Information Technology Needs and Trends in the Electric Power Business

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Information Technology Needs and Trends in the
Electric Power Business

• Mladen Kezunovic
• Texas AM University

Industrial Advisory Board Meeting December 6-7,
2001
PSERC
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Opening Remarks

• What are the pressing IT needs
• - data integration and information exchange
• What are the promising IT trends
• - real-time processing, fault-tolerant
  architectures, wireless communications and mobile
  agent computing
• Can IT play a major role in providing greater
  security
• - Yes, both through using public networks and
  implementing customized (closed) solutions

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ISO Open system Requirements and IT Needs

• Access to network monitoring data
• Access to relevant databases
• Ability to understand possible
  contingencies/risks/limits associated with
  particular energy transactions
• Coordination of maintenance schedules for
  improved generation and network availability and
  reliability

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System Users
Technician
Engineer
Dispatcher
Technician
Brief Report
Summary Report
Comprehensive Report
according to the need of a particular category
of users. Reports are disseminated via etc.
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The ITs Role in Implementing Open Systems
Concept for EMS

• Power system monitoring, control and protection
  infrastructure is still closed for data
  integration and information exchange with EMS
• Old, substation legacy solutions, need to be
  substituted with open systems
• New applications are needed to fully motivate and
  utilize open systems

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Existing Infrastructure
CFL
MS
PE
EMS
LEVEL I CENTRALIZED LOCATION
RC
IS
SC
LEVEL II SUBSTATION
LMS
FL
DFR
IED
DPR
RTU
SOE
LEVEL III SWITCHYARD INTERFACE
A
S
A
S
A
S
A
A
S
A
S
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Future Infrastructure
Email, Fax, Hosting,
Intranet
Wide-area networks
WWW, Pager Notification
Internet
(hubs, routers, gateways)
Mobile Agent
System wide
System wide
Server
analysis
control
IEC 61850
COMTRADE
Substation Analysis and Control
Substation Analysis and Control
DFR
DDR
DFR
DDR
SER
IED
SER
IED
RTU
DPR
RTU
DPR
GPS
GPS
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Maintenance Scheduling
schedule
schedule
response
response

• In a deregulated environment
• 1. GENCO and DISCO Submit the initial schedules
  to ISO
• 2. ISO may approve or disapprove the schedules

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Maintenance Scheduling
schedule
schedule
response
response

• In a deregulated environment
• 1. GENCO and DISCO Submit the initial schedules
  to ISO
• 2. ISO may approve or disapprove the schedules

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Difficulties

• Diverse ownership of the equipment
• Distributed information among multiple entities
• Communication and coordination among market
  participants

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Requirement on New Method

• Work on heterogeneous hardware platforms and
  operating systems.
• Able to authenticate and authorize the users.
• Provide secure communicate channels in the cases
  that the public network is used to connect the
  GENCO and the ISO.
• Integrate with the existing systems well.

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New Method

• Each GENCO is represented by an agent
• The agent is traveling between the GENCO and the
  ISO to exchange information
• Agents can adjust their acts to adapt the changed
  situation
• Some negotiation algorithm can be used to control
  the action of agents

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Substation Automation IT Needs

• Wireless communications
• - enable introduction of new IEDs
• - provide required robustness
• - facilitate data integration
• Mobile agent computing
• - facilitates use of distributed databases
• - enables integration of legacy systems
• - provides effective means of information
  exchange

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Substation Automation IT Needs (continued)

• Real-time processing
• - smart sensors
• - analog/digitals signals processing
• - continuous data processing
• Fault-tolerant architectures
• - substation/device applications
• - distributed data bases
• - alternative communication paths

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Distributed System
Data displayed
Event is copied
Database queried
Report received
Event is archived
Viewer invoked
Request processed
New event detected
Event is copied
Central Server
Report Viewer
Substation Client
TR 1640
TR 100
TR 1620
.
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Example of Report Viewer
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IT role in providing greater security

• Intrusion detection and attack mitigation
• Redundancy capability for supporting enhanced
  tolerance to failures
• Ability to dynamically reconfigure and/or switch
  data sources
• Graceful degradation for reduced functionality
  and fail-safe provision for forced system shut
  down