Plug & Play of Protection, Automation & Communication System with Portable SCADA for EHV Substations

With the emerging modernised electric grid, the entire operation and monitoring of substations are being performed through a state-of-the-art centralised Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) system from the Power System Control Center (PSCC) to enhance safety, reliability, and quality of power by providing better situational awareness for the operators to make faster decisions to manage the grid.

The protection, automation,and associated communication system(PAC) in the substation play a crucial role,which involves detailed functional testing, scheme checks,configuration validation,relay setting adaptations,control trails,addressing interoperability issues,and performing integrated point-to-point testing with SCADA. In general,these activities have been carried out on site as a part of project commissioning which take longer cycle time to complete.

This paper will share the practical experience of utility with an integrated approach to design, engineering, and 100% integrated testing of protection, automation, and communication systems(PAC) along with Portable SCADA (which is an innovative design),at the original equipment manufacturer(OEM) factory. This innovative design and integrated approach eliminate complete point-to-point testing at site and reduces the commissioning time of the PAC system.