www.sycomp-electronic.

de/substations

General
For an efficient administration and an economic operation of high voltage networks, substations are operated by automatic
systems. The principal layout of the control architecture of such a large energy grid is shown in the picture below.

Electric power supply companies usually operate several

substations in their service area. They employ operators
located in the central headquarters and technicians out in
the field. Operators have two main tasks to fulfill:

Dispatch of electric energy according to strategic

and tactical objectives
Support of field technicians in preventive and
corrective maintenance in order to ensure network
availability and electric power supply in the
periphery

www.sycomp-electronic.de/substations

For an efficient operation of the substations, the

infrastructure is essential.

To support the dispatch of electricity, fast and reliable

remote measuring and switching must be guaranteed in
the substations. Operators are supported by control center
software and remote controllable substations in dispatching
the energy.

With remote diagnosis and maintenance software, the

operators can complete the majority of diagnosis and
configuration tasks in the headquarters. Furthermore, the
field service may be supported by means of remote
diagnosis for a fast and focussed fault repair.

Today, remote control of substations is mostly realized by

means of network connections using TCP/IP protocol.
These kinds of network sometimes are private wide area
networks owned by the electric power supply company
concerned. Other companies use virtual private networks
based on public telecommunication networks. Either way, a
safe connection between headquarters and substations is
possible. A network is often split in two sections:

Real Life
Substation
Automation
Electric energy distribution is based on different energy
networks with a heterogeneous infrastructure. Whenever
new substations and power plants are built, they must be
made compatible with facilities that can be much older.
During operation of the systems, many parts are renewed
in order to add new features or due to obsolescence.
Sycomps products are well suited for these kinds of
environment where reliability and flexibility are the main
requirements. Reliability is ensured by robust hardware and
software design. The flexibility to adopt different kinds of
substations is provided by a modular concept of hardware
and software components. In general, the system is
characterized by the following features:

Robust shielded design in 19 inch racks

No rotating hard disks
Suitability for AC or DC power supply
Rear I/O connections for easy replacement of
components
Redundant configurations

In the pictures below, several configurations show you how

Sycomp substation components fit in with different types of
substations or power plants.

www.sycomp-electronic.de/substations

A dispatch network designed for the operation of

the power transmission network.
In these networks, each station is identified as a
single node. A substation controller represents the
substation with its measuring and switching
capabilities.
A substation network designed for maintenance
and fault diagnosis.
In these networks, all bay controllers and other
devices in the substations can be addressed
directly for diagnostic purposes.

In any case, a secure connection between the software in

the headquarters and the field automation devices is
possible. Due to the flexibility of network protocols,
different network architectures are possible.

Large substations
Large substations processing several thousand I/O signals can be equipped with devices as shown in the picture.

This substation is equipped with one

substation controller acting as the
main counterpart to the control
center software in the headquarters.
The controller also acts as a
gateway to the different bay
controllers in the substation.
Additionally, existing systems like
sequence of event recorders (SER)
or command and control systems
(CCS) can be integrated into the
architecture.

Small facilities
Small facilities like power plant
substations require only a reduced
amount of I/O signals. For these
kinds of substations, Sycomp offers
a compact solution.
The integrated substation controller
acts directly as a counterpart to the
control center software in the
headquarters. This system has a
limited amount of I/O interfaces.
This way, a small substation can be
controlled with a single device.

www.sycomp-electronic.de/substations

Redundant
configurations
A configuration with two redundant substation controllers is
possible, improving the availability of the substation.
Depending on the desired amount of security, redundancy
may be either restricted to the substation controller level or
may include a configuration with redundant bay controllers.

Dispatch Network

Substation Controller A

Substation Controller B

Bay Controller

Switchyard

Configuration with redundant substation controllers

Configuration with redundant substation controllers and redundant bay controllers

www.sycomp-electronic.de/substations

Substation
Controller
The substation controller represents the main gateway
between the control center software and the substation. It
is equipped with a variety of interfaces in order to be able
to connect to various systems providing the I/O interfaces
for the signals of the switchyard.

The picture below shows the architecture of a substation

controller, with some possible connections to different
devices. It is based on a PC with a Linux operating system.
in a 19 inch 3 U rack. The base system can be extended
with additional I/O boards for specific purposes.

The base system has these interfaces on board:

2 ethernet network interfaces

4 serial interfaces
Output for time synchronization pulse
Monitor
Keyboard

Additional interface boards are available in order to extend

the system:

4 additional network interfaces

8 additional serial interfaces
A GPS receiver for accurate time synchronization

Different AC or DC redundant power supplies are also

available.

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Bay Controller
The bay controller provides the real-time I/O features to
access the signals of the switchyard. These comprise the
collection of data and the control of output lines.
Additionally, existing devices such as a CCS or a SER can
be connected to the bay controller.

The bay controller is a multi-purpose control device

combining functions of various types of devices with
additional software features:

RTU (Remote terminal unit)

SER
SAS (Substation automation system)
Additional automatic functions
Additional remote diagnosis and control features

The architecture of the bay controller consists of a central

unit and an I/O unit. The I/O unit comprises several
modules and can be configured in a flexible way. Besides,
the system can be extended should the need for additional
input or output signals arise.

Central unit of the bay controller

The central unit is based on a fanless embedded PC with

Linux operating system in a 19 inch 3 U rack. It has several
interfaces to connect to additional devices:

2 network connections
up to 6 rs232 serial lines
Input for time synchronization signal
3 digital outputs indicating different alarm states
Monitor
Keyboard
Fiber optic interface to the I/O unit

In the Software chapter, you will find a description of the

specific feature set.
The central unit is connected by a serial bus with the I/O
unit. The I/O unit is a modular system with different 19
inch 3 U racks. Each rack has 16 slots for different I/O
boards. The central unit controls a maximum of 13 binary,
2 analog input, 1 analog output and 3 control racks. This
allows a maximum of 3328 binary inputs, 256 analog
inputs, 16 analog outputs and 270 digital control outputs.
The I/O unit is usually located in a switching cabinet away
from the central unit of the bay controller. Thanks to the
fiber optic connection, a galvanic isolation is provided and
fail-safe communication over longer distances in electrically
harsh environments is made possible.

Architecture of the bay controller with some possible

connections to different devices.

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Integrated Substation Controller

The integrated substation controller is a compact system
with a reduced amount of I/O interfaces. It is based on the
hardware of the bay controller in a compact 19 inch 6 U
rack.
The general architecture of the integrated substation
controller is the same as those of the bay controller. The
main difference is the integration of the I/O devices into the
compact rack. The substation controller is then limited to
144 digital inputs, 64 analog inputs 30 digital control
outputs and 16 analog control outputs.
The integrated substation controller can be combined with a
separate I/O unit should the need for more I/O signals
arise.

Realtime Bus

I/O
I/O
I/O
I/O
I/O
I/O
I/O
I/O
I/O
I/O

I/O
I/O
I/O
I/O
I/O

I/O
I/O
I/O
I/O
I/O
I/O

I/O
I/O
I/O

I/O
I/O

I/O

Integrated substation controller

Architecture of the integrated substation controller with

some possible connections to different devices.

www.sycomp-electronic.de/substations

Software
The software is also a modular system with a set of
configurable features. This means that the software
functions are available on the different systems (when
applicable) in the same way.

Remote I/O
The central feature of the system is the remote access to
the I/O signals of the switchyard. Values of the input signals
are transmitted to the control center software. The controls
can then be set remotely by the control center software.

Alarms
The systems can be configured in a way such as to generate
alarms on different events. These kinds of events can be
specific states of binary input signals or analog signals under
or over a specific threshold. The alarms may be set locally in
the control room by the alarm output of the system or
transmitted to the headquarters by software telegrams.

Event Recording
When certain events occur (usually combined with an
alarm), the event recording feature is activated. This
function creates a record of different input signals in the
time interval around the incident. This provides an effective
diagnostic tool for operators in order to analyze any network
malfunctions.

Automatic Control
The automatic control function allows switching specific
output controls upon detection of a specific input condition.
For example, an analog input falling below a specific
threshold value leads to the switching of a specific output
control.

Trace and Log

All major events like alarm events and new settings for
controls are logged automatically. Also, all communication
may be logged. This log information is placed in a log
system within the substation. For diagnostic purposes, this
information can be transmitted to the headquarters on
request.

Time Synchronization
Accurate measurement of time is necessary for any
correlation of the information coming from different
substations. Sycomp systems allow two different methods of
time synchronization:

Synchronization by means of GPS receiver with an

accuracy of approximately 1 us
Synchronization by NTP protocol with an accuracy
of approximately 5 ms

www.sycomp-electronic.de/substations

Connection to External Systems

Sycomp systems provide several protocols in order to
integrate external devices with different I/O interfaces and
software capabilities into a remote control system. These
external devices can be connected either by serial or by
network connection. Connections to systems provided by

Siemens

ABB

Efacec

Westinghouse
and others have already been taken in operation
successfully. In any case, a specific analysis of each
particular environment with its particular requirements is
necessary to be able to find the best suited solution.
Thanks to our flexible software architecture, we are able to
integrate further devices.
Contact Sycomp for an individual solution

Connection to the Control Center and

Diagnosis and Maintenance Software
Sycomp systems can communicate with the headquarters
software systems either via network or in case no network
is available - also by means of a modem connection. This
kind of communication is often based on the IEC 870-5-10x
protocol family.
If your systems talk using other protocols, contact Sycomp
for a solution. Our aim is to provide you with products that
fit your individual environment - not to change your
environment to fit our products.

Remote status
The diagnosis software or the control center software
connects to the systems and checks the systems status in
regular time intervals. This gives operators in the
headquarters a real-time overview of the status of the entire
network.

Remote diagnosis
All logging and tracing features of the systems can be used
remotely, too. In combination with a consistent time base,
malfunctions influencing several substations can also be
analyzed from the headquarters.

Remote configuration
The configuration of the systems can also be read and
modified remotely. With this feature, the system can be
adapted to changed conditions from the headquarters
simply by reconfiguration.

Published by
Sycomp Electronic GmbH
Einsteinstr. 7
85521 Dachau
Germany

More information
Tel
Fax
Mail

+49 8131 29946 0

+49 8131 29946 19
info@sycomp-electronic.de

www.sycomp-electronic.de/substations