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Remote Terminal Unit

remote terminal

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Hocine Meng Fodil
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30 views

Remote Terminal Unit

remote terminal

Uploaded by

Hocine Meng Fodil
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Remote terminal Unit

For many years, Remote Terminal Unit (RTU) has been the automation system’s
traditional heart. RTU has been a backbone of distributed automation and
SCADA systems. This paper focuses on substation applications, although much
of the information presented is also true for other power industries.

Su
bstation automation and communications for controlling primary equipment (switches,
breakers, etc.)
Figure 1 shows RTUs suitable for deployment in substations.

The main requirements for an RTU are a communications interface and the
ability to monitor digital status points and analog values (currents, voltages,
etc.). The RTU is important in widely spaced geographic regions. Its main
function is to provide information about the power system to a central control
system through a communications interface and to provide remote control of
switches and circuit breakers. Many RTUs are also used to monitor current and
voltage and to calculate power.
In addition, the RTU can be used to monitor many other signal and status
points in the substation such as a door alarm and a battery failure alarm. These
types of signals are applicable to the entire substation and as such are difficult
to group into any bay or protection group.
For maintenance purposes, it is simpler to connect these signals to a substation
RTU rather than another IED or microprocessor relay.

The overwhelming popularity of the microprocessor relay has led many to


challenge the place of the RTU in the modern substation. The argument against
the RTU is that the increased computational power, abundance of physical
input/output (IO), and the required instrument transformer connections (for
current and voltage readings) already exist in the protective relays and
therefore should be reused in the SCADA system for monitoring.

Figure 1 – Remote terminal unit

While the initial savings on physical hardware and decreased wiring may be
appealing, the engineer must consider the maintenance and operational
environment that the system must perform within. The use of an RTU in a
substation often simplifies design, commissioning, and maintenance.
Data Concentrators
Ăe data concentrator aggregates information and provides a subset of that
information to another device or devices. It is similar in function to the RTU and
then can be the same device. The main difference in the terms is that a data
concentrator does not necessarily have physical interfaces to monitor contact
statuses and analog values.
The data concentrator uses communication protocols to acquire data from
other devices rather than through a direct connection.

Substation Gateways
The term “gateway” is unfortunately applied in a couple of similar, although
distinctly different applications in the substation. The first and simplest is the
router. In IP networking, the gateway is a device that allows communication
between different subnets. This is called layer switching or routing. This
terminology is common when dealing with information technology (IT)
departments who spend their days and nights fixing IP networks.
In the substation, the gateway is something different to the protection and
control staff. In the modern smart grid, the gateway serves as the substations
security access point. It manages and logs access to the information available in
the substation.
The substation gateway can be thought of as a superset of the data
concentrator and the RTU (although the RTU can be a separate device, it does
not have to be in most substation applications).
Figure 2 shows a substation gateway diagram.

Figure 2 – Substation gateway applications


Protocol Convertors
Although not ideal, protocol convertors can be used to solve the problem of
two devices that do not speak the same “language.” The protocol convertor can
be a simple two-port device providing conversion between protocols such as
a Modbus-TCP (networked) to Modbus-RTU (serial) convertor.
They can also be as intricate as a large-scale RTU or data concentrator that
converts many protocols simultaneously on different ports. The standalone
protocol convertor is not preferred as it adds another possible point of failure
to the system.
However, not all devices are created with all protocols and therefore the
protocol convertor can be the integrator’s best friend. Protocol convertors are
particularly useful when interfacing with older generation equipment to new
more modern systems.

Remote Input/Output Devices


Remote IO units are of particular interest in very large applications. The cost of
the copper cabling and the pulling, and terminating of those cable can be very
high. For this reason there is a lot of interest in distributing IO devices
throughout a station and communicating to them through a network. The
remote IO device presents a number of challenges to the integrator.

When IO is distributed, the time stamping of signals can be problematic. It may


be necessary (depending on the region and local regulations) to have a very
high resolution and accurate time stamp recorded with any status change. This
means that the remote IO unit must have some way to synchronize with an
external clock.
The remote IO unit may require more intelligence that its name suggests.
Generic object-oriented system event (GOOSE) message IO devices, for
example, require some sort of intelligence (timers) to ensure that a loss of
communications does not permanently close a contact.

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