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Design, Development, and Commissioning of a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) Laboratory for Research and Training
Mini S. Thomas, Senior Member, IEEE, Parmod Kumar, and Vinay K. Chandna
AbstractThis paper reports a state-of-the-art Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) Laboratory facility for power systems at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India. It has been designed to function as a research and training center for utilities, faculty members, and students. This paper covers the design, commissioning, and functioning of the SCADA/EMS laboratory facility, based on distributed-processing technology. The SCADA laboratory will provide hands on experience to students and practicing engineers and will give them an insight into the contemporary SCADA systems. This lab is the first of its kind to be functional in India. Index TermsDCS, energy management system (EMS), ethernet, intelligent control, laboratory, real-time systems, SCADA systems.

I. INTRODUCTION

LECTRICAL power is one of the most important infrastructure inputs necessary for the rapid socio-economic development of a country. Currently, it constitutes about 20% of the total annual energy consumption on a worldwide scale with an ever-rising demand. This increase in demand has led to the installation and incorporation of a large number of electrical power generation units with increased capacities in a common power grid, making the operation of the entire system sensitive to the prevailing conditions. Therefore, the extensive and complex power systems have become unmanageable using the conventional instrumentation and control schemes. Intelligent systems based on microprocessors and computers have been employed for online monitoring and control of modern large-scale power systems [1], in generation, transmission and distribution, thereby overcoming the complexities and drawbacks of the conventional instrumentation schemes. Such an integrated power system thus needs a large amount of data to be acquired, processed and presented to the operator and the system engineer for effective operation of the power grid. These functions can be handled very effectively using a distributed processing system. It provides the system engineer and operator with a powerful tool, which gives immediate access
Manuscript received November 10, 2003. The work of the first author was supported by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). M. S. Thomas is with the Electrical Engineering Department, Jamia Millia Islamia, Jamia Nagar, New Delhi, India 110025 (e-mail: mini@ieee.org). P. Kumar is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Delhi College of Engineering, Delhi, India 110042 (e-mail: pramodk2003@yahoo.co.in). V. K. Chandna is with the Electrical Engineering Department, Inderprastha Engineering College, Sahibabad, Ghaziabad (UP), India 201010 (e-mail: vinaychandna@yahoo.co.in). Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRS.2004.826770

to large amounts of current information from the data highway, and also past history from the archived data storage. The system engineer can also readily install new hardware for on-line data acquisition and control. The SCADA/EMS laboratory has been set up with the view of providing students and practicing engineers with hands on learning experience on SCADA system, and its applications to the management, supervision and control of an electric power system. The setting up of this laboratory is of utmost importance because SCADA systems, though used extensively by the industries, are the proprietary item of each company and hence very few technical details are available to students and researchers. This laboratory is providing research facilities in the form of hardware and software for adaptive and intelligent control of integrated power systems. Research work on preprocessing data at the RTU level using Fuzzy Logic and Fuzzy-Genetic algorithm has already earned recognition [2], [3]. The significance of the laboratory is highlighted by the developments in substation automation, which is revolutionizing the automation scenario in power systems [4]. One of the unique features of the SCADA/EMS laboratory, that makes it the only one of its kind, is the use of a distributed processing system, which supports a global database. The use of such a system was favored against that of personal computers with data acquisition add-on cards [5][7], in order to acquaint students with the standard industrial practices. Earlier reports on SCADA systems are limited to the description of a Greek EMS-SCADA implementation and application of ATM based networks [8], [9]. II. DESIGN OF THE LABORATORY Large SCADA systems are used in a wide range of applications like power station control, transmission, distribution automation, and smaller SCADA systems are used for industrial automation. In the proposed lab we wanted to give a general idea about SCADA systems which would be applicable to any of the above mentioned processes, in particular for substation automation. Hence designing the specifications for the laboratory was quite challenging and satisfying. SCADA for power systems, distributed in wide geographical areas, is an integrated technology comprising of the following four major components [10]: i) Master Station: It is a collection of computers, peripherals and appropriate input/output (I/O) systems that enable the operators to monitor the state of the power system (or a process) and control it.

0885-8950/04$20.00 2004 IEEE

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Fig. 2. Fig. 1. Overview of the laboratory.

The DPU and the RTU.

ii) Remote Terminal Unit (RTU): RTU is the Eye, Ear and Hands of a SCADA system. The RTU acquires all the field data from different field devices, processes it and transmits the relevant data to the master station. At the same time, it distributes the control signals received from the master station to the field devices. iii) Communication System: It refers to the communication channels employed between the RTU and the master station. The bandwidth of the channel limits the speed of communication. iv) Human Machine Interface (HMI): HMI refers to the interface required for the interaction between the master station and the operators/users of the SCADA system. The proposed laboratory has all the above components of the SCADA system with on-line monitoring & control facilities as shown in Fig. 1. The master station has two engineering consoles for project implementation and four operator consoles for system monitoring. The SCADA hardware includes a distributed processing unit (DPU), a remote terminal unit (RTU) and a number of analog, digital and pulse input/output units and field equipment. The communication interface includes the Profibus and Modbus modules, and the LAN in the laboratory is through an Ethernet highway. The system software has the facility for easy online configuration for mimics, trends, reports etc. and for web navigation. An 11 KV substation, which is supplying power to the Faculty of Engineering and Technology, is being monitored. The prototype model of a 765 KV transmission line and on-load tap changer transformer (with auto-transformer and stepper motor) have been developed, monitored and controlled

through the SCADA system, to enable the students to have a feel of a real power system. The designing of the lab was done keeping in mind the industrial needs, as the laboratory will be used for training on the job engineers and fresh graduates. III. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE The architecture of SCADA system used in the laboratory, among the various processors connected to the data-highway, is of distributed function type. Distributed architecture was preferred as this is modular and expandable in future. The SCADA system used in the laboratory is microcomputer based with functional and database distribution. It has open ended system architecture comprising of the system hardware, the system software and human machine interface, which are discussed in detail below: A. System Hardware The system hardware comprises of the processing units, the DPU and RTU, two engineering stations and four operator stations. Each of the hardware components is discussed in detail in Sections III-B and C. 1) Distributed Processing Unit (DPU): The DPU is configured around a 32-bit Restricted Instruction Set Computer (RISC) processor AC800F with 4 MB memory as shown in Fig. 2. It can support up to 100 master less RTUs. At present there is only a single RTU communicating to the DPU. The DPU has a capability of handling more than 1000 inputs and outputs, but it is presently configured for 216 inputs and outputs (digital, analog, and pulse).

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Fig. 3.

The processor, with the Ethernet, Profibus, and Modbus modules.

The RTU, DPU and the input/output units are interconnected through the Profibus module, as shown in Fig. 3. The DPU has the Modbus module for dedicated communication with Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs). 2) Remote Terminal Unit (RTU): The SCADA/EMS laboratory has a single RTU that can be stationed at a remote location. Presently in the absence of a sufficiently remote field, the RTU is functioning inside the laboratory itself. The RTU is also equipped with I/O channels (digital, analog and pulse) for capturing the field data, and has the modem for communicating on RS485 link. Like the DPU, the RTU is also configured around a 32-bit RISC processor AC800F. The RTU communicates to the master SCADA system (DPU) through a Profibus. Since the DPU and RTU have the same hardware configuration and are at the same location, they can act as a redundant system at any time, to depict the actual control room experience. The DPU and RTU are currently performing the following functions in the laboratory: a) Data acquisition, system monitoring and control: The DPU and RTU acquire data (digital, analog and pulse) from the field equipment connected to the various input channels. These data are then passed on to the processor via the Profibus. The processor performs analytical calculations on these data and transmits them to the engineering and operator stations via the Ethernet. The various operators can thus monitor the field signals viz. voltage, current, frequency, temperature etc from the control room. The DPU also has analog, digital and pulse output modules, through which the operator can give control signals from the operator station to the field devices, e.g., a pulse output signal to rotate the stepper motor. b) Sequence of Events Recording (SOE): All the data in the DPU comes with a time stamping. The scan rate for digital data is usually 2 ms and for analog data it is 10 ms.The scan time can be set to 0.5 ms, 1 ms, 2 ms etc. as per the process requirement. SOE will provide the students a clear understanding of the various phenomena and events associated with

a power system, both during its normal functioning and under fault conditions, as this is the basic tool for fault diagnostics. 3) Input/Output Units: At present the system has 216 input/output channels, including that of both the DPU and RTU. The analog inputs comprise of the signals coming from the voltage and current transducers connected to the various field devices like the 3-phase transmission line, 3-phase load, etc. The digital inputs/outputs are the capacitor bank on/off positions in the substation and the circuit breaker positions on the transmission line and the load. Apart from these, there are pulse inputs and outputs. 4) Data Highway: The laboratory incorporates industry standard networking. It has an Ethernet data highway (coaxial cable) operating at 10 Mbps and is currently supporting a network of four operator stations and two engineering stations along with the DPU and the RTU, all connected in bus topology. The DPU passes real time data to the operator and engineering stations via the Ethernet through customized software. The I/O units are connected to the processor through the Profibus. The Modbus module connects the Intelligent Electronic Device, the Energy Analyzer, to the AC800F. The Modbus is incorporated in the system for performing dedicated tasks and for better understanding of the industrial buses. 5) Operator and Engineering Station: The SCADA system has six Pentium-IV Computers (running in the environment of Windows 2000) acting as the operator stations and engineering stations, so that, at a given time, a maximum of 10 students/trainees can work in the laboratory, two on each station, one station is left for faculty members and R&D work. Each of the four operator stations provides a customized, interactive, graphic user interface, designed using modern software programming techniques. The entire field can be monitored and controlled from the operator stations. Presently, as the field equipments being monitored are not very vast, each operator station covers the entire field, but in case of a vast field, each operator station can be configured to perform dedicated monitoring of different sections of the field. Two Pentium IV computers are serving as the engineering stations for the system. The engineering station runs the engineering software, programmed using Visual Basic 6.0. The commissioning, adding new hardware, changing the tag settings, and associated tasks are performed at the engineering station using the engineering software. B. System Software Currently, the laboratory utilizes two system software programs for better understanding and proper utilization of the product available in the market. The first one is hardware specific and dedicated software, whereas the other one is an open-ended system software, which can communicate with any hardware device. This is to make the laboratory much more generalized, rather than constrained to a specific hardware. The SCADA software being used in the laboratory has provision

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Fig. 4.

Software relational diagram.

for online configuration facilities like creation, modification, and deletion of process parameters in database, mimics, trends and reports. A web navigator has been designed using Java, to enable process management via Internet. The software has secured control facilities for executing individual digital output points or group of predefined points with a single command. It is capable of supporting standard power system software programs like MATLAB and EDSA. The dedicated software used in the system, Freelance 2000, consists of two main modules: Digivis, the operator software and Digitool, the engineering software as shown in the software relational diagram in Fig. 4. Digivis software offers a user-friendly graphical interface in accordance with MS-Windows standard. It provides a comprehensive, standard and free display logging, graphics and display facilities including trend archiving, system diagnostics, etc. Both free display and graphic displays are user-defined and are created using the graphic editor in the Digitool. The archived trend and log files are viewed using Digi Browse. Digi DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange) permits to convert data to ASCII format, making it readable by third party softwares. The Digitool, also known as control builder, is operated in configuration mode where, the project is structured, configured, and documented. Configuration can be processed off-line. The project objects are assigned to the hardware structure as part of the system configuration, and can then be downloaded when the connection is later made on-line. Digitool can handle all types of IEC 61 131-3 programming languages like the Function Block Diagram (FBD), Instruction List (IL), Ladder Diagram (LD), and Sequential Function Chart (SFC). Once a field device is connected/wired to the appropriate input or output channel, depending upon the type of signal, it has to be configured in the software. Each signal coming from the field devices is allocated a tag at the DPU I/O channels. This tag acts as an address for the signal and also gives an indication about the type of signal. For example the tag AI1_C1_DPU indicates an analog input (AI) connected to the first channel (1) of the first analog input unit (C1) of the DPU. When the programming is done for a signal, it is allocated the same tag in the

Fig. 5.

Functional block diagram for the transmission line monitoring.

software, as it has in the DPU. All the back end programming is done in Digitool using functional blocks along with the appropriate logic functions. The typical Functional Block Diagram (FBD) is shown in Fig. 5. Digitool is a highly extensive module with several useful features such as visual and sound alarms, trend display, time stamping etc. Report of all field alarms and system alarms along with time stamping, description, state, and current value is generated. Alarms (visual as well as audio) can be set and displayed as per the requirement. All unacknowledged alarms remain in flashing mode till they are acknowledged. Trend display is another useful tool of this software. By trend display we mean the display of variation of different parameters such as voltage, current, frequency, temperature etc. with time. The software can be configured to give both the past and the current trends. From these trends, we can predict the next trend also. These trends appear in the form of colorful graphs and can be given oscilloscopic form by choosing appropriate scales. This feature makes the software more user-interactive. This allows the students to reconstruct the sequence of events in case of a fault. Open ended software: SCADA portal is an open system software, which enables one to develop highly interactive HMI for remote control and PLC applications. It combines the unique usability features found in HMI with simple integration of control equipment and a variety of IEDs. It can communicate with locally and geographically distributed devices through communication protocols like OPC and Modbus. The applications in SCADA are based on object oriented principle. In the SCADA lab, we have configured SCADA portal using both OPC and Modbus protocols. C. HumanMachine Interface (HMI) HMI refers to the communication between Man and Machine and is of utmost importance in modern computer based con-

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trol systems. The HMI in the laboratory has been developed to make it highly descriptive, interactive and user friendly. This was done in order to enhance the students perception of electrical power systems and their performance. The control elements of the power system and other field devices are graphically modeled on a color monitor. The graphics have been developed in almost an exact replication of the real time field setup, depicting all the field devices exactly as their layout in the laboratory. The control fields have been designed in the form of buttons having different color schemes for depicting different operating conditions such as red for off and green for on. The different visual alarms keep flashing on the top of the screen, till they are acknowledged. The HMI has been designed using both the softwares available, the Digivis and SCADA Portal. IV. FIELD DESIGN The foremost task in the designing of the laboratory was, defining the power system to be monitored and controlled. This was done taking into account adequate scope for expansion of the system in future, and the latest facilities available in instrumentation and monitoring areas. A number of big industrial houses involved in power system SCADA were contacted, and detailed discussions were carried out with the experts in the field. Also a study of the available industrial SCADA systems was done. Finally, the power system to be monitored, the configuration of the laboratory and the specifications for the field device were finalized. The laboratory field presently comprises of the following: An 11 KV Substation feeding the Faculty of Engineering building, Jamia Millia Islamia. 3 phase transmission line model, complete with reactive and capacitive compensation. Energy Analyzer Prototype model of on load tap changer (OLTC) using stepper motor and autotransformer. RTD, level Sensors, transducers, contactors Substation monitoring: Provision has been made for the monitoring of an 11 kV/440 V substation at Jamia Millia Islamia. The substation is located about 150 m from the SCADA Laboratory. Exclusive cabling has been laid from the substation up to the SCADA Lab with proper grounding. Voltage, current, frequency, phase angle and power factor transducers have installed and real time values from the L.T side (440 V) of the transformer have been made available in the SCADA Lab. The substation has 8 capacitor banks installed for power factor corrections, which are automatically switched on depending on the power factor. The On/Off positions of the capacitors are also fed in the DPU as digital inputs. Three-phase transmission line: The transmission line model as shown in Fig. 6 was built to simulate the real time transmission conditions in the laboratory, so that students could get a hands on experience of phenomenon such as Ferranti Effect, Series and shunt compensation etc. by performing experiments on the system. The transmission line model kept in the laboratory is a scaled down -model of a 765 kV, 2000 MW, 300 km long three-phase transmission line. The actual field parameters of the existing line were obtained and were scaled down
Fig. 6. Three phase transmission line setup with autotransformer and stepper motor with drive.

Fig. 7.

Transmission line model graphic.

to 230 V, 5 A range. The parameters for a 10-section -model were computed and the actual inductance values per section obtained. The inductances were designed and wound in the lab itself and the capacitors were obtained readymade. The entire section bearing the capacitance and the inductance was enclosed in wooden boxes with covers. After assembling the lines, testing was done and satisfactory results were obtained with Ferranti effect and other line parameter studies. Each of the 3 phases of the transmission line is connected via autotransformers. The isolators perform the switching operation and are energized from the operator stations. Current and voltage transducers are connected to sense the incoming voltage and current of each phase, depicting the current and potential transformers on the actual line. Fig. 7 shows the transmission line graphics on the HMI screen. To give the students a fair idea of control devices, a 10 kg-cm torque stepper motor with autotransformer has been used as an On-Load-Tap changer, connected to the transmission line

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model. The stepper motor has been mounted over the autotransformer and can be driven by the operator console with pulse inputs. A 3-phase resistive-inductive/capacitive load has been designed and developed to act as the power system load. Voltage and current transducers as well as contactors are connected between the transmission line and the load to measure the voltage drop in the transmission line and also to perform switching operations of the load. The reactive and capacitive compensation of the line during full load and light load conditions are clearly demonstrated using the careful variation of the capacitive and inductive loads. Energy analyzer: A three-phase energy analyzer has been connected to the incoming 3-phase supply through the Modbus module to the system. It can monitor up to 25 parameters and is currently configured for the frequency, 3 phase currents , three phase voltages , power factor, real power and reactive power. It directly measures the phase and a neutral voltage, frequency, phase currents and computes other quantities such as voltage between lines, phase power factors, phase active and reactive energies and three phase system energies etc.

of the parameters is maintained in the system. No external circuit/device is employed for this function as all the data coming from the DPU is already time stamped. All the graphics as mentioned earlier have been designed in an exact imitation of the actual field devices and their layout. The actual monitoring of the field is done through the Digivis module of the software. The graphics are highly interactive and easy to understand. A few of the experiments to be performed in the SCADA lab include on-line study and simulation of: 1) 3-phase transmission line. 2) SOE & fault diagnostics. 3) Autotransformer tap positions. 4) Static VAR compensation and Ferranti effect. 5) Sub-station monitoring. VI. CONCLUSION The SCADA/EMS Laboratory has been designed and commissioned to facilitate the understanding of real time monitoring & control of systems for Electrical Engineering students and professionals. The Laboratory is first of its kind where the students will get hands on experience on the on-line monitoring and control of the Electric Power System. The laboratory was conceived and designed after extensive consultation with Industries and utilities. The components of SCADA systems, master station, RTU, different communication channels and a variety of field equipments are available in the laboratory. The data acquisition is with time stamping, which will lead to sequence of events monitoring. A 3-phase transmission line model with on-load tap changer and static VAR are the highlights of the field equipments. The laboratory gets on-line data from the 11 KV substation feeding the Faculty of Engineering. The laboratory has two engineering stations and four operator stations at present, with 216 input/output units, which can be expanded to 1000. Overall, this laboratory will provide the undergraduate and postgrauduate students with a better understanding of industrial SCADA systems, especially as SCADA systems at present are proprietary items of each company. It is proposed to add redundant data highway using fiber optic cable soon. The SCADA Laboratory will be primarily used for regular research and training programs for the benefit of Faculty and students of Jamia, in order to give them hands on experience on SCADA systems. Another major emphasis is on doing industrial consultancy and research for the benefit of Industrial houses. In addition, there will be regular training programs for practicing engineers on SCADA systems. The courses will be modular and would suit both practicing and fresh engineers. Overall, the SCADA lab designing and implementation was a challenging, passionate and fruitful experience. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors wish to thank S. Kumar, General Manager, ESPL, for the necessary advice from time to time in implementation of this project. Thanks are also due to M/s ABB and M/s Industrial IT solutions for the help rendered.

V. COMMISSIONING Commissioning of the laboratory involved the following main tasks: physical wiring of the devices; grounding; tag allocation; software customization; graphic design. Once all the field devices including the transmission line model were finalized and obtained in the laboratory, the main task was to connect them to the DPU and provide proper grounding schemes. The connection of the various analog and digital devices to the different input/output channels in the DPU has already been described in Sections IIIV. Ferrules bearing the appropriate tags have been attached to all the wires connecting the devices to the I/O channels, for easy identification and tracing, in case any change has to be made. The entire system has been earthed as per industrial standards. Tag allocation for various devices was an easy task as memory mapping in the system is automatic and a device connected to the appropriate channel is identified by the system on its own and the users can provide the tag of their own choice. Software customization was done by generating Functional Block Diagrams (FBD) for each of the field devices and then applying the appropriate logic. Audio and visual alarms were set to indicate different conditions in the devices for, e.g., when the transmission line current exceeds a particular limit, both audio and visual alarms are generated. Graphical trends were generated for constant monitoring of the different parameter changes with time. Different parameters such as voltage, current, frequency etc. have been plotted in different colors for easy monitoring. Apart from the trends, a second by second record for each

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REFERENCES
[1] T. Cegrell, Power system control technology, in PHI (UK) Series in Control Engineering, 1986. [2] P. Kumar, V. K. Chandna, and M. S. Thomas, Intelligent algorithm for pre-processing multiple data at RTU, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 18, pp. 15661572, Nov. 2003. , Fuzzy-genetic algorithm for pre-processing data at RTU, IEEE [3] Trans. Power Syst., vol. 19, pp. 718723, May 2004. [4] J. D. McDonald, Substation automation IED, integration & availability of information, IEEE Power Energy Mag., vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 2231, Mar./Apr. 2003. [5] S. P. Carullo and C. O. Nwankpa, Interconnected power systems laboratory: A computer automated instructional facility for power system experiments, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 17, pp. 215222, May 2002. [6] K. K. Tan, T. H. Lee, and C. Y. Soh, Internet-based monitoring of distributed control systems-an undergraduate experiment, IEEE Trans. Education, vol. 45, pp. 128134, May 2002. [7] B. Qiu and H. B. Gooi, Web-based SCADA display systems (WSDS) for access via internet, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 15, pp. 681686, May 2000. [8] D. T. Askounis and E. Kalfaouglou, The greek EMS-SCADA: From the contractor to the user, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 15, pp. 14231427, Nov. 2000. [9] S.-J. Huang and Chih-Chieh, Application of ATM -BASED network for an integrated distribution SCADA-GIS system, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 17, pp. 8086, Feb. 2002. [10] Fundamentals of Supervisory Systems, IEEE Tutorial Course, 91EH0337-6 PWR, 1991.

Parmod Kumar received the B.E., M.E., and Ph.D. degrees in 1972, 1975, and 1982, respectively. After post-graduation in measurement and instrumentation, he joined M.P. Electricity Board, M.P., India, as an Assistant Engineer and commissioned telemetry and SCADA instruments at substations, power stations, and the central control room. In 1983, he joined the Central Electricity Authority as a Dynamic System Engineer and designed and configured the load dispatch centers for electric utilities. Subsequently, he served on various capacities to Indian Railway Construction Company, ERCON, ESPL, ESTC, and then entered academic life in 1991. His area of interest is smart and intelligent system design, operation, and control.

Vinay K. Chandna graduated from Nagpur University, India, in 1994 in electronics and power, and received the M.E. degree in power systems from Walchand College of Engineering, Maharashtra, India, in 1997. His employment experience includes Walchand College of Engineering, Sangli (MAH), and Ramdeo Baba Kamla Nehru Engineering College, Nagpur (MAH). He is presently a Senior Lecturer with Inderprastha Engineering College, Ghaziabad. His areas of interest are fuzzy logic, SCADA, design operation, and control of systems.

Mini S. Thomas (M88SM99), graduated from the University of Kerala in 1984 and received the M.Tech. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, in 1986 (both with gold medals) and the Ph.D. degree from IIT, Delhi, in 1991. All degrees were in electrical engineering. Her employment experiences include Regional Engineering College, Calicut, Kerala and Delhi College of Engineering, New Delhi. She is presently a Professor in the Faculty of Engineering, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. She has published over 30 papers in international/national journals and conferences. Her current research interests are in SCADA/EMS systems and intelligent protection of power systems. Dr. Thomas received the prestigious Career Award for young teachers, instituted by AICTE, Government of India, in 1999.