Satellite communication for remote control and monitoring
of substations
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Pole mounted Direct X1 outdoor remote & power supply using a .75M antenna
Application for substation automation
Substation
Automation is a supervisory management and control system that
lies in between transmission and distribution systems.
The interests on
substation automation have been increasing rapidly due to its numerous benefits
to utilities. It has advanced further than a traditional Supervisory
Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA)system providing
additional capability and information that can be used to further improve
operations, maintenance and efficiencies in substations.
The most significant elements of a substation
automation system includerelays and/or Intelligent
Electronic Devices (IEDs) that perform various control, monitoring and
protection related operations.
The desire and
the need of merging the communication capabilities of all relays and
IEDs in a substation has thus been clearly recognized, which is
capable of providing not only data gathering and setting capability but also
remote control.
Alstom
Grid’s P60 Agile new range of intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) one-box
solution” for the protection, control, recording and measurement of electrical
power systems
Furthermore,
multiple IEDs can share data or control commands at higher speeds to perform
new distributed protection, and control functions.
Interoperability needs
to be achieved in a substation between protective
relays from different manufacturers so that
substation level interlocking, protection and control functions can be realized
improving the efficiency of microprocessor based relay applications.
Satellite communication
Recent
developments in communication technologies have enabled reliable remote control
systems which have the capability of monitoring the real time operating
conditions and performance of electric systems.
These
communication technologies can be classified into four classes:
1. Power
line communication,
2. Satellite
communication (subject of this article)
3. Wireless
communication and
4. Optical
fibre communication.
Each
communication technology has its own advantages and disadvantages that must be
evaluated to determine the best communication infrastructure for substation
automation. In this article, a review of satellite communication technology is
presented with the special emphasis on their application for substation
automation.
Satellite
communication can offer pretty innovative solutions for remote control and
monitoring of substations.
It provides an extensive geographic
coverage, and thus, can be a good alternative communication infrastructure
for electric system automation in order to reach remote substations where other
communication infrastructures such as telephone or cellular networks might not
exist.
In practical
applications, Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) satellite services are
already available that are especially tailored for remote substation monitoring
applications.
Furthermore, with
the latest developments in electric system automation, satellite communication is not only used for remote
control and monitoring of substations, but also used for Global
Positioning System (GPS) based time synchronization, which provides
microsecond accuracy in time synchronization.
In addition,
satellites can be used as a backup for the existing substations communication
networks. In case of congestion or link failures in communication, critical
data traffic can be routed through satellites.
Two
advantages: -
Following are the advantages of using satellite
communication for remote monitoring:
1. Geographic coverage:
Satellite
communications have unique advantages over conventional long distance
transmissions. This communication trend is capable of spanning long distance
irrespective of the physical condition.
Thus providing a cost–effective solution for
the areas where communication infrastructure might not exist due
to environmental issues.
2.
Higher Bandwidth:
Satellite
communication has very large bandwidth capacity as it is widely used for the
broadcasting of video streaming. Thus this higher bandwidth can be
utilized for the transmission of mission critical data and messages
within substations.
Followings are the disadvantages of using satellite
communication as a communication technology:
1.
Long delay
As for as the
transmission characteristics for satellite communication are concerned,
round–trip delay is the growing concern which is comparatively higher
than the wired network.
As substation messages are mission critical so
in order to ensure efficient and reliable transmission of these message from
one substation to other substation this round trip delay need to be minimized.
2. Satellite channel characteristics
Performance of
satellite channels is greatly affected by the change in operating
climate due to weather or by the effect of fading thereby degrading
the efficiency of the whole satellite communication system.
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