Preventive actions in protection relays network using SNMP

Energy automation systems have been expanding and there are more Ethernet capable devices in the network. Protection relays, switches, GPS and also computers have many critic diagnosis information available via the network interface. The intention of this paper is to present how the already available information can be used in the human-machine interfaces and SCADA systems to have a more detailed diagnosis of the network and its devices. Information like IED (Intelligent Electronic Devices) health status, CPU loads, fiber-optics light intensity, GOOSE (Generic Oriented Object Substation Event) message errors, can be used to early detect equipment failure and network instabilities. Early analysis can prevent problems with the equipment interlocking and protection functionalities and improves the power system availability. The simple network management protocol (SNMP) is a management protocol widely implemented, which makes it an ideal manufacturer-independent solution for this purpose. To test this concept a Siemens SCADA system was used as a manager of the SNMP enabled devices in an already commissioned power plant with Siemens Siprotec 4 protection relays. Further ideas were also developed.