International Journal of Trend in Scientific

Research and Development (IJTSRD)

International Open Access Journal
ISSN No: 2456 - 6470 | www.ijtsrd.com | Volume - 2 | Issue – 3

A Review
ew on Substation Monitoring and
control technologies and Problems
Amba Lal Mathur Dr. Deepika Chauhan Yogendra Singh
Associate Professor, Department Associate Professor
Professor, Department Final Year Student,
Stud Department of
of Electrical Engineering, of Electrical Engineering, Electrical Engineering,
Engineering Poornima
Poornima College of Engineering, Poornima College of Engineering
Engineering, College of Engineering,
Engineering Sitapura,
Sitapura, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India Sitapura, Jaipur
Jaipur, Rajasthan, India Jaipur,
Jaipur Rajasthan, India

ABSTRACT
The paper present review on various substation advancements. The conventional sources of power
monitoring and control technologies to convert generation are depleting day by day, there is scarcity
conventional substations into smart substation, This of trained manpower as compared to demand , So to
includes automated monitoring and control using PLC deal with this situation we have only one option-
option we
and SCADA system , microcontrollers based have to operate our existing system with utmost
monitoring and control system, cloud computing and security and optimization, and economically as much
Intelligent electronics devices(IEDs) monitoring as possible. Hence, To do this, substation automation
,control and protection system for substations. is the best way.
Further, this paper also includes the recent
advancement in substation automation which includes Substation automation is a technology by which we
the new standard proposed by International Electro
Electro- can monitor and control all the components and
technical commission(IEC) which is IEC IEC-61850 for equipments installed in the substation from a remote
communication system in substations which primarily place.. Various technologies are used for automating
used to eliminate the problem of interoperability the substations like we can use the programmable
between IEDs supplied by different vendors. It also logical controllers for the control operation in the
describe various issues related ted with various substation
tion and we can easily locate the faults in the
monitoring and control technologies in substation. substations. SCADA software is used for the real time
ti
smart substation is the principal foundation and monitoring of the substation.
substation So we can remotely
support of smart grid and hence this paper includes supervise and control the substation without going
several technologies and issues of converting a into the field. Also we can use a new concept for
conventional substation into smart substation.
tation. monitoring
toring of substations that is cloud computing. By
using cloud computing consumer can enter to their
Keywords: Substation monitoring and control, Cloud applications at any time with the help of a connected
computing, Microcontroller, PLC,, SCADA, IEC device to the system. Cloud computing has vast
61850 application in the power system which increase
reliability,
ity, efficiency and security of the system.
I. INTRODUCTION
We also can use microcontroller based system for a
Electrical power system is one of the most complex distribution transformer which is installed in
man-made
made networks in the world. In India, Power substation that is used for monitoring the voltage,
demand is increasing at very fast rate with increase in
population, industrialization and technological

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 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) ISSN: 2456-6470
current, temperature of transformer and protect the
system from rise in these mentioned parameters.

In this era of automation, Electric power utilities are

facing problem of interoperability among Intelligent
Electronic devices(IEDs) which are supplied by
different companies during the expansion of an
existing electric substation. In this context
International Electro-technical commission (IEC) has
proposed a new standard that is IEC-61850 . So this
paper review all these technologies, their merits,
functions and also comprises the implementation
issues, cyber security of smart substation and various
restrictions in substation automation. Fig.1: Block diagram of substation monitoring
using SCADA System [1]
II. TECHNOLOGIES
A. Substation monitoring and control using SCADA
B. Substation monitoring using microcontroller
system
based system
This system uses ‘Supervisory control and data
acquisition’ (SCADA)software to monitor various In the substations, Distribution transformers may
electrical parameters of electrical substation .In subjected to damage due to the increase in the
Remote terminal unit(RTU) automated substation, the temperature of oil filled in its tank. Due to
power equipment, their communication and overloading or when high current flows through the
computers are interdependent ,means they are transformer winding, high heat is generated which
dependent on each other. The data from substation increase the oil temperature. Hence transformer may
equipment is communicated with the SCADA systems be highly damaged. As transformer is very costly unit,
with the help of RTU. The main advantage of using we should give high priority to transformer
SCADA system is that monitoring and controlling can monitoring to avoid such situations. In the following
be done easily and it reduce the human labor because scheme, a microcontroller based system is connected
we can monitor the whole substation on a single with the distribution transformer for monitoring. [2].
computer screen (in SCADA software). The real time
parameters which are monitored through SCADA are
currents, voltages, pressures, temperatures etc. This
supervision done with the help of digital equipment
and sensors which are installed in the substation. First
the data is collected from the sensors and then
processing is done at data acquisition and control unit.
Then by using a suitable communication method , this
data is send to the main computer which is at control
center. After that this data is send to main head office
from where remote supervision is done. [ 1 ]
Hence SCADA system is very advance technology in
the field of industrial automation and it has vast
Fig. 2: Substation monitoring using
application in the power system automation. At the
microcontroller based system [ 2 ]
substations , the complete overview of the field can be
seen over SCADA system and we can monitor and The monitoring and control system using
control the various equipments from the control center microcontroller is shown in the fig-2. There are two
itself. Thus it increases the reliability, efficiency of stations are shown in the figure, one is power
the grid and reduces the human labor. generating station and another one is distribution
substation. Distribution substation contains the

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 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) ISSN: 2456-6470
2456
monitoring unit. This monitoring unit consists of an 3) Most of the power is generated through the thermal
AVR microcontroller which is interfaced with RF power plants, so carbon emissions is very serious
transmitter and other sensors installed in the issue for our environment. So, cloud computing may
substation. The various parameters like voltage, lead to control this problem through inclusion of
currents, temp. etc. are given to the input port of AVR hydro, solar and wind power generating stations as
(say port A). A LCD screen is connected to the cloud
ud will be a better source to keep your data safe
second input port of AVR (say port B) for display and observe your parameters if someone install any
operation. The RF transmitter is then connected to the kind of renewable energy power plant. They will not
output port of AVR (say port C). The computer which depend on the conventional grid for their data.
monitor all these parameters is situated in the main
power generating station.
tation. At substation, AVR 4) There is a proper balance of power demand and
monitors all parameters and record them for a specific supply.
y. This is done by accessing the data to the
time period that is predefined in its programming. It customer utility side.
stores the values in its register and display these on
5) With the help of cloud computing, customers can
LCD screen.
view their daily consumption anytime. So they get
motivated to save energy if they found they are
Now, these monitored values are transmitted through
wasting it.
RF transmitter module for every specific time period.
We can use any antenna according to our application. Cloud computation is a cutting
ing edge technology for
At the receiving station , another receiver antenna grid which provides a computation model that will
converts these RF signals into electrical signals and prevent on demand model and also store various
obtain the information. On the basis of th this, records which can be seen anytime at the connecting
controlling operation is done. If the received device . Cloud use the data taken by the various smart
values are largely deviated from the predefined levels, meters in grid. Cloud computing
ing includes following
then immediately the unit is shutdown and hence properties [ 3 ]:
protected. Also the power generation can be (1) On-demand function
controlled through the data [ 2 ].
(2) Broad network access
Thus the microcontroller based system used for
monitoring as well as controlling of distribution (3) Rapid elasticity
transformer . Since distribution transformer is an (4) Resource pooling
crucial and costly part of the substation and this
system is monitoring it, hence this system contributes (5) Measuring devise
to make the substation automated.
C. Monitoring of substation using cloud computing

Security is one of very important case to secure the

privacy of any field.. Cyber security, data outage,
threat detection are various issues which are required
to be prevented. For customer motivatmotivation proper
privacy policy should need to keep secure at their end.
For fulfillments of all the above mentioned terms,
cloud computing is very useful technology in recent
development of grid. It consists of following
properties [ 3 ] :-

1) By actual time monitoring and controlling of

various electrical parameters, it optimize the cost .
Fig.3: Cloud Computing [3]
[3
2) According to the energy usages at consumers end
they can make payment by using some specific
applications or software.

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 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) ISSN: 2456-6470
D. IED MONITORING expend an existing substation or install a new one,
then we have to order IEDs from IED manufacturers.
Intelligent electronic devices are very important for So if these IEDs are supplied by different vendors,
monitoring and control purpose in substations. then communication between these becomes a serious
problem. So this interoperability has to be resolved.
IED performs various functions like they are used to
Recently, a new standard is proposed by International
monitor, control and protect operation. Various
Electro-technical commission(IEC) that is IEC-71850
equipments in the substations are monitored and data
Standard to eliminate the interoperability and hence
is collected. So the important and costly devices
flexible data communication between different IEDs.
essentially has IED. Some of the devices which are
monitored are- Substation automation performs various functions like
switch control, data monitoring, protection etc. In
(1) Circuit Breaker
IEC-61850, these functions are divided into sub-
 Contact wear. functions. Each function is performed by the IED
 Total number of operations installed in the substation. A single IED can perform
 Time in operation(mechanical) one or more sub-functions. A set of sub-functions is
 Time in operation(electrical) integrated together to realize a substation automation
 Inactivity time function. All the sub-functions communicate with
each other through Local Area Network(LAN) in the
substation. All the possible sub-functions have been
(2). DC Battery System standardized in IEC 61850. Information produced and
required by each substation is given in the IEC-61850
 DC voltage level standard. [4]
 Leakage current
In the substation, there are basically two types of
equipments :
(3) Power Transformer
(i) primary equipments(ex: Transformer, Switchgear)
The Power transformer is the main unit of the
substation. If we compare the cost of transformer with (ii) secondary equipments (ex: Protection, control and
the other equipments in the substation then communication equipments)
transformer is most costly unit. Also the maintenance
and transportation of transformers is very costly. Now, the secondary equipments are further divided
Hence proper monitoring must be done to protect into three levels in IEC-61850 standards which are
these costly units. station level , bay level, and process level equipments.

The IEDs monitor the following parameters:

 It measure the winding temperature.

 It calculate the temp. of oil
 Accumulated loss-of-life rate.
 Monitor cooling system of transformer.

IEC -61850 STANDARD

Substation Automation (SA) is a system in which we
can remotely monitor, control and coordinate the
various electrical substation components. IED are
used to automate and protect the substation Fig. 4 Three level topology of substation equipment
equipments. Here, communication among various [4]
IEDs and between IED and control center is needed.
Hence it becomes an important issue to realize the
substation automation function. Because when we

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 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) ISSN: 2456-6470
Process level function takes the information from  The failure of SCADA system is mainly due to
communication network failure. So the
Various sensors/transducers installed in the substation availability of the communication network should
and send them to upper level device, called bay level be increased for a more reliable SCADA
device. system.[11]
Bay level functions acquire the data from the bay
which is send by the process level device and then B. Substation monitoring using microcontroller
mainly act on the primary (power circuit) equipment based system
of the bay.
 The range of RF modules is limited, hence this
Station level functions are of two types. system is not applicable for the very long
distances between generating station and
(i) Process related functions substation. So we have to use long range
modules.
(ii) Interface related function  Only applicable for the real time monitoring of
the substation as data cannot be stored for long
period of time. Hence other methods of data
III. Problems related with various technologies
storing are required.
A Substation monitoring and control using SCADA
system C. Monitoring of substation using cloud computing
 Hijacking of SCADA control system and  The Major problem with the cloud computing
disruption of process is a serious threat. Attempts is that we are accessing the data through
will be made to fiddle with control system internet , then if server is down or internet
parameters which will definitely adversely affect connection is unavailable by any reason, it
the whole control system of the substation and also mean that cloud services will also
affect the reliability of power. Hence cyber unavailable. Hence we can’t access the data
security analysis must be done by experts to avoid and due to this the functionality of the
such situations. substation will largely affected.
 If inadequate protection is provided to the So there should be an alternate to access the
SCADA system then it is likely to exploited data.
through many ways. Viruses, Trojan horses and  If cyber infrastructure is hacked or any other
malware can also cause disruption. Hence cyber attack take place on it then it would
ultimately the whole control process is affected. affect all the clients connected with it even if
 Since SCADA system applications are also only one site is attacked. So Cloud service
accessed through the mobile devices. Hence this is providers must pay attention to such frauds to
really a big threat because hackers have a new protect large number of system connected with
domain to work on. So this side must be their servers
continuously monitored by the experts  Electrical power system is very complex
 SCADA systems are getting open, unbounded and network. At the substation large amount of
Interconnected. Restricted, authenticated access data is required to stored and accessed through
shall be one way to protect such systems. cloud computing. But for such high data
Protecting an open, unbounded and interconnected applications, the companies have to spend a
system is a challenging task. [12] large amount because sufficient bandwidth is
 SCADA system becomes complex due to addition required to deliver huge and complex data
of computers, operator stations, networks and over the network.
other type of resources. Hence, due to this
complexity SCADA systems becomes inflexible
and cannot easily adept new changes to control D. IED monitoring
process and monitoring of equipments. So we  IEDs consist of all the electronic equipments
should try to design less complex systems by present in the substation. So if any fault occur
using proper number of devices which are on the system, then total system will become
essential in operation.

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 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) ISSN: 2456-6470
uncontrolled. Hence a backup control and Engineering Research and application, September
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IV. CONCLUSION National Power systems conference, IIT Bombay,
December 2008,pp.473-478
In this paper, we have reviewed various monitoring
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