IEEE PES ISGT ASIA 2012 1569536809

High Voltage Equipment Online Monitoring

System of Smart Substation
Gao Qiang1,2, Ge Weichun3 ,Wang Chenggang3, Zhangjunyang3 , Geng Baohong3,Jiang Xiuchen1
1
Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
2
Northeast Electric Power Research Institute, China
3
Liaoning Electric Power Company Limited, China
E-mail: garygq@gmail.com
 through research or retrofit project in the past 20 years.
Abstract--With the fast development of the smart grid Because of the poor management and maintenance, little
technology in china, more and more attentions were paid to the
condition-based maintenance of the high voltage equipment. To
attentions were paid to the running condition of the
realize the objectives, the standardizations of the online devices and its effects. And also, there are no fully
monitoring system hierarchy structure and function are the key developed guides and standards to guide the research and
steps in the development of the online monitoring system in pilot
production of the online monitoring transducers and
smart substation project. According to the relevant published
online monitoring standards, technical guides and solutions, this devices. Device functions, interfaces, communication
paper first introduces the basic structure and function of the high protocols are different from company to company. It is
voltage online monitoring system of the smart substation. After difficult to build an online monitoring system based
that, the detail terms about the monitoring device, comprehensive
monitoring unit, substation monitoring unit and communication different companies and different products in one
protocols were covered respectively. To implement the design substation. Not to say to share the online monitoring
solution of the online monitoring system, based on a newly built information between the Substation Automation
pilot 500kV smart substation project, a pilot transformation
System(SAS), substation to substation, substation to the
equipment online monitoring system and its features were
presented. remote control center.
To realize the condition based maintenance and meet
Index Terms—Transformation Equipment, Online Monitoring the development of the smart grid, the state grid
System, Condition-Based Maintenance, Smart Substation corporation of China is building a fully covered online
monitoring system, from transmission equipment and/or
I. INTRODUCTION transformation equipment to substation, substation to

To ensure the safe and reliable operation of a power

system it is necessary to keep the HV apparatus in a good
condition. In the past, this may be accomplished through
breakdown maintenance and time-based maintenance. As
the communication and computer technology improves,
condition-based maintenance was made possible through
online monitoring system and live measurement
instruments. The conventional well-established time
based maintenance method requires removal of the
equipment from service, however, the live measurement
and continuous monitor may be carried out directly if on -
line monitoring method is adopted. The standardizations
of the online monitoring system hierarchy structure and
function are the key steps in the development of the
online monitoring system in municipal substations,
provincial utility companies, headquarter of the state grid
corporation of China.
The online monitoring sensors and devices were
installed in lots of substations and transmission lines
municipal utilities, municipal utilities to provincial
utilities, provincial utilities to state grid corporation of
China. With the construction of the fully covered and
unified condition monitoring system combined with the
monitoring technology and effective management, further
to improve the surveillance of the running equipment,
condition evaluation, diagnosis methods, maintenance
policy making and asset management etc.
II. STURUCTURE OF THE SYSTEM
The objective of the online monitoring system is to meet
development of the smart grid and adapt to the newly adopted
power production management policy. The state grid
corporation of china plans to build a fully covered system, two
level of deployment and three level of application, through the
construction of the system to standardize the system structure,
sensor or device calibration, certification, installation,
communication protocol etc at the same time, so that to show
all the information such as the data display, warning results,
analysis, diagnosis, evaluation, forecast etc at different level of
application.

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A. Terms and Definitions
Before to state the detail part or element of the overall
online monitoring system, there are a few terms and definitions
must to make it clear so that to help understand the system.
CAC is short for the Condition Information Acquisition
Controller, installed in the substation, which can connect all
the monitoring device or sensors though industrial
communication bus such as RS485 or Ethernet or serial port to
from an online monitoring system in a substation. The CAC
can receive all the information from the monitoring devices and
send commands to control the process of the monitoring
devices; CMA is short for the Condition Monitoring Agent,
installed in substation or transmission corridor, which is to
communication with sensors and monitoring devices to collect
monitoring data; CMU is short for the Comprehensive
Monitoring Unit, installed in substation, which can receive the
information from the monitoring devices or sensors, after
process the raw data, it can communication with substation
monitoring unit through standardized communication bus or
interfaces; SMU is short for the Substation Monitoring Unit,
installed in substation, which is responsible for the data
analysis, administration of the CMU and monitoring devices,
parameter setting, data summon, time synchronization, device
reset etc, and also to communication with the CAG; CAG is
short for the Condition Acquisition Gateway, arranged at the
provincial utilities, which can communication with the CAC
and CMA. There are two kinds of CAGs, one is for the
transformation equipment connected with the substation CAC,
the other is for transmission equipment connected with the
CMA;
B. System Structure
Headquarter of the
Online Monitoring System State Grid
Corporation
Online Monitoring Systems
Provincial
Utility Level
CAGs
Online Monitoring Systems
Municipal
Utility Level
CACs CMAs
Fig.1 Framework of the online monitoring system
The overall system structure as Fig.1 shows, two level
of deployment and three level of application. The two
level of deployment is to arrange the online monitoring
system at the each province based utility and headquarter
of the state grid corporation. The municipal utilities
(substations) plan to arrange CACs (Condition
Information Acquisition Controller) and CMAs
(Condition Monitoring Agent) to connect all the online
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monitoring sensors or devices so that the municipal
information can be transferred to the province and
headquarter system. The monitoring video or pictures of
the transmission line or substation is also arranged at
municipal utilities. The three level of application is that
the monitoring system can be used by municipal utilities
and provincial utilities and headquarter of the state grid
corporation, the video monitoring system data will also
transfer to the upper level system.
Fig2. The Schematic Structure of the Remote Monitoring System and Its
Interface
C. System Interface Classification
Remote Monitoring
Center（CAG） Remote Level
Transporation
I2
Equipment
CAC Station Level
I1 I1
CMA Bay/Unit Level
CMA
I0 I0
Ecode COM
Sensor Sensor Process Level
Fig.3 System Interface Classification
The substation online monitoring system as Fig.3 show has
four levels, which are process level, bay/unit level, station level,
and CAG level. To make the online monitoring system work
smoothly, the information obtained from the monitoring
transducers or devices transfers three communication protocols
to the CAG. The three communication protocols are interfaces
I0, I1, I2. Interface I0 is between the monitoring devices (or
transducers) and CMU, one way is to transfer the conditioned,
A/D conversion, preconditioned signal to the CMU, the other
is send setting parameters, time synchronization command,
data summon command, device reset etc to the monitoring
devices; Interface I1 is between the CMU and SMU. The CMU
calculates the monitoring data through the calculation model,
after that the CMU send the normalized data, analysis results,
warning results to the SMU. The SMU can update the
calculation models, summon data, time synchronization, reset

etc to the CMU; Interface I2 is between the SMU and CAG.
The SMU send the monitoring data, analysis results, warning
information etc to the provincial based CAG. The SMU can
also receive the analysis models, parameter configurations,
data summon, time synchronization, device reset etc from the
CAG;
D. Substation System Structure
The substation online monitoring system is a distributed
and hierarchy structure as Fig.4 shows, which is composed of
process level, unit/bay level, station level, remote monitoring
center.
The process level consists of all the monitoring devices or
sensors of the transformers, reactors, circuit breakers, GISs
(Gas Insulated Switchgear), MOAs (Metal Oxide Arrester),
bushings etc. The monitoring devices including DGA
(Dissolved Gas Analysis), PD (Partial Discharge), transformer
oil and winding temperature, transformer core ground current,
dielectric loss factor, temperature, moisture, pressure and
density of the GIS cabinet etc.
The IEC61850 standard is the communication standard for
the smart substation, which has been successfully used in the
substation automation system. At the pilot stage of the smart
substation project, not all of the online monitoring devices can
comply with the IEC61850 standard, the CMU is adopted so
that the online monitoring system can comply with the
IEC61850, as the development of new monitoring devices
which embedded with IEC61850 module, the CMU and
unit/bay level can be omitted in future application.
The station level is the SMU, which controls the operation
of the whole online monitoring system, and also collect all the
monitoring results to analysis, diagnosis, warning, data display,
data storage and forward.
Fig4. The Schematic Structure of the Substation Online Monitoring System
The remote monitoring center is also called provincial
utility monitoring unit. In this paper, it is only focus on the
transportation equipment and the system structure. As the
transmission equipment and its monitoring system is only
mentioned briefly. The transportation online monitoring
system as a sub system of the CAG, it can use the analysis
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models and methods to evaluate the condition of the high
voltage equipment based on the online monitoring data or live
measuring data. The data or analysis results based on the CAG
platform can be published through web in the exclusive
networks, and also it can offer the information to other system
as foundation data of the asset condition evaluation and
maintenance.
III. DESIGN OF CAC AND CMU
As the function models and interface models of the online
monitoring system have been built based on IEC61850
standard, a typical system can be designed as the guidance for
the implement of specific projects.
Considering that most monitoring devices cannot support
IEC61850 standard currently, the structure of the online
monitoring system should be a structure with 3 levels, shown
in Fig.4, that is, CMU should be involved in the system. A
typical structure of the online monitoring system based on
IEC61850 standard should be like that shown in Fig.5.
The intelligent electronic devices (short for IED) of the
online monitoring system are located in the station level and
the process level respectively. Communication between the
IEDs of the CAC and CMU are based on the IEC61850
standard; Communication between the CMUs and monitoring
devices in process level may apply MODBUS protocol based
on industrial bus such as RS485 or other protocol and buses.
And in this structure the CAC and the CMU are new devices
involved to be compatible with the online monitoring system
guides or standards of smart substation, therefore, functions of
these two devices should be discussed here.
Fig.5 Typical Structure of the Online Monitoring System Based on
IEC61850 standard
A. THE DESIGN OF CAC
CAC is mainly responsible for the whole substation data
collection, storage, analysis, display and alarm. It also
supervises the operation of all the devices in the online
monitoring system. Two key functions of CAC are the
communication with CAG based on I2 interface and with CMU
based on IEC61850 standard.
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IV. APPLICATION IN A 500KV SMART SUBSTATION

The structure of the online monitoring system mentioned
above has been put into operation in a 500kV smart substation.
The 500kV smart substation is a pilot project of the state grid
corporation. Transformers, reactors, HGISs, GISs and MOAs
(metal oxide arrester) etc are monitored by the online
monitoring system. Details of monitoring items and parameters
are listed in TABLE I.
TABLE I

Fig.6 Software Modules of the CAC DEVICES IN THE ONLINE MONITORING SYSTEM
Monitoring type Monitoring parameters The number of
measuring points
The hardware of CAC can be an industrial computer or an DGA H2, CH4, C2H6, C2H4, 2
Embedded Computer. All the functions are executed by the C2H2, CO, CO2, H2O
software embedded in the CAC. Fig.6 shows the structure of PD Amplitude, count, phase 2
and type of partial
its software. discharge
B. THE DESIGN OF CMU Core Grounding Grounding current 2
CMU is a new type of device specifically designed to meet Current
the application requirement of the IEC61850 standard in smart Oil Temperature Temperature 4
Winding Temperature 4
substation. The major function of CUM is to covert non Temperature
IEC61850 models to the IEC61850 models and transfer the Moisture and Humidity, temperature, 224
data to CAC or to download commands from CAC to Density of SF6 pressure and density
monitoring devices through I0 interface. CMU is usually Insulation of Leakage current, resistive 63
MOA current, surge times
designed to communicate with all the monitoring devices in
one bay, such as transformer bay or feed line bay.
CMU is usually located in a control cabinet at the switch
yard, it should be able to withstand the tough environment and
strong electromagnetic condition in the substation. The
hardware must be designed to ensure long-term and stable
operation at the switch yard. And the software of CMU must
have a flexible architecture to meet the access of devices with
various types of communication protocols.Fig.7 shows the
software structure of the CMU.

Fig.8 Physical Structure of the Online Monitoring System in a 500kVSmart

Substation

The physical structure of the system is shown in Fig.8. The

“Monitoring Group” consists of CMU and monitoring devices
in a bay, and the network switch is used to communicating
with the CAG. The application software has been developed
for CAC applied to the monitoring system. Fig.9 to Fig.11
Fig.7 software structure of the CMU shows the pages of the software.
The Communication Server module is used to communicate
with different monitoring devices from companies with
different protocols, that is, each type of protocol needs a
particular Communication Server module. The configurable
server module is to convert non IEC61850 monitoring devices
to the meet the application of the IEC61850 standard in smart
substation. The ACSI (Abstract Communication Service
Interface) module is used to realize the server of IEC61850
standard and to exchange data and commands with CAC based
on ACSIs.

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Fig.9 Diagnosis Result of Dissolved Gas
Fig.10 Primary Equipment under Monitoring
Fig.11 Webpage of the Diagnosis Result
Fig.12-14 shows pictures of CAC, CMU and monitoring
devices installed in the substation.
Fig.12 Picture of the CAC and Network Switches
Fig.13 Picture of the CMU
Fig.14 Pictures of the Monitoring Devices
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V CONCLUSION
The state grid corporation of China is building a fully
covered online monitoring system, from transmission
equipment and transformation equipment to substation,
substation to municipal utilities, municipal utilities to
provincial utilities, provincial utilities to state grid
corporation of China. With the construction of the fully
covered and unified online monitoring system combined
with the monitoring technology and effective management
further to improve the surveillance of the running
equipment, condition evaluation, diagnosis methods,
maintenance policy making and asset management etc.
With more detail standards, guides and documents
published, the online monitoring devices will be more and
more reliable in future application. And also, there will
be huge potential industrial market in future.
REFERENCE
[1]Q/GDW Z410—2010 Technical Guide for Smart Electric Equipments
[2]Q / GDW 534 — 2010 Technical guide for on-line monitoring
system of transformation equipment
[3]Q / GDW 393 — 2009 Specifications of design for 110 （ 66 ） kV ～
220kV Smart Substation
[4]Q / GDW 616 — 2011 Application specification for on-line Monitoring
device of transformation equipment based on DL/T 860
[5]DL/T 860—2006 Communication networks and systems in substations