International Journal of Energy Science

IJES

Design of Substation AMR and Control System with

Reconfigurable Embedded System
Jaswinder Singh1, Ravinder Singh1, S.K. Aggarwal2*, L.M. Saini3
1

NexGEN Consultancy Pvt Ltd

Noida, U.P., India
2
M.M. Engineering College
Mullana, India
3
National Institute of Technology
Kurukshetra, Haryana, India
jaswinder.singh79@gmail.com, ravinder.singh16@gmail.com, vasusanjeev@yahoo.co.in, lmsaini@rediffmail.com

Abstract-This paper presents the design and implementation of

an Automatic Meter Reading and Control System (AMRCS)
using reconfigurable embedded platform in conjunction with
software developed in LabView graphical programming
environment. AMRCS collects data from the remote substations
using General Packet Radio Services (GPRS) communication
interface to provide real time information, graphical
representation of electrical network on Geographical
Information System (GIS), and automatic reports generation. A
Control System is developed to monitor and connect/disconnect
circuit breaker remotely. A custom web page is built to provide
access to both real-time and historical data. LabView is more
often used in laboratory environment, however in this case has
been used for integrating some functions of smart grid field. It is
observed that AMRCS is easy to use, reliable, and free from
human error and considerably reduces the design and
development integration time. The system also provides other
distribution automation features such as, controlling through
web application, alerts over mobile phone and email. Substation automation in emerging economies like India is at a
nascent stage. In this paper, possibility of sub-station
automation has been examined using an inexpensive technique
with considerable success.

of power supply in India. The problem is mainly associated

with sub-transmission and distribution networks. Accurate,
sufficient, and timely data is required to assist the day-to-day
decision making activities. The electrical network is huge and
complex and it is quite difficult to improve the situation using
the traditional approach of data collection (Palanichamy et al,
1999). Advance solutions are required to improve the present
condition of electrical distribution network. Following are the
key issues in the traditional systems:

Highly person dependent and time consuming

Data is not available in real time

Accessibility of metering device in rural substation

Inaccuracy in data collection

Collected data cannot help in analysis

Outage notification

Voluminous data makes it difficult to analyse

manually

Remote control and monitoring

Keywords-AMRCS, Distribution Network, GPRS, GIS, LabView,

Data Acquisition

No flexibility in hardware

NOMENCLATURE

Limited hardware capabilities and functionality

AMRCS Automatic Meter Reading and Control System

API
Application Program Interface
FPGA
Field Programmable Gate Array
GPRS
General Packet Radio Services
GSM
Global System for Mobile Computing
LabView
Laboratory Instrument Virtual Work Bench
NI
National Instruments
PAC
Programmable Automation Controller
RIO
Reconfigurable Input and Output
SIM
Subscriber Identity Module
VI
Virtual Instrumentation
I.

INTRODUCTION

In the present scenario, electrical distribution utilities are

facing problems due to high energy losses and poor reliability

There is significant advancement in technology and

techniques to measure and acquire the process data and
analyze the electrical quantities. Compact Reconfigurable
Input and Output (RIO) Programmable Automation Controller
(PAC) of National Instruments (NI) is Field Programmable
Gate Array (FPGA) based reconfigurable embedded system
designed for applications that require high performance,
reliability, and real time operation. NI LabView Real-Time
Module introduces some new features for NI Compact RIO
hardware that reduces design complexity. Virtual
Instrumentation (VI) has revolutionized the programming
concepts from hardware centered instrumentation to software
centered system and from text based to graphical programming.
LabView offers powerful features that make it easy to connect
to a wide variety of embedded systems (http://www.ni.com).
Communication network plays a vital role in distribution

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automation, which relies on its quality, reliability, and

availability (Khalifa and Naik, 2011). Utilities require high
performance communication network and it insures the cost
effective quality of service, high speed, and security for
consistent operation. Recent developments in communication
technologies have enabled communication network to make
remote metering and controlling possible. Additionally, it
allows monitoring the real time condition of distribution
system (Tan et al., 2007).
There are many communication links that can be used as
communication media in Automatic Meter Reading (AMR)
system, i.e. wireless, power line carrier, and telephone line
posing their respective advantages (Park et al, 2002; Zaballos
et al, 2009). There is significant amount of research work,
which has been done to use wireless for AMR and its (wireless)
capabilities have been explored (Priya and Sonali, 2011; Wu C.
et al, 2004; Ferrer and Oliver, 1997; Muhammad et al, 2005).
Communication over General Packet Radio Services (GPRS)
offers always on, faster, cheaper, secure, high quality, and
easy to use packet based service (Wu et al., 2010; Li et al.,
2010). TCP/IP based data is transmitted into packets via
Global System for Mobile Computing (GSM) network and at

user end; the packets are received and then assembled into
original data (Tan et al., 2007). The GPRS communication has
economical benefits as its charges are based on the amount of
data, which is transported; not for the time the line is reserved.
The network resources are only used if there is some data to be
send; hence, network capacity is used more effectively.
Nowadays the service provider offers Subscriber Identity
Module (SIM) with unlimited download at cheaper rate, which
makes cost-effective data transfer through GPRS network. In
this paper, LabView based AMRCS design and
implementation has been explored, which may help utilities to
access accurate, sufficient and real time data from remote
substation.
II.

AMRCS HARDWARE ARCHITECTURE

The system hardware has four main parts, which are Data
Acquisition Device (DAD), GPRS Communication Module,
and Control Unit located at remote substation and server at
utility control center as shown in Figure 1.

Graphical Report

Breaker Status and

Controlling
Control
Circuit

Web

Communication
Network
ADC
Serve
GPRS
Analysis
Monitoring and
Controlling

Energy
Feeder

ModBus
RS485

Email

Data
Acquisition
Device

Alerts/Events
SMS

Utility Control Center

Substation Data Acquisition and Control

System

Web Publishing
Fig. 1 AMRCS Architecture

The DAD acquires processes and transmits/receives the

data via GPRS modem. The control unit links circuit breaker
control circuitry with DAD digital input and output channels
and the server located at utility control center for running the
main application. Detailed specifications and function of each
module are described as below:

B. GPRS Communication Module

The GPRS modem, works together with the LabView
FPGA to create a highly customizable and flexible
communication application with DAD. The modem supports
Quad GSM band, cellular class 10 data communication, and
TCP/IP stack.

A. Data Acquisition Device (DAD)

NIs compact RIO 9004PAC, 195 MHz processor, 512 MB
non-volatile storage, 64 MB DRAM memory, 10/100BASE-T
Ethernet port with embedded web and file servers, remotepanel user interface along with NI 9401, 8Ch, 5 V/TTL highspeed bidirectional digital I/O module and 4 slot
reconfigurable embedded chassis has been used for data
acquisition, monitoring and controlling1. There is a provision
to extend the number of digital I/O module by connecting an
expansion chassis in daisy chain, which make it more scalable.

C. Control Unit
Control unit is developed to provide signal amplification
and isolation between DAD digital input/output and circuit
breaker control circuitry as shown in Figure 2. Control unit is
positioned at substation, and its interface depends upon
configuration of the circuit breaker. Each control unit
receives/send the control command the breaker status from/to
DAD respectively.

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Rectifier
Circuit

Optical
Isolation

Amplifier
Circuit

Control
Command

Transformer
230/12 V

Logic
Signal

command, but only the meter corresponding to the meter

address responds. The VI is scalable to configure more meters
without reprogramming the complete application. A program
has been developed to read the digital input and output module.
MRC VI reads following parameters:

Relay

Breaker
Control
Circuit

Relay

DIO NI 9401

IJES

B
r
e
a
k
e
r

Electrical parameter
Temper detection
Maximum demand
Power quality
Circuit breaker status

Breaker Status

Control commands

Fig. 2 Control Circuit

D. Server
Utility control center has the server enabled with public IP,
which is used to collect and store the data acquired from
remote substation. A modem is attached to server with intent to
send the SMS. Sever has the following specification:

2.66 GHz Intel (R) Pentium (R) 4 CPU

2 GB RAM

Hard disk of 80 GB

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition

512 MBPS, Network connection with public IP

17 LCD monitor

HP laser jet printer

CDROM
III.

2)
GPRS Communication Interface (GCI):
A data exchange plays a crucial role for system operation,
which relies on reliable communication links between remote
substation and utility control center. An IP stack enabled
GPRS modem is used for communication interface. The data
collected from DAD is transmitted via GPRS modem using
TCP/IP communication protocol. VI is developed using AT
(Attention) commands to establish the interface between DAD
and modem. A program is developed to detect the events
related to communication failure and log the data in nonvolatile memory of DAD to prevent the loss of data; it also
retrieves the stored data once the communication is established.
B. Utility Control Center Application
The main modules of UCC application have been explained
below:

AMRCS SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE

The system software is divided into two parts, which are

Substation Data Acquisition and Control system (SDACS) and
Utility Control Center (UCC) application. The substation
application consists of two main VI parts, Meter Reading and
Controlling (MRC) and GPRS Communication Interface (GCI).
UCC application is subdivided into four main modules; which
are, Automated Data Collection System (ADCS), Reports and
Analysis, Web Publishing and Alerts and Notifications as
shown in Figure 1. LabView 9.0 (Professional Developer Suit),
FPGA 9.0, and RT 9.0, have been used to develop AMRCS
software application for this work.
A. Substation Data Acquisition and Control System
The main parts of SDACS have been explained below:
1)
Meter Reading and Controlling:
This VI collects data from network of energy meters
installed at incoming and outgoing feeders in substation. VI is
deployed in DAD and processes the time stamped data from
network of meters having RS-485 ports, connected in daisy
chain,
using
Modbus
communication
protocols
(http://www.modbus.org). Modbus allows communication
among many meters connected in the same network. VI sends
a command to each meter intended to communicate; the
command contains the address of the energy meter and
functions to read, all the meters in network receive the

1)
Automated Data Collection System (ADCS):
This module uses NI TCP/IP toolkit to receive bulk data
from remote substation. It verifies, manages, and eventually
logs the received data. It can automatically recognize when no
data is acquired for specified period and attempt to retrieve the
data from DAD. Then it inserts the data into the database (SQL
Server) at the control center using NI Data Base connectivity
toolkit.
2)
Reports and Analysis:
The module is design to create reports generation in
Word/Excel/PDF format, appearance, and layout. Application
is connected to the database to generate the following reports
based on historical data as shown in Figure 3.

Graphical reports such as, load current, voltage, power

factor, and active and reactive power

Maximum demand reports

Consumption trends report

Reliability reports

3)
Web Publishing:
In electrical distribution network, it is important to share
the previous and updated information among various
departments in utility, which helps in improving the service.
Web application is build up to provide the interface to the
users coming through the internet. Simultaneously it provides
an easy, effective, and low investment means of accessing data.

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Data security is vital concern for utility, as the information

may give false control command, can be initiated by intruder
or may be accessed by an unauthorized user. Taking these
issues in consideration, security at different levels has been
provided to restrict such an event.

and AT command are executed for sending and receiving the

SMS. The message contains the alert, such as high loading,
breaker status with unique ID, and location code of breaker.
Utility authorized personnel with valid SIM number can also
acquire more information by sending a request via SMS
containing valid code. The SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer
Protocol) is used to write programs that automatically send the
mail along with the required data.
IV.

IMPLEMENTATION

The system has been tested in a 33/11KV substation to

evaluate the performance in real scenario as shown in Figure 5.
The system has following specification:

Compact RIO 9004PAC

NI 9401, 8Ch, 5 V/TTL High-Speed Bidirectional

Digital I/O Module

NI cRIO-9111 four-slot, reconfigurable embedded

chassis

Four 12V (DC) relay with 4 NO/NC contact

Fig. 3 Sample Sub-Station Report

GPRS SIM with unlimited download

The web application is developed on Microsoft platform

and data is shared through xml or web services. A user can
access the main application only after successful login based
on authorization, authentication, and access based security.
The rights are provided at various levels to access both real
time and historical data. Simultaneously all successful and
failed attempts are logged. In addition, an IP based access is
granted, so that the application is available to only known user.
Multiple clients can view the application in monitoring and
controlling mode, according to the granted access as shown in
Figure 4.

GRRS Modem (Wave Com Engine)

User Machine
Controlling and
Monitoring

INTERNET
User Machine-1
Monitoring Front Panel

Fig. 5 AMRCS installed at a 33/11 kV substation

Server Machine at Control

Center
Main Application

User Machine-2
Monitoring Front Panel

Fig. 4 Web Publishing (Multi-Clients)

4)
Alerts and Notification:
The module is developed to provide vital information to the
authorized person when an important event occurs. For
example, status of circuit breaker or any limit is violated,
abnormal condition via SMS and e-mail at remote substation.
GSM modems are interfaced with server through RS-232 port

The DAD, server, control circuit, modem, and printer are

provided with uninterrupted power supply. The system
performance remains consistent and highly available. It is very
easy to configure and to put in practice. The minimum time
interval of 2 second has been achieved between two readings.
The execution of control command and acknowledgement get
back at server side, which takes 6-8 seconds and there is no
error found yet during many test operations. The operator is
facilitated with viewing metering parameter and status of
breaker on web application in real time. The collected data are
used to generate reports and for analysis purpose.
The web application is accessed through internet only after
successful login and based on that, various rights are granted to
viewer and these are real time and historical data, Viewing
and/or Controlling. Multiple users can access the application;

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but, the controlling right is given to the single user only at a

time. Authorized person receives SMS for outage, restoration,
and other events between 15 to 20 seconds. Month-wise
AMRCS availability rate has been shown in Table 1. The
average data receive rate from DAD to server is 98.75%. So
the system can be used for practical deployment.
TABLE1. OVERALL AMRCS AVAILABILITY
Time

Data receive rate (%)

1st Month

98.6

nd

2 Month

98.2

3rd Month

99

4th Month

98.7

th

5 Month

99

6th Month

99

Average

98.75

The obtained result is proof of the concept for the

consistence of the AMRCS. However, the result still needs
further analysis for improvement.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like to acknowledge the support of B. L.
Khameshra, Ajmer Vidut Vitran Nigam Limited, Udaipur and
Sanjay Bhardwaj, CEO, NexGEN Consultancy Pvt Ltd in
implementing the testing system for a 33/11KV substation.
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[1]

[2]

[3]

V.

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS

[4]

In this paper, new embedded technology is incorporated in

the field of distribution automation to design wireless AMRCS.
Following are the main advantages of the system:

This system helps the utilities in improving the

existing electrical network condition, provides accurate,
sufficient and timely data for analysis, saving the
utility expenses in meter reading, savings on seals, and
stationeries.

[5]

[6]

[7]

It also provides the extra capabilities like, load

management, improve vigilance, and faster meter
reading.

SMS based mobile alerts help the crew management

team to obtain quick information about the electric
network, so that remedial action can be taken. It helps
in reducing the service restoration time.

[8]

[9]

This system reduces the integration issue, installation,

and configuration time to great extent.

Improves customer service by faster outage detection,

and restoration.

Detection of meter tampering and theft monitoring for

proper operation.

[11]

Improves distribution planning service.

[12]
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