The integration of protection, monitoring, control and communication functions in modern electrical HV installations

The paper describes the evolution of conventional control, monitoring and protection equipment for substations into “the intelligent substation”, fully utilising information technology. Traditionally, there were separate islands with various stand-alone equipment such as protection relays, event recorders, disturbance recorders, measuring devices, alarm systems, remote terminal units and control panels built up with conventional electromechanical relays and switches. The paper discusses the advantages, and the concerns, of an integrated approach to substation automation, based on modern microprocessor, software and communication technology