Future digital substation with all signals via one digital platform

Abstract

This paper present a future digital signalling platform covering the needs of a whole substation e.g. a real time Ethernet bus or a new upcoming technology and the optimized measuring transformer design (conventional as well as non-conventional) will open the substation solutions for a lot of technical advantages and makes the investment fit for future changes in network conditions and functional requirements. Any signal once brought into the digital system can be rearranged in the bus communication structures without major hardware changes. Fixed built-in parameters of today may become setting values in the electronics of the future easy to change (e.g. rated current in metering systems). For the time being such new solutions will be difficult to place during in normal specification and evaluation process and the above mentioned technical features are difficult to weight in the right manner due the early stage of realization and lack of long term operational experience but the new technology can open ways to decrease overall cost for the initial investment (e.g. integrated non conventional measuring sensors) and speed up project execution - both values well established in commercial evaluation procedures.