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Substations go fully digital but stay compatible
Find new ways to combine and improve things
The fully digital substation replaces the kilometres of copper hardwiring and proprietary devices of conventional installations with a software-based solution that builds interoperability today and tomorrow.
When asked to define innovation, most people think about inventing completely new products. In the modern economy it is much more than that. Innovation can derive from seeing new ways to combine and improve things that exist already – joining computers to telephone networks to produce the Internet, for example – or new ways to organise the manufacturing and distribution of products, such as just-in-time manufacturing. And the cycle of innovation is getting much shorter, as innovations in one domain become quickly accessible elsewhere, client expectations become greater, and regulations and standards get stricter. Substation solutions and components are the perfect illustration of all these trends.
Alstom’s digital control system has been the most successful on the market for the past 10 years, but it is already being superseded by a new solution – the company’s cutting-edge DS Agile system for substation automation. This enables valuable features like wide-area control, the IEC 61850 process bus and integrated condition monitoring, together with a new range of ruggedized substation-grade grid routers and switches from Cisco. Enhanced communication and cyber security functionality are designed in (see sidebar “Cyber security”).
Cyber security
In order to offer new applications, the digital substation is integrating more information technology, new standards and new protocols such as Ethernet. Integrated cyber assets need to be protected from cyber threats, which are growing rapidly and have become highly sophisticated. In 2010 the discovery of the Stuxnet worm publicly illustrated the vulnerability of industrial control systems to cyber attacks. As Jean-Pierre Mennella, Software Solutions Cyber Security Manager, explains: “The main challenge is to adapt cyber security solutions to the specific environment and constraints of the digital substation. Alstom’s approach is to ensure that both architecture and components are designed with cyber security foremost in our thinking.” Alstom is involved in standards definition (for example IEC 61850 and IEC 62351) and in energy sector cyber security activities such as the European Commission’s Directorate- General for Energy M/490 Mandate Smart Grid Information Security Working Group. Alstom is also collaborating with leadingedge partners such as Cisco to offer and develop new, secure digital substation solutions.
In order to offer new applications, the digital substation is integrating more information technology, new standards and new protocols such as Ethernet. Integrated cyber assets need to be protected from cyber threats, which are growing rapidly and have become highly sophisticated. In 2010 the discovery of the Stuxnet worm publicly illustrated the vulnerability of industrial control systems to cyber attacks. As Jean-Pierre Mennella, Software Solutions Cyber Security Manager, explains: “The main challenge is to adapt cyber security solutions to the specific environment and constraints of the digital substation. Alstom’s approach is to ensure that both architecture and components are designed with cyber security foremost in our thinking.” Alstom is involved in standards definition (for example IEC 61850 and IEC 62351) and in energy sector cyber security activities such as the European Commission’s Directorate- General for Energy M/490 Mandate Smart Grid Information Security Working Group. Alstom is also collaborating with leadingedge partners such as Cisco to offer and develop new, secure digital substation solutions.