Automation Systems for Switchgear & Transformers

Advantages with iGrid T&D

Advantages with iGrid T&D

• From Mod­bus RTU, through IEC 61850 to DNP3/ IEC 104 — all required protocols
• Superb scal­a­bil­i­ty - from a few to thou­sands of IEDs and data points
• Con­nect to any device on the net­work using mul­ti­ple com­mu­ni­ca­tion media
• Col­lect real-time data from hun­dreds of devices and aux­il­iary equip­ment with direct inter­nal I/Os or dis­trib­uted exten­sion units
• Ful­ly inter­op­er­a­ble solu­tion for sim­ple retro­fits and open net­work archi­tec­tures – all of our devices and soft­ware appli­ca­tions can com­mu­ni­cate with the iGrid pro­to­col suite
• High­ly flex­i­ble and mod­u­lar solu­tions, adapt­able to any sys­tem requirements/ net­work topology
• Sim­ple migra­tion to IEC 61850 –  use any of our prod­ucts as client or serv­er and map any pro­to­col onto IEC 61850, rely­ing on the iCon­fICD tool for sim­ple configurations
• High­ly scal­able and cus­tomiz­able SCADA for sin­gle sub­sta­tions or entire grids (con­trol cen­ter edition)

Secured Switchgear and Transformer Automation 

The world­wide deploy­ment of sub­sta­tion automa­tion sys­tems is a key a suc­cess fac­tor on the path to gain­ing greater con­trol over trans­mis­sion and dis­tri­b­u­tion net­works and con­fronting future ener­gy chal­lenges like grid insta­bil­i­ty and bot­tle­necks. The increas­ing volatil­i­ty on the ener­gy mar­ket and the dis­trib­uted nature of future grids will demand oper­a­tors to gain deep­er con­trol over the elet­ri­cal grids. This requires to install more intel­li­gent infra­struc­ture and col­lect big­ger amounts of real-time data from a high­er num­ber of points in the grid.

As a result, the mar­ket is ask­ing switchgear and trans­former man­u­fac­tur­ers for smarter prod­ucts inte­grat­ing con­trol and com­mu­ni­ca­tion capa­bil­i­ties. By inte­grat­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tion capa­bil­i­ties or con­nect­ing to a smart con­troller, switchgear and oth­er equip­ment can col­lect data from sen­sors and oth­er aux­il­iary equip­ment and also receive orders from and report to the con­trol center.

Our R&D depart­ment is work­ing close­ly with elec­tri­cal man­u­fac­tur­ers to pro­vide pow­er­ful and com­pact automa­tion solu­tions for the con­trol of dis­tri­b­u­tion grids.

There are sev­er­al ways we can intro­duce real-time data acqui­si­tion, con­trol and automa­tion func­tions to MV sub­sta­tions and trans­former stations.

iGW-VM as Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Front-End

The iGW-VM can run on both Lin­ux and Win­dows and can be eas­i­ly inte­grat­ed as a com­mu­ni­ca­tion front-end  for any new or exist­ing switch or trans­former. It allows any kind of serv­er to col­lect real-time data and con­vert between a broad range of stan­dard pro­to­cols to com­mu­ni­cate with the con­trol cen­ter, relay or sub­sta­tion RTU. The iGW-VM is easy to use and pro­vides every­thing you need, also includ­ing advanced redun­dan­cy, automa­tion and pro­tec­tion functions.

Substation Gateway & RTU, Switchgear Controller

Anoth­er option is to con­nect the device to a smart con­trol unit like the iRTU or the iGW. The iRTU can not only col­lect all data from switchgear and trans­form­ers but also from all kinds of sen­sors (cur­rent and pow­er trans­form­ers, Rugowsky coils, tem­per­a­ture sen­sors, …) using its inter­nal dig­i­tal and ana­log inputs and out­puts. All devices of the iGW and iRTU fam­i­ly pro­vide state-of-the-art redun­dan­cy, automa­tion and pro­tec­tion func­tions for advanced grid control.

Substation Gateway Software

The iGW-VM and iCon­trol SCADA can both oper­ate as cen­tral gate­way sys­tem for one or sev­er­al sub­sta­tions, allow­ing devices like relays and switchgear to com­mu­ni­cate with each oth­er and con­trol cen­ters through a broad range of pro­to­cols. iCon­trol SCADA can also be used to visu­al­ize the data as sub­sta­tion SCADA/HMI or grid con­trol cen­ter. Both appli­ca­tions can be con­fig­ured with the sim­ple iConf tool and pro­vide state-of-the-art redun­dan­cy, automa­tion and pro­tec­tion functions.

Communication Front-End for Switchgear

Adaptable and User-friendly Solutions for Simple Integrations

One of the major chal­lenges of sub­sta­tion automa­tion lies in inte­grat­ing new sub­sta­tion tech­nol­o­gy such as IEC 61850 in old­er, exis­tent sub­sta­tions, where old and new devices have to coex­ist and com­mu­ni­cate with each oth­er. Exam­ples of this can be new con­trol cen­ters that have to com­mu­ni­cate with old automa­tion sys­tems or new­ly installed intel­li­gent elec­tron­ic devices (IEDs), which must con­nect to old sys­tems at the sub­sta­tion or the con­trol center.

Solu­tions by iGrid T&D have been designed for exact­ly this kind of chal­lenges. Devel­oped explic­it­ly for sub­sta­tion automa­tion, all devices devices and soft­ware sys­tems, com­pris­ing RTUs, gate­ways, I/O exten­sion units and SCADA sys­tem, pro­vide a unique range of com­mu­ni­ca­tion pro­to­cols and con­nec­tiv­i­ty options.

The devices can use almost all pro­to­cols to both col­lect and trans­fer data from and between devices and enti­ties. Thanks to its con­fig­urable inter­nal inputs and out­puts and its capa­bil­i­ty to com­mu­ni­cate via Eth­er­net, ser­i­al and GPRS (3G, 4G), the iRTU is thus the per­fect device for MV applications. 

It can col­lect data from a few sen­sors and switchgear con­trollers and trans­fer the data to a any con­trol cen­ter or col­lect data and con­trol thou­sands of devices accross the network.

Amongst oth­ers, the com­mu­ni­ca­tion pro­to­cols include:

Our solu­tions can also com­mu­ni­cate through tech­nolo­gies from oth­er indus­tries like mySQL, web ser­vices and OPC UA.

Flexible Integrations for MV Distribution Substations

Devel­oped explic­it­ly for sub­sta­tion automa­tion, all devices and soft­ware sys­tems by iGrid T&D pro­vide an exten­sive range of func­tion­al­i­ties and char­ac­ter­is­tics to over­come present and future chal­lenges in the most effi­cient ways.

Fur­ther­more, our solu­tions can col­lect data from thou­sands of devices at once, process and con­vert the data and trans­fer it to mul­ti­ple enti­ties in the net­work. 

Since we have com­mu­ni­cat­ed with equip­ment from numer­ous dif­fer­ent ven­dors in a broad vari­ety of appli­ca­tions, we have expe­ri­ence in com­mu­ni­cat­ing with and cre­at­ing a bridge between all kinds of sys­tems, includ­ing new and old relays and sub­sta­tion gear, Eth­er­net and ser­i­al, IEC 61850 and old lega­cy pro­to­cols (like SPA-bus), SCADA sys­tems and intranets, gen­er­a­tion and ener­gy market. 

Our solu­tions ensure that you no longer need to wor­ry about inter­op­er­abil­i­ty and net­work inef­fi­cien­cies. Our RTUs can com­mu­ni­cate using numer­ous pro­to­cols via GPRS, Eth­er­net or ser­i­al con­nec­tions as well as col­lect aux­il­iary sig­nals using dig­i­tal I/Os and ana­log inputs.

Not only retro­fits are facil­i­tat­ed with our prod­ucts. It also becomes easy to react to any kind of net­work change (big or small) and to set up open and scal­able net­work architectures.

Our devices are already con­fig­urable and ver­sa­tile by design, but we also pro­vide fur­ther prod­uct con­fig­u­ra­tions and tai­lored ser­vices upon request.  

Our Products for MV Distribution Grid Automation

Thanks to our comitt­ment to advanced sub­sta­tion automa­tion, all devices and soft­ware sys­tems by iGrid T&D pro­vide an exten­sive range of func­tion­al­i­ties and char­ac­ter­is­tics to over­come present and future chal­lenges in the most effi­cient ways.

Although we are hap­py to sup­port our cus­tomers, iGrid T&D is not a ser­vice-based busi­ness. Instead, we strive to pro­vide state-of-the-art tech­nol­o­gy that enables our cus­tomers to set up, oper­ate and main­tain advanced automa­tion sys­tems by themselves. 

Communication Front-end, Substation Gateway, SCADA HMI

iGW-VM

• High­ly scal­able and pow­er­ful gate­way soft­ware for any serv­er run­ning on win­dows or linux.
• Com­mu­ni­ca­tion front-end for siwtchgears, trans­form­ers and oth­er equipment

iControl SCADA

• Scal­able and inter­op­er­a­ble in mul­ti­ple architectures
• For all lev­els, from Sub­sta­tion Gate­way to Con­trol Center
• With all impor­tant fea­tures and characteristics

State-of-the-Art R&D and Advanced Engineering & Product Development

International R&D

• Inhouse R&D on the fore­front of smart grid tech­nol­o­gy, enriched by numer­ous inter­na­tion­al and aca­d­e­m­ic project

Engineering & Development Services

• Advanced and cus­tomized appli­ca­tion engi­neer­ing and prod­uct devel­op­ment for spe­cif­ic client needs. 

World-wide Compliance and Interoperability

Thanks to our expe­ri­ences with elec­tri­cal net­works and sub­sta­tions in a vari­ety of indus­tries all around the plan­et, our prod­ucts have been pre­pared for an imm­mense range of high-demand­ing require­ments and stan­dards, guar­an­tee­ing a peace­ful approval process for any project in any coun­try. Our cer­ti­fi­ca­tions range from EMC com­pat­i­bil­i­ty and com­mu­ni­ca­tion pro­to­col stan­dards like IEC 61850 to cyber secu­ri­ty means and have been assert­ed by third par­ty cer­ti­fi­ca­tion bod­ies like DNV GL/ KEMA.

Why to Opt for MV Grid Automation Solutions by iGrid T&D? 

Our Data Acqui­si­tion, Con­trol and Super­vi­sion sys­tems can not only han­dle a broad vari­ety of pro­to­cols and archi­tec­tures but also pro­vide numer­ous oth­er tech­no­log­i­cal fea­tures and func­tion­al­i­ties like high pre­ci­sion time stamp­ing and PLC programming. 

As a client you can ben­e­fit from choos­ing amongst var­i­ous scal­able and inter­op­er­a­ble solu­tions that will be easy to use and tai­lored to your needs. 

Two solu­tions are spe­cial­ly eco­nom­i­cal for this appli­ca­tion. The iGW-VM can be used as a cen­tral data col­lec­tion, automa­tion and gate­way soft­ware cre­at­ing a pow­er­ful bridge between grid and con­trol cen­ter and can also be inte­grat­ed as com­mu­ni­ca­tion front-end for all kinds of devices and equip­ment to pro­vide pow­er­ful automa­tion and pro­to­col con­ver­sion func­tions with “dumb” devices and gear.

On the oth­er hand, with it’s inter­nal inputs and out­puts and con­nec­tiv­i­ty options, the iRTU is the per­fect com­pan­ion to col­lect data from devices, sen­sors and oth­er aux­il­iary equip­ment at thou­sands of sites. 

Solution Benefits & Functions