Digital Primary Substation – Technology Development and Distribution System Benefit [WG 2020-4]

The primary substation is one of the most important components of electric distribution grids and the control and automation functions implemented in these substations are vitally important to the stability of the overall system. Substations are now evolving from the traditional concept of protection and control to fully digital solutions, including station-bus and process-bus scanning, asset management tools and integrated cybersecurity. The digitalization of substations is a decisive step toward the transformation of energy systems for the low carbon future.

Scope

The scope proposed for the working group is to identify benefits and opportunities of the digital primary substation, including:

Ethernet based communication;
Introduction of Process-Bus;
Asset management support (monitoring of components, condition assessment, predictive maintenance);
Integrated Engineering (a single master data set);
Cybersecurity;
Smart grid automation and protection;
Quality of Supply impact;
Support for the initiatives arising from the Clean Energy Package;
IoT integration to foster:
- Condition Based Maintenance (CBM);
- Reactive to Proactive Operation Intelligence & Analytics

The proposed approach would include a review of existing state-of-the-art, gaps and emerging trends analysis of relevant:

Standards;
Technology;
Use Cases;
Business Cases;
Etc.