Substation Automation System for Electricity Distribution – What are the Components Involved
Substation Automation System for Electricity Distribution What are the Components Involved
Substation automation is an integrated technology employed by most developed countries in their electric utility sector as it helps to provide reliable, robust, scalable and efficient electricity distribution and transmission at highly cost effective rates to all consumers. This automated system has an array of advantages like reduced manpower, labor costs, less expensive devices, less transportation costs, use of reduced copper wiring to name a few. There are various components that are integrated together to make up this system.
The first of these components is the SCADA which involves intelligent electronic devices or IEDs and remote terminal units or RTUs. Cheap and effective remote devices are now available which are placed at external locations to continuously monitor various aspects of electricity distribution and transmission. Any fault or disturbance in the normal functioning is picked up the intelligent electronic devices and remote terminal units to the main data center using the communications network.
The second important component of substation automation is the sophisticated communications network incorporating various computer systems through high speed Ethernet cables. It is this high speed network that enables the transmission of data to and from the devices to the data control room and hence is of crucial importance to the entire system. The centralized data room remains the hub of activity where all the data and signals come in on a second by second basis. Any shift or disturbance in the normal functioning results in alarms which draws the attention of the operator. Once the data is interpreted, the fault can be rectified by giving the necessary instructions which is then transmitted using the communications network back to the external devices.
The integration of the various components of this automated system enables the power industry to provide efficient service to all end users while keeping costs down at the same time. There are also regulatory bodies like NERC which ensure that all the cyber assets and various security parameters of this system are protected at all times from both internal and external threats.
Developing countries can make use of the Substation Automation as it will certainly play a major role in boosting up their utility sector in a much different way that they never ever dreamt to be!