EtherCAT technology for the network of smart substation

With the increasing scale of the power system, the smart substations are becoming widely used. Substation need to complete the function of information collection, status monitoring, controlling and regulation etc. to meet the requirement of automation and intelligence. Therefore the communication of smart substation has some real-time requirements. Fieldbus for the substation can make a network connection between substations. To meet the real-time requirement, the applications of industrial Ethernet are getting widespread. EtherCAT is a kind of real-time industrial Ethernet. It has the features of high transmission rate, flexible topology type, low cost and good security, etc. Hence EtherCAT is a technology which is very suitable to the application of substations. This paper is a research of network construction in the smart substation, and gives an analysis of features of industrial Ethernet EtherCAT, especially its real-time feature.