Virtual Protection, Automation, and Control for Substation Modernization
1/30/2023
Virtual protection, automation, and control (vPAC) applications offer a compelling solution for management of increasingly complex power distribution substations. Advantech has partnered with ABB and VMWare to provide an exceptional, vertically-integrated virtualization solution. Each partner brings best-in-class products, services, and expertise to the solution, which will deliver transformative business value to substation operators.
Business Drivers
- Increasing substation power flow complexity due to DERs, microgrids, renewable energy, and storage
- Climate change driving rapid regulatory changes and technological performance improvements
- Increasing risk of system misconfiguration and cyberattacks against grid infrastructure.
Centralized Substation Architecture
vPAC Solution Benefits
- Reduce CAPEX costs by centralizing control and minimizing control room space
- Reduce maintenance costs through automation & remote updates
- Reduce outage time with rapid deployment
- Increase agility, performance, and flexibility with digitalization
Key vPAC Requirements
- A scalable, centralized system
- Real-time, low-latency communication, & deterministic operations Industrial-grade IEC 61850-3 certified servers
- High availability with cost-effective redundancy
- Multi-layer hardware and software security
- Open ecosystem for best-in-class protection
- Standards: IEC61850-8-1 MMS, IEC 60870-5-104, IEC61850-9-2LE, time synchronization IEEE1588v2, IEC61850 GOOSE type 1A, class P1 (<3ms), redundant communication IEC61850 PRP
vPAC for Substation Protection
Vertically-integrated vPAC solutions from industry leaders:
ABB Protection & Control Applications
- Comprehensive protection functions
- Smart Substation Control & Protection SSC600 software
- Real-time performance, scalable, & upgradable
VMWare Edge Compute Stack (ECS)
- Single platform for running VMs & Containers
- Support real-time workloads (5G, IED)
- Centralized lifecycle management
- Enhanced reliability, safety, & security
Advantech Industrial Servers
- Secure IEC-61850-3 & PRP
- Redundant power
- Redundant solid state storage
- Hardware security
The Solution
This three-layer vPAC solution combines two software layers and one hardware layer. Leveraging grid infrastructure expertise, ABB offers Ability™ Smart Substation Control and Protection SSC600 software, which is designed for protection, control, measurement and supervision of utility substations.
VMWare, trusted digital foundation to accelerate innovation, provides a purpose-built platform that meets security, performance, and manageability requirements for substation workloads.
Finally, Advantech substation industrial servers provide high reliability in a hardware platform purpose-built by the leader in industrial PCs.
ECU-579 Virtual Substation Server
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