A service oriented architecture for substation fault analytics

Reliability and security in power supply is a measure of how well an electrical load meets the needs of a consumer at a given point in time. Achieving high levels of reliability requires large capital expenditure. Power systems are required to operate at optimal capacity in order to meet its return on large capital investments. In order to attain a high level of reliability in these operating conditions, protection processes are implemented in power systems to reduce failures and protect components that are be connected to the grid. In South Africa, the power grid has aged and traditional infrastructure that has historically supported consumers is unable to support future requirements. To ensure the continued growth and refresh of grid technologies, industry bodies and committees have established standards and guidelines that challenge the traditional approach to substation systems architecture. Standards leverage off modern technologies providing configuration and deployment alternatives. Standards like the IEC 61850 device communication standard is one that has gained support by technology vendors over the last decade. A growth in the number of implementations of this standard is proving that interoperability of functions, processes and information is possible. This paper focuses on the use of standards, approaches and emerging frameworks to establish a service based analytics architecture.