardware and software)
The sensors and data acquisition equipments are was presented in which the communication equipments were
represented by the IEDs. configured for redundancy and synchronization and the
The communication of data is made by cable (fiber optic, in software program was developed in an efficient manner for
order to avoid electromagnetic problems, common in the operator.
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