Substation automation research frontiers

Substation automation has critical role in power systems. Substations are responsible for many protection, control and monitoring functions that allow robust routing of power from generators to loads through a complex network of transmission lines. With the latest technology development many intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) available in substations today are capable of performing enhanced functionalities beyond what their basic function is. This brings an opportunity for adding new functionalities that go well beyond what the traditional substation automation solutions have provided. This panel presentation summarizes university research undertaken through collaboration between industry, EPRI, DOE and NSF´s Power Engineering Research Centre consortium. Projects focused on implementing a new concept for merging operational and non-operational data are introduced. They are aimed at expanding the substation automation role towards better serving many utility groups: operations, protection and asset management.