INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS FOR HANDLING ELECTRICAL TRANSMISSION NETWORKS

Ronen Aharon

ABB Technologies Ltd. (Israel)

SUMMARY Numerical technology implemented in Substation

Automation Systems can be characterised by:
The increasing complexity of power transmission • High degree of self-supervision
networks and the demanding requirements concerning • The integration of more and more functions within
the availability and the quality of power supply have a a common hardware structure
significant impact on the performance required from the • Decentralized systems with distributed intelligence
automation and protection systems in power substations. covering control and protection applications
Furthermore worldwide economic changes and stiff • The use of a hardware platform with a software
competition demand better utilization of electrical library of functions instead of strictly dedicated
assets. products
• Increased communication capabilities with optical
The fast developing microelectronics technology is links
being implemented in protection and control systems. • Synergy between protection and control and
Numerical devices and communication links in modern availability to realize new functionality
Substation Automation Systems (SAS) give the user
• Reduced life cycle costs for the entire life of the
new, enhanced possibilities to improve operation and
installation
maintenance of substations.
3. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
The know-how gained through years of experience
together with the huge amount of data that is available
SAS for power transmission and distribution consist of
today in SAS, must be handled properly to provide the
several intelligent electronic devices interconnected
right information at the right time.
through digital communication links. From the
architectural point of view, the following main
This paper presents the substation automation concept,
hierarchical levels can be identified in SAS (as
its benefits and new IT solutions for data analysis.
illustrated in figure 1):
1. INTRODUCTION
Station Level
This level comprises the station wide control and
Modern state-of-the-art SAS is based on numerical
supervision scheme. The station server includes high
technology that covers protection, control,
performance hardware and software.
tele-metering, power quality analysis and condition
monitoring of substation assets.
Hardware: High end PC server; communication card
handling the high stream of data; GPS for absolute time
The integrated solutions offered by the substation
synchronization; Ethernet card for backbone
automation concept make network handling more
communication to local LAN or WAN; printer server
efficient and user friendly, and improve overall
for connecting the event and hard copy printers; and an
performance of the electrical system. This applies to the
alarm unit for watchdog alarm.
control and protection functions, both within the
primary equipment and between process and
Software: Multi tasking operating system, high
higher-level information systems.
performance real time database including auxiliary
services, tools for data engineering, system
New IT tools are offered today as an integral part of the
configuration and picture editing, disturbance recording
SAS, providing the substation/utility personnel with
evaluation and Advanced Report Tool (ART).
useful information within a short time following the
fault and without the need of human intervention.
The software conforms to international standards such
as ODBC/SQL, API, TCP/IP, DDE/DDE Net,
2. TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGES
IEC-870-5-101, etc., and enables integration of standard
applications into the Substation Automation System.
The essential changes caused by the numerical
technology have been presented and discussed for
several years.

ABB Technologies Ltd. 

 Figure 1: Block Diagram of modern Substation Automation System
Bay level
This level includes all secondary equipment associated
with the control and protection of bays and feeders.
Bay protection and control units are installed in
switchgears or in separate control panels to perform the
control, automation and data acquisition.
The bay level system is built in a decentralized
architecture to increase the availability and reliability of
the whole SAS system.
• Protection functionality allocated per bay
• Control (collection of the switching objects
positions, command of the switching objects from
the bay and from remote station level)
• Bay interlocking
• Automation features such as bay and inter-bay logic
functions, frequency and voltage load shedding,
synchrocheck, recloser, circuit breaker failure
protection, etc.
• Event recorder with 1mSec time-tag
• Disturbance recorder for wave form capture
• Metering and measurements
• Power quality analysis
• Condition monitoring such as breaker wear for
prediction maintenance, trip coil supervision etc.
Bay unit can be used as a protection unit, a control unit
or a combined protection/control unit. The appropriate
functions including metering and power quality can be
selected by the user. The platform is prepared to
communicate with different types of units.
Communication system
The communication network in the substation enables
data flow within the bay level (horizontal
communication) and between bay level and station level
(vertical communication). An additional communication
link is established between the station level and remote
ABB Technologies Ltd.
workstation or maintenance center, which enables the
share of data between key persons in the organization.
The communication infrastructure is based on optical
fibers to reduce the amount of cabling and provide the
user with reliable information that is immune to
electrical interference. Furthermore, the bus must be
able to transfer the synchronization impulses, in order to
synchronize the time-tagged events memorized at bay
level. This synchronization mechanism is essential to
assure 1 mSec resolution between events.
The inter-bay bus communication in the bay level
provides the functionality of bay to bay communication
including implementation of interlocking conditions.
4. DATA ANALYSIS
SAS generates a large amount of data, the analysis of
which is crucial for optimal utilization of network
assets. To maximize the benefit from the generated data
it is essential to have the proper IT tools to handle the
data and convert it into useful information for operators,
electrical engineers and managers within the utility or
industrial organization.
The following data can be generated by the Station
Automation System:
• Events and alarms from the protection system
• Events and alarms from the control system
• Disturbance recording data
• Condition monitoring data
• Power quality data
• Metering and measurement data
Figures 2 and 3 include the software tools, which handle
the disturbance recording data and harmonic distortion
of voltages (power quality data).

Figure 2: Disturbance Recording Data
Figure 3: Power Quality Data
Transient data
Transient data generated at the time the fault occurs
includes very important information that may lead to
identifying the cause.
The following data must be evaluated:
• Station & feeder name
• Protection name
• Protection type
• Protection starting time with 1mSec time tag
• Protection trip time with 1 mSec time tag
• Short circuit or load current in KAmp
• Total trip time
A detailed report including this data and sorted by its
appearance in time provides a clear and distinct picture
of the transmission system’s behavior during the fault
- figure 4. Additional complimentary information for
this report is the disturbance-recording file, which
represents the changes in analogue values during the
fault over time.
ABB Technologies Ltd.
Figure 4: Protection Operation Report
Additional information can be obtained by executing
transformations of the data.
For example, protection start statistics is an excellent
tool for observing instability phenomena in the
transmission system as described in figure 5.
Figure 5: Protection Start Statistics
Monitoring data
The monitoring data is steady state information
available from primary equipment like power
transformers, circuit breakers, etc. This information
addresses mainly the wear and ageing caused by normal
or temporary abnormal working conditions.
Example of maintenance information for circuit
breakers
In this report the number of trips and the aggregate
current during each trip of every circuit breaker in the
substation is recorded. The fault or load current (highest
of the three phases) is measured and recorded. The
corresponding value is transferred to the SAS where it is
added to the last total current for particular circuit
breaker. Fast and slow auto-reclosure attempts are also
recorded.
The service personnel can view the trips and the
aggregate rupture current and determine the best time
for the next maintenance.


Figure 6: Circuit breaker switching statistics
Example of power transformer loading
There might be an opportunity to overload the
transformer in order to gain financial benefits resulting
from additional sales of transmission capacity. Such an
overload, however, will result in the shortening of the
life of the transformer. The result is the damaging of
transformer insulation if the operating temperature
exceeds the design limits.
The overloading of transformers has several financial
implications. Thus, to perform cost/benefit analysis of
overloading a transformer, information is needed about
transformer loading, ambient conditions and financial
factors.
Figure 7: Trends in transformer loading
5. Conclusions
Implementation of Substation Automation System
together with innovative IT tools creates real added
value to the customer in control, protection metering
and condition monitoring.
Having explicit knowledge about the behavior of the
transmission system during fault and in pre-fault
ABB Technologies Ltd.
conditions improves network availability and reduces
the occurrence and length of power outages.
Condition monitoring assists in better asset management
and optimizes maintenance policy.
As in any IT system, it is vital that management at all
organisational levels, will be committed to assimilating
the system into the organization in order to gain the
benefits of modern substation automation system.
REFERENCES
(1) De Mesmaeker I. and Augé O., “Experience,
Benefits and Trends in Integrated Protection
and Control”, GCC CIGRE SEVENTH
SYMPOSIUM, Sultanat of Oman, 30-31
October 1996
(2) De Mesmaeker I., Brockett P. and Landau H.,
“Advantages of modern protection and control
system architecture and the operational
consequences for utilities”, CIGRE 34-109,
Session Paris, August/September 1998
(3) Tellarini M., Novosel D., Peterson W. and
Bacchini G.
“Fault generation and analysis in modern
substation automation systems” CIGRE
October 1999.
(4) Kreuzer A.
“Station automation and integration in user’s
communication system”, ETG-Tagung
"Modernes Anlagekonzept in der HS-Technik"
, Mai 2000 in Zurich