SCADA/EMS Systems

City Public Service of San Antonio, Texas, Distribution Automation and Telecommunications Using UCA Protocol, Study and Pilot
B.C. Hydro, Area Control Centre, Energy Management System Study
Oglethorpe Power Corporation, Distribution Management System

Some of these projects are described below:

B.C. Hydro, Area Control Centre, Energy Management System Study

Xanthus staff assisted B.C. Hydro in the requirements and design definition of their next-generation Area Control Centre (ACC) Systems. According to the design, the B.C. Hydro Area Control Centre systems would be networked and integrated with many other systems, specifically:

Existing master stations, telemetry systems and RTUs; new RTUs (to be purchased separately from ACC systems), and other intelligent field control equipment
Work Management Systems (WMS) for both Production and Distribution
Geographic Facilities Information System (GFIS)
Electric Trouble Management System (ETMS)
System Control Centre (SCC) and other ACC systems
Engineering and Corporate LAN-based systems.

For each interface, Xanthus staff evaluated a number of viable alternatives, based on the following six critical issues:

Functional capabilities, with respect to the ACC requirements.
Impacts on system performance, operational procedures, and ease of use by dispatchers.
Security of the ACC Systems with respect to authorized access to the power system control and monitored information.
On-going maintenance complexity and costs, specifically the updating of all databases to match power system changes, the maintaining of consistent information across systems, the management of data flows between various systems, and basic software/hardware computer system maintenance.
Initial implementation complexity, vendor schedule, possible delivery slippages, and purchase cost.
Expansion, future upgrade, and migration capabilities, based on the use of modular hardware and software products, flexible database access methods, and standard communication interfaces.

Xanthus staff specified the requirements for the integration of the ACC Systems with these other systems.

The ACC Systems may be expanded, upgraded, modified, and required to interface with an increasingly larger number of other systems. In order to be able to handle these changes, the ACC Systems was required to adhere to open systems concepts.

Xanthus staff developed the data architecture, covering the following issues:

System configuration, including the use of open systems concepts, the physical means for interfacing one system with another, such as LANs, dial-up lines, high-speed channels, or workstation database servers.
Sources of data, in which the official source database is identified. However, data can be propagated to other databases for performance, reliability, and convenience reasons, so long as it is understood that these are copies. Updates to data must be made only to the source.
Characteristics of each database, such as whether it should be a relational database with standard SQL access, whether it should be a high performance, proprietary database, or whether it should be redundant for security and reliability reasons.
Performance requirements for data flows, such as required throughput over communication channels or through database servers. Other performance issues would be touched on in some cases, such as accuracy or correctness of the data, timeliness of the data exchanges, security checking, and error handling.
Communication channel requirements, such as bit rates, protocols, and redundant paths.
Implementation schedule, based on B.C. Hydro scheduling requirements and estimated implementation times for vendors.

Oglethorpe Power Corporation, Distribution SCADA System

For the Oglethorpe Power Corporation (OPC), the basic purpose of the project was to provide coordinated load management operation by Oglethorpe's 39 Member Corporations on a statewide basis. In addition to load management, the system provides local distribution SCADA functions to each participating Member.

Another major objective of the OPC project was to implement and test the Utility Communications Architecture (UCA) protocol. This is co-funded by EPRI and the NRECA, and Xanthus staff is working with selected Electric Membership Corporations (EMC) in Georgia to implement and test the UCA-compliant protocol between the RTUs and master stations. This protocol was initially called the Master to Remote Protocol (MRP) and is now a part of UCA Version 2. It was developed to provide communications between the RTUs and microprocessor-based field devices. In addition, the Oglethorpe project is implementing ICCP (the UCA-compliant Inter-Control Center Communications Protocol) between the EMC SCADA master stations and the Energy Management System at the control center of the Generation and Transmission company, Oglethorpe Power, in Tucker Georgia. Specifically:

Standard, UCA-compliant interfaces were defined for the new SCADA Systems to achieve:

1. Single standard interface between Control Centers - Inter Control Center Communications - ICCP (OPC's EMS to Members’ SCADA; initially 12 links, ultimately up to 39 Members)

2. Single standard interface between SCADAs and RTUs - Control Center to Substation Remote Terminal Units - MRP (Member Corporation SCADA systems to Member Corporation RTUs)

3. Multiple sources of suppliers for these systems and RTUs

4. Minimum effort in integrating these systems into the state-wide SCADA/LM System

5. Standardized maintenance procedures in inter-system data exchanges.

Xanthus staff staff also provided the following consulting services to support Oglethorpe's Coordinated Statewide Load Control and Distribution SCADA System project:

1. Review of Overall System Design

2. Procurement Specification Preparation

3. Technical Support During Bidding Process

4. Bid Evaluation and Recommendation

5. Contract Negotiations

6. Project Management Services

7. Factory and Site Acceptance Testing.