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Description |
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Research Projects |
since 11/08/2004
Electric utilities, especially in developed countries, continuously encounter the challenge of providing reliable power to the end-users at competitive prices. Due to several reasons such as equipment failures, lightning strikes, accidents and natural catastrophes, power disturbances and outages in substations occur and often result in long service interruptions. Thus, the substations should be properly controlled and monitored in order to take the necessary precautions accurately and timely. In this respect, substation automation, which is the creation of a highly reliable, self healing power system that rapidly responds to real time events with appropriate actions, ensures to maintain uninterrupted power services to the end users.
Recent developments in communication technologies have enabled cost effective remote control systems which have the capability of monitoring the real time operating conditions and performances of substations. Each communication technology has its own advantages and disadvantages that must be evaluated to determine the best communication technology for substation automation. In order to avoid possible disruptions in substations due to unexpected failures, a highly reliable, scalable, secure, robust and cost effective communication network between substations and a remote control center is vital. This high performance communication network should also guarantee very strict Quality of Service (QoS) requirements to prevent the possible power disturbances and outages. In this research project, we propose a hybrid network architecture, including Internet, wireless sensor networks, wireless mesh networks, and WiMAX, to enable minimum cost and very highly reliable communication for substation automation applications.
Fig. 1. Hybrid network architecture for substation automation applications.