11-01-2014, 02:23 PM
MICROPROCESSOR-BASED RELAYS AN ENABLER TO SCADA INTEGRATION
MICROPROCESSOR-BASED RELAYS.pdf (Size: 194.56 KB / Downloads: 10)
SCADA integration has historically
been a costly and complex venture
for many utilities. The need for
simplified amalgamation has become
increasingly pressing as the industry
moves to the establishment of open,
worldwide accepted standards to share
data seamlessly throughout the organiza-
tion. While the establishment of these
protocols is an important catalyst in the
successful evolution of today’s SCADA
environments, there is the ongoing chal-
lenge of ensuring that substation equip-
ment is optimized in order to leverage all
the technology and economic benefits
that these standards bring to the equation.
Now more than ever, utilities need
flexible, microprocessor-based hardware
and software tools to truly realize these
benefits. Without them, SCADA systems
will continue to be restricted by the com-
plexities of working with proprietary
equipment, software and communica-
tions protocols. Among other challenges,
equipment having different proprietary
protocols cannot be integrated without
the installation of Remote Terminal Units
(RTUs) to perform the translation work,
which is both expensive and labour-
intensive.
THE NEED FOR GLOBAL
COMMUNICATIONS PROTOCOLS
Industry experience has demonstrat-
ed the need and the opportunity for
developing standard communication pro-
tocols, which would support interoper-
ability of IEDs from different manufac-
turers. Interoperability in this case is the
ability to operate on the same network or
communication path sharing information
and commands. There is also a desire to
have IED interchangeability — i.e. the
ability to replace a device supplied by
one manufacturer with a device supplied
by another manufacturer — without
making changes to the other elements in
the system. Interoperability is a common
goal for electric utilities, equipment ven-
dors and standardization bodies.