[iwar] [fc:The.new.Scada:.Reaching.out.to.parts.(formerly).unknown]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-12-27 21:44:53
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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2001 21:44:53 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [iwar] [fc:The.new.Scada:.Reaching.out.to.parts.(formerly).unknown]
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The new Scada: Reaching out to parts (formerly) unknown

T and D World, 12/27/2001
<a href="http://www.platts.com/engineering/issues/ElectricalWorld/0111/0111ew_scada.shtml">http://www.platts.com/engineering/issues/ElectricalWorld/0111/0111ew_scada.shtml>

In an era where sweating the assets is common, two-way communication of
real-time operating information is essential for effective system
operation and reliability-based planning. Thanks to the digital
revolution and desktop computing, today's supervisory control and data
acquisition (Scada) systems are less expensive, more flexible, and more
efficient 
While most large utilities have some form of energy management system
(EMS) and/or Scada system, the need for information from points off of
the system (not measured or controlled in the past) is driving EMS/Scada
system upgrades and new system installations. Real-time power market
activities and reliability concerns require data collection and control
points at and beyond distribution substations. As with any move to new
or modified system automation, numerous cost, operations, and
maintenance issues must be considered. 
Radio links remote and master 
It is important for utilities that want to participate in the dynamic
scheduling of power purchase and delivery to get real-time metering data
from point-of-delivery substations. That need has spread to many
utilities whose automated systems and data communications
infrastructures are not in place to serve points outside of their
generation and transmission systems. 
Grays Harbor County Public Utility District 1, Aberdeen, Wash, serves
some 40,000 customers in a hilly, forested area of western Washington
bordering the Pacific Ocean. Participation in the "Slice of the system"
program offered by the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), Portland,
Ore, means that Grays Harbor will receive about 1.2% of the Federal
Columbia River Power System (FCRPS) generation capabilities at a fixed
percent of BPA cost. The balance of Grays Harbor power supplies will
come from existing contracts and real-time market transactions. In order
to know how much power must be scheduled, accurate, 10-min interval,
real-time metering of points-of-delivery is necessary. 
Grays Harbor engineers specified a special purpose system for load data
collection and aggregation. Programmable Control Services Inc (PCS
Utilidata), Spokane, Wash, designed, integrated, and installed the
equipment and software to collect and transmit 10-min-interval load data
from Grays Harbor points-of-delivery to the PUD. Vaughn Hamilton, senior
automation engineer for Grays Harbor, comments, "Load information is fed
to both the new special purpose system and, as backup, to an existing
in-house-designed and built Scada system." The load data are then sent
to Power Resource Managers (PRM), Bellevue, Wash, where the load
information for Grays Harbor is totaled, then aggregated with loads from
Benton Rural Electric Assn, Prosser, Wash, and Franklin PUD 1, Pasco,
Wash. PRM uses the information to schedule power deliveries for the
utilities and for purchase/sale transactions. 
The PLC-based data collectors, two data acquisition PCs, and system
integration software were provided by PCS Utilidata. The two acquisition
PCs run identical software, but are fed from separate communications
paths to assure continuous on-line capability. 
Robert Hanny, communications supervisor, describes the communications
system, as "a combination of existing fiberoptic, hard wire, a
county-wide microwave system, and a new 450-MHz UHF fixed radio
network." The new radio link (a Dataradio Integra TR fixed radio modem
from Dataradio COR Ltd, Waseca, Minn) is the primary communications path
from the substations to the microwave towers. About 30 permanently
mounted Dataradio Integra TR modems are now installed with 24 serving
the seven point-of-delivery substations. The fixed network radio system
allows Grays Harbor to remotely configure, troubleshoot from a central
location, and exercise out-of-band management to maintain communications
when other parts of the communications system are out of service.
Several more radio modems will be installed as the radio link is
expanded to include more substations. 
Network 'cloud' reduces cost 
Blue Earth Light &amp; Water, Blue Earth, Minn, one of the 14 members of
Utilities Plus (a municipally owned energy services company also in Blue
Earth) is using its new TDMS-2000 Scada System from QEI Inc,
Springfield, NJ, to provide load aggregation services to Utilities Plus
members. The QEI system uses a 64-bit, reduced instruction set computing
(RISC) workstation architecture and open protocol capability to ensure
performance, flexibility, and scalability. 
To extend the system and load aggregation capabilities to other cities
in Utilities Plus, Blue Earth developed a low-cost, easily maintainable,
and reliable wide area communications network (WAN) using a frame relay
access device (FRAD) developed for Scada applications by Data Comm for
Business Inc (DCB), Champaign, Ill. The DCB Broadcast Polling FRAD (DCB
BPF) allows multi-point polling over frame relay networks through an
RS-232 interface. Each master DCB BPF supports up to 160 remote terminal
units (RTUs). Use of frame relay packeting technology, telephone service
vendors and the DCB BPF units give Blue Earth and Utilities Plus a
communications "cloud" that is more cost-effective than a conventional
multi-point polling network and eliminates the cost of the leased
telephone lines being used by some Utilities Plus members. 
Simple VAr support 
Full service Scada with an RTU on every desired point of control can be
expensive. At times and under certain conditions, the needed information
may be collected and communicated using a less expensive device and a
readily available communications system. 
Volt-amp reactive (VAr) support on transmission lines serving
distribution substations during peak system load conditions is a part
time problem that can be expensive to fix. Thanks to some creative
thinking by Jeff Turner, principal planning engineer, Cinergy Corp,
Cincinnati, Ohio, a cost-effective scheme to use groups of
Scada-controlled capacitors on distribution feeders for transmission
line VAr support was developed. Lou Flores, senior engineer says, "Line
capacitors are placed relatively close to the substation, since voltage
control on the feeder is not as important as VAr support on the
transmission side." The capacitor controls are separated into four
groups that can be cut in or out as a group or individually. The system
operator controls them with the existing 1993-vintage Cinergy
EMS/Scada--an Emsys system from ABB T&amp;D, Raleigh, NC. The capacitors are
also set to switch in or out automatically according to preset voltage
conditions, but can be overridden by Scada commands.

The trick to making it work was finding a cost-effective switch control
device and communications method that would give Cinergy the information
and control needed. Cinergy selected the Fisher Pierce, SmartLink
Utility Application Interface with Series 2700 Cellular Communications
from Fisher Pierce/Joslyn Hi-Voltage, Weymouth, Mass, as remote
terminals for the capacitor-switching scheme. The SmartLink provides
alarm, maintenance, status reporting, and switch control. By using
existing cellular and public switched telephone networks (PSTN),
SmartLink eliminates the need for new communications links to each
device. 
Smartlink uses the digital control channel of the cell phone network--a
technology called Cellemetry that is offered by BellSouth and Numerex
Technologies Corp, both based in Atlanta, Ga. The SmartLink with
Cellemetry can be used at substations or downline as either a
stand-alone device or integrated with an existing Scada system. 
A difficult part of integrating automated systems of different vintages
is getting the parts to talk to one another. Cinergy wanted to interface
with their existing EMS/Scada to get information to and from the
SmartLink devices for operational purposes. Greg Stoppelwerth, senior
engineer at Cinergy says, "Integration with the existing Scada system
took a bit of reconfiguration." As a start, Fisher Pierce put a
Distributed Network Protocol (DNP) 3.0 interface into SmartLink. Applied
Systems Engineering, San Jose, Calif, supplied a remote
communications/front-end processor (RCOM/ FEP) that converts the Telegyr
8979 protocol of the EMS/Scada to DNP 3.0. 
SmartLink units are polled on command from the EMS/Scada dispatch
console. The RCOM/FEP converts a Telegyr 8979 control message to DNP
3.0, which is sent to a server in Weymouth, Mass; there, the message is
recoded into an Access data base and forwarded to the Cellemetry server
in Atlanta. The Cellemetry server broadcasts a signal to operate the
SmartLink control and switch capacitors in predesignated groups. A
message returns to the Scada operator that the capacitor group status
has changed. 
In Scada terms, the process is slow, taking about three or four minutes
for the round trip. But Scada operators are able to tell when status
changes before the message confirmation returns simply by viewing the
VAr drop on the operator console. Some 150-200 SmartLink units are on
line for capacitor control at Cinergy, with more expected. 
The first real-time test came this past summer. At that time, Cinergy
had a total of about 50 MVAr (in four groups) on line. They switched as
commanded and the VAr load reduced on a one-to-one basis. To date, 130
MVAr of capacitance is connected to SmartLink units and another 50-60
SmartLink units are planned. Flores comments, "As the cost of getting
the needed information is coming down, the need for that information is
increasing." The need at Cinergy was for scenario prompted capacitor
switching capability. The use of a distribution automation device that
makes constructive use of minimal but critical data and a Scada system
interface provide a cost-effective way to extend Scada operations to
additional points on the system. 
-Bill Koch

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