USAGE OF GPRS & CDMA COMMUNICATION FOR

EFFICIENT MANAGEMENT OF POWER DISTRIBUTION NETWORKS

ABB TATA POWER

Key words: SCADA, Distribution Automation (DA), RTU, GPRS, CDMA

Abstract

The key to efficient management of Power Distribution network is the availability of the real
time information and remote operation of the utility distribution network. The power
distribution is effected from the transmission level through a number of geographically
distributed substations. The Distribution Companies (DISCOMs) manage the distribution
network by installation of state of the art SCADA and Distribution Managements Systems
for Control, Monitoring and operation of network. The SCADA system involves installation
of Remote Terminal Units (RTU) at the substations which interfaces with the field
breakers, isolators, transformers and intelligent devices like energy meters, numerical
relays etc, installed at the substations. These distributed RTUs communicate with the
Master Control Center through various communication media such as Radio, Fibre optic,
Leased Line, Public communication networks like PSTN, GPRS, CDMA etc. Each of the
communication medium has its own advantages and disadvantages.

This paper presents the design & operational experience gained during the
implementation of a Distribution SCADA for the Tata Power in Mumbai using GPRS and
CDMA. The project involved a pilot scheme implemented for the 23 substations in Mumbai
in first half of year 2005 with GPRS. The implementation was carried forward with addition
of over 164 substations with CDMA communication media in year 2006, out of which 60
substations are operational. To the best of our knowledge, the DA system of Tata Power
based on GPRS & CDMA communication is the first of its kind in the country. The
successful use of the GPRS and the CDMA networks of the service providers for the
SCADA system has made possible a cost effective, ready-to-use, a low Cost, “always ON
connectivity” for communication of data from the substations to the Master Control Centre.

This paper details the first hand experience of understanding the dynamic behavior of
a GPRS and CDMA network, zeroing on their suitability for use in a real time
operations environment and the various challenges of adopting a public service
network as a Closed Private Network (CPN) for secure operations.

Objectives of DA System

DA System has been designed to meet the following objectives:

• Centralized monitoring & remote operation of consumer substations.
• Faster identification of faults & faster restoration of supply from remote to minimise
“Unserved Energy”.
• Monitoring the duration and frequency of interruption of supply to consumers and
improve Quality of Service Index (CAIDI, CAIFI).
• Facilitate SMS Alert Messages to Maintenance Engineers.
• Bulk power data for Energy Audit, for billing verification and line load pattern data
for planning.
• Power Quality monitoring (over/under voltage, unbalance, power factor, THD etc.)
 • Dynamic display of network mimics with data, alarms & zooming facility.
• Selective & secure access from company’s intranet.

System Description

A SCADA system for Tata Power for Automation for the electricity distribution network
comprising of 23 consumer substations (22 kV/ 415 V) at Bandra-Kurla Complex of Mumbai
using GPRS communication has been implemented by ABB in 2005. Compact Remote
terminal units with about 100 I/Os each were installed at all the 23 substations where they
were interfaced with the field equipment which included breakers, isolators, transformers
etc. Instead of having multiple transducers, analog parameters were acquired by the RTU
using Multifunction energy meters which are installed in the various feeders of the
substations. The RTU acquires the analog parameters from the energy meters on an RS485
MODBUS RTU protocol. The parameters acquired from the meters include currents,
voltages, power factor, Active Power, reactive Power, Energy and Total Harmonic Distortion
values.
Master SCADA system was configured as a Hot-standby system between the servers at
Dharavi and BKC Substation. The normally hot Master is located at TPC Control Room at
Dharavi. The standby Master is located at the BKC Substation.

The GPRS modem that is connected to the protocol converter in the RTU holds the IP
address that is used for communication. Whenever there is disconnection in the network,
the protocol converter detects that and dials up the modem and requests the GPRS core for
a connection again. The dial script runs in the protocol converter.

GPRS Communication

GPRS is General Packet Radio Service which is a packet data bearer service for wireless
communication over GSM. GPRS uses a packet radio principle for transferring user data
between GSM mobile stations and thereby it reserves the radio resources only when there
is data to be transmitted. Hence GPRS is designed to offer better response time and
reduced operating cost for the end user. GPRS enables an IP based application to operate
over a GSM cellular collection. GPRS data speeds can range from 9.6 kbps (using one radio
time slot) to 115 kbps which can be achieved by amalgamating 8 time slots. GSM (Global
system for Mobile) is known as a 2G (second generation technology) and is based on circuit
switching technology whereas GPRS introduces packet switching technology to GSM
(2.5G).

GPRS is different from GSM because it offers higher bandwidth and hence higher data
speeds, Packet switching rather than circuit switching which ensures higher radio spectrum
efficiency because network resources and band width is only used when data is actually
transmitted even though it is always connected, lower running charges as running charges
are based on data transfer and not based on the connection time and possibility of
simultaneous voice and data connectivity

System Design

The RTUs installed at the 23 substations were connected to GPRS enabled GSM modems.
GPRS modems can either have a serial interface or an Ethernet interface for
interconnecting to the RTU. The modems that were used for this application were based on
Serial interface. GPRS communication is based on IP based protocol. The communication
protocol that was adopted for the scheme was based on IEC 870-5-104 protocol. The above
IP protocol was implemented to perform data transfer over the serial interface of the RTU
through which the GPRS modems were connected.

The link between the RTU and the SCADA system at the Master Control Centre was
established as an IP network over the GPRS core network of the service provider. The
RTUs were assigned fixed IP addresses which were programmed on to SIM cards provided
by the service provider. The SIM cards were installed at the GPRS modems before start up.
The LAN at the Master control Room was extended using routers and Fibre Optic Link to the
service provider’s location. By hooking up the SCADA in such a manner a WAN was
established to the GPRS core network. The RTUs get connected to the GPRS core by
dialing into the GPRS core using AT commands. Once the dialup is established, the SCADA
software at the master control centre (acting as an IEC 870-5-104 master) and the RTUs
(acting as IEC 870-5-104 slave nodes) establishes an ‘Always ON’ link between them over
the GPRS core.
Application Layer Techniques

The design of an efficient application layer for communication software between the RTU
and the Master SCADA system is very crucial to ensure a reliable communication even
during the peak traffic hours in the network. Without a carefully designed application layer,
the chances of suspensions in communication between the RTU and the master control
centre are higher in GPRS communication. The problem in communication suspensions
can become severe due to several reasons like change in Cell ID, reallocation of time slots
by the service provider during peak network requirements, reduced signal strength in certain
locations. The application layer has to be efficiently optimized to ensure a highly reliable
communication during the worst scenario. The communication protocol was configured to
perform data transfer using a mixed cyclic polling techniques coupled with exception
reporting. The cyclic polling is configured for lesser frequency since the function of such a
poll is only to ensure data integrity and to ensure that the Master SCADA is updated with
latest scan information incase there has been a failure in exception reporting. As we are
aware that GPRS is a packet switched network, which means that the network is controlled
by the packets delivered by the connected nodes. The key to resolving the problems related
to GPRS network lies in controlling the packets delivered to the network. The design had to
be based on a controlled data communication design so that the network is not choked with
unwanted data traffic. Exception reporting is the key design factor to reduce the data traffic
and there by reduce the chances of suspensions during worst network scenario. This also
offers lower operating cost.

The traditional RTUs cannot be directly used for a GPRS communication since the RTU
requires specialized embedded firmware to make it GPRS communication enabled and to
facilitate a reliable and efficient communication even during peak traffic scenario in the
GPRS network. Some of these specialised routine which were implemented in the RTU
were:
• Support of AT commands for initiating Dialup to log on to the GPRS Core network
• Initiation of Keep alive health packets to prevent the RTU from getting automatically
disconnected
• Detection of disconnection and further dialup in case of disconnection
• Kick start of the modems in case of modem hanging and initiate further dialup in
case the link becomes inactive
• Report by exception routine for detecting change in digital status and also detection
of analog parameters exceeding designed dead band limits

The optimum performance was achieved by carefully tuning the various communication
parameters discussed above.

CDMA Experience

In the second phase of the project, additional 164 nos RTUs are being installed using CDMA
communication. CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) is different from GPRS in that it
neither assigns a particular time slot for each user nor it splits the frequency among the
users. It allows all the users to use the entire frequency spectrum for all the time. This is
achieved by what is called spreading. Each user is assigned a unique code, which allows
them to distinguish between each other. The base band data is spread with this unique code
and a receiver having the same code only can receive the data. The code spreads the
bandwidth of the user. In CDMA, there are 64 Walsh codes available providing 64 logical
channels whereas in GPRS, 8 channels (Time Slots) are available per carrier.

Till July 2006, a set of about 60 RTUs have been already successfully connected to the
master station through the CDMA network.

Performance of GPRS & CDMA

Some of the observations are given below,

• GPRS & CDMA mobile networks make it easier to integrate with other IP based
protocols such as TCP/IP, X.25, etc.

• CDMA provides considerable operation levels in fading environments &

transparent (soft) handoffs. Each RTU station selects the three strongest
multipath signals and coherently combines them to produce an enhanced signal;
while in GPRS, fading causes some level of degradation of signal quality.

By using ‘soft handoff’, CDMA eliminates the ping-pong effect that occurs when
RTU is near a border between cells and the call is rapidly switched between the
two cells. The ping-pong effect results in handoff noise, increases the load on
switching equipment, and increases the chance of dropped call/ lost data link. In
CDMA’s soft handoff, a connection is made to the target cell while maintaining
the connection with the serving cell, both operating on the same carrier
frequency. This procedure ensures a smooth transition between cells, one that is
undetectable to the subscriber. In comparison, GPRS uses a break before make
connection and require a change in mobile frequency that increases the handoff
noise and the chance of a dropped call / lost data link.

It has been observed that the suspensions are less in CDMA Network compared
to GPRS.

• In CDMA, average bandwidth available is 25-30 kbps while GPRS provides 9.6
kbps.

• Commercially available FWT (Fixed Wireless Terminal) equipment can be used

as modem in CDMA, which is more or less the same in case of GPRS. The SIM
card facility in GPRS is found useful in terms of flexibility during implementation
and for maintaining spares for Modems

• In CDMA, there are 64 Walsh codes available for forward link, providing 64
logical channels whereas in GPRS, only 8 channels are available.

• In order to provide greater level of security, an Access Private Node (APN) in

GPRS and Authentication, Authorization, & Ac counting Node (AAA) in CDMA,
similar to VPN, has been created in GPRS/ CDMA Core. This APN/ AAA have
been extended to the SCADA master station using dedicated backbone
communication and Internet Firewalls.
 All Remote Terminal Units have been provided with Static IP Addresses pre-
registered for the assigned APN/ AAA. Therefore the RTUs registered this way
only can access the APN/ AAA network, thus preventing access, accidental or
otherwise, by the other parties. Security of accesses to DA system is thus
provided at two main levels:
§ RTU IP Registration; and
§ APN/ AAA Authentication

When a RTU attempts to establish a session with the APN/ AAA, it must submit
its registration details (i.e. unique ‘username’ and ‘password’) for authentication
purposes.

Thus in terms of Response Time, Security Aspect and Cost, performance of both GPRS and
CDMA is similar. The SIM card facility in GPRS is found useful in terms of flexibility during
implementation and for maintaining spares for Modems. Fewer suspensions (of duration 2-3
Sec.) are observed in CDMA as compared to GPRS.

Conclusions

Techo-economic feasibility of GPRS and CDMA communication for Power Distribution

SCADA has been established. The objectives of DA system also have been met. The DA
System based on GPRS & CDMA communication is commissioned for the first time in the
country. The major advantage of using public networks is that they do not require
investment in the network infrastructure, continuous network monitoring, maintenance and
up-gradation by the user. The security features built-in (Encryption, VPN, Firewalls, Static
IP, Passwords, etc.) in GPRS/ CDMA network have been proved adequate for the Power
Distribution SCADA application. While both the media provide equally good response for the
application, lesser number of suspensions has been observed with CDMA. This experience
could also be relevant to other metropolitan utility applications such as Water & Sewage
management, Street Lighting, etc.

Acknowledgment

We thank the Managements of Tata Power and ABB for their support for the project.
Support of Tata Power site divisions in implementation is duly appreciated. Support of
service providers – Tata Teleservices (CDMA) & BPL (GPRS), is thankfully acknowledged.

Authors

Rajagopalan A, DGM, Engg., Tata Power Co. Ltd Mumbai (Primary author)
Alfred Manohar, Asst VP & Head, Network Management ABB Bangalore (primary author)
H V Bahl, Sr Manager, Commn Group, Tata Power Co. Ltd. Mumbai (additional author)
Shoba S, Asst VP & Head - Projects, NM, ABB Bangalore (addl author & Presenter)
Vikrant Sankhe, Manager- Projects, Network Management ABB Bangalore (addl author)
A A Buddhiwant, Asst Manager, SCADA Group, Tata Power Co. Ltd., Mumbai(addl author)
A Rajagoplan, M. Tech (Power Systems), has 35 years of experience in Tata Power, mostly
in the areas of Automation & Telecom.

Alfred Manohar, M Tech (Power Systems), is currently the Head of SCADA Business
Unit, ABB India. With over 16 years in ABB he has been involved in SCADA business
since 8 years. Prior to that he was associated with the Reactive Power Compensation
division of ABB, specialized in Harmonics, Filters and RPC systems., engineering and
project management

H V Bahl is in-charge of Communication Group of Tata Power with about 35 years of

experience.

S. Shoba, is responsible for engineering and project management of SCADA systems in

ABB India, for power applications with over 14 years experience