R&D NESTER PRESENT AT ‘BUILDING SMARTER SUBSTATIONS’ COLLOQUIUM
The objective of this event was to put in contact participants from those three areas, which are becoming more and more interconnected in the so-called ‘Smart Substation', that is, a substation with a high level of integration of the protection, automation and control (PAC) system. In a Smart Substation, each device can have a panoramic view of the whole system, since all equipment is connected via the local communication network.
R&D Nester presented the paper ‘Using the IEC 61850 formal description capabilities towards a vendor-independent PAC specification' that describes the engineering process for the specification and configuration of a substation PAC system, which was one of the results of the work developed under the scope of the ‘Substation of the Future' project.
The event consisted in oral paper presentations, tutorials and discussion panel sessions. Addressed issues included the use of the IEC 61850 standard inside and between substations, the design of systems with devices from several manufacturers, the importance of the on line condition monitoring of the substation assets, the utilization of mobile devices for the monitoring of the substations and the decoupling of the software from the hardware, with the possible use of cloud computing.
The major conclusions of this event are the necessity of the creation of multidisciplinary teams in the electric power utilities (encompassing all knowledge areas needed for the Smart Substation), the need for training in these areas and the increasing importance of the cyber security.