Paper accepted for presentation at PPT 200 1 2001 IEEE Porto Power Tech Conference loth-13Ih September, Porto,

Portugal

Trends in integration and coordination of substation protection and control systems

L. Rafael Castro Ferreira*
ALSTOM EMM 11120 NE 33rdPlace, Bellevue, WA 98004, USA

Peter A. Crossley

Ronald N. Allan

UMIST PO Box 88, Manchester M60 lQD, UK

Abstract - This paper addresses recent trends in the area of integrated and coordinated substation protection and control systems - also known as substation secondary systems. The concepts of functional coordination and integration are discussed. The benefits and concerns raised by the new way in which substation secondary systems are designed are addressed. Particular emphasis is placed on utilities views, field experience and acceptance of integrated systems as well as on the way manufacturers design systems that respond to customers expectations. Index Terms - substation protection, substation control, integration, coordination.

I. INTRODUCTION
Until recently protection and control functions in substations were implemented by independent items of hardware, with separate inputs fkom primary plant and requiring extensive point to point wiring to provide information exchange between functions. This situation has been considerably altered by developments in the area of digital technologies. Functions that were previously implemented by electromechanical or electronic equipment can now be implemented by software in digital microprocessors. This opens up completely new possibilities in terms of function implementation leading to the concepts of functional coordination and integration. This paper explores the concepts of functional coordination and integration in substation secondary systems. The technological advances that are driving the changes in the design of substation protection and control systems are addressed in Section 11. Section I11 reviews the advantages and the concerns associated with this technological shift, as reported by both manufacturers and utilities. A number of papers have been published [ 1,2,3,4,5] that comprehensively review the issues and potential gains that both manufacturers and utilities are presently having to address. However all these publications do so in a qualitative manner. Advantages and disadvantages of functional coordination and integration and the merits of different solutions are discussed, without embarking on a quantitative and objective analysis of the merits of different ways of harnessing the potential offered by this new paradigm of substation protection and control. A quantitative assessment of the impact of functional integration on the reliability of substation protection and control systems can be found in [6,7,8].
Previously with UMIST.

11. THEIMPACT OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY Before the introduction of digital technology, substation protection and control functions were performed independently by a set of dedicated heterogeneous devices. These stand-alone devices, often requiring inputs of different signal levels, acquired primary plant information by means of extensive point-to-point hardwiring, the same signals being routed by independent cabling to a number of different devices. The same applied to information exchange between secondary functions. Information exchange was therefore limited to the absolutely necessary, due to the high costs involved. In particular, if the substation was remotely controlled, the cost of transmitting comprehensive primary and secondary plant information was prohibitive and only very limited information was available at the remote control point [9]. This practice is being radically altered by recent developments in microcomputers, analogue-to-digital converters, digital signal processors, numerical analysis, computer science, digital communications, fibre optics and transducer technology. These developments are fuelled by demand from office automation, from the telecommunications industry and from industry in general. Microcomputer based industrial control systems have become state of the art in wide areas of industry thus creating a wealth of well-established technical solutions. Therefore the electrical power industry is in a position to benefit from this technology, without the risk inherent to pioneering its application. The application of digital technology to substation protection and control has led to the concepts of functional coordination and integration. The impact of digital technology in substation control systems is threefold. Firstly, primary plant analogue information can be converted to digital format and multiplexed into serial links available to several devices, thus eliminating the need for extensive point-to-point hardwiring. Secondly, information is processed by digital processors in the protection and control devices. Thirdly, information exchange between different functions is done in that same digital format, through serial links with dramatically increased data transmission rates and immunity to interference when compared with previous technologies. In summary, potentially all information can easily be made available to all functions, since the whole secondary system speaks the same digital language and since information can be exchanged via a serial digital highway, i.e. additional information exchange is possible without requiring additional physical links. As a

0-7803-7139-9/01/$10.00 0 2 0 0 1 IEEE

consequence information exchange between functions became comparatively easier. Protection and control functions can therefore share information and be coordinated in ways not possible in the past. This results in improved protection and control capabilities and is the driving force behind coordinated substation protection and control systems. Integration takes the concept of coordination one step further. With substation secondary equipment being based on microprocessor platforms, the functionality is differentiated by software applications, rather than hardware. The hardware is based on general purpose processing platforms, which tend to be very similar from application to application. Furthermore, the processing power of these platforms allows the implementation of several protection and control functions in a single microcomputer, i.e. several software libraries running on the same processor or on the same microcomputer containing several processors. In summary, functions can, not only be coordinated, but also be integrated in a single microcomputer system. The drive behind integration is the potential cost benefit afforded by a reduction in the number of hardware units required to implement the substation secondary system.
111. COORDINATION AND INTEGRATION OF SECONDARY
FUNCTIONS

variety of control functions, such as synchronising, autoreclosure and fault recording are an example of functional integration. The addition of control functions to the protection relay does not normally require additional hardware or inputs from primary plant, since the protection and the control functions use common information.

A . The concepts The interest of the power industry on the then called integrated protection and control systems started in the late 1970s. In 1975, in Japan, design work started on a prototype of a digital protection and control system. The system was installed in a distribution substation for field testing in 1977 [lo]. In 1978, The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), in cooperation with a few utilities and manufacturers, initiated a project for a new digital substation protection and control system for transmission substations [ 1,113. These systems were called integrated because, for the first time, protection and control functions implemented by computers were able to communicate with each other via serial digital communication links. This allowed a dramatic enhancement in the data sharing capabilities of the system, which was not feasible in hardwired systems. However, there was some resistance t?om the industry to the idea of integrated protection and control. For some, the term integrated implied a loss of independence between protection and control, which could be detrimental to the performance of protection systems. This controversy led to the introduction of the term coordinated [ 12,131 to describe protection and control systems where information is available and retrievable by all functions thus affording enhanced functionality, as outlined in Section 11, without loss of functional independence. Nevertheless, even today both terms are sometimes used to describe the same concept [14,15]. For the purpose of this paper coordination and integration will have the meanings described in Section 11, with integration referring to the implementation of more than one secondary function in a single hardware unit [2]. Modem multifunctional feeder protection relays that, in addition to their main protection function, implement a

B. Enhanced capabilities through finctional coordination In a coordinated protection and control system, potentially all information can be made available to all functions - a substation-wide information system offering novel opportunities for improving overall system performance. Furthermore, modern communication technology allows this information to be made available to the network control level, with information being exchanged at a system-wide level. Some of the ways in which the potential of this substation and system-wide communication can be harnessed are described below. 0 Multi-use of inputs. The existence of a substationwide communication system allows the so-called multiuse of inputs, i.e. primary plant data is obtained via a single data acquisition module and made available, in digital format, to all functions requiring it [l]. This avoids duplication of transducers and extensive point-to-point hardwiring. Protection, due to its stringent reliability requirements, may require independent inputs from a dedicated data acquisition module. A firther development of the concept of multi-use of inputs has been proposed [3]: the concept of a real-time database. A single database in the substation would collect all primary plant data in real-time and would be accessed by any function requiring such data. Adaptive protection. One of the most promising realisations of this global information potential is adaptive protection, also referred to as adaptive relaying. It has been defined [16] as a protection philosophy which permits and seeks to make adjustments in various protection fbnctions automatically in order to make them more attuned to prevailing power system conditions. Presently the setting of a protection relay is a compromise that ensures an acceptable response to varying power system conditions. If the relevant information concerning a power system condition is fed-back to the relay, it can continuously adapt its settings to suit the conditions. Distance protection is a typical example of how adaptive protection can solve a well-knoivn problem. The reach of distance protection is altered by the connection of parallel lines and by remote end infeed. If the position of the relevant switchgear and the infeed currents are known to the relay, it can automatically adapt its settings in response to the connection or disconnection of parallel lines. Condition-based maintenance. Condition monitoring of primary plant is enabled by the easy access to primary plant status and systematic storage of performance records. This data is then used to estimate primary plant condition. Maintenance is then carried out when needed, rather than in fixed time intervals [17]. As an example, the condition of a circuit breaker can be estimated if values such as number of operations, interrupted fault currents and the opening and closing times are available.

This data is easily obtainable and can be recorded by a secondary system with enhanced data acquisition and communication capabilities [ 181. Asset life estimation is another application of condition monitoring. Conditionbased maintenance and asset life estimation can lead to savings in operational and investment costs. Real-time thermal rating. The assessment of primary plant's'past and present thermal state and the modelling of its thermal behaviour would allow real-time thermal rating, beyond the manufacturers stated capabilities [ 191. This would be particularly useful in emergency situations, where temporary overloading of plant may be necessary
0 Enhanced power system operation. The availability of comprehensive information concerning operating conditions allows the implementation of enhanced system-wide operation-support tools [2 11 and increases operator awareness. The operator is then in a position to make better use of the system, by operating it closer to its limits. Considerable effort is presently being put into devising systems that rationalise the information that is presented to the operator, i.e. reducing the sometimes overwhelming amounts of data to a manageable level. Artificial intelligence applications are proving very promising in tackling this problem [ 191. Substation automation is another promising application of these techniques [18,22]. The potential benefits these new techniques can bring to power system operation are acknowledged by utilities [ 17,18,23,24]. A number of other applications of global information availability have been reported in the literature [18,20,25,26].

POI.

C. Benefits o f integration Cost reduction is one of the benefits expected from the move towards substation secondary equipment based on digital technology and it is the main driving force behind integration of substation protection and control functions [3,18,23]. Early comparisons between the cost of digital, with or without functional integration, and conventional substation secondary systems did not indicate a clear cost advantage of systems based on digital technology [ 1,9]. However these studies claimed that future cost trends would favour digital systems. The argument was that digital systems had a higher equipment to labour cost ratio; with the trend being towards the decrease of the former and the increase of the latter, a digital system would eventually show cost benefits [9]. Nowadays, there is an indisputable trend for easier access to low cost digital and microprocessor-based technology. This technology is not specific of power systems applications and therefore benefits from the reduced costs associated with mass production [27]. On the other hand, software development costs, which were irrelevant in conventional systems, are now a major factor in the overall cost of digital systems. Furthermore, other cost benefits are expected in addition to equipment costs, which are not easily quantifiable. The incremental cost of adding enhanced functionality to a substation secondary system is expected to be considerably smaller for a digital system than it is for a conventional system [12,28]. Other expected cost benefits are related to life-cycle operational costs. For example, the self-testing Capabilities of digital equipment, the possibility of performing condition-based maintenance and asset replacement based on asset life

estimation are all expected to yield gains in operational costs [17,18]. A report based on fairly reduced field experience [29] indicates savings of around 20% for a digital system over a conventional one, when all costs are taken into account. In contrast, feedback from the utilities on the cost benefits of functional integration is considerably more conclusive. The most immediate benefit of functional integration is hardware rationalisation: by integrating several secondary functions in the same hardware unit, the number of units is reduced. A consequence of this is a considerable reduction in wiring and cabling, previously required to link the individual hardware units, since the logic associated with the coordination of different functions becomes embedded in the software of the multifunctional unit. The reduction in wiring is even more significant if conventional hardwiring is replaced by optical serial links, a technology which is experiencing widespread application. Reduced wiring affords reduced installation and commissioning times and cost. Furthermore, the equipment can be pre-assembled and tested at the factory. Another consequence of reduced hardware and wiring is the reduction of the panel sizes and cubicle space required for the equipment, which can translate into savings in civil engineering costs. A Canadian utility has reported a 3 to 1 reduction in equipment and installation costs afforded by the integration of protection and control into a single unit, a significant part of the reduction being attributable to minimisation of wiring [lS]. A report from South Africa indicates hardware savings of 40% when integrating bay level protection and control functionality in a single multifunctional device and a 50% reduction in commissioning time [30]. Finally, a study performed by a French utility estimates that integration will yield savings of 15% and a reduction to half in the number of protection terminals [23]. Whilst reduced cost is arguably the main benefit of fimctional integration, there are also technical advantages to take into account. Firstly, the reduction in wiring and the replacement of copper wires by fibre optics reduces problems associated with electromagnetic interference from substation high voltage plant. Secondly, hardware rationalisation, i.e. the reduction in the number of hardware items required to perform a function, increases reliability [3 11. In this respect, the issue most commonly raised is that failure of one item of hardware in a multifunctional device may result in the simultaneous loss of several functions [32]. A formal analysis of this issue is carried out in [7,8], where it is demonstrated that a judicious choice of the functions to be integrated results in a reliability improvement with respect to a system where functions are segregated, i.e. implemented by separate devices. Finally, a range of additional functions, such as fault recording, fault location and event recording, which could not be economically justified at distribution levels, because they required dedicated hardware, can now be integrated with other secondary functions at a reduced incremental cost [33].

D. Concerns and new issues The introduction of coordinated and integrated digital substation protection and control systems, in addition to raising, amongst utilities, concerns and issues of technical

design nature, is also prompting a review of some of their operational procedures and even organisational structures. From a technical perspective, the maximum benefit from functional coordination and integration is obtained by an unconstrained and comprehensive secondary system replacement [34]. However very rarely is a complete secondary system redesign feasible. When refurbishing, utilities must protect previous investments in equipment [24] and take into account that equipment with different lifetimes co-exist in the substation [23]. Furthermore, an evolutionary rather than drastic technological shift is often preferred by utilities. Secondary equipment must therefore support partial refixbishment and evolutionary approaches by having the necessary characteristics of flexibility, expandability and modularity. Another question often posed by utilities concerns the rapid obsolescence of digital equipment, availability of spares, long-term support and availability, flexibility and portability of software upgrades [13]. For systems with functional integration in particular, it is important that the upgrade of the software implementing a secondary function does not interfere with other functions within the same hardware unit [2]. Manufacturers claim that modularity of both hardware and software and portability of software adequately answer all these questions [35]. Hardware upgrades can be performed by replacing individual modules, rather than the whole platform. Software portability ensures that hardware upgrades do not require software modification. Software modularity allows individual functions to be upgraded independently. Of particular concern to utilities is the issue of compatibility between equipment supplied by different manufacturers. Lack of compatibility inhibits open and competitive procurement policies [4], leading to a situation where utilities either become captive customers of individual manufacturers or face the cost associated with interfacing equipment from several suppliers [12,23]. Manufacturers acknowledge this as a major barrier to acceptance by utilities of coordinated or integrated secondary systems and have placed considerable joint effort into eliminating this concern, by creating standards for equipment interface and substation secondary system communication. The effort to standardise has today a world-wide dimension [36,37,38]. Standardisation gives the utility the possibility of using a greater variety of suppliers. However manufacturers argue that an excessive diversity of equipment may lead to increased costs associated with spare parts, staff training, maintenance and support [35]. Perhaps the most important concern raised by functional integration, particularly at transmission levels, is one of reliability. In conventional systems, where functions are implemented by segregated devices, functional independence is inherently guaranteed. In integrated systems, failure of a single device is more likely to cause loss of several functions. The utility must therefore decide which functions should retain their independence and must not be integrated. The impact of functional integration on the reliability of protection and control systems has been quantified [7]. The results of the analysis show that judicious integration of protection and control functions leads to reliability gains, afforded by hardware rationalisation [8].

The independence of protection is the most common concern amongst utilities. The danger of a single failure leading to the unwanted tripping of several circuit breakers is pointed out in [9]. In this context, the implementation of serial communication links must be carefully designed. Some reports argue that high levels of integration may be acceptable if self-testing facilities are effective [2]. Operationally, utilities are facing the need to review their maintenance procedures. Reports indicate that self-testing of equipment is expected to reduce the need for preventive maintenance and lead to a focus on corrective maintenance [9,12]. Functional integration raises issues of maintainability of the equipment [1,5]. Individual functional modules within a common hardware unit need to be capable of being isolated in some way to allow testing or fault finding without interference with inservice equipment. Furthermore, with the introduction of new technology, utilities need to re-skill their staff. Manufacturers play an important role in supporting this process [121. The skills required to commission, maintain and repair increasingly complex equipment are becoming so specialised that in the future utilities may have to rely on maintenance contracts handled either by the manufacturer or by a consultant [3]. Finally, the functional integration and coordination of secondary systems is leading to a re-assessment of utilities organisational structures. Traditionally independent departments are now facing the task of dealing with cross-boundary implementations of substation protection and control systems. The merge of such departments, in recognition of the integrated nature of the new technology, avoids the difficulties and costs associated with having separate technical specifications, budgets, investment plans, etc. [3,39].

E. Integration in perspective The receptivity of generation, transmission and distribution utilities to functional integration of secondary systems is markedly distinct. A survey E401 has shown that the vast majority of generation utilities are not yet ready to integrate generator protection and control. In contrast, distribution utilities have accepted and are applying a high level of functional integration in their substation secondary systems [2,18,30,32,41], the move being driven by economic factors. Transmission utilities are taking a more cautious and progressive approach, based as much as possible on technical studies to support future integration strategies [18,23,42,43,44,45,46,47]. Manufacturers are left in a position where they must be able to satisfy whichever technical specifications emerge from the studies performed by utilities. They are now offering products that are able to meet almost any requirement from the utilities, concerning the functions that should or should not be integrated. A number of software libraries implementing different protection and control functions are available. A hardware platform is able to run these software libraries, so that it is up to the user to decide which libraries should be implemented on the same hardware platform. Utilities therefore require decision-support tools to evaluate, based on objective and preferably quantitative criteria, the merits of different approaches to substation secondary systems functional integration [6,7,8].

IV. CONCLUSIONS This paper discusses the concepts of functional coordination and integration in substation protection and control systems. The concept of coordination refers to the enhanced information sharing between functions afforded by the application of digital technology to substation secondary systems, whereas integration refers to the possibility of implementing several secondary functions as software modules in a common hardware unit. The benefits and concerns raised by this technological change are addressed, with emphasis being placed on the utilities views, field experience and acceptance of coordinated and integrated substation protection and control systems.
V. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors acknowledge the support of the National Grid CO, Scottish Power and the Manchester Centre for Electrical Energy at M I S T . Dr Castro Ferreira acknowledges the support of the Foundation for Science and Technology of the Portuguese Government through the Praxis XXI Program. Dr Castro Ferreiras presence at PowerTech2001 was sponsored by ALSTOM EMM, USA.

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VII. BIOGRAPHIES
L R Castro Ferreira is a Project Engineer in the Central Markets group at ALSTOM Energy Management & Markets - EMM, USA. He obtained a first degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Porto, Portugal, in 1995, an MSc in Electrical Power Engineering from UMIST, UK, in 1996 and a PhD in 1999, also from UMIST.
Peter A Crossley is a Senior Lecturer Electrical Engineering at UMIST. He graduated with a BSc degree from UMIST in 1977 and a PhD degree from the University of Cambridge in 1983. During the period 1977-1990 he worked for ALSTOM on the design and application of digital protection relays. He is a Member of the IEE and EEE. Ronald N Allan is Professor of Electrical Energy Systems at UMIST, UK. He is a Chartered Engineer in the UK, a Fellow of the IEEE and a Fellow of the TEE.