International Conference on Renewable Energies and Power Quality (ICREPQ14)

Cordoba (Spain), 8
th
to 10
th
April, 2014
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ISSN 2172-038 X, No.12, April 2014




Unmanned substation monitoring system in Thailand

ANURAK CHOEICHUM
1

1
Network operation department, Provincial electricity authority area 1 (Center),
Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya province
Thailand
Phone/Fax number:+66 89 205 5681, e-mail: earth_park@hotmail.com




Abstract. The Unmanned substation monitoring system is
implemented and utilized for the first time in a unmanned
substation supervising of Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA)
area 1 (Center), Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya province. The
development of unmanned substation monitoring system has
been used in real SCADA network. When an event has been
detected, the program will check necessary data of the overall
system such as equipment status, data quality, etc. If there is any
error occurred, the program will send the message immediately
and represent alarm to the dispatchers via SCADA system
display, for both text and acoustic alarm. The results of
unmanned substation monitoring system is facilitating for PEA in
reducing the down-time of devices, reducing operators
workloads at the dispatching centre and enhancing utility
reliability.

Key words

Monitoring, Unmanned substation, SCADA, event
message

1. Introduction

Accordingly, the mission to generate, transmit and
distribute electricity to customers covered 98% of the
country with improving efficiency of the supply,
transmission and distribution system. PEA (Provincial
Electricity Authority) THAILAND has implemented the
computer-based dispatching management system or
SCADA since 2004.

Currently, there are 64 substations in Area Distribution
Dispatching Center (Center 1), Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya
province, or ADDC(C1), one of total 12 ADDCs over
THAILAND, which a number of unmanned substations
increased. (The unmanned substations are about 60% of all
substations.)

The unmanned substation is a power substation without an
operator or a dispatcher. The supervision and command
operation must be operated by the dispatchers at the
dispatching center only. Therefore, the communication
system or control systems are used to be managed and
must be always available.
The main problem occurs when the dispatchers at the
dispatching center have to operate a command for the
devices installed in the unmanned substations, but the
unmanned substation is not available without any
notification immediatly. Moreover, the main waiting time
to complete the operation is the time duration for the
emergency team incharging. This is a waste of time and
high cost of work or operations. The important reasons
that can not command the device are the communication
system fails and the Computer Base System Control
System (CSCS) fails.

Eventually the stability of the system has improved. The
command center will be monitoring adverse events or
problems, which may occur in the power substation, with
efficient, fast, correct and accurate methods.

For these reasons, we have developed a monitoring
function including graphic interfaces and error warning
for the unmanned substation. The UNIX operating
programming was developed to monitor various errors
such as if the communication between the dispatching
center and unmanned substation is fail, the dispatcher
cannot control the devices at substations, and if the
quality of the data used for each device has a restraining
order. If an error occurs in any part, the notification will
be generated via the screen display and alarms of the
dispatching center. This system will enable the
dispatchers at the dispatching center to identify problems
quickly and analyze the causes and the problems that
have occurred in the primary section (Figures 1 and 2)

2. Methodology

The system has been developed as a part of the
notification, including graphics, text and acoustic alarm.
And also there are the developed Algorithms that can be
processed more quickly and accurately. [1],[3]







Figure. 1. System Architecture



A. Graphic user interface

In this system, the user interface graphic of each substation
is created to display the connection between each
substation and the objects created are linked to the
database of the various signals including system status,
data quality, and control devices status at the substations.
All of this is shown in the similar icon at the dispatching
center (Figures 3 and 4).
Each icon is drawn and positioned by the distance to each
substation or distance from the dispatching center and
similar to real location. More important, this figure shows
the communication connectivity of all substations and the
relative distance from the other substation and the
dispatching center. These icons are linked to the SCADA
database systems for communication status. When the
communication status between substation and the
dispatching center changes that are UP DOWN
DISABLED and QUALITY FAIL, the colour of the
icon will change to GREEN RED YELLOW and
WHITE with F respectively (Fig. 3).

B. Alarms and Events Notification

1) Color notification. Color notification of the icon
on the screen is changed, depending to the status
of the alarms or events. The green color is a
normal state, meanwhile, the red one fails, and the
yellow is disabled. Moreover if the F symbol is
shown, this means the data quality failure (Fig. 3).
2) Text notification. Text notification is the
messages sending to the control centre. These
messages include date-time, substation name,
description of event and status (Figures 5 and 6).
3) Acoustic alarm. Acoustic alarm notification is
sound signal sending to the dispatching center..






Figure. 2. System Block Diagram




Figure. 3. The main graphic interface.



Figure. 4. The user interface graphic of unmanned substation
network topology.


Figure. 6. The schematic of the unmanned substation and the alarm and event notification.



Figure. 5. The data quality notification.


C. Algorithm

The algorithm used for supervising and monitoring the
errors event and alarms in the system, aim at the least time
to display the result and no effect to the dispatching center
main operation system. In this system, the error of the
automatic devises, communication system and database
are recognized via the criteria implemented and the
necessary input signal. For the least time operation, the
optimize access time is set by considering to the work load
of the processing unit in the system that should not cause
any main operation interruption. Moreover the event and
alarm notification are concise and understandable. [1],[2]

1) The communication system supervising: The criteria
implemented are the responding of the signal sending
from the dispatching center to the substations. The
communication polling time is 10 seconds. From that,
If there is not the responding signal within 15 seconds,
this means the communication system fails.
2) The automatic devise status supervising: The
automatic devise status supervising is the available
checking for measurement, which are, online status,
the real time status. The polling time for the important
devise status, for example, circuit breaker status or
auto-reclose lockout relay status is 2 seconds and 15
seconds for the others. If the availability of the devises
is not existed or responded within 15 seconds, this
means the devises is out of order.
3) The data quality supervising: The database linking to
the automatic devises is scanning for the data quality
in every 15 seconds in every measurement. The
quality value will identify the capable of the devise
controllable. This quality is also one of the validity
measurements of the devise to ensure the availability
of the devises. If the quality of the devise is not
good, the alarm is generated.


3. Result and Discussion

The communication status from the dispatching center
consists of both the fiber-optic network and the CSCS
(Computer based substation control system) status.
Therefore if the communication is fail, any part or both
of these two systems is fail. The dispatchers have to
notify the maintenance team to clarify these systems.

Therefore, this algorithm checks the necessary data and
conditions and displays the result on the screen display,
and then the dispatchers and the maintenance team could
analyze and find the cause of the problems. If the status is
abnormal, the acoustic alarm and text are also alert and
display the status up-down on the screen.

This algorithm will determine the quality of the
communication if the substations are available. The
duration of the scan time is 15 seconds. If an
communication error occurs, the system will sampling
determine data quality database of SCADA equipment
from the CSCS in the next cycle of scanning. If the
qualities are good, this show that the communication
system has problems and the CSCS is good, On the other
hand, if the sampling check data quality are bad. The
cause of the problem could be both communication and
the CSCS. Moreover, if the substations in the same
communication network shown in screen are DOWN, this
is highly likely to be a problem of communication, or if the
communication terminal and the station before the last
node are DOWN, this is also likely to be a problem of
communication systems.

The cause of the problem is more quickly found in this
preliminary analysis. Dispatchers can supervise on the
basic profile from the display and analyzes it. [3],[4]



Figure. 7. The example of the communication system failure
schematic.

According to almost one year trial period, this unmanned
substation monitoring system is implemented practically
and accurately. Furthermore, the notification time is short,
averaged 18.3 seconds. This system is not required to
observe all the time because there are alarms goes off
when a problem occurs. Especially this system could
classify the problems between controlling problems or
communication system problems (Fig. 7).



Figure. 8. The example of the data quality failure schematic.



Figure. 9. The example of the system failure schematic.





Figure. 10. The example of the communication system failure
schematic.


4. Conclusion

The important parts for the unmanned substation
monitoring system are acoustic alarm notification and
graphic interface. The most important parameters to be
monitored and controlled in this system are the data
quality, the number of the failure devices and
communication network status. The results demonstrate
in the designed system is able to monitor the device
status, communication status and the data quality
database. These functionalities make the system a
valuable to maintain the system efficiency. The
performance of the system is perceived error quickly and
immediately. The Unmanned substation monitoring
system is facilitated for PEA in reducing down-time of
devices, reducing operators workloads at the dispatching
center. This will enhance utility reliability, stability and
organization standard. [3]

Acknowledgement

The author would like to express thankfulness to
Mr. Wichan Innyoo the chief of system automation section
and Mr.Khachorn Phrongpha, the manager of System
Control and Maintenance Division, Network Operation
Department, Area 1 (Center), for his fully support in this
project.

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