The Development of an Intelligent & Integrated Gateway System for the Automation Systems in Power Utilities

M.S.Kim and D. H. Hyun, Researcher, kZPRI

more far-reaching than those of a typical ofice environment especially with respect to reliability, operation and maintenance of the different types of applications within the same network. Automation systems are being increasingly operated as distributed systems from the point of view of the applications[3]. KEPRI(Korea Electric Power Research Institute), the research center of KEPCO, already developed and operated the Front End Processor with Media Dependent Interface. It was well operated with various communication media but maintenance and expansion were very difficult. Thus, we have designed and developed the IIG which supports easy maintenance and integration with multi-communication media, multi-link, multi-service and multi-function. The important elements of designing automation systems have been mainly the remote automation devices such as switches and circuit breakers. Improving the function of the devices is important for the automation systems. But, the functional quality of the devices becomes stable in performing Index Term-Automation Systems, Communication Network the automatic operation. The communication devices have Intelligent & Integrated Gateway, KEPCO, Power Utility been the causes of most troubles in an automation system. Therefore, we have to shift our focus to the automation system itself. I. INTRODUCTION The communication stability is an important factor of the utomation Systems in Korea include Distribution system availability. There is no way to get the information of Automation System, Automated Meter Reading System, the remote devices when communication is failed. So, it is Load Control System and Substation Automation System, etc. most important to keep the communication devices work. Reliable automation systems have to have a new structure to and many other systems are expected to be developed. Each automation system has a unique characteristic and is overcome the communication problems. In this paper, we applied on the various communication network. The most show new architecture of intelligent and integrated gateway for popular communication network is the leased communication automation systems. line. But, these days, it slowly changes to wireless communication network due to its high-leased fee and 11. THE GENERAL CONFIGURATION OF AUTOMATION SYSTEMS dificulty of maintenance [1][2]. Automation systems have different requirements for networks according to their In Korea, a Distribution Automation System(DAS) has been functions. Most automation systems are operated installed and operated by most of branch ofEces(l75 out of independently using the dedicated communication networks 184). Well explain the IIG in the DAS. From 1984, KEPCO leading to duplication. has installed and operated DAS with several communication The new requirements of a deregulated utility market can be networks such as twisted pair cable, coaxial cable, wireless assumed that the focus of the utilities will be increasingly data channel etc. Nowadays, optical communication, trunked towards networked systems. The networked systems are much radio system (TRS), leased line and wireless data communication, are typical communication networks. Myongsoo Kim and Duckhwa Hyun are with Korea Electric Power Introducing DAS into power distribution network reduces

Abstraci-In recent years, it has been a worldwide trend that many power utilities gave their attention to develop and operate their power plants, substation and distribution systems. Following this trend, KEPCO(Korea Electric Power Corporation) has developed many electric automation systems with various communication networks. It has been natural that the automation systems are just focused on to remote devices when they come to be designed. But, we have to shift the focus to the automation system itself. There are many problems in maintenance and integration of the automation systems. When an automation system cant control some remote devices, there is no way to get why and which part(Master, Network, Master-side Modem or Remote-side modem, Remote Device, etc.) of the system has problems. Moreover, the system just directly links to another automation system. If the system has to link many systems, it needs the linker per each systems. So, we need a new concept to resolve that problems, and develop the Intelligent and Integrated Gateway(1IG) for the automation systems for easy maintenance and integration.

Research Institute, Taejeon, 305-380, Korea (email: mskim@kepri.re.kr).

0-7803-7525-4/02/$17.000 2002 IEEE.

the power failure recovery time from 40 minutes to 2 minutes. Thus KEPCO plans extending DAS to all the distribution offices [4]. DAS is composed of many devices such as router, terminal server, network, modem, etc. If one of the devices does not work, DAS does not work properly. So, each component is important to monitor and control the remote devices. Fig. 1 describesthe configuration of a typical DAS in

Can tfind where the problem is It is very difficult to find where the problem is in the automation systems, because the components of the automation system dont send any information of the problem. Can tfind how to recover the problem Even if the automation systems exactly know the problem, they cant fix the problem because they havent routine for recovery. B. When they add new services When they try to add new services, it is impossible to share the communication network in the typical architecture of Automation Systems.

K o r e a .

C. When they link other automation systems The system links directly to another automation system in system architecture. If the system has to link to many other systems, it needs the linker per each system. If you want to link to N systems, you must prepare Ns linker.

Iv. THE SOLUTION

We designed an IIG for solving communication networks problems and suggested the designing methods as follows.

A. System Configuration Fig. 2 shows the configuration of the automation systems The main functions of the Master are monitoring and controlling remote devices. The master doesnt support the with the new architecture. recognition or recovery of any communication failures. When the master cant reach the specific remote device, it just displays communication error and does nothing. IG Master H e a r t Bit In the configuration of the typical DAS, a hub simply Other s y s t e m s provides electric connection between the master and other devices. It cant provide any information about ports, traffic volume, operating status. So we call it the dummy hub. The terminal server is used with the public lease line. It supports checking and changing the status of ports by direct connection with PC in local site. But, it is inefficient. The router is connected to the wireless communication server and works 89 the same way of the terminal server. The modem, installed in remote site, doesnt build in the loop test function. When the response cant return back, there is no way to find why and where the problems happen.

Fig. I . The configurationof general AutomationSystem

111. THE PROBLEM OF AUTOMATION SYSTEMS

A. When they doesn t work properly Can tfind why the problem happens It is very important to keep up the pre-installed system. We The availability of DAS in Korea is 95%. The automation just added the devices in the system without changing the systems cant control up to 5% of the remote devices and cant structure of the networks. As adding the IIG on the LAN in the classify the problems. system, automation system has the same operation. But, the IIG provides the expandability to other systems. IIG provides

Fig. 2. The configurationof the automationsystems w i t h advanced architecture

to expandability by access point.

error.
.

B. Link the Master A master sends communication error messages to the IIG through TCP/IP communication. Then IIG analyzes the messages and checks the devices in sequence. Fig 3. describes the sequence of error detection procedure.

HUB
. .

( 4

........ ........... *

Termtnal Server

i
I .

4...

............

Router

Master

MMI

TT-

--

F Error Event

Fig. 4. The signal flow between network devices and the IIG

l t t d
Error

D, Link the TRS Gateway TRS Gateway has the monitoring hnction of modems. So, IIG use the information of the Gateway by TCP/IP. TRS is only the utility own communication system in Korea. The status information of TRS is difficult to analyze due to shared voice data. As testing to PAD(Packet AssembleDeassembler) which converts data between TRS modem and FRU, TRS Gateway gets the information about the TRS communication line.

Fig. 3. The sequence of communicationerror detection procedure

v. OTHER FUNCTIONS
The main tinction of IIG is Intelligent Network & Device Management. This function described above chapter. Fig. 5 shows the functions of IIG.

At first, the master sends the message of something wrong to the 110 when it cant read the status of the remote unit. IIG checks the status of HUB, terminal server, modem rack, public network and modem in the remote side in sequence. In Fig. 3, I 1 0 cant receive a remote loop back signal of remote modem. So, we can just decide that the problem occurred in remote modem.

-Analyze and control the network devlces -Provide Interface any communlcatlon medla -Couvert or bypass the any protocols -Provide access polnts for other automatlon systems

C. Link the Network devices

IIG periodically checks the HUB, Terminal Server and Router by PING command. The network devices send 1IG the status of each port, when they recognize something wrong. I10 collects MIB(Management Information Base) of the network devices and displays the status of each network device to the MMI monitor. I 1 0 cm moriitor the status of the device and can set the value of the status for the each network device. Fig 4. displays the signal flow between I 1 0 and network devices. Bach network device supports SNMP(Simple Network Management Protocol), MIB-I and MIB-11. I10 monitors link status, traffic flow on the network in the real time. It can reboot the network devices and change the configuration of devices. IIG periodically gets the status of each port in devices and displays on the MMI through the f3ll graphic interface. Also, IIG disables or enables communication functions in the network device, when a specific device makes communication

-Convert or bypass the any database

I-NDMS :IntellfgmtNetwork & Deice Managemait systau MH :M W - R o t 4 Interface MDI :Medla Dependent Interface M-SAP :Multlple Savlce Accees Pdnt M-DBI :MultlpleData Base

Fig. 5. The fknctions of IIG

There are many communication media and protocols in utility automation systems. When the systems have to add more services or exchange data, they need to share the communication media or convert data. If they dont have the proper interface for the new service, then the system expansion would be difficult. The developed IIG supports the Media

Dependent Interface and Multi-Protocol Interface. It provides RS-232, 422, 485, RJ-11, 45, and Optical Interfaces. For the protocol, IIG supports DNP3.0 widespread in Korea. Most of the systems have used DNP3.0 as the protocol standard in Korea. Utilities in Korea study on UCA2.0 nowadays Connecting a system to other systems is a big issue in IT industry. There are many systems in the distribution and substation field such as Distribution Automation System, Distribution Information System, Automated Meter Reading System, Transformer Monitoring System, Substation Automation System, etc. Most of the systems need to get the data from other system through simple link instead of adding more devices. The IIG connects the substation automation system and bypass the modified data in order to get the data of substation. Fig. 6 shows the configuration between the IIG and other systems.

VII. CONCLUSION This paper describes the development of Integrated and Intelligent Gateway which is under test. The network operating technique in this paper can identifies the causes of the communication faults, and can avoid communication network faults in advance. Utility companies spend large financial investment and time for supplying the stabilized power. Since this is deeply related to the reliability of Automation Systems, it is natural to employ Fault-Tolerant communication network for Automation Systems. Use of the network system developed in this paper is not limited in DAS. It can be expandable to the many kinds of data services for customer. Thus this paper suggests the direction of the communication network development. For the future, the possible problems for applying different data services, expansion of bandwidth, reliability so on will be analyzed. Also, availability through field tests and Mean Time To Repair(MTTR) will be calculated.

Mast er

VIII. REFERENCES
Rajeev Agrawal, "DA Drives Communications Backbone networks",

DA/DSM '95 Asia, p.283. Terry, Devaney, "Successfid Communication Techniques for Distribution Systems", DA/DSM '95 Asia, p.297. Jakob Germann and Adrian Willimann, "The PIA solution-cost effective acquisition and distribution of information between electrical power supply companies in one integrated network," in Proc. Cigre 2000, 35101. KEPCO Distribution Department, "Estimation o f DAS i n Operation & Construction,2001 '', KEPCO Central Education Center, 2002, p93.

Ix. BIoGRAPHlES

IIG

Other Systems

Fig. 6. The configuration between I1G and other systems.

VI. FURTHER STUDY 110 comprehensively includes network and device management in the automation systems. But, it supports DNP3.0 as a standard protocol. UCA2.0 may be another standard protocol for the view of the interoperability. UCA2.0 is strange in Korea. But, we, our research team, know the pros and cons of UCA2.0. Some days, we'll apply the UCA2.0 to

Myongsoo Kim was born in Korea, on Janualy 5, 1970. He graduated from the MyongJi University and received B.E. degree from the MyongJi University, Korea, in 1996. His special fields of interest are utility automation and communication included utility protocol. He is presently a semior researcher of the computer communication group at KEPRI(Korea Electric Power Research Institute), Daejeon, Korea.

iia.
We are developing a modem with new network management b c t i o n s because some modems can't support Remote Loop Back test. IIG is now operated in real field. We'll test the IIG in various environment and analyze the data for improvement of the IIG.

Duckhwa, Hyun was born in CheJu, Korea, on September 22, 1952. He received the B.E. degree from the YonSei University, Seoul,Korea, in 1991. In 1987, He joined the KEPCqKorea Electric Power Corporation)R&D Center. Since 1987, He has been engaged in research on power line and optical communication techniques. He is presently a team leader of the Computer & communication Group at KEPRI(Korea Electric Power Research Institute), Dae J a n , Korea. His special field of interest is Power Line Communication,