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2021 23:00 (Digital Substation and Process Bus "Part 2 of 5") Merging Unit and Non-Conventional Instrumentation Transformer &q…

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(Digital Substation and Process Bus

"Part 2 of 5") Merging Unit and Non-
Conventional Instrumentation
Transformer "Eng. Mohamed
Younis"
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Merging Unit :
         The Merging Unit (MU) is the key element of the process bus; it is an intelligent electronic
device in auto-mated substation. The function of MU is to collect multi-channel digital signals
output by current and voltage transformers synchronously and transmit these signals with the
protocol of IEC 61850-9 to protective, metering and control devices A lot of research is going on
by different vendors and researchers on this intelligent device which is the interface between the
conventional and non-conventional voltage and current transformers and the process bus see
Figure 3.

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The overall interface is represented in the Figure 4

which is defined in the IEC 60044-8.

All these analog values are converted to digital, and merged into a standard data packet format.
This way, process bus network can carry many digital signals into a single communication cable.
However, each digital stream of sampled values from various MUs should be time synchronized,
so that the protection function can utilize many such digital signal streams from independent
MUs. MU may have either an external time synchronization source (e.g. IRIG-B, GPS clock) or
precision time synchronization protocol (IEEE 1588/ IEEE C37.238), using which it provides the
time stamp on each data packet.
This data packet is sent to corresponding bay level protection and control IEDs using
standardized Ethernet based communication links.
The suggested design of the Merging Unit is described to have an insight of the components
needed to design a merging unit. The incoming signals are from the instrument transformers
which are fed into the MU.
The MU architecture contains first block with the analoge filtering circuits first to process on
analog signals to decide the cut off frequencies for the incoming signals. The second block
contains the ADC to convert analoge to digital converter for analog signals conversion to digital
form. The third block contains the digital signal processing block which is used to remove the
noise and to perform digital filtering on the signals.

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The signal after passing through all these processing blocks experienced a delay in its phase. This
delay can be compensated by using the synchronization pulse. Hemen katılın Oturum açın

 If the synchronization pulse is not used then there will always be a delay in the phase of the
incoming signal. This is the one of the related work which gives much clearer insight into the
design of the merging unit.
The Figure 5&6 explains the idea of merging unit internal components and the time delay
resulting from the sampling process done by the Merging Unit.

Types of Merging Units:

According with IEC 61869-9 there are several options to provide Sampled Values. Depending
upon the used tech-nique there will be different tests requirements. The table below presents
some options.

Non-Conventional transformers:
       Nowadays NCIT have achieved high performance regarding substation automation. Non-
conventional instrument transformers are known as electronic current and voltage transformers

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9.09.2021 23:00 (Digital Substation and Process Bus "Part 2 of 5") Merging Unit and Non-Conventional Instrumentation Transformer &q…

(ECT & EVT).

 The ECTs and EVTs play a sensing and digitizing role for current and voltage information with Hemen katılın Oturum açın

the processing capabilities of digital electronics. The performance of NCIT satisfies the protection
and metering requirements under most worst conditions of temperature, mechanical vibrations
and electro-magnetic compatibility.
The designs of ECTs and EVTs are based on IEC 60044-8 and IEC 60044-7 respectively. The digital
output interface of NCIT is based on IEC 61850-9. The sensed current and voltage measurements
are transmitted to them as optical digital signals.
Therefore the primary equipment and substation system wiring can be simplified due to
extensive use of optical fiber for communication of current and voltage information and
operating commands.
Principle of ECT and EVT :
The ECT is based on the principle of a Rogowski coil by taking into account of saturation free
characteristics and economic efficiency. As for the voltage detection sensor of EVT, a capacitive
voltage divider of high reliability and simple insulated construction was applied. The sensing
units are arranged near the Rogowski coil and the capacitive voltage divider to each bay and one
MU is provided to get the secondary information.
The interface between sensing unit and MU is provided by the optical fiber connection. The MU
is also connected to the process bus via optical fiber. Redundancy is provided for the sake of
reliability of the system. The Figure 7 gives the clearer idea about it .

This is for now and in next post we will try to answer the question " What are the Benefits
Resulting from the Implementation of Process Bus? "
Do not hesitate for any discussion or advice . Thanks For Your Time 
    Mohamed Abdelfattah M. Younis
  Team Leader commissioning Engineer

Mohamed Younis , PMP®

Electrical Commissioning Superin… Follow

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