Digital - Transformation - of - Protection - and - Control - in - Industrial - Power - Systems

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Wei-Jen Lee
Digital Transformation of Protection

and Control in Industrial Power Systems
T
he operation of industrial power IEC 61850. This standard enables The first protective relay was
systems has become more com- the digital transformation of pro- introduced more than a century ago.
plex. With outages becoming tection and control for industrial Until 1940, all relays were electro-
ever costlier, the requirements of sys- power systems. mechanical ones. These self-powered
tem reliability and electrical power devices relied on local measurements
supply quality have also grown. The Evolvement of Protection and performed well for the missions
introduction of automation tech- and Control attributed to them. The solid-state
niques for protection and control Regardless of how careful and thor- relay was introduced in the early
into industrial facilities can improve ough the design, equipment may 1940s and had the advantage of lack-
both system reliability and opera- still fail. It would be ing moving parts.
tional efficiency. impossible to oper- The operating speeds
Many industrial facilities are ate a modern power of these relays were
equipped with in-house generation. system without dis- It is fair to also faster than their
Some are for emergency use only criminative protection say that electromechanical
and have capacity limited to feed- schemes. It is fair to counterparts. In addi-
ing just critical loads. This arrange- say that power sys- power system tion, solid-state relays
ment is often adopted to ensure an tem protection is one protection could be set more pre-
orderly shutdown of processes and of the most complex cisely. Despite these
personnel safety. In other establish- disciplines in electri- is one of the advancements, solid-
ments, plants produce substantial cal engineering. It most complex state relays still relied
amounts of electricity and perform requires a thorough upon local measure-
power exchange with the utility grid un derstanding of disciplines ments to determine
through transmission or distribu- the behaviors of dif- in electrical the action of the relay.
tion networks. Special protection ferent components Since the late 1960s,
arrangements may be needed at the and a good knowl- engineering. researchers have ex-
point of common coupling between edge of abnormal plored the possibil-
the industrial plant and the util- circumstances, pos- ity of using digital
ity to ensure reliability on both sible points of failures, and down- computers for protective relaying
sides. One of the techniques that stream consequences of an initial purposes. The first commercially
has been developed for bulk power incident. There is no unique solu- available microprocessor-based
systems, which may also be appli- tion to system protection, and relay was introduced in 1979. With
cable to industrial power systems, is detecting and isolating problems the development of multifunction
with power system components digital relays, product and installa-
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MIAS.2022.3166058
quickly can be as much an art as it tion costs have declined dramatical-
Date of current version: 14 June 2022 is a science. ly, and microprocessor relays have
J ULY /AUG US T 2022 IEEE Industry Applications Magazine 5

become powerful tools in mod- cate and share information between trips among peer IEDs. The informa-
ern substations. relays and other intelligent electronic tion exchanged is achieved via basic
In 1988, the phasor measurement devices (IEDs) from different manu- communication services in a client-
unit-based relay was proposed by facturers within the substation for server relationship.
a Virginia Tech research team. This coordinated protection and control Integrated and coordinated pro-
opened the door for wide area moni- decisions. Substation automation is a tection and control is the trend of
toring, control, and protection. The critical step toward digital transfor- the future power system. Adopting
advanced digital protective relays mation that creates a highly reli- IEC 61850 communication networks
with high-speed communication and able and cost-effective protection and systems in substations automa-
information sharing capabilities have and control platform. tion is an important step toward
revolutionized the concept of power The IEC 61850 standard provides digital transformation of protection
system protection and control. a framework for substation auto- and control for industrial power sys-
mation on protection, control, and tems. The main benefits of the IEC
Digital Transformation of monitoring. It enables interdevice 61850 architecture include design and
Protection and Control communication through the net- operational cost savings, improved
Flexibility and scalability are essen- work. Generic object-oriented sub- reliability, and enhanced efficiency.
tial for protection and control of station event (GOOSE) messaging is IEC 61850 is expected to be further
industrial power systems. Although used in IEC 61850 for peer-to-peer implemented in industrial power sys-
advancements in processing capabili- communications. GOOSE messaging tems. IEC 61850 has a proven track
ties enable a single protective relay can be used for fast transmission of record on both small and large utili-
to perform multiple protection func- time-critical information such as sta- ties, and similar benefits are expected
tions, it is necessary to communi- tus changes, blockings, releases, or for industrial power systems.
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6 IEEE Industry Applications Magazine J ULY/AUGUST 2022

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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE