Smart grid architecture for rural distribution networks: application to a Spanish pilot network

This paper presents a novel architecture for rural distribution grids. This architecture is designed to modernize traditional rural networks into new Smart Grid ones. The architecture tackles innovation actions on both the power plane and the management plane of the system. In the power plane, the architecture focuses on exploiting the synergies between telecommunications and innovative technologies based on power electronics managing low scale electrical storage. In the management plane, a decentralized management system is proposed based on the addition of two new agents assisting the typical Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) system of distribution system operators. Altogether, the proposed architecture enables operators to use more effectively—in an automated and decentralized way—weak rural distribution systems, increasing the capability to integrate new distributed energy resources. This architecture is being implemented in a real Pilot Network located in Spain, in the frame of the European Smart Rural Grid project. The paper also includes a study case showing one of the potentialities of one of the principal technologies developed in the project and underpinning the realization of the new architecture: the so-called Intelligent Distribution Power Router.Postprint (published version

Dependability Optimization of Process-level Protection in an IEC-61850-Based Substation

International audiencePower substations are intensively renovated toward using information and communication technologies such as object oriented modeling and Ethernet networks. In the last two decades, Substation automation systems used capabilities of network communication services adopted from sophisticated international standardization such as IEC 61850. Distributed safety related functions take advantage of these technologies to protect the process-level equipment. Substation devices such as intelligent electronic devices, measurement units and circuit breaker controllers, with new capabilities, i.e. enabling IEC 61850, are integrated to build the protection and control functions that form the safety-related system. The objective of this research is to evaluate quantitatively the dependability for transformer protection architectures in the bay level.Safety integrity levels model, described in both IEC 62061 and IEC 61508, gives measurements for safety integrity levels according to the probability of failure. The determination of these levels is an approach to estimate system dependability

Emerging technologies and future trends in substation automation systems for the protection, monitoring and control of electrical substations

Tese de Mestrado Integrado. Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores (Automação). Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 201

Development of Testing Tools for Substation Automation and SCADA Systems

ABSTRACT This master’s thesis describes the work in developing new testing tools for substation automation and SCADA systems. The targets of development are ABB’s MicroSCADA Pro product family of network management products. Main focus is on the SYS600 Control System, which is used to monitor and control process automation applications in e.g. substations. The new testing tools will be used to test operational situations in test environments, with the tested situations being similar to the situations occurring in practical environments. First parts of the work concentrated on collecting information related to existing testing processes and testing tools in the context where the new tools could be used. Information was collected from expert interviews, literature and prior development experiences of similar testing tools. The information was used to define requirements and features for the new tools. Initial development environment was set up based on the work and a system implementation proposal was written to describe the implementation of the new testing tools to existing products and processes. The development of the new testing tools was based on the internal development tools of the MicroSCADA Pro SYS600 and the native programming languages SCIL and Visual SCIL. With these tools and languages the new testing tools could be developed with optimal compatibility to the products, similar to the several existing testing tools which were included in the development process. The development applied agile principles by following iterative and incremental development cycles, where demo presentations with feedback followed the development and testing stages cyclically. The development succeeded with the result being a new operational situations testing tool with three main testing features: test case based testing, simulation run testing and communication gateway testing. Supporting features were included in the tool to set up tests with setup actions and generate test result data from the executed tests. Features from the existing testing tools were successfully combined with newly developed features, and the possibilities for future work related to the tool were considered in the end.TIIVISTELMÄ Diplomityön aiheena on uusien testaustyökalujen kehittäminen sähköasema-automaatio- ja SCADA -järjestelmille. Kehitystyön kohteena on ABB:n MicroSCADA Pro tuoteperhe, joka koostuu verkonhallinnan tuotteista. Työssä keskitytään SYS600 Control System -tuotteeseen, jota käytetään prosessiautomaatiosovellusten ohjaukseen ja valvontaan esimerkiksi sähköasemilla. Uusia testaustyökaluja tullaan käyttämään sovellusten käyttötilanteiden testaamiseen, jolloin käytännön tilanteita vastaavia testaustilanteita pyritään luomaan testausympäristöissä. Työn ensimmäisissä osissa keskityttiin tiedonkeruuseen senhetkisistä testausprosesseista ja käytetyistä testaustyökaluista selvittäen uusien työkalujen käyttömahdollisuuksia. Tiedonkeruun lähteinä olivat asiantuntijahaastattelut, alan kirjallisuus ja aikaisempi kehitystieto samankaltaisista testaustyökaluista. Tiedon perusteella uusille työkaluille voitiin määrittää vaatimuksia ja toiminnallisuutta. Työlle valmisteltiin sopiva kehitysympäristö sekä implementaatioehdotus, joka selvittää uusien testaustyökalujen liittämistä olemassa oleviin tuotteisiin ja prosesseihin. Kehitystyö perustui MicroSCADA Pro SYS600 -tuotteen sisäisiin kehitystyökaluihin ja tuotteen omiin SCIL- ja Visual SCIL -ohjelmointikieliin. Käyttämällä näitä työkaluja ja ohjelmointikieliä uudet testaustyökalut voitiin kehittää optimaalisella yhteensopivuudella tuotteisiin samaan tapaan kuin monet olemassa olevat työkalut, jotka olivat mukana kehitysprosessissa. Kehityksessä sovellettiin ketteriä menetelmiä käyttämällä iteratiivisia ja inkrementaalisia kehityssyklejä, joissa demoesitykset palautteineen seurasivat kehitys- ja testausvaiheita jaksollisesti. Onnistuneen kehitystyön seurauksena saatiin aikaan uusi käyttötilanteiden testaustyökalu, joka sisältää kolme pääasiallista testaustoimintoa: yksittäiset testaustilanteet, laaja simulaatiotestaus ja kommunikaatioyhdyskäytävän testaus. Testauksen valmistelutoiminnot ja testaustulosten raportointi sisällytettiin työkaluun testausta tukevina toimintoina. Aiemmin kehitetyistä työkaluista sisällytettiin onnistuneesti ominaisuuksia uuteen työkaluun osana kehitystä, ja lopuksi voitiin arvioida työkalun tulevaisuuden kehitystä

A review of architectures and concepts for intelligence in future electric energy system

Renewable energy sources are one key enabler to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and to cope with the anthropogenic climate change. Their intermittent behavior and limited storage capabilities present a new challenge to power system operators to maintain power quality and reliability. Additional technical complexity arises from the large number of small distributed generation units and their allocation within the power system. Market liberalization and changing regulatory framework lead to additional organizational complexity. As a result, the design and operation of the future electric energy system have to be redefined. Sophisticated information and communication architectures, automation concepts, and control approaches are necessary in order to manage the higher complexity of so-called smart grids. This paper provides an overview of the state of the art and recent developments enabling higher intelligence in future smart grids. The integration of renewable sources and storage systems into the power grids is analyzed. Energy management and demand response methods and important automation paradigms and domain standards are also reviewed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Data management of on-line partial discharge monitoring using wireless sensor nodes integrated with a multi-agent system

On-line partial discharge monitoring has been the subject of significant research in previous years but little work has been carried out with regard to the management of on-site data. To date, on-line partial discharge monitoring within a substation has only been concerned with single plant items, so the data management problem has been minimal. As the age of plant equipment increases, so does the need for condition monitoring to ensure maximum lifespan. This paper presents an approach to the management of partial discharge data through the use of embedded monitoring techniques running on wireless sensor nodes. This method is illustrated by a case study on partial discharge monitoring data from an ageing HVDC reactor

Investigation of Wireless LAN for IEC 61850 based Smart Distribution Substations

The IEC 61850 standard is receiving acceptance worldwide to deploy Ethernet Local Area Networks (LANs) for electrical substations in a smart grid environment. With the recent growth in wireless communication technologies, wireless Ethernet or Wireless LAN (WLAN), standardized in IEEE 802.11, is gaining interest in the power industry for substation automation applications, especially at the distribution level. Low Voltage (LV) / Medium Voltage (MV) distribution substations have comparatively low time-critical performance requirements. At the same time, expensive but high data-rate fiber-based Ethernet networks may not be a feasible solution for the MV/LV distribution network. Extensive work is carried out to assess wireless LAN technologies for various IEC 61850 based smart distribution substation applications: control and monitoring; automation and metering; and over-current protection. First, the investigation of wireless LANs for various smart distribution substation applications was initiated with radio noise-level measurements in total five (27.6 and 13.8 kV) substations owned by London Hydro and Hydro One in London, ON, Canada. The measured noise level from a spectrum analyzer was modeled using the Probability Distribution Function (PDF) tool in MATLAB, and parameters for these models in the 2.4 GHz band and 5.8 GHz band were obtained. Further, this measured noise models were used to simulate substation environment in OPNET (the industry-trusted communication networking simulation) tool. In addition, the efforts for developing dynamic models of WLAN-enabled IEC 61850 devices were initiated using Proto-C programming in OPNET tool. The IEC 61850 based devices, such as Protection and Control (P&C) Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs) and Merging Unit (MU) were developed based on the OSI-7 layer stack proposed in IEC 61850. The performance of various smart distribution substation applications was assessed in terms of average and maximum message transfer delays and throughput. The work was extended by developing hardware prototypes of WLAN enabled IEC 61850 devices in the R&D laboratory at University of Western Ontario, Canada. P&C IED, MU, Processing IED, and Echo IED were developed using industrial embedded computers over the QNX Real Time Operating System (RTOS) platform. The functions were developed using hard real-time multithreads, timers, and so on to communicate IEC 61850 application messages for analyzing WLAN performance in terms of Round Trip Time (RTT) and throughput. The laboratory was set up with WLAN-enabled IEC 61850 devices, a commercially available WLAN Access Point (AP), noise sources, and spectrum and network analyzers. Performance of various smart distribution substation applications is examined within the developed laboratory. Finally, the performance evaluation was carried out in real-world field testing at 13.8 and 27.6 kV distribution substations, by installing the devices in substation control room and switchyard. The RTT of IEC 61850 based messages and operating time of the overcurrent protection using WLAN based communication network were evaluated in the harsh environment of actual distribution substations. The important findings from the exhaustive investigation were discussed throughout this work