Ethernet backbone
This paper is a discussion of an NSTAR Electric & Gas Corp. project using current Ethernet technology to build a Local Area Network (LAN) in a single substation application.
NSTAR’s Substation 385D is built around a local Ethernet backbone that passes information for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and local monitoring and control via a Human-Machine Interface (HMI).
The heart of the system revolves around several communications processors. The system includes the following protection and control devices:
- Communications processors
- Serial-to-Ethernet transceivers
- Ethernet switches
- Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs)
- Substation protection and event monitor/viewer
This paper discusses the application of an Ethernet LAN to provide a simplified communications backbone for local and remote control and monitoring. Utility engineers, dispatchers, and operators also use the Ethernet LAN to retrieve and view the real-time operational and fault analysis data. The communications processor is acting as the hub for all the control points and data that are being moved through the system.
This paper discusses a practical example of design, application, commissioning, and lessons learned.
Ethernet History
Ethernet is the most popular and widely deployed network technology in the world. In 1973, while working on a way to link the Xerox “Alto” computer to a printer, Bob Metcalfe designed and tested the first Ethernet network. This first Ethernet network defined the physical cabling required of a connected device and defined the standard communications required on the cable.
As electronics and networking have grown, the Ethernet standard has developed to include the new technologies, but the basic mechanics of operation of every Ethernet network stems from Mr. Metcalfe’s original design at the Xerox Corporation’s Palo Alto Research Center. The original Ethernet design described communication over a single cable shared by all devices on the network. Once a device is attached to this cable, it has the ability to communicate with any other attached device.
This allows the network to expand to accommodate new devices without requiring any modification to those devices already on the network [2].
| Title: | Applying an Ethernet LAN in a Substation |
| Format: | |
| Size: | 0.85MB |
| Pages: | 14 |
| Download: | Please login first |
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