The "5 minute remote restoration" DCU solution was presented as Contributions to SCB3 and SCB5 at CIGRE 2012 - refer My Papers and Contributions RH17, RH18 and RH19

    

Regardless of the capability/availability of the corporate WAN,  in some cases for various reasons it can be advantageous to have a separate access system that provides the FULL range of IED access regardless of what PC or device is being used by the engineer or technician.

The technicians and engineers require highly secure access to remote sites and the IEDs located within them.

The technician must access the right substation and then assess the ability to undertake remote access in consideration of which:

  • vendor’s IEDs are installed?
    • X system
    • Y system
    • Condition Monitoring
  • HMI platform
    • Vendor A, B … or Z HMI “standard”
    • Installed last year or 20 years ago
    • DOS, Windows 3.1 / 3.11 / NT / XP / 7 …(… Windows42)
  • IED firmware versions
  • IED setting files versions
  • IED setting software operating platform
    • DOS, Windows 3.1 / 3.11 / NT / XP / 7 …(… Windows42)
  • IED setting software version is required?
  • Remotely operated isolation and test equipment?

All through common access point and procedure!

Importantly, the technician needs to use all the CORRECT software tools relevant to those IEDs on site - no more worrying about whether the engineer/technician has the appropriate version on their PC or Tablet, perhaps is even using a generic home/private PC with no IED tools loaded at all.

Simply by using the internet to connect to the central server via their secure login, all the available sites need to be displayed.

Once the site is accessed, all the available software tools installed for that site (obviously specific and up-to-date to the IEDs on that site) can be used to access the relevant IEDs using the FULL power of the vendor's tools.

  • Measurements and status inputs can be read,
  • Parameters retrieved
  • Records and logs retrieved
  • Settings changed (where policy and configurations permit)
  • Access drawings and documentation stored on the site DCU
  • even updating the version of the vendor's software tool installed at site

... all as if the technician/engineer was standing in the substation.

The technician/engineer can connect whilst in the office, at home or at another substation  - anywhere there is an internet connection - even from smart phones and tablets.

 

 

Extra Notes: