Session One: SCADA and Substation Control Communication

Session One: SCADA and Substation Control Communication

By Andrew West
SCADA Communications Architect, Foxboro, Australia Chair, DNP Users Group Technical Committee Spokesperson, IEC TC57 WG03 (IEC 60870-5)

Introduction Data telemetry and telecontrol systems cover a wide spectrum of industries and needs. Some systems are relatively simple with modest needs while some are more complex, with stringent requirements for data integrity and command validation. This paper looks at the use of the current standard SCADA communication protocols and their properties. Particular focus is given to the existing protocol standards prevalent in electric power SCADA and the related field of substation automation. The recently published IEC 61850 standard for communication for substation automation introduces a new paradigm for interconnecting substation devices and for defining and configuring their information sharing. This paper discusses and compares the capabilities provided by the existing standards and IEC 61850. It investigates the benefits and pitfalls of the new standard and will assist the reader to determine where it may be applicable or appropriate. What makes SCADA different from other control systems? A primary differentiator between a SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) system and other types of control systems such as DCS (Distributed Control System) is the purpose to which the control system will be put: In general DCS is focussed on the automatic control of a process, usually within a confined area. The DCS is directly connected to the equipment that it controls and is usually designed on the assumption that instantaneous communication with the equipment is always possible. A SCADA system is usually supplied to permit the monitoring and control of a geographically dispersed system or process. It relies on communication systems that may transfer data periodically and may also be intermittent. Many SCADA systems for high-integrity applications include capabilities for validating data transmissions, verifying and authenticating controls and identifying suspect data. DCS often operates with a state paradigm: the system relies on the ability to obtain an

immediate view of the current state of the system at any time. SCADA systems in many industries (especially electric power) rely on an event reporting paradigm where even transitory or fleeting changes in the state of the plant are reported. In view of this, different messaging protocols and formats are used in different industries and applications. In the DCS arena, the Bus protocols (Modbus, FieldBus, ProfiBus,
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Session One: SCADA and Substation Control Communication

etc.) and a slew of proprietary protocols are prevalent. These are suitable for the requirements of DCS Input/Output (I/O). In the SCADA arena, the most commonly used protocols are DNP3, IEC 60870-5-101, Modbus variants and proprietary protocols. Some specific applications such as gas metering also have specific protocols designed to meet their needs. Telecontrol and telemetry are areas where installation-specific system design is required: There is no single solution that is right for every situation. SCADA: More than meets the eye Many different industries rely on SCADA system functions. Each different industry and individual systems within an industry will have different requirements. Meeting these requirements dictates the functions and technologies that are implemented in successful control systems. Some industries that use SCADA functionality include: Electricity Transmission & Distribution Oil & Gas Pipelines and Gas Distribution Water & Wastewater Railways & Road Transportation Fire Protection & Security Telecommunication Factory Automation (PLC-type systems)

High-integrity SCADA system applications include electric power transmission & distribution and pipeline monitoring & control systems. Electricity SCADA often requires very short data latency (time delay for reporting new data) and accurate, highresolution time tagging of reported data. When reviewing system implementations that meet the various requirements of different industries, some patterns of common groupings emerge. In general, systems that have requirements for large point counts, high data communication and control integrity and high availability tend to use traditional mainframe, super-mini or workstation computing platforms with operating systems such as VMX, UNIX or LINUX. They tend to use synchronous or isochronous communication systems (that readily allow the identification of message corruption); support the reporting of transitory events and communicate with Remote Terminal Units (parallelexecuting multitasking field equipment). Systems that meet less strenuous requirements tend to be based on COTS Windows platforms, communicate over asynchronous links and use PLCs (typically single-threaded looping execution) field equipment.

Southern African SCADA & MES Conference 2005 IDC Technologies

Session One: SCADA and Substation Control Communication

This general separation of architectures for meeting different system requirements allows for the differentiation of systems into High-End and Low-End SCADA systems. This typical grouping is illustrated below in Table 1.
High-End SCADA Systems Operator Interface Workstation or Mainframe Unix, VMS, etc. Remote Devices RTU Synchronous Communications Sequence of Event Processing Requirements Large Point Count (10,000s) Short Data Latency Extremely High Availability Two-Pass Control Strategy Significant Levels of Redundancy Extensive Applications Capability Many tags per point Moderate Point Count (1,000s) Longer Data Latency High Availability Single-Pass Control Strategy Little or No Redundancy Few or No Applications Few tags per point PLC Asynchronous Communications State Processing Low-End SCADA Systems

PC DOS, Windows

Table 1 System Capability Grouping The electric power heritage The standardization process in SCADA communication protocols has been primarily driven by the special requirements of electric power SCADA. This process began with the International Electrotechnical Commission in the 1980s. IEC Technical Committee 57 (Power System Control and Associated Communications) set up a Working Group (WG03: Telecontrol Protocols) to look at the standardization of communication between substations and control centres. This committee produced a standard, IEC 60870, in many parts, to address requirements and definitions for SCADA communications for electric power control. The first part of the standard was published in 1988 and work on the series is still continuing. The various parts cover: Basic concepts Environmental characteristics General principles of data integrity A three-layer stack architecture Data link services Application functions Data formats Application objects Testing

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Session One: SCADA and Substation Control Communication

The IEC 60870-5-1 through 60870-5-5 series of standards present a general recipe book for defining communication protocols. IEC 60870-5-101 is a companion standard that presents a worked example profile for an Electric Power SCADA protocol based on the earlier parts of the series. It was first published as in 1995 and updated to the second edition in February 2003. The new edition is almost twice the size of the first edition and the extra content is mainly explanatory material that clarifies the standard. In 2000, IEC 60870-5-104 was published. This standard describes the transport of IEC 60870-5-101 application data over network transports such as TCP/IP. Specific application standards for electrical metering (60870-5-102) and substation protection devices (60870-5-103) have also been produced. The IEC 60870-5-101 and -104 standards are now widely adopted in Europe and some other regions (notably the Middle East and Latin America) for electric power SCADA. While the IEC was progressing with the development of the 60870 series, vendors, particularly those in North America, were well aware of the power industrys requirement for standardized SCADA communication. Many utilities were aware of the IECs work and were requesting IEC compliant SCADA protocols. Several vendors responded to this challenge by taking the early parts of IEC 60870-5 and providing these as an underpinning to their proprietary protocols. DNP3 (then called DNP V3.00) was one such offering developed by Westronic Inc., an RTU manufacturer based in Calgary, Canada. One significant distinction between DNP3 and its IEC-compliant contemporaries was that Westronic chose to place the protocol specification in the public domain under the control of a users group in 1993. The DNP Users Group appointed a Technical Committee in 1995 to assume technical responsibility for the extension and enhancement of the protocol. This strategy gained significant market acceptance in North America. A specification for using DNP3 over LANs and WANs was published in 1998. Since the beginning of the current millennium, virtually every substation automation device sold in North America supports DNP3. DNP3 is also well supported in the electric power industry in Australia. DNP3 shares the electric power SCADA market with IEC 60870-5-101/-104 in Asia, Africa and South America. While IEC 60870-5-101 is specifically an electric power-oriented protocol (with specific objects for things such as Transformer Tap Positions), DNP3 is a more generic SCADA protocol. As such it has found acceptance in a wider set of industries, including oil & gas pipeline control systems and water & wastewater systems. While IEC 60870-5-101 is used in the UK for electrical transmission SCADA, in an unusual departure from the European norm, DNP3 is often used there for distribution SCADA because of its capability to make efficient use of multi-drop radio communication networks. All the other SCADA protocols are now relegated to also ran status in the electric power SCADA protocol race. The September 2002 Newton-Evans report on the electric power market reported that DNP3 was the most used protocol within substations in North America (52% of utilities), followed by Modbus Plus (31%). Between the substation and the control centre, DNP3 serial is in use at 32% of utilities; DNP3 over LAN/WAN (TCP/IP or UDP/IP) is in use at 19%. The next highest groupings are other TCP/IP at 9% and Modbus Plus at 6%. The majority of existing systems use one of the many legacy proprietary protocols. DNP3 on serial and LAN/WAN transports remains the most specified protocol in North American Electric Power for new and upgrade installations.
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Session One: SCADA and Substation Control Communication

DNP3 and IEC 60870-5 Both DNP3 and IEC 60870-5-101/-104 serve similar functions. They both:

Reliably and efficiently transfer field data (including information about transitory events) to the master station or the control centre Allow commands to be issued to the field with a very high degree of control security (verification and rejection of errors) by using the high-integrity select-before-operate command strategy Suit medium-bandwidth communication channels (e.g. 9600-baud serial connections) Include good data link frame integrity checking Support application layer data object identification Include data validity checking flags Support the transmission of digital (on/off) and analog data (in integer or floatingpoint formats), counters and digital and analog control commands or setpoints Support transfer of files, setting of clocks, etc.

IEC 60870-5-101/-104 also supports some electric-power specific objects related to transformers and substation protection devices. The protocols support the transfer of report-by-exception (RBE) where only changes in field data are reported. RBE improves the efficiency with which data can be transferred under normal operating conditions. The protocols are also capable of transmitting data with millisecond-resolution timestamps, allowing accurate identification of the sequence of actions in the field. These event-reporting capabilities are useful for accurate analysis of power system events. They are also useful in other industries (such as pipeline or water monitoring systems) where relatively infrequent scanning can be used to recover an audit trail of field activity. DNP3 supports an unsolicited reporting mode where a field device can report events without being polled by the master. Unsolicited reporting can be very useful for a large electrical distribution network where (for example) pole-top reclosers can report activity on a shared radio bearer without being polled. IEC 60870-5-101 also supports an unsolicited reporting mode, but only with a dedicated point-to-point communication channel using a balanced data linkunlike the DNP3 model that can support unsolicited reporting on multi-drop communications channels. Substation Automation Communication Recent years have seen a proliferation of Intelligent Electronic Devices in substations that perform various monitoring, metering and protective functions. Some of these devices replace earlier electromechanical devices that performed equivalent functions and some provide entirely new capabilities such as calculation of power system harmonic levels or distance to a fault.

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Session One: SCADA and Substation Control Communication

Relationship between standards In the electric power control arena, the working groups of IEC TC57 have produced a set of protocols that cover the transfer of data through all parts of electric utility control systems. The various working groups also interact with other standards bodies as illustrated in Figure 1.
Open Application Group
WG3 RTUs

Standards & Technology ____________ ISO ODP IEEE CIRED Open GIS DistribuT ECH GITA T&D

TC57
WG9 Distribution Feeders WG7 Control Centers

SPAG

Component Container Technology _________________ CORBA (OMG) Enterprise Java Beans DCOM (Microsoft)

WG14 DMS WG13 EMS

WGs 3,10,11,12 Substations

Utility EPRI IntegrationCCAPI Bus

Project

Object Mgmt. Group

OLE Process Control (OPC)

EPRI UCA2 Project

Figure 1 Standardization Activities The standards produced by the TC57 working groups are shown in Figure 2. The philosophy adopted by the IEC is that each different application area should be addressed by a single standard, so that no two standards provide alternate ways of achieving the same purpose. To support this philosophy, the various standards should support each other and have clear interfaces. The IEC TC57 has created a reference architecture shown in Figure 3 that shows where the various standards are applied to the interfacing of information from substation devices through to dispatch centres. The IEC 60870-5-101 and -104 SCADA protocols connect the substation to the control centre. These are augmented with IEC 60870-6 (Inter-Control Centre Protocol) for use when the substation automation system provides the functionality of a control centre. IEC 60870-5-102 transmits metering data and 61334 provides transmission across power line carrier. IEC 61850 (Communication Networks and Systems in Substations) is intended for sharing of data between substation devices. IEC 60870-5-103 transfers protection device data within the substation while 60834 transfers protection coordination information between substations. IEC 61850 can also be used to transfer data between substation and control centre, but it is not optimized for that application. Once SCADA data has been collected by the master station, it can be shared with other control centres using IEC 60870-6 and can interface with EMS, DMS and MIS applications using the Common Information Model (IEC 61970) and Component
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Session One: SCADA and Substation Control Communication

Interface Specification for Information Exchange (IEC 61968). Prior to 2004 there was an impediment to the integration of the reference model due to a fundamental incompatibility of the object models described in IEC 61850 and those described in IEC 61970. The committees responsible for these standards have since agreed to extend their respective models in order to provide for compatible interchange of data.
IT-System 1 IT-System m

Control Center B Control Center A

EMS Apps. 61970

DMS Apps. 61968 Communication Bus

61970 Inter-CC Datalink

61970

60870-6

SCADA

Substation / Field Device 1

RTU 61850 60870-5-103 Substation Automation System

Substation / Field Device n

60834 Prot ectio n, Cont rol, Mete ring

61850 Switchgear, Transformers, Instrumental Transformers

Figure 2 TC57 Standards

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6198

6198

6087-512 6134

6087-51/4

6087-TASE.2 61850

Session One: SCADA and Substation Control Communication

Inter-Application Messaging Middleware 61970/61968 Common Information Model (CIM) Inboard Interface 61970 Component Interface Specifications (CIS) EMS Apps 61968 SIDMS DMS Apps

SCADA

Inter-CC Data Links

External IT Apps

61850 Outboard INterface ACSI 60870-6

SCSM: Specific Communication Service Mappings

OSI Protocol Stacks (ISO/TCP)

Substation/ Field Devices

Control Center

Figure 3 Reference Architecture In those parts of the world where DNP3 is dominant for electric power SCADA, it is often also used for interfacing the substation IEDs (switchgear, protection relays, metering devices, etc.) with the RTUs, station computers and substation automation devices. There have been a number of demonstration installations in North and South America using the UCA2 design models. The UCA2 designs and concepts were passed to the IEC for inclusion in IEC 61850 and the UCA2 program has been wound up. The functions supported by some types of IED do not conform to the normal SCADA model of objects having values that should be reported to a master station. For example, protection devices report data associated with a protection event, such as the tripping of a circuit breaker due to overload. The nature of these events is that they do not have a normal state that is continuously reported, but may have information to report when an event occurs. Such information only comes into existence because of the protection event. Additionally, when an event occurs, there may be a large number of separate measurements captured (such as the magnitude of the currents in each phase at the time of the trip, the total load tripped, etc.). These various measurements constitute a complete set or record of values associated with a single event. Some devices may also capture oscillographic information (waveform traces) when an event occurs. Much of this data is not reported through a SCADA system but is retrieved and analyzed separately by protection engineers following a protection event. Because of the special requirements and data types of these systems, some specific protocols such as IEC 60870-5-103 have been produced to transfer this data.

Southern African SCADA & MES Conference 2005 IDC Technologies

SCM-1 6087-5 6134

SCM-2

RTU

61850 Station Bus 61850 Process Bus

Switchgear, Transformers

Session One: SCADA and Substation Control Communication

The primary difference between the adoption of DNP3 and the IEC series of protocol standards in different parts of the world seems to be driven largely by political forces. In areas where technical innovation and market forces dominate, DNP3 is widely used. In some parts of the world, national treaties, trade agreements and even government legislation bind utilities to the use of the IEC standards. The other determining factor is often the relative influence of European or American manufacturers in each particular marketplace: When given the choice European vendors will tend to offer IEC interfaces while American vendors will tend to offer DNP3 interfaces. SCADA protocols continue to evolve As evidenced by the new edition of IEC 60870-5-101, work is still going on to improve these protocols. The DNP3 Technical Committee has published a series of Technical Bulletins and other documents since 1995 that contain clarifications and extensions to the protocol. The DNP3 protocol specification is presently being updated to incorporate this material. The new specifications have been progressively released in draft since 2003 and should be complete in 2006. Standardized conformance testing has boosted the end-users confidence that devices from different vendors will work together. The DNP3 Technical Committee first published a conformance test for outstation devices in 1998. It is presently developing a test procedure for master stations, scheduled for completion in 2006. The IEC working group is currently preparing test procedures for IEC 60870-5-101 and -104 that will be published as IEC 60870-5-6, probably in 2005. An amendment to IEC 60870-5-104 is currently in production to clarify various matters associated with connection management. Other development work continues in SCADA protocol standards today. Current work items on both committees lists include: Improved security (especially validation of authorization of control commands) Configuration definition (machine readable/automatic configuration) to simplify

system integration IEC 61850 IEC 61850 is a substation automation protocol designed to allow sharing of data between substation devices. It is specifically intended to support the sharing of high-speed protection information between protection devices. Protection schemes require sharing of data between devices to occur in a very short time, typically less than 4ms. IEC 61850 was also envisaged as a general way for all substation devices to share all real time data. The US Electric Power Research Institute set up a research program in 1992 to develop a Utilities Communication Architecture (UCA) that had similar goals. After implementing a number of demonstration tests, the outcomes of this work were passed over to the IEC as inputs to IEC 61850. Some of the UCA concepts have been adopted directly into IEC 61850. The development of IEC 61850 has been continuing since 1994.

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Session One: SCADA and Substation Control Communication

Figure 4 IEC 61850 Levels

Figure 5 Protocols

Southern African SCADA & MES Conference 2005 IDC Technologies

Session One: SCADA and Substation Control Communication

IEC 61850 provides for the interconnection of substation devices on a high speed Ethernet network. The substation equipment is functionally modeled in the standard European manner of substation-level (e.g. interlocking), bay level (e.g. protection or auto reclose) and process level (e.g. measuring devices, switchgear, etc). This is illustrated in Figure 4. Typical interface between devices in this model is via hard-wired field I/O (e.g. CT and VT measurements) or by data interfaces using various protocols. Some commonly used protocols (including IEC 61850-compliant protocols) are identified for various functions in Figure 5. The design presented in IEC 61850 includes data models called Logical Nodes (LN). These are divided into two groups that represent primary equipment and substation functions. For example: the switch logical node has representations for the switch state (open or closed) and permits commands to request change of state of the switch. Table 2 lists the logical node groups defined in IEC 61850.

Table 2 Logical Node Groups In a similar manner to advanced SCADA protocols, each quantity in these data models has associated quality flags, a time of measurement, etc. The standard also presents a structured naming convention that all devices adopt. The standard provides for devices to have self-description capabilities, identifying to other devices what data they contain and can provide. For example: the Group Indicator listed in Table 2 is the first letter of the Logical Node type for each LN in that group. The protocol supports a high-level objectoriented data access mechanism to allow interrogation of data in other devices, searching for data in other devices and subscribing to data in other devices. In the publish-subscribe Group Indicator Logical Node Groups model, the publisher provides the requested data to each subscriber whenever the data A Automatic Control C Supervisory control changes or on a periodic basis, as requested by the subscriber.

LNs defined 4 5 G Generic Function References 3 I Interfacing and Archiving 3 The standard describes a methodology for specifying configuration parameters using L System Logical Nodes 3 XML to allow the sharing of configuration data between engineering tools and devices M Metering and Measurement 8 from different vendors. It also provides for anProtection automatic project documentation process. P Functions 28 R Protection Related Functions 10 a) Sensors, Monitoring 4 S a) Instrument Transformer 2 T a) Switchgear 2 X a) Southern African SCADA & MES Conference Technologies Power Transformer and Related Functions 4 Y 2005 IDC a) Further (power system) Equipment 15 Z a) LNs of this group exist in dedicated IEDs if a process bus is used. Without a process bus, LNs of this group are the I/Os in the hardwired IED one level higher (for example in a bay unit) representing the external device by its inputs and outputs

Session One: SCADA and Substation Control Communication

The conceptual model of the standard is closely associated to functionality typically required in some factory automation systems. The Manufacturing Message Specification (MMS: ISO 9506) was adopted as the basis for the high-level functions. MMS uses TCP/IP as its transport. IEC 61850 also describes some special services that operate directly at the Ethernet level: GSSE (Generic Substation Status Event), GOOSE (Generic Object Oriented Substation Event) and SV (Sampled Values). These messages use a highspeed repetition broadcast mechanism to ensure prompt data delivery. IEC 61850 species SNTP over UDP/IP for time synchronization.
G O O SE SV U D P/IP TC P/IP ISO C O T-Profile T-Profile G SSE T-Profile SN TP M M S Protocol Suite G SSE

ISO /IEC 8802-2 LLC

ISO /IEC 8802-3 Ethertype ISO / IE C 8802-3

Figure 6 Mapping of Services A specific application function, such as the implementation of a protection scheme, typically involves logical nodes in one or more physical device. For example, a measurement unit might directly monitor the values of the power system voltage, current and phase angle quantities and provide these to the device that performs the protection function. The device performing the protection function also communicates with the circuit breaker controller to which it will issue a command to trip when required. The protection function may also communicate with a station computer (HMI) to show its status, etc. Each logical node may be used as part of one or more functions. The IEC 61850 standard describes the logical nodes and their interfaces but does not describe the application functions that they are used for, nor does it describe which logical nodes should be provided in any specific piece of equipment. These are matters left to the equipment vendor. The first field deployments of IEC 61850 were completed in November 2004 when Siemens and ABB commissioned one substation each in Switzerland. The goals of IEC 61850 include the standardization of substation control system designs to reduce the amount of effort required in engineering each installation. This should lead to improved economies over the life of a substation control system. It is recognized that equipment that supports IEC 61850 has a higher capital cost than equivalent equipment that does not. Early design studies suggest that there are modest reductions in engineering effort required to configure substation control systems using IEC 61850. As the tools mature, it is expected that the level of automation of the design process can be increased, leading to further reduction. It is expected that the ongoing cost of configuration maintenance should be significantly reduced.

Southern African SCADA & MES Conference 2005 IDC Technologies

Session One: SCADA and Substation Control Communication

These benefits are best seen when considering a complete control system replacement or new installation. There is less benefit to be gained from partial retrofit of IEC 61850compliant equipment, and no initial benefit from the installation of individual orphaned IEC 61850 compliant equipment. There may, however, be justification for such piecemeal approaches to substation refurbishment, as reengineering workload should be reduced in the long term when significant amounts of the control equipment can use the common interfaces. Whats next? The IEC 60870-5-101/-104 and DNP3 protocols were purpose-designed for their SCADA roles. They probably have a service life of another 15 to 20 years. It is not yet clear what will replace them. The IEC 61850 substation automation protocol might take over their role. Much could depend on a revolution or evolution in communications bandwidth and processing power. The existing protocols that were specifically designed for robust and efficient reporting of SCADA data are optimized for that role. The trend for expansion of SCADA applications to collect field data for corporate IT systems will have an impact on system requirements. The future seems to promise greater integration and data sharing between devices with less manual configuration effort. Recent trends have shown a continual increase in substation equipment capability and a concurrent increase in the number of parameters and variables they use or can monitor and report. Some of this data is useful for the real-time operation and monitoring of the substation, some can be useful for post-mortem fault analysis. The capability of IEC 61850 to transport complex data objects may make it ideal to transport more of this adhoc data. It is possible that future systems will see support for interfaces where a combination of protocols can used. This would permit each interface to be optimized for its particular function, while allowing for the breadth of features that are provided by the different protocols. The expansion of TCP/IP into the substation and between substations and control centres will support multiple parallel information sessions. New mechanisms and new protocols will undoubtedly be designed to serve specific applications. In the same way that there is no single solution that fits every problem, it may be foolish to assume that any single protocol will be the optimum mechanism for supporting every substation control function. Are there standards for SCADA and Substation Automation? Some of the protocol standards that are commonly used in electric power SCADA and Substation Automation have been discussed here. Electric power data communication usually imposes more stringent requirements than other industries; thus some of the issues mentioned above may not be applicable everywhere. Adhering to standards generally results in more flexibility, vendor-independence, cost savings and a degree of future-proofing. As always, it is up to the end user to decide how important they are in any particular application.

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Session One: SCADA and Substation Control Communication

Bibliography DNP3 Specification Volume 1 DNP3 Introduction, DNP Users Group, 2002 IEC 60870-5-101 (2003-02) Telecontrol equipment and systems - Part 5-101: Transmission protocols - Companion standard for basic telecontrol tasks, IEC, 2003 The World Market for Substation Automation and Integration Programs in Electric Utilities: 20022005, Newton Evans Research Company, Inc., 2002 Reference Architecture for TC57, KPMG Consulting, 2002 IEC 61850 Communication networks and systems in substations, IEC, in various parts since 2002 Websites DNP Users Group Website: http://www.dnp.org IEC Webstore: http://www.iec.ch IEC 60870-5 Maillist: http://www.TriangleMicroWorks.com/iec60870-5/ SCADA Maillist: http://www.iinet.net.au/~ianw/mailst.html IEC 61850 & UCA Users Group: http://www.ucausersgroup.org/ About the Author Andrew West received Bachelors degrees in Engineering, Science and Arts from the University of Queensland. He spent ten years with the Queensland Electricity Commission as a control system software engineer working on both master stations and transmission substation control systems and six years with Leeds & Northrup as firmware system architect for the Foxboro RTU products. He has worked for Triangle MicroWorks, Inc., a provider of software source code libraries for SCADA communication protocols and is now SCADA System Architect for Invensys in Brisbane. He also spent two years in the Maldives as an Australian Volunteer Abroad. He is a Graduate member of the Institution of Engineers, Australia and is a Member of the IEEE. Andrew has been involved in SCADA systems for over 20 years and has participated in SCADA protocol standardization activities since 1996. He co-authored IEEE standards 1379 (IEEE Recommended Practice for Data Communication Between Remote Terminal Units and Intelligent Electronic Devices in a Substation) and P1615 (Draft Standard Environmental and Testing Requirements for Communications Networking Devices in Electric Power Substations). He is a member of the Standards Australia working group EL-050: Power System Control and Communication and its predecessor IT/24 (SCADA). He has been a member of IEC TC57 WG03 since 1998 and spokesperson for that committee since 2001. He has been a member of the DNP Users Group Technical Committee since 1996 and Chair of the committee since 1999.

Southern African SCADA & MES Conference 2005 IDC Technologies