Process bus architectures for substation automation with life cycle cost consideration

This paper will focus on the IEC 61850 process bus architecture design for a mesh corner transformer bay within National Grid. A range of architectures can be applied, depending on the requirements for each substation such as reliability, availability and cost. Different possible architectures for the bay are designed. The system reliability and availability figures are estimated for each architecture. The life cycle cost based on these reliability and availability figures are then estimated. The architecture with the lowest life cycle cost is determined and this is the optimal process bus architecture. A decision matrix is also used to compare the architectures based on reliability and cost factors. These factors are weighted according to their relative importance.