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Courtesy of ABB

GRID INNOVATIONS > SMART GRID

The Smart Substation

Tomorrow's grid needs intelligent networks made up of intelligent substations.
Gene Wolf
JUL 15, 2016

The world has gone digital and that includes the electricity industry. It is hard to remember the time
when relays were simple electromechanical devices without firmware, communications interfaces or
multifunctionality. Providing electricity has always been challenging, but new technologies increased
the complexity of that challenge when moving from the 20th century to the 21st century. The industry
had to bridge the gap between aging analog devices and digital technologies.

Today, there is not a single component in a substation that has not been enhanced, enriched or
augmented by some form of embedded digital technology, making them operate better at higher ratings
with more reliability than ever before. However, the challenge now is integrating all of these elements
into a totally digital substation and making it work in a demanding environment.
Several issues are pushing the digitalization of the electrical substation. The grid is operating mainly at
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maximum capacity in much of the developed world as customers demand more power and better power
quality. Therefore, when a fault takes place, it must be cleared as quickly as possible, which is where
modern digital technology offers so many benefits. On the customer side of the meter, digital
technology is being integrated into the Internet of Things (IoT). In a nutshell, IoT is a network of
devices, buildings, vehicles and just about every other type of physical object one can think of equipped
with sensors, connected by networks, and monitored and controlled by computer-based systems.

Smart Is Not New

With IoT, people can check the security of their homes from hundreds of miles, or kilometers, away.
Home thermostats can be adjusted from any location by pulling up an app on a smartphone. Luggage
can be tracked with another app when the airline says it cannot locate a missing suitcase. Cars even e-
mail their owners when they need maintenance. And IoT has taken this connectivity to a level of being
able to add sensors on people and monitor them with wired workout clothes and devices like a Fitbit
fitness tracker.

This level of connectivity also has found its way into substations and switching stations, as utilities
integrate more equipment with interconnectivity capability. The digital substation concept has been
grabbing a lot of traction with utilities around the world, but one should know digital technology is not
a new concept to the electric power industry. Utilities have been digitizing their facilities in one form or
another for decades. In the period after World War II, transmission systems experienced an
unparalleled growth period as demand for electricity increased. Visionaries saw a need for new
technologies to play a bigger role in how the grid was controlled and managed.

Long before there was a smart grid, the electric power industry had a stratagem of an all-knowing grid
with technology-enabled substations networked into a communicating transmission and distribution
grid. The nomenclature may have been different, but the idea had smart grid written all over it; the
technology just needed time to develop. The industry deployed supervisory control and data acquisition
(SCADA) and then remote terminal units (RTUs) were introduced. These were followed by the
introduction of micro-processor-based relays for control and protection systems.

Technology moved forward and communications interfaces were integrated directly into the
microprocessor-based relays. Advancements in the microprocessor’s firmware and software brought
about multifunctional microprocessor-based relays that communicated directly with RTUs and
gateways.
All of these innovations ramped up the complicatedness, but they also increased system performance
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enormously. During about the same time frame, vendors began incorporating intelligent electronic
device (IED) technology into the electrical apparatus and components found throughout the substation,
including the switchyard. As a result, the industry experienced a transformation more far-reaching
than any in the past. Not only was the industry exploiting digital technology, but it was setting the stage
for incorporating IoT technology into the grid.

Digital technologies are driving the evolution of digital substations. This FOCS is smaller than
conventional current transformers. It also provides direct digital measurements and doesn’t use copper
cable to take data into the control building.

New devices make up smarter grid technology with better communications, modern computer
technology and more intelligent automation devices.

Standards Are the Key

There was one small problem initially — proprietary equipment. Each of the systems and all of their
components were exclusive and protected by patents and copyrights. In other words, one
manufacturer’s system did not play well with another manufacturer’s system (that is, they could not
communicate).
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At best, communications between the different manufacturers’ schemes was piecemeal and
fragmented. One might say they were mutually incompatible and kept that way with an assortment of
nonstandard messaging protocols. It was the technological equivalent to the Tower of Babel. Luckily, it
did not take a rocket scientist to see the problem proprietary systems caused. As a result, open
standards became the solution.

In 1995, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) began working on IEC 61850, a
communications standard published in 2003 for electrical substation automation systems. Today, this
document has many parts that relate to data modeling, reporting schemes, fast event transfers, setting
groups, sample date transfer, commands and data storage that create a uniform basis for the
protection, control and communications of substations. A short time after IEC 61850 was accepted, IEC
61850-9-1 (a point-to-point unidirectional process bus) was introduced.

By 2005, the world’s first IEC 61850-based substation was commissioned in Switzerland. It was the
Winznauschachen substation owned by Swiss distribution network operator Atel Versorgungs AG, part
of the Aare-Tessin AG Group, an independent power producer. The Swiss substation was transformed
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into a substation with an IEC 61850-based protection and control system that included several IEDs to
improve control and feedback.

Today’s conventional substation design may include digital technology, but it doesn’t take advantage of
the technology’s potential. Courtesy of ABB.

A truly digital substation uses state of the art intelligent digital technologies, digital messaging systems,
process bus and data management. Courtesy of ABB.

Smarter Substations
More than 100 substations were installed worldwide by 2007, all claiming to be operating with IEC
61850-based equipment, but utilities had a new concern. Industry-wise, IEC 61850 had been
developed, but no one had tested the interchangeability of intelligent devices from multiple
manufacturers. But what happens if you mix and match components and systems from different
suppliers?
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This was the question Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) in Mexico wanted answered. Suppliers
had been diligent about getting their equipment certified to be in compliance with IEC 61850, but none
of the manufacturers were working together for group certification.

CFE decided IEC 61850 interoperability needed actual field testing in an operating substation, which is
reasonable because the substation is a melting pot of technologies. CFE reasoned the best lab was its
transmission grid, so the utility turned its 230-kV La Venta Wind Park substation — located in
Juchitán, Oaxaca, Mexico — into a test bed for this interchangeability. CFE brought together six
manufacturers — RUGGEDCOM, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, GE Energy, Siemens, ZIV and
Team Arteche — using nine product platforms for the second phase of the substation expansion.

It was the acid test to see if components from multiple suppliers built to the IEC 61850 standard could
actually be plug and play. Well, it worked. CFE’s experiment at the La Venta substation became the
world’s first IEC 61850-based substation using multiple manufacturers to be placed in service on a
utility’s transmission grid. Interoperability was no longer a cerebral notion but an actual field-proven
fact, and the industry was one step closer to the reality of a totally digital substation. Proving this plug-
and-play feature was a huge step forward.

China is integrating next-generation smart substation technology, according to the State Grid China
Corp. The project uses state-of-the-art software and power technology to enable remote control,
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protection, automation, monitoring and diagnostics for these substations, as well as to allow both a
reduction in their operating costs and footprint. Courtesy of ABB.

The Digital Divide

What exactly is a digital substation? It sounds like they have been built for a long time now. Substations
have had many digital devices integrated into their infrastructure, but what the industry has today is a
hybrid of analog and digital technologies. The purely analog substation is hard to find and definitely on
the endangered species list, but the totally digital substation has not completely emerged, either. The
definition of the digital substation is a moving target because technology is changing so quickly.

Technical providers talk about levels, hierarchies or architectures to describe a digital substation.
Whatever their name, they are usually broken down into general terms such as a communications
element, a control and protection function, and a process portion. Sometimes the components are
found in several levels, and this gets a little confusing. For the purpose of this discussion, the focus will
be more on the function than the form.

The one element that has the most consistent definition among the experts is the communications
level, which, by the way, is probably the most established. In its simplest form, it is a high-speed
bidirectional multipoint communications system. It handles communications within the substation.
Such a system adds more flexibility to the facility than found in the traditional substation. It enables
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substation devices to speak directly to each other as well as to other digital substations in the network.
It uses the generic object-oriented substation events (GOOSE) protocol defined by IEC 61850, which is
intended to replace traditional hardwired communications completely (that is, contacts and metallic
wiring) between IEDs with Ethernet cables and fiber optics.

The next two elements are where things get a little complicated. The control and protection is
associated with the secondary equipment level, and the process is associated with the primary
equipment level. The issue is what devices go in which category as some equipment is found in both.
Because the jury still seems to be out on this issue, it might be best to limit the discussion to the
advancements in the digital technology for specific apparatuses and let the categories sort themselves
out.

Australian company Powerlink Queensland’s first digital substation project was commissioned in 2011.
This project included a series of six digital substations with process bus and nonconventional
instrument transformer technology. The second and third substations were commissioned in 2013 and
2014, respectively. Courtesy of ABB.

Digital Measurements
Current and voltage measurements are two critical monitoring functions in both the analog and digital
substations. Traditionally, these measurements have been performed by instrument transformers such
as potential transformers (PTs), capacitive voltage transformers (CVTs) and current transformers
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(CTs). PTs and CTs are wire-wound devices with a secondary winding to reduce the voltage or current
to safe levels for use in the protection and control schemes. CVTs use a capacitive arrangement to
accomplish the same results.

Unfortunately, the digital substation and conventional instrument transformers were not made for
each other. CTs and PTs have accuracy issues and use copper wire carrying voltages into the control
and protection systems.

For the digital substation, a better method exists than using traditional instrument transformers. More
than 40 years ago, researchers discovered a phase shift in polarized light is caused by an
electromagnetic field (the Faraday effect) in fiber optics. It was also discovered that the shift is directly
proportional to the current flowing in the high-voltage line, around which the fiber is wrapped.

In effect, the current flowing through the line could be measured without using a traditional CT. This
led to the development of the fiber-optic current sensor, which offers faster responses and more precise
measurements than conventional CTs, with a digital interface, which are needed for integration into the
digital substation.

Fiber-optic current sensors belong to a group of transducers referred to as nonconventional instrument

transformers (NCITs). These devices are optical instrument transformers that can be used to measure
current and voltage. NCITs offer some significant benefits over the traditional instrument
transformers. They offer improved safety by insulating secondary equipment from high voltages with
fiber-optic cable rather than copper wire.

Environmentally, NCITs do not contain SF6 gas or oil, which is becoming more important all the time.
Size-wise, there is no comparison as voltage levels increase, which reduce a substation’s footprint and
enable more compact designs.

One characteristic that may overshadow these benefits is the ability of NCITs to offer a high-
measurement bandwidth for fundamental frequency, harmonics, inter-harmonics, sub-harmonics and
power-quality metering. Harmonic distortion takes place when nonlinear loads are applied to the
electric system, and they can be damaging to electrical equipment.

Renewable generation facilities are adding harmonics to the grid, as are customers with power
electronics and induction motors. As a result, many independent system operators and regional
transmission operators are requiring utilities to monitor harmonics in an effort to track down the
responsible parties and have them filter out the harmonics at the source. NCITs are superior to
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conventional instrument transformers for this type of duty.

Process Bus
The digital substation also uses a process bus, which not only controls the equipment in the substation
yard but adds flexibility by enabling digital devices to talk directly to each other. The process bus really
enables sensitive digital equipment to be placed right in the breaker bay.

The process bus replaces the analog controls traditionally found in control cabinets in the circuit
breakers, motor-operated disconnect switches, power transformers and metering devices, but it has an
additional far-reaching effect in the design. Traditionally, substation engineers have always used
copper for all the control wiring between equipment, measuring devices and monitoring systems.

Interconnecting these devices and components of a substation has required thousands of individual
copper cables and connections as well as a great deal of labor. Digital technology using GOOSE
messaging enables more efficient use of fiber-optic cables. A single fiber-optic cable can replace all the
control cable to a switchyard device. These cables are easier to install, are more reliable and require
significantly less checkout time for testing and commissioning.

If all the substation’s hardwired point-to-point control and monitoring cabling were replaced with
fiber, it is estimated there would be an 80% reduction in copper cable in the substation. This would
result in substantial cost savings with the prices of copper fluctuating so dramatically lately.

Digital Deployment
The electrical digital substation is an idea whose time has come. Utilities around the world are building
advanced substations with many of the aforementioned features. One of the most innovative projects is
taking place in Scotland. The energy networks division of Scottish Power is taking part in the Future
Intelligent Transmission Network Substation (FITNESS) project.

FITNESS is sponsored by Great Britain’s Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (OFGEM) to develop a
state-of-the-art digital substation network to demonstrate how digitalized information, automation and
communications technology within a substation can improve reliability and controllability. FITNESS is
a partnership between Scottish Power, ABB, GE Grid Solutions, Synaptec and Manchester University.

Scottish Power’s 275-kV Wishaw substation was selected to be the first digital substation in the UK. The
station is being digitally upgraded as a result of a large concentration of wind power plants in the area.
The station will be equipped with new fully integrated digital control and protection systems to improve
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system monitoring, diagnostics and operational abilities. Also, fiber-optic cables will replace the
traditional copper hardwired connections. Both ABB and GE will deliver IEDs for the project. They will
include NCITs, merging units and phasor measurement units interfaced with the IEC 61850-9-2
process bus architecture and with wide-area monitoring system.

Claudio Facchin, president of ABB’s power grids division, said, “This project will demonstrate how
digitalized communications within a substation can increase controllability, facilitate the integration of
intermittent renewables and improve safety by replacing copper cabling with fiber optics. A key
element of our ‘next level’ strategy is to focus on enabling the automation of the grid in line with our
Internet of Things, Services and People approach to help utilities improve reliability and ensure safe
and clean energy supply to consumers.”

The FITNESS project, which began in April 2016, will run for four years and aims to demonstrate a
fully integrated multivendor digital substation solution with associated protection, control and
monitoring. The main driver for this project is substation control and protection requirements need to
change significantly as low-carbon generation and high-voltage direct-current interconnections
increase.

Digital Advantage
The smart grid is, after all, still a wired grid. The power industry has spent a great deal of time and
money digitizing the power system, which now has more capability than ever before. The transmission
line has embedded sensors to enable the system operator to see individual transmission line capacity as
a dynamic rating. The distribution system has been entrenched completely with monitoring technology
to sectionalize faults and isolate problems to small segments without causing massive customer
blackouts. Now the digital technology implanted in the substation is being tapped to make it an
intelligent web of smart components acting as a network interactive with other digital substations on
the system.

Utilities have the ability to gather, filter and trend data to determine the health of equipment and the
condition of the network, but another level has received attention — technology. After all, it is the
technology that makes the management of energy systems much easier. The equipment sends a
notification when maintenance is needed or a problem is found, and then groups of digital substations
work together to route electricity around the maintenance or problems rather than interrupting the
flow of power.
With all these advantages going for it, there will certainly be a digital substation in every utility’s future,
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if it is not in place
already.

VOICE YOUR OPINION!

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Latest Comments
Posted by mlsachdeva Dec 22nd, 2016 7:58am
Congrat for explicit document. Execution of New Digital Project ( Independent) deploying various
manufacturers assemblies collobrating performance meeting IEC 61850. However almost all the
international agencies whenever take up extension or new station agree to execute project
conforming meeting IEC 61850 but generally hesistate to extend SAS/ SCADA facilities to other end
station if the communication facilities available there are of di erent manufacturer(s).Even if they
agree to do, the execution cost is very high indirectly refusal.
The Smart S/Ss is good technology for a Group of Substations when executed simultaneously but
performance of a new smart S/S in conjuction with a number of existing modi ed S/Ss may not be
encourging
Wish Merry X-Mass and Happy Prosperous New Year 2017

Posted by legacyAnonymous Sep 29th, 2016 9:18am

1. Digital SA is furture and trend, right now ABB still focus on traditioal SAS with copper.2. We are also
taking care about cyber sercurity, if possible, check the how to protect process bus from ABB.3.We
do the digital SA in Austrilia serval years ago, we still think this technology should be used carefully
and with experienced team, we build TSA for selling process bus product.

Posted by legacyAnonymous Sep 14th, 2016 1:50am

Really? In the real world of investor owned utilities there are still a TON of electromechanical relays
running things due to deferred maintenance and upgrades. Also, I take complete issue to the phrase
"embedded digital technology, making them operate better at higher ratings with more reliability
than ever before". In my experience, embedded digital technology has a roughly 10 year design life -
I know of electromechanical relays that ran continuously for 50 years in coal plants....
I'm also curious how digital technology can raise the BIL level of an insulator or the ampacity of a 795
ACSR cable.....
If anything, all this digital crap is just opening power grids up to cyber attack.....
"Smart" Grid? No, we need a dumber, stronger grid. More copper and porcelain please!

Posted by legacyAnonymous Aug 24th, 2016 10:26am

Eye opener on IoT and IEC61850.

Posted by legacyAnonymous Aug 23rd, 2016 7:51pm

 Smart Substation is the one which can ful ll same tasks with much less equipment connections and
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land requirements. Added equipment reduce relaibilty and availability.
For more info. you may contact me.

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GRID INNOVATIONS > SMART GRID

Wireless Connectivity: SU-MIMO vs. MU-MIMO

Grid digitalization is a growing trend and utilities are plugging in more wireless devices
every day.
Gene Wolf
MAR 02, 2021

A recent article on remote workplaces grabbed my attention. It was focused on the long-term trends
over the past year. It started off with mostly décor subjects, but there were good points, such as
improved ergonomics. A dedicated desk with a comfortable chair was a big plus, but if you don’t have
room for a desk, it suggested an adjustable workstation. It moved into some tech toys like noise-
canceling headphones, but my attention was captured by the comments on the virtual office’s internet
connection.

The virtual office is all about wireless connectivity and so is the rest of our Wi-Fi enabled world. We
rely on our internet connection for every aspect of working remotely, video classes for students, e-
shopping, streaming for entertainment, etc., so it needs to have consistent connectivity for highest
performance. This description touched a nerve, I had recently noticed Wi-Fi limitations in my own
cyber office.

Wireless Congestion
Have you ever heard of MIMO (multiple inputs, multiple outputs)? What about SU-MIMO (single-user
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MIMO) or MU-MIMO (multi-user MIMO)? These are terms that are typically applied to Wi-Fi
networks when the talk shifts to wireless connectivity. Without getting into a lot of techie-jargon, the
typical home Wi-Fi network has many devices hooked up to it. Each device needs connectivity and gets
it via the internet access point. In most cases these connections are wireless, which has gotten more
complicated with the pandemic.

In simple terms, home Wi-Fi devices need to access the internet, which becomes harder as devices
increase. SU-MIMO forces each connected device to wait its turn to send and receive data, which slows
down the network and performance suffers. It is so gradual that it’s hard to notice that it’s impacting
your virtual office. That’s what happened to me and the performance of my system.

My video conferencing quality was down, but everybody complains about video conferencing. Also, my
software platforms were not performing optimally and streaming and downloading were suffering. I
did some serious head scratching after reading the article that focused my attention on my cyber
office’s performance.

Just to be safe, I checked my computer first. I had built it a few years ago using high-performance
gaming components. It was really overkill for the average engineering computer, but as they say, if it’s
worth doing, it’s worth overdoing! My desktop was designed to be a screaming-fast computer and all
my diagnostics confirmed it still was. It had to be my internet connection.

I did a couple of the internet speed tests and my connection’s speed was faster than what my provider
was charging me for each month – value added. Next I needed to test the Wi-Fi quality, so I got out my
trusty Wi-Fi analyzer and started testing – bingo, SU-MIMO had gotten me! That was the problem and
I had done it to myself. I quickly found the Wi-Fi was congested and the router’s signal strength wasn’t
uniform throughout the house.

Like most remote workers, I had been adding new Wi-Fi devices to my network without considering
what I was doing to the system’s performance. The analyzer identified over 25 devices (computers,
tablets, smartphones, smart-TVs, etc.) on my network and each device needed connectivity. I checked
the nameplate on my router and found it was the SU-MIMO-based IEEE 802.11n standard.

My router couldn’t handle all the devices I had connected to it. As a result, my Wi-Fi system suffered
interruptions and delays. My router needed upgrading to MU-MIMO technology. The latest generation
is the IEEE 802.11ax standard or Wi-Fi 6 as it is known by the Wi-Fi Alliance. This next generation
technology provides the MU-MIMO performance needed for connecting multiple devices for
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simultaneous data flow. It was created for device-crowded environments like mine.

I solved my Wi-Fi operational problems, but it got me thinking about the growing use of wireless
technology in our smart grid. Grid digitalization is a growing trend and utilities are plugging in more
wireless devices every day. The digital infrastructure is critical to the smart grid’s success. Like my
virtual office, we have to pay attention to the mix of generations found in the digital infrastructure.

I had bought one of the best routers of 2010 and then forgot about it. As good as that technology was, it
couldn’t handle 2020. Utilities expect equipment to last at least a decade, but is that reasonable for
digital technology? It wasn’t for my virtual office!

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