AND DEVICE THEREOF

Technical Field: The present disclosure relates in general to the field of industrial automation. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a device of a control system for engineering and configuring secondary equipments to control and operate primary equipments in a substation.

Background:

Electrical equipment in any substation should be monitored, operated, and controlled in a manner that optimizes substation equipment use and load profile (such as schedule and capacity). Automation of substation enables achieving this by enabling rapid measurements and establishing communication schemes between equipment.

The substation automation consists of two critical infrastructures - one relating to the conducting electrical power system and the second relating to the communication information system of the substation. Prior to the formal construction, implementation, and installation of the substation, a host of engineering tools (device) of a control system is used to design the substation. Automation of the substation is performed to increase operational efficiency and reduce human or manual intervention. Substation Automation involves functions of the substation associated with protection, control, monitoring and metering of the equipment in that substation.

Network based substation automation has evolved with the use of Intelligent Electronic Devices (lEDs). The IEDs are devices added to industrial control systems to enable substation automation. A communication standard for communication between the various substation equipment has been introduced by the International Electrotechnical Committee (IEC) as part of the standard IEC 61850 entitled “Communication Networks and Systems in Substations.” According to the IEC 61850 communication protocol definitions, the substation system architecture, in its logical structure, can be divided into the process level, the bay level, and the station level. This is depicted in Figure la which shows a partial representation of elements that constitute each of the levels. The station level consists of interfaces for monitoring, control, and implementing various engineering functions of the overall substation by an engineer or/and system operator. The engineering workstation can host various engineering tools for also configuring of various equipment on the substation. The servers of the station level can be used for both computation implementation and for storing/ar chiving of data related to the substation equipment (such as details of IEDs installed, information on electrical equipment on the plant, maintenance schedule record, etc.).

The Bay level of the substation includes the IEDs that perform the functions defined for them such as protection, control, and monitoring etc. The Process layer usually includes all the process equipment and the primary electrical equipment such as the circuit breakers, isolators and transformers etc.

Communication between the process level equipment and bay level equipment is over the process bus and typically using any of the communication standards (such as the IEC 61850). Communication between the station level equipment and the bay level equipment is typically over a station bus and the relationship between the respective components is one of client-server.

The equipment in the process layer of the substation (transformers, circuit breakers, isolators, etc.,) are referred to herein as the primary equipment. The equipment in the bay level and the station level of the substation (IED, monitoring devices, etc) are referred to herein as the secondary equipment. Substation automation entails using the secondary equipment to monitor, control, measure, and meter the primary equipment.

The design of a typical substation includes designing both the communication section and the primary equipment section. The communication section includes information about secondary equipment (data type supported by the secondary equipment, amount of data, etc). The primary equipment is represented by a single-line diagram (SLD). The SLD represents all the electrical connections of the primary equipment (for e.g., connection of a transformer to a load). Conventionally, the SLD and the communication section are both present together in a Substation Configuration Description (SCD) file. Contents of the SCD file, therefore, defines the configuration and settings for the substation automation system. The SCD file may be generated using several devices such as an SCD engineering tool (communication engineering tool that could be IEC 61850 configurator) installed, for instance, on the engineering workstation. The SCD file is also part of the substation automation (SA) system documentation. It describes the entire SA system as built and is the basis for any future maintenance, update and extension. A system integrator application (such as an integrated engineering tool) or an SCD engineering tool can import existing SCD files to add required modifications and configurations and export the updated SCD file to save on the engineering workstation or/and the servers.

Typically, the configuration files (such as the SCD) are generated according to the IEC 61850 standards using an extensible Markup Language (XML) based Substation Configuration Description Language (SCL). The SCL files can use any information or data provided by each equipment vendor, typically in an XML file, on their specific hardware products or equipment. The information can then be used by a SCL manager tool or a system integration tool to define the substation equipment, IED functions, and also the communication mechanism for the substation area network. The SCL Manager, installed for instance on the engineering workstation, can also be used to view and edit all the substation elements and its data models as specified in SCL specification of IEC 61850.

The SCL Manager uses its own database for the list of IEDs, communication schemes, primary equipment topology, which could be based on the IEC 61850 standards. The database is built using the IED Capability Description (ICD) files provided through a multi-vendor IEC 61850 - based IED configurator tool. Together, they define the communication schemes, the SLD, and the links between IED functions and SLD to complete the substation configuration and generate the SCD file.

Conventional devices of the control system require the SCD file to engineer and configure the secondary equipment for controlling and operating the primary equipment. The communication section of the secondary equipment generally once finalized does not need further frequent modifications., The SLD of the primary equipment, on the other hand, is constantly modified. Consequently, the SCD is reconfigured every time the SLD is modified, thereby increasing engineering costs and time for reconfiguring the SCD as is evidenced from a typical workflow described below.

Currently, using IEC 61850 system configuration tool or equivalent tool, one can specify a plant's power distribution network, including primary equipment, IEDs, communication network, and data exchange between IEDs, between IEDs and process controllers, and related alarms and events. Various engineering tools installed on the engineering workstation work in harmony to perform a given engineering task of generating and configuring all files and devices necessary for substation automation. Few of the critical engineering tools and their functions are described

The IEC 61850 IED configuration tool:

a) Provides the IED capability descriptions (ICD) as input to the IEC 61850 system configuration tool.

b) Configures the IED instances as specified within the IEC 61850 system configuration tool. Process controller configuration tool:

a) Presents process controller as an IED and it provides its capability description as input to the IEC 61850 system configuration tool.

The DCS (distributed control system) operations configuration tool:

a) Allows to configure the data presentation and operations part of the distributed automation system as specified within the IEC 61850 system configuration tool.

b) Configuration of alarm and events based on communication between IEDs and process automation system as specified within the IEC 61850 system configuration tool.

IEC 61850 system configuration tool,

c) Takes ICD- files as input from the IEC 61850 IED configuration tool and PCD (process control document) -files from the process controller configuration tool, provides capability to define complete power distribution part of the plant is specified within the IEC 61850 system configuration tool.

d) This specification is finally exported in the system configuration description file SCD.

Though SCD file does not contain all details required for complete engineering, the DCS operations configuration tool uses SCD file to create a base for starting manual engineering. Further, each modification of the SLD requires SCD file reconfiguration with substation configuration tool and then again feedback to DCS configuration tool. However, there are few constraints with the above approach. The SLD with substation configuration needs to be completed before engineering in DCS automation system can be started. All details of SLD needs to be finalized and thus incomplete SLD delays all other engineering activities. Further, any late changes to the SLD requires a change in substation configuration by modification of SCD file through IEC 61850 system configuration tool and then re-engineering in DCS configuration tool. To avoid such costly re-engineering efforts, often changes via hard wired signals are made. This results in utilization of IEC61850 functionality which is not optimum.

Usage of any IEC-61850 system configuration tool as not all IEC-61850 system configuration tools are capable of generating SLD with substation configuration section in SCD file. Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) has to wait till the SCD configuration is complete and the DCS Configuration is updated with the SCD file. Thus, a finalized SCD file has to be provided to the device, which restricts further modification of the SLD.

Summary of the invention

The present invention discloses a method for engineering and configuration of equipment in a substation. The substation may be connected to a control system which configures the secondary equipment in the substation to control and operate (perform automation of) primary equipment in the substation. The control system hosts a range of configuration wizards and engineering tool related with the IEC-61850 engineering tools, IED engineering tools, system/plant engineering tools, and also integration tools etc., that can integrate one or more functionalities of the available tools. The tools enable generation and management of various SCL files (such as SSD, SCD, ICD and CID files) for substation automation.

An embodiment of the disclosure is to decouple the SLD engineering from the SCD file engineering and use the two files independently instead of the integrated file. Additionally, the invention enables configuring the substation and its automation using what is called as the‘bay typical’ based engineering methodology. A bay typical is a pre-configured set of conducting equipment (or primary equipment) that achieves specific bay functionality like Feeder, Incomer, Bus Coupler etc. All bays serving the same electrical application purpose are instances of the same bay typical. Thus, engineering at bay typical will be easily replicated to several bays and will result in an efficient engineering process. The bay typical can be replicated both within the substation as well as across different substations. The substation automation is accomplished by automating protection, remote control and supervision of the primary equipment in each bay. This is performed by equipping each bay with appropriate control and protection devices - IEDs.

The process of equipping the bay with IEDs involve linking the data in primary equipment object with corresponding IED signals. In an exemplary scenario, one of the ways of doing is by creating a mapping table or a mapping matrix through IED signal mapping. The IED signal mapping could use a variety of schemes such as manually assigning the IEDs to electrical equipment, automating the process through the definitions of the electrical equipment and their signals as obtained through the SCL files. The IED signal mapping could also be based, for instance, on a naming convention that assigns names (unique identifiers) to IEDs with the same pattern as that adopted for naming the bays. If an IED name is‘A’ then it will support the bay named‘A’ and hence the plant operator or/and engineer can map the primary object IED‘A’ to the secondary object bay‘A’. The mapping table thus has definition for each object in the bay. However, if there are two or more IEDs of the same type in one bay, it becomes difficult to define the second IED mapping since there will now be a mapping conflict.

The present invention extends the current mapping table to enable adding multiple IEDs of either same or different type. To add multiple IEDs of different type (such as REF615, REL670, RET670, etc) the naming rules are defined to be mutually exclusive. The mapping table will contain the different IED type columns and mapping between the bay object and IEDs will involve linking every object property with only one of the IED columns.

If an object in a bay is to be configured with multiple IED of same type, then all the IEDs should be mentioned as different IED typical in the SCD file. The IED typical is defined to distinguish which IEDs should be considered while creating the Bay. While uploading the SCD file to the control system, engineer can choose the type of IED typical that needs to be used for the corresponding bay object. In one embodiment, a device (control system tool) of the control system receives communication information (such as through the SCD file) about secondary equipment in the substation. The communication information relates to communication properties/ signal properties of the secondary equipment (e.g., data type supported by the secondary equipment, amount of data, etc.,). Further, the device also receives a Single-Line Diagram (SLD) representing electrical configuration of the primary equipment. The SLD and the communication information may be received independently as two separate files. In one embodiment, the SLD may be manually generated by a user using system configuration tools on the engineering workstation. Thereafter, the device creates a first set of objects using the communication information. The first set of objects comprises signal properties of the secondary equipments. The first set of properties are logical representation of the secondary equipment. Furthermore, the device receives SLD of the primary equipment and generates a second set of objects based on the received SLD. The second set of objects are logical representation of the primary equipment and it comprises electrical connection properties of the primary equipment.

The device then binds the one or more properties of the first set of objects and the one or more properties of the second set of objects using a signal mapping table stored in the device. The binding gives to the system integrator (or the integrated engineering tool) the information on linking between IEDs with the substation primary process equipment. Thus, the device configures the secondary equipment like IEDs to control and operate the primary equipment like circuit breaker.

In an embodiment, the engineering tool on the engineering workstation receives the communication as a Substation Configuration Description (SCD) file. The SCD may be generated by devices capable of generating the SCD file using the communication information (such as the SCL Manager or the Integrated Engineering Tool). In one workflow involving the SCD file generation, a device configuration tool provided by IED vendors is used to generate the IED capability description (ICD) file which is imported by a system integrator tool installed on the engineering workstation. The system integrator tool extracts all relevant communication information corresponding to the substation infrastructure and exports the required SCD file. In an embodiment, the SLD may be included in the SCD file.

In one preferred embodiment, the device receives the communication information initially and the SLD file subsequently. Here, using the communication information, the first set of objects can be created. When the SLD is received at a later time, the second set of objects are created and the signal properties from the first set of objects are bound to the electrical connection properties of the second set of the objects. That is, once the substation structure is defined, the system operator or/and engineer can place control and automation functions where needed. In another embodiment, the device receives the SLD initially and the communication information subsequently. The device creates the second set of objects based on the received SLD. Upon receiving the communication information regarding the secondary equipment, the device generates the first set of objects. Further, the device binds the electrical connection properties associated with the second set of objects with the signal properties associated with the first set of properties. The bound/ integrated properties and the SLD are displayed on a Human Machine Interface (HMI) associated with the device. The properties may be graphically represented on the HMI.

It should be noted that the first set of properties and second set of properties correspond to the objects generated using the communication information and the SLD and does not represent the sequence in which the properties are derived/ construed.

In an embodiment, the signal mapping table comprises a mapping of electrical connection properties of the primary equipment with signal properties of the secondary equipment.

Brief description of accompanying drawings:

Figure la illustrates partial representation of elements that constitute substation architecture;

Figure lb illustrates a simplified block diagram of a substation including a control system device for engineering and configuring equipment, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

Figure 2 shows a simplified line diagram of primary equipment mapped to secondary equipment, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

Figure 3 shows a signal mapping table for mapping electrical connection properties with signal properties, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Figure 4a shows a representation of a mapping table between object bay and different types of IEDs, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

Figure 4b shows a representation of a mapping table of a bay having three IEDs of same type, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; and Figure 5a and 5b is an illustration of displaying the linking of the bay level and process level equipment, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description:

In an embodiment, the present disclosure discloses a device of a control system for configuring and engineering secondary equipment (e.g., IED, PLC. etc) to operate and control primary equipment (e.g., transformer, circuit breaker, etc) present in the substation. With the increasing plant complexity and number of such equipment, the primary and the secondary objects could be organized and arranged using schemes that aid easier visualization and manipulation of links between the primary and secondary equipment.

One such scheme could be, for instance, building a plant explorer window of the engineering workplace. A system integration tool, that uses for instance a communication engineering tool, and integrates through all the different vendor provided tools and equipment, can organize the system (plant) primary and secondary objects in hierarchically structured models identifying respectively the functional aspects of the explorer window and the control aspects of it. The objects in the structures could be named according to the IEC standard substation naming conventions. Such visual representations enable the operator or plant engineer to browse and search the structures of the plant as well as easily reorganize the plant objects.

A communication standard for communication between the various substation equipment has been introduced by the International Electrotechnical Committee (IEC) as part of the standard IEC 61850 entitled“Communication Networks and Systems in Substations.” According to the IEC 61850 communication protocol definitions, the substation system architecture, in its logical structure, can be divided into the process level, the bay level, and the station level. This is depicted in Figure la which shows a partial representation of elements that constitute each of the levels.

Figure lb shows a simplified block diagram of a substation (100). The substation (100) includes the secondary equipment (101), the primary equipment (102), a Substation Configuration Description (SCD) generator (103), a configuration device (104) and a Human Machine Interface (105). A Single Line Diagram (SLD) generator (106) may be outside the substation (100) for providing the SLD to the configuration device (104).

The secondary equipment is used to control and operate the primary equipment. For example, an IED is used to command a circuit breaker connected to a power line to trip when a fault is detected in the power line. Thus, healthy sections of the power line can be isolated from the fault section. The secondary equipment is electrically connected to the primary equipment. The electrical connection is used for communicating with each other. A SLD of primary equipment includes a schematic of electrical connections between the primary equipment (e.g., connection of a circuit breaker and transformers in a power line). The SLD generator (106) generates the SLD using information about electrical connections of the primary equipment. In an embodiment, the SLD is manually generated by a user or can be generated using a tool. Information about communication of the secondary equipment is provided in the SCD file. The communication information includes format of communication, data type and the like. The SCD generator (103) uses the communication information to generate the SCD file. The SCD file and the SLD are generated independently. The SCD file may or may not include SLD.

The configuration device (104) receives the SCD file and the SLD from the SCD generator (103) and the SLD generator (106) respectively. The SCD file and the SLD are received independently. The configuration device (104) creates a first set of objects using the communication information present in the SCD file and creates second set of objects using the SLD. The first and the second set of objects are logical representations of the secondary and primary equipment. The first set of objects are associated with signal properties and the second set of objects are associated with electrical connection properties. The signal properties indicate signaling information of the secondary equipment and the electrical connection properties indicates connections of the primary equipment. The first set and the second set of objects are created to logically represent the secondary and the primary equipment.

Figure 2 shows a simplified representation of association of the primary and the secondary equipment. Figure 2 shows a Bay (Bl_MC2l_l) (200), a circuit breaker (L5R) (201), a Voltage Transformer (VT) (MBI102) (202), a current transformer (CT) (MBI101) (203), a load (204) (MP 107), an IED A (205) and an IED B (206). The bay comprises the primary equipment (CT, VT, circuit breaker and load). As shown in the figure, the circuit breaker (201) is associated with the IED A (205) and the CT (203) and VT (202) are associated with the IED B. In view of the Figure 5, the signaling properties includes details of communication of the IED A (205) and the IED B (206). In an embodiment, the IED A (205) is of a type REF615 and the IED B (206) is of a type REF615.1

For example, the communication details include IED B (205) receives current and voltage parameters and transmits fault indication. The signaling properties further include IED A (205) receives fault indication and transmits a trip signal. Likewise, the electrical connection properties include the circuit breaker (201) is connected to the load (204). The CT (203) is provided in a power line connecting the circuit breaker (201) and the load (204), and the VT (202) is provided across the power line. A mapping between the primary equipment and the secondary equipment is used to bind the signal properties of the secondary equipment and the electrical connection properties of the primary equipment. As mentioned earlier, the IEC standard substation naming conventions are followed for objects of both the control and functional structures. By enforcing the IEC substation standard naming conventions in the SCD file, all the IEDs are assigned names supporting functional objects like bay, voltage level, etc. If an IED name is AA1BB1Q01 then it supports Q01 bay for substation AA1 and voltage level BB1. IED assignment configuration is required for SLD decoupling to make the link between the functional objects e.g. substation, voltage, bay and CBR with the available IED’s.

Figure 3 shows a signal mapping table mapping the signal properties and the electrical connection properties. With reference to Figure 3, the circuit breaker is connected to the IED A (205) and the CT and VT (202 & 203) are connected to the IED B (206). The association of the primary and the secondary equipment is shown in a tabular format in Figure 6. The table includes IED name, IED type, primary object and IED typical.

The IED A (205) which is of type REF615 is associated with the primary object CB L5R, which corresponds to the circuit breaker. Likewise, the IED B (206) which is of type REF615.1 is associated with MBI101 and MBI102, which corresponds to CT and VT (203 & 202) respectively. Thus, from the table it is clear that the IED A (205) is associated with the circuit breaker (201) and the IED B (206) is associated with the CT and VT (203 & 202). Using the mapping table, the electrical connection properties of the primary equipment are bound with the signal properties of the secondary equipment. The bound properties represent electrical connection and data movement between the primary and the secondary equipment. Once the properties are bound, the IED can receive measurements from the CT and the VT (203 &202) and can control and operate the circuit breaker (202). Thus, the configuration device (104) configures the secondary equipment to control and operate the primary equipment.

In an embodiment, when a new IED or any other secondary equipment is added to the substation (100), the signal mapping table is updated with the new IED and signal properties. Thus, the signal properties are bound with corresponding electrical connections properties. Thus, the table can be used to efficiently set up new equipment in the substation (100).

In an embodiment, the communication information is received initially, and the first set of objects are created using the communication information. When the SLD is received, the second set of objects are created, and the signal properties and the electrical connection properties are bound together.

In an embodiment, the SLD is received initially and the one or more second set of objects are created. When the communication information is received, the one or more first set of objects are created and the signal properties and the electrical connection properties are bound together. Hence the configuration device (104) can receive the SCD having the communication information and the SLD in two ways.

The configuration device (104) binds the signal properties of the secondary equipment and the electrical connection properties of the primary equipment to associate the secondary and the primary equipment. The association of the secondary and the primary equipment is shown in Figure 4a. In the Figure 4a, the rules are defined for the properties corresponding to the primary equipment and the linked secondary equipment or the corresponding IED type. The first column in Figure 4a corresponds to the properties of the primary equipment and is indicative of the second set of objects (primary objects in a bay). The subsequent columns correspond to IEDs (secondary equipment) of different types (such as, metering and measurement, protection, control, etc.). All the secondary set of objects (primary properties) of the primary equipment are configured to associate with specific IEDs and the first set of objects associated with the IEDs. Objects are interchangeably used as properties hereafter in the specification. For example, the second set of objects are referred as primary properties and the first set of objects are referred as secondary properties. Each primary property of the primary equipment is associated with just one IED type (column) and can be defined for any of the supported IED type. The engineer or operator can manually choose such configurations and assignments and can re-configure them as necessary.

As seen in Figure 4a, a Circuit Breaker (CBR) conducting equipment, for instance, is assigned to IED1 for control of its switch position (CSWI l.Pos). The switch positions are enabled depending on the selection status (such as remote or local). In this example, the (CBR) is the secondary set of objects associated with the primary equipment circuit breaker and (CSWI l.Pos) is the first set of objects associated with the secondary equipment such as the IED. This type of binding allows decoupling of the SLD and the communication information

Similarly, for another primary object of a circuit breaker, the control is enabled through yet another IED type (control IED3) depending on its position status (such as open, intermediate, close etc.). An earthing switch conducting equipment is assigned to IED2 for the reading the position of the switchgear (XSWI_2.Pos). Being a metering and measurement IED, the IED2 will only provide a read capability but no control and therefore cannot be assigned to other equipment that are being controlled. The IED2 is also assigned for frequency measurement (MMXU l.Hz) of a conducting equipment, such as a power transformer conducting equipment. The IED can be configured to read the frequency information in Hertz (Hz).

Similarly, as seen in Figure 4b, all the properties of the primary equipment are configured to associate with specific IEDs where each IED is of the same type. Each primary property of the primary equipment is associated with just one IED (as shown in Figure 4a). The engineer or operator can manually choose such configurations and assignments and can re-configure them as necessary.

The following figure illustrates binding communication properties with electrical properties in case of similar type of IEDs. As seen in Figure 4b, a Circuit Breaker (CBR) conducting equipment, for instance, is assigned to IEDl(Ol) for control of its switch position (CSWI l Pos). The switch positions are enabled depending on the selection status (such as remote or local).

Similarly, for another primary object of a circuit breaker, the control is enabled through yet another IED (IEDl(02)) depending on its position status (such as open, intermediate, close etc.). An earthing switch conducting equipment is assigned to IED 1(02) for the reading the position of the switchgear (XSWI_2.Pos). IED1 is capable of both measurement and control and are configured as needed. The IED 1(02) is also assigned for frequency measurement (MMXU l.Hz) of a conducting equipment, such as a power transformer conducting equipment. The IED can be configured to read the frequency information in Hertz (Hz).

In an embodiment, the bound properties are displayed on the HMI (105). For example, the SLD along with the communication information are displayed on the HMI (105). Figure 5a shows a schematic of the SLD along with communication between the primary and the secondary equipment (arrows indicate data flow). As shown in Figure 5a and in view of Figure 3, the IED B (206) receives the current and voltage data of the power line from the CT and VT (203 & 202). A user viewing the HMI (105) may see a graphical representation indicating data flow from the CT and VT (202 & 203) to the IED B (206). Also, as shown in Figure 5a, the circuit breaker (202) is in a closed state. Consider that using the current and voltage data, the IED B (206) detects a fault in the power line. The IED B (206) immediately communicates with the IED A (205) about the detected fault in the power line.

Figure 5b shows a schematic of the SLD where IED A (205) communicates with the circuit breaker (202). Once the IED A (205) receives the fault information from the IED B (206) the IED A (205) provide control signals to the circuit breaker (202) to open/ trip. The tripping/ opening of the circuit breaker (202) may be displayed graphically on the HMI (105). In an embodiment, the independent reception of the SCD having the communication information and the SLD enables late binding of the properties associated with the objects of the primary and secondary equipment.

In an embodiment, the independent reception of the SCD having the communication information and the SLD allows more flexibility to develop the SLD and the communication information. Also, the time and resources utilized for engineering the substation are reduced.

In an embodiment, the independent reception of the SCD having the communication information and the SLD results in faster and efficient engineering of the substation. Also, the present disclosure enables using configuration devices that may not follow the IEC61850 standards.

In an embodiment, new equipment can be added to the substation (100) and can be easily configured, thus eliminating manual configuration of the new equipment. Also, multiple functional objects can be mapped to a single IED by creating sub-groups of the IED signals. Further, one functional object can be mapped to multiple IEDs.

Referral Numerals:

Substation (100)

Secondary equipment/ IED (101) Primary equipment (102)

SCD generator (103) Configuration device (104)

HMI (105)

SLD generator (106)

Bay (200)

Circuit breaker (201) Voltage transformer (202) Current transformer (203) Load (204)

IED A (205)

IED B (206)