GRID INTEGRATION TECHNOLOGY

ASSIGNMENT-2
Detailed Study of Distribution Management System (DMS) & Distribution
SCADA
Operating the electric grid at close to normal frequency, without causing any unexpected
disconnections of load or generation, is known as maintaining electrical integrity or “normal
synchronous operation.” The first centralized control centres designed to maintain the integrity
of the electric grid were implemented in the 1950s. Control centres use a software and hardware
system called an energy management system (EMS). Based on a centralized command and
control paradigm, the EMS has evolved over the past six decades into much larger and more
complex systems through computer automation. But the newer systems have the same simple
mission as the original system: “Keep power available on at all times. An EMS monitors and
manages flows in the higher-voltage transmission network. A distribution management system
(DMS) monitors and manages flows in the lower-voltage distribution network.
A distribution management system (DMS) is a collection of applications designed to monitor
and control the electric power distribution networks efficiently and reliably. It acts as a decision
support system to assist the control room and field operating personnel with the monitoring
and control of the electric distribution system. Improving the reliability and quality of service
in terms of reducing outages, minimizing outage time, maintaining acceptable frequency and
voltage levels are the key deliverables of a DMS. Real time-view and dynamic decisions have
become instrumental for optimizing resources and managing demands, leading to the need for
distribution management systems in large-scale electrical networks.
Various functions of DMS

• Reduce the duration of outages

• Improve the speed and accuracy of outage predictions.
• Reduce crew patrol and drive times through improved outage locating.
• Improve the operational efficiency
• Determine the crew resources necessary to achieve restoration objectives.
• Effectively utilize resources between operating regions.
• Determine when best to schedule mutual aid crews.
• Increased customer satisfaction
• A DMS incorporates IVR and other mobile technologies, through which there is
an improved outage communications for customer calls.
• Provide customers with more accurate estimated restoration times.
• Improve service reliability by tracking all customers affected by an outage,
determining electrical configurations of every device on every feeder, and
compiling details about each restoration process.
To support proper decision making and O&M activities, DMS solutions should support the
following functions:

• Network utilization & support tools

 • Applications for Analytical & Remedial Action
• Utility Planning Tools
• System Protection Schemes

As per IEC 61968, a DMS encapsulates various capabilities like monitoring and control of
equipment for power delivery, management processes to ensure system reliability, voltage
management, demand-side management, outage management, work management, automated
mapping and facilities management.

Most distribution utilities have been comprehensively using IT solutions through their Outage
Management System (OMS) that makes use of other systems like Customer Interface
System (CIS), Geographical Information System (GIS) and Interactive Voice Response
System (IVRS). An outage management system has a network component/connectivity model
of the distribution system. In parallel with this, distribution utilities began to roll
out Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems, initially only at their higher
voltage substations. Over time, use of SCADA has progressively extended downwards to sites
at lower voltage levels. Substations in a smart grid will move beyond basic protection and
traditional automation schemes to bring complexity around distributed functional and
communications architectures, more advanced local analytics, and the management of vast
amounts of data. There will be a migration of intelligence from the traditional centralized
functions and decisions at the energy management and distribution management system (DMS)
level to the substations and feeders in order to enhance responsiveness of the T&D system.

With an increase in regulatory influence and smart grid focus on advanced technologies, there
is a renewed interest in increasing investment in distribution networks to defer infrastructure
build-out and reduce operating and maintenance costs through improving grid efficiency,
network reliability, and asset management programs. As distribution organizations have
become more interested in increasing asset utilization and reducing operational costs, advanced
DMS applications have been developed. These includes Network Connectivity Analysis,
Switching Schedule & Safety Management, State estimation, Load flow application, Volt-Var
Control, Load Shedding application, Fault management and system restoration, Load balancing
via feeder configuration and Distribution load forecasting. Two specific examples of advanced
applications that reduce customer outage durations are the fault-location application and the
restoration switching analysis (RSA) application

With an increase in regulatory influence and smart grid focus on advanced technologies, there
is a renewed interest in increasing investment in distribution networks to defer infrastructure
build-out and reduce operating and maintenance costs through improving grid efficiency,
network reliability, and asset management programs. Distributed energy resources (DER) on
the distribution network will be from disparate sources and subject to great uncertainty. The
electricity consumption of individual consumers is also of great uncertainty when they respond
to the real-time pricing and rewarding policies of power utilities for economic benefits. The
conventional methods of Load Modelling (LM) and Load Estimation(LE) in the traditional
DMS are no longer effective, rendering other DMS applications ineffective or altogether
useless. When the DRM application attempts to accomplish load relief in response to a request
from the independent system operator (ISO), it will need to verify from the DMS that the DRM
load relief will not result in any distribution network connectivity, operation, or protection
violations. The high penetration of distributed generation will require the load flow algorithm
to deal with multiple, incremental, and isolated supply sources with limited capacities, as well
as a network topology that is no longer radial or is weakly meshed. In a faulted condition, the
distributed generation will also contribute to the short-circuit currents, adding to the complexity
of the SCA, RPC, and FDIR logic.

Fig.1:- Advanced Distribution Management System

DISTRIBUTION SCADA

SCADA stands for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition. It is a type of software
application program for process control. SCADA is a central control system that consists of
controllers network interfaces, input/output, communication equipment, and software.
SCADA systems are used to monitor and control the equipment in the industrial process which
includes manufacturing, production, development, and fabrication. The infrastructural
processes include gas and oil distribution, electrical power, water distribution. Public utilities
include a bus traffic system, airport. The SCADA system takes the reading of the meters and
checks the status of sensors in regular intervals so that it requires minimal interference of
humans. While they have long been used for the management of generation and transmission
systems, they are increasingly being employed for the monitoring and control of distribution
systems. Technology advances that will aid in the deployment of SCADA technologies are still
occurring, particularly in the communications area .

The SCADA master hardware and software is typically located centrally at the control centre.
The control centre consists of the SCADA application servers, the communications front end
processors, a data historian, interfaces to other control systems, operator work stations, and
other supporting components. The primary SCADA system is often redundant, with a local
backup system and/or remote backup at another site. Other system environments are often
installed by the utility for testing and quality assurance, development, and training. Various
types of communications links to the remote terminal units (RTUs) are used. These
communications links are now becoming more IP based using open protocols.
 Fig.2:- Components of SCADA

In the application of SCADA for distribution systems, the costs of the additional sensors, IEDs
(intelligent electronic devices), RTUs, communications, and SCADA master station must be
considered relative to the benefits that are realized. It is rarely economical to monitor and
control an entire distribution system with SCADA points. The most common equipment
monitored and controlled in distribution SCADA include recloser controllers, switch
controllers, voltage regulator controllers, and switched capacitor bank controllers. Monitoring
and control of large distribution substations is usually always beneficial, but monitoring and
controlling equipment further down the network on distribution feeders is not widespread.

Fig.3:- Typical overhead distribution equipment included in a distribution SCADA system.

In many cases, IEDs and associated CTs and PTs are installed at these devices on the feeder,
and adding the communications capability is only an incremental cost. The status and analogue
values monitored at these points provide operators with valuable visibility of the network
operations further down the distribution system. In addition, if remote control is enabled for
these devices, then reliability can be improved from the control centre (through the recloser
controllers and the switch controllers), and VVC can be improved (through the voltage
regulator controllers and the switched capacitor bank controllers). In underground
distribution systems, SCADA can be applied to equipment such as the network protectors in
network transformer vaults, automatic throwover equipment, and the ring-main units that are
used in many parts of the world for protection and switching.

If the transmission system SCADA and the distribution system SCADA are handled by the
same utility operators, then it is greatly simplified. But in many organizations, distribution
operations and transmission operations are separate. In such cases, coordination between the
two organizations, for work flows such as switching, tagging, and control, must be established.
Development, maintenance, and coordination of the two network models must also be
addressed.

Fig.4:- Possible overlap in separate transmission and distribution SCADA systems.

An area of overlap exists between a newly defined distribution SCADA and an existing
transmission SCADA/EMS. It shows the area of overlap between transmission and
distribution, as well as the extent of their respective network models.

Trends in Distribution SCADA and Control

For master station developments, one of the key trends in the industry is the increase of
bandwidth from the substation to the control centre and also from the monitoring and control
points on the distribution network to the control centre. This increase in bandwidth enables the
proliferation of thousands of low-cost sensors to be deployed on the network to increase the
monitoring and measuring capability of SCADA, which will enable the applications at the
master station to have a more complete view of the network and increase the accuracy of
calculations and predictions—enabling more automated operations to take place.
Additionally the more accurate modelling of the distribution network will enable optimization
algorithms to run, reducing peak load and deferring investment in transmission and distribution
assets. Many localized fault locators will be able to be deployed to accurately locate faults and
enable restoration to occur quickly. Significant changes will also be seen in the area of database
management and the reduction of configuration costs.

IEC 61850 will greatly improve communications between devices. For the first time, vendors
and utilities have agreed upon an international standard protocol. IEC 61850 supports both
client/server communications as well as peer-to-peer communications. The IEC process bus
will allow for communication to the next generation of smart sensors. There is currently work
under way to harmonize the EPRI CIM model and enterprise service bus IEC 61968 standards
with the substation IEC 61850 protocol standards. Bringing these standards together will
greatly reduce the costs of configuring and maintaining a master station through plug and play
compatibility and database self-description. Advances in GUI/HMI interfaces will also be
greatly improved. Moves toward browser-based displays will become more prevalent. New
improvements that enhance the user experience will be developed especially in the area of
safety.

Control systems already contain more and more intelligence and that trend will continue. Users
are used to operating on an exception basis. In the future there will be a lot more information
available to the system, which in turn means that additional intelligence must be applied to that
information in order to present the operator with the salient information rather than simply
passing on more data. Taking the example of a fault on a distribution feeder further, an example
would be that instead of presenting the user with a lockout alarm, accompanied by associated
low volts, fault-passage indications, battery alarms, etc., leaving it up to the operator to drill
down, diagnose, and work out a restoration strategy, the distribution control system will instead
notify the operator that a fault has occurred and analysis and restoration is in progress in that
area. The system will then analyse the scope of the fault using the information available, tracing
the current network model; identifying current relevant safety documents, operational
restrictions, and sensitive customers and locating the fault using location data from the field.
The system will automatically run load flow studies identifying current loading, available
capacities, and possible weaknesses, using this information to develop a restoration strategy.
The system will then attempt an isolation of the fault and maximum restoration of customers
with safe load transfers, potentially involving multilevel feeder reconfiguration to prevent
cascading overloads to adjacent circuits. Once the reconfiguration is complete, the system can
alert the operator to the outcome and even automatically dispatch the appropriate crew to the
identified faulted section.

Control system will not only be able to present information to operators for their consideration
but they will be able to advise the operator on how to best deal with a situation. Systems are
able to propose and validate switching for planned and unplanned work. Faults can be
automatically isolated and partially restored automatically. Control system can be set up to
operate a “first pass restoration” via available SCADA devices to maximize customers on
supply, then a second wave of manual switching coordinated by the operator. The system
conditions can be monitored and checked against expected future loads and contingencies
without the operator taking action.