—

We are bridging the gap.

ABB Digital Substation

ABB’s Digital Substation is a core enabler

to increase safety, productivity and
reliability for grid operators and to
• Key ABB Digital Substation
reduce the overall substation cost. technologies explained
• Mastering the control room
of the future
• Extending the digital grid
2 D I G I TA L S U B S TAT I O N

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“ABB’s Digital Substation provides
customers in the utility sector with
unmatched control and efficiency.
The digital substation reduces
maintenance requirements and the
need for miles of conventional cabling.
ABB takes these advances several
steps further by combining
the latest electrical gear with digital
sensors and cloud computing.
The result is that grid operators
can make decisions based on
comprehensive, up-to-the-moment
information, while predictive
algorithms can improve maintenance
practices and asset management.”

Claudio Facchin
President, Power Grids division
 3

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Table of contents

006 – 007 Leading substation

development

008 – 009 ABB’s Digital Substation is

a significant breakthrough

010 – 011 ABB Digital

Substation benefits
—
ABB’s Digital Substation is a core enabler to
increase safety, productivity and reliability for
grid operators and to reduce the overall
substation cost.

Digital substations remove the last electrical

connection between the high voltage
equipment and the protection and control
panels, creating a safer work environment,
while reducing the costs for building, land,
engineering, commissioning, operation and
maintenance of the system. As a key
component towards smarter grids, where
utilities continue to integrate increasing
amounts of intermittent renewable energy
sources, digital substations offer improved
data quality and a shorter decision time in
the event of an emergency.
5
6 D I G I TA L S U B S TAT I O N

—
Leading substation development
for over 100 years.
Dependable substation performance is a key factor for grid reliability.
ABB has been designing and building substations since the 1900s.

Since then, we have supplied tens of thousands In the late 1980s, our innovations in substation
of air-insulated, gas-insulated and hybrid automation replaced conventional protection and
substations with voltage levels up to 1,200kV control systems with numerical ones. ABB is also
to a range of very different sites, from the most dedicated to the development of industry
densely-populated locations to the harshest standards, including those used in substation
environments on earth. automation. We have been a driving force in the
development and verification of the IEC 61850
Our first major technological step was in 1965, substation communications standard since 1995.
with the introduction of gas-insulated switchgear
(GIS) that reduced substation footprints. Since implementing the world’s very first
Alongside the development of GIS technologies, IEC 61850 multi-vendor substation automation
ABB has significantly improved the performance system in 2004, ABB has supplied thousands
of conventional air-insultated switchgear (AIS) of products and systems for new and retrofit
substations. projects. ABB is the world’s leading supplier
of air-insulated, gas-insulated and hybrid
The latest innovation, the “combined” switchgear and substations, utility
disconnector circuit breaker (DCB), integrates communication networks, as well as IEC 61850
the disconnecting function into the circuit substation automation, protection and control
breaker. This eliminates the need for two solutions and systems.
separate, free-standing disconnectors and
reduces the substation footprint by more than
50 percent. ABB is the first company to develop
this technology for voltage levels up to 500kV.
 7

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ABB Ability™ 2017
ABB Ability™ launched
Enabling end to end digitalization
from the process level to the control
room and beyond.

2011
New applications
First installation of FOCS optical CT
integrated in 400kV disconnecting
circuit breaker.

1998
Sensors
Commissioning of the first
digital substation with sensors
for current and voltage.

1900s
Conventional
Instrument transformers.
8 D I G I TA L S U B S TAT I O N

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ABB Digital Substation
A significant breakthrough
in substation technology.
Based on the seamless integration of state-of-the-
art IEC 61850-based control and protection IEDs,
with all relevant primary components and sensors
of a modern substation, the primary components
include high and medium-voltage switchgear, as
well as substation transformers.
—
02

— The defining feature of a digital substation is the

01 Protection and
control building implementation of a process bus. The IEC 61850
including automation, process bus enables the substitution of point-to-
protection and
control, and IEC point copper connections between IEDs, other
61850 station bus. devices (e.g., instruments transformers, gas
—
02 MPLS-TP network monitoring, MotorDrive™, etc.) and switchgear
remote connectivity by means of a safe, standardized optical
via ABB FOX615 utility
hardened multiplexer. communication bus. Thanks to the process
— bus, real-time measurement signals and status —
03 Transformer with
electronic control information can be broadcast throughout a 01
monitoring and substation without complex wiring schemes.
diagnostics.
—
04 Integrated non- In the late 1990s, ABB commissioned the world’s
conventional instrument
transformers. first digital substation in Australia for Powerlink,
— a transmission service provider in Queensland.
05 Merging units
& process I/O Even though the concept has evolved since then,
bridging the gap the basic principles remain the same:
between analogue
and digital world. substituting heavy, bulky current and voltage
Compliant to IEC 61850. sensors with small, integrated sensors and
—
06 IEC 61850 substitute signaling copper wires with fiber optic
process bus communication buses.
connecting the
switchyard to the
protection and From 2008 onwards, ABB introduced the
control system.
— IEC61850-9-2 process bus between non- This trend towards digitalization also applies to
07 ABB Ability conventional instrument transformers and other areas of the substation. Within medium-
Network Manager™
control center solutions protection and control equipment. Digital voltage switchgear panels, the horizontal
to ensure secure substations enable electric power utilities to exchange of IEC 61850-8-1 GOOSE and sampled
and efficient energy
system operation. increase productivity, reduce footprint, increase analog values reduces wiring and accelerates
functionality, improve the reliability of assets the testing and commissioning. Digitalized
and, crucially, improve safety for service technology can now continuously monitor
personnel. Digital substations exploit the mission-critical functions of high and medium
benefits of digital protection, control and voltage switchgear as well as substation
communication technologies, mirroring the transformers, while performing real-time
trend towards digitalization seen in many simulation and diagnostics, ensuring that the
other industries. pro-active management of the assets lifecycle
is now possible.
 9

—
03
—
04

—
05

—
06

The availability of increasing amounts of data in

the substation calls for better solutions to turn
this data into actionable information, and to
ensure that data is properly and securely
managed. The latest substation data
management and asset health management
solutions offer means for a power utility to
exploit the latest advances in this area.

The ABB Digital Substation has also

paved the way for well-known innovative
switchgear solutions such as PASS (plug and
switch system) and most recently the
disconnecting circuit breakers with integrated —
fiber optic current sensors (DCB with FOCS). 07
10 D I G I TA L S U B S TAT I O N

—
ABB Digital Substation benefits.
Bridging the gap between analogue and digital. Enabling a safer work
environment, reduced maintenance costs and end-to-end digitalization
from the process level to the control room and beyond.

Thousands of engineering-intensive and costly

Digital substations bring unseen
point-to-point copper signaling wires can be
opportunities for modern utilities.
replaced by few fiber optic communication
buses. The IEC 61850 standard safeguards
the investment of the substation owners
and enables interoperability between vendors
of substation equipment.

Safety is improved because less signal

connections or inadvertently-opened CT circuits Cyber Security
can harm personnel during commissioning and Protecting systems from cyber abuse
service activities. Ultra-fast earthing switches or vandalism from the outside world.
installed in medium-voltage cubicles prevent
disruptive and catastrophic damages caused by
arcing faults. Digital substations enable the
reduction of the footprint of a substation
because less space is required for protection and
control panels and functions previously executed
by physically separate equipment can now be
Increased safety
integrated in one device.
Digital substations reduce the risk of
electrical shock by substituting copper
For example, in air-insulated switchgear (AIS)
wires with fiber optic cables.
substations, a current measurement transformer
can be replaced by an optical sensor (fiber optic
current sensor) and fully integrated inside a live
tank breaker together with disconnecting and
earthing functions. In the case of an AIS
substation, the footprint can be reduced by 50%
compared to a conventional solution*.
Improved asset management
Higher productivity can be achieved by means of Gain control of substation hardware with
new asset management systems with monitoring second-by-second analysis and control.
and diagnostics data from substation equipment.
This feature substantially improves the efficiency
of service activities. Monitoring and diagnostics
is a strategic feature for utilities, further reducing
outage time and increasing reliability.

Transient stresses can be mitigated by means

Backwards compatibility
of point-on-wave switching, which needs data
Deep integration with legacy products,
from various sensors, meaning in many cases
supporting utility communication from
expensive closing resistors become obsolete.
the past and into the future.
To meet the increased need for the flexibility of
the transmission and distribution grids, digital
substations provide data and information that is
required for the control of grid stability and for a
quick response to changing grid conditions due
to the integration of intermittent resources.
 11

Up to 80% copper 40% shorter

cable reduction* installation phase**
100 100

50 50 50 50

—
* Based on a typical
conventional 400kV Digital Substation Digital Substation
0 0
double busbar AIS Conventional Substation Conventional Substation
substation compared
to a modern variant
using SAM600 process
bus I/O system and
FOCS integrated
in disconnecting
circuit breakers.
— Up to 60% less Operational
** Of new secondary
systems. space in the relay house* cost reduction***
—
*** During secondary
system retrofits. 100 100

50 50 50 50

Digital substation Digital substation

0 0
Conventional substation Conventional substation

Future-proof Lower CT requirements Software-based testing

Digital substations enable Digitizing data right in the Safe testing with software
faster implementation of field, reduces burden and based simulation and
future technologies. lowers CT requirements. verification.
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ABB Switzerland Ltd.
Power Grids
Grid Automation
Bruggerstrasse 72
CH-5400 Baden, Switzerland

Phone: +41 84 484 58 45

(Customer Support Center)

www.abb.com/digitalsubstations

4CAE000291 Revision March 2018

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