smart alarming management

Make the most of your energySM

Smart Alarming Management Part of an Advanced DMS

Summary

Executive Summary .................................................................................... p 1

Introduction ................................................................................................ p 2

Smart Alarming Management ...................................................................... p 4

Schneider Electric’s ADMS Smart Alarming infrastructure ........................... p 5

Graphical User Interface ............................................................................. p 8

Smart Alarming features ............................................................................. p 10

Logging and storage: Historian System ....................................................... p 15

Conclusion .................................................................................................. p 16

Executive summary

Smart Alarming Management

White paper | 01

An electric grid alarming management system that works with real-time data is

vital for optimizing network performance and safety. This system also must have

the ability to finely tune alarms, to assure reliable event and condition notifications

without overloading control room operators and reducing alarming effectiveness.

Schneider Electric’s Smart Alarming Management solution works seamlessly with

the Schneider Electric Advanced DMS solution to put real-time data to work in the

most effective and efficient manner. The robustness of this solution is due to its

application to both database and system alarms. Configurable tools enable fast

and reliable identification of event severity and specific filtering, prioritization and

suppression. This approach assures that operator screens communicate what

is needed, when needed. Displays provide comprehensive summaries of alarm

status and actions performed that add to efficiency.

In particular, the Schneider Electric solution supports alarming management for

defined areas of responsibility. Focusing on alarm capabilities at the AOR level

optimizes both control and security for the network as a whole.

Smart Alarming management makes the most of the utility’s investment in its

real-time information infrastructure. Together, they provide vital and relevant

network information that enables operators to respond promptly and effectively to

changing network conditions.

Introduction


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Alarm management is a key element in the day-to-day operations of an

electric utility. An Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS) system

automates and controls a very large number of functions in transmission or

distribution operations; inefficient alarming detected and/or issued by the ADMS

can lead to catastrophic damage to the electric grid — along with serious

injuries and risks to personal safety.

It is vital, then, that an Alarm Management system:

• Speed response to critical and uncommon events

• Filter nuisance alarms and take automatic actions

• Decrease errors and waste

• Minimize time spent troubleshooting grid problems

• Automatically generate reports

• Allows operators/dispatchers to focus on meaningful alarms

Schneider Electric’s Smart Alarming Management solution for ADMS speeds

operator response, reduces errors and ensures the right function is executed

at the right time. This document provides a summary of the key characteristics

and components of this solution.


White paper | 04


An intelligent alarming sub-system — such as

Schneider Electric’s InstAlarm application — is

critical to responsive SCADA operations. For

example, InstAlarm offers the advanced capabilities

of both Alarm Disturbance Mode and Alarm

Suppression. With Alarm Disturbance Mode, alarms

can be configured so that lower priority alarms

are suspended during peak alarm periods. The

configurable Alarm Suppression function suppresses

alarms in a hierarchical manner to prevent large

numbers of alarms from cluttering an operator’s

display when they are triggered as the result of

a single device going into alarm. Control Initiated

Suppression prevents similar alarm aggregation due

to operator-initiated commands.

The InstAlarm application is a specific module of the

OASyS DNA SCADA Realtime services and provides

an API to insert ‘custom’ alarms. This structure allows

extended applications — such as Schneider Electric’s

SimSuite Pipeline, Distribution Management System

and Responder Outage Management System, or

third-party applications, to generate alarms with the

same or similar information as a RealTime Database.

This design enables utilization of third-party tools

with Schneider Electric’s secure and reliable ADMS

infrastructure.


Alarm TypesInstAlarm manages both database and system

alarms. Database alarms signal an abnormal status in

the telemetered values. System alarms include those

caused by an operator’s failed actions; devices such

as printers; low space in hard drives; problems with

servers and workstations; and other situations. Of

course, system alarms also include those announced

by Schneider Electric’s ADMS functions such as

Load Flow, State Estimation and Performance Indices

when there are overloaded elements or elements that

are close to or at their maximum allowed temperature

limits.

For telemetered numeric point types such as analog

measurements and rate accumulators, high- and low-

alarm limit checking can be enabled or disabled. For

each numeric point, a high-alarm limit, a low-alarm

limit and an alarm deadband value can be specified.

A high/low alarm is declared when a point value

becomes greater than the high alarm limit or less than

the low alarm limit.

For a return-to-normal condition, the alarm limit is

modified by the deadband value. If the point is in

the high-alarm state, a return-to-normal condition is

declared when the value becomes less than or equal

to the high limit minus the deadband. If the point is

in the low-alarm state, a return-to-normal condition

is declared when the value becomes greater than or

equal to the low limit plus the deadband.

The system administrator can define up to four pairs

of High/Low alarm limits. Other alarm conditions for

numeric point types are:

• Instrument Failure alarm limits (reasonability limits)

• Rate of Change (ROC) alarms

• Creep Detection alarm - declared when a point

value becomes greater than the initial setpoint value

plus the creep value, or when it becomes less than

the initial setpoint value minus the creep value

• Flat alarm - declared when a point value does not

change within a specified time period (time-out)

• High/Low Instrument Fail alarms - declared when

the input value at the remote terminal unit (RTU) is

outside of the field instrument’s measurable range

• ADC (Analog to Digital Conversion) monitoring

The operator can independently enable/disable each

kind of alarm, but it should be noted that each alarm’s

annunciation is independent only on a point basis.

For telemetered discrete point types such as two-

state, four-state or multi-state digital inputs, each

individual state can be declared as a normal or

abnormal status. OASyS DNA RealTime service

declares an alarm condition for status points if there

is a telemetered change to any state that is not the

result of an issued command. Changes to normal

states will generate a ‘Return-to-Normal’ alarm

message.

The host computer can be asked to check for

command failures issued to any device capable of

receiving digital commands or analog setpoints. If

command failure checking is enabled by the system

administrator and a commanded point does not

change to the commanded state before the time-out

period expires — or, simply, if the command request

is invalid or it doesn’t receive a proper response from

the RTU — a command failure alarm is declared.

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Schneider Electric’s ADMS Smart Alarming infrastructure


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When communication with an RTU fails or is restored,

RealTime service declares an alarm condition.

A communication failure is declared only after a

certain number of communication retries have been

attempted. The retry limit is specified on a ‘per

communication line’ basis. On the first successful

communication after a failure, the system declares a

‘communication restored’ condition. In the case of a

‘no reply’ RTU condition, a separate time-out value

might have been defined to prevent the occurrence of

nuisance alarms. After the number of identified retry

attempts, the RTU is marked as ‘no reply’ and the

event is logged; however, no alarm is generated until

the time-out value specified for the RTU has expired.

Alarm life cycleFigure 1 shows the life cycle of an alarm generated

for the abnormal conditions described in the previous

section.

Alarm severityFor each point in alarm, the user can configure the

level of severity, or priority. This value not only affects

how the alarms are sorted in the Alarm Summary list

but also dictates other characteristics such as:

• Color code of the alarm indicator

• Optional audible tone, message or sound

An example of color coding, which is fully

configurable, is shown in Figure 2.

Change to abnormal condition

Change to normal condition

Change to normal condition

Operator acknowledgement

Operator acknowledgement

Remove Alarm

Unacknowledged and ActiveAlarm – Blinking ON

Abnormal Condition

Event is stored in Historian system

Unacknowledged and inactiveAlarm – Blinking ON

Acknowledged and ActiveAlarm – Blinking OFF

Sustain COS alarm

Yes

No

Figure 1. Life cycle of database or system alarm under InstAlarm management.

Figure 2. The user configures the color of alarms to provide quick identification of the severity of the alarm.

Severity Level

Color

Critical Magenta

High Red

Major Orange

Medium Yellow

Low Green

Minor Cyan


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Configurable alarm messagesOASyS DNA infrastructure provides the system

administrator the ability to customize Messages

for the more common system alarms. This feature

improves the system customization capabilities.

Cleared alarmsBecause of the high number of alarms presented on

operator screens, some utilities appreciate having

an Acknowledge and Clear feature added to the

alarm summary page. This two-step functionality

allows the operator to clear alarms from the display

so attention can be focused on new alarms coming

in. The Acknowledge function of this feature will stop

the alarm from flashing and will inhibit the associated

.wav file (sound) annunciation; the Clear function will

remove the acknowledged alarm from the viewable

summary. The Alarm Summary display lists all cleared

alarms, allowing the operator to select a previously

cleared alarm for recovery.

Integration of services within ADMS infrastructureThe InstAlarm alarm management system allows

extended applications that share the OASyS

DNA alarm repository to take advantage of the

functionalities described above. Figure 3 shows how

Schneider Electric’s DMS services and user interface

share alarms with the SCADA Realtime Services.

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ReportAlarms/Events

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ReportAlarms/Events

DMD ReportAlarms/EventsAcknowledge

Alarms

Retrieve Alarms/Events

Retrieve ArchivedAlarms/Events

MS

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CalculationEngine

Figure 3. SCADA/DMS common alarm repository.


Schneider Electric’s ADMS User Interface (HMI)

presents alarm messages in the Alarm Summary

display, an ordered list in which both system and

database alarms are sorted first by priority and then

chronologically so that the newest, highest priority

alarms top the list. The display, an example of which

is shown in Figure 4, includes the alarm date, time,

mnemonic code, point description and logging text.

All Alarm Summary displays are filtered by the user’s

area of responsibility and can be further filtered by

alarm category and the disturbance mode threshold.

Alarm summary displays are dynamic; the number

of display pages varies from a single page, up to

as many as required to display all of the entries.

Sufficient buffer space is provided to handle the

number of alarms possible in worst-case system

operation, and in no case are alarms lost due to

overflow.

Filtering alarmsThe default Filters panel on the Alarm Summary

allows the user to filter the display to show:

• only the points in alarm

• only the points not in alarm

• only acknowledged alarms

• only unacknowledged alarms

• alarm filter by Remote

• alarm filter by Category

The Filters panel on the Alarm Summary can be

configured to add filters as needed by the user’s

operation.

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Figure 4. Alarm Summary screen.

Graphical User Interface


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Newest Priority AlarmsThe Newest Priority Alarms display, typically located at the bottom of the

dispatcher desktop, lists only the unacknowledged alarms or events generated on

the system, with the latest alarm listed at the top of the first page. Operators can

acknowledge alarms directly from this window.

If there are multiple alarms listed, the most severe are listed first. If there are

multiple alarms of the same severity level, those alarms are listed in the order

received. Three additional icons are present on the Newest Priority Alarms display,

for:

• Silencing alarms

• Showing Alarm Summary

• Changing the Disturbance mode

When an operator silences alarms in a specific workstation, current alarm

announcement is temporary turned off in that console until a new alarm is

declared. Alarm announcement in other network consoles is not affected.

Silencing an alarm does not constitute alarm acknowledgment.

ActionsThe Alarm Summary display enables the operators to:

• Acknowledge individual alarms

• Access history of alarms, or Event Summary

• Acknowledge all alarms listed in the summary

• Print the summary

• Export the summary to a Microsoft® Excel®-format file

All alarms must be acknowledged. To do this, an operator with sufficient authority

can activate the row head button of the Alarm Summary, or alarms can be

acknowledged one page at a time. When an alarm is acknowledged, it stops

flashing.


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Smart Alarming features

Area of Responsibility (AOR)Only the alarms for devices that are within the

operator’s area of responsibility, as assigned by the

system administrator, are shown on the system alarm

and station alarm summaries; alarms that are not in

the operator’s area of responsibility are filtered out.

If system configuration allows the operator to select

another area or areas for control and/or viewing of the

database summaries and displays, then the operator

will have access to the Alarm Summary for that area.

• If an area is not identified for control by an operator,

the operator is not able to view and acknowledge

alarms for that area, even if the area is selected for

viewing.

• If an area is selected for control by an operator,

the operator will be able to view and acknowledge

alarms for that area, even if the area is not selected

for viewing.

• Changing the control area is the only way to affect

Alarm Summary access.

Establishing AORs is an effective way to restrict

supervisory control, data entry, tag placement and

alarm routing. Assignment of AOR can be restricted

by console and by user, to prevent assignment of

AORs by anyone outside of the control room. Multiple

users can have the same AOR assigned. In addition

to user-specified AORs, there is an additional AOR

named Uncovered AORs. Users or consoles that

have this AOR assigned to them will receive alarms

for all uncovered AORs.

User logout from the DMS system is prevented when

such action leaves one or more AORs unmonitored

or when there is an uncovered AOR. Dialog will notify

the user that this action leaves one or more AORs

uncovered, and the complete list of AORs in question

is provided. In case of console failure, an alarm is

generated enabling other users to monitor uncovered

AORs.

Non-covered alarmsWhere needed, it is possible to designate a workstation to receive non-covered alarms — those from an AOR

that is not assigned to an operator, or, in distributed projects, between peer, master, or sub-master systems.

Besides user specified AORs, there is also one additional special AOR called Uncovered AORs. Users or

consoles that have this AOR assigned will receive alarms for all uncovered AORs.

White paper | 11


Data quality flagsData acquisition processing includes data quality flags associated with each

numeric and discrete point, both telemetered and calculated. These data quality

flags include:

• Alarm Inhibited – If a point is marked as alarm inhibited, any change in state or

value will not result in the generation of an alarm.

• Event Inhibited – If a point is marked as event inhibited, any change in state or

value will update the database but will not result in the generation of an event

message or an alarm message.

Even if a point has been alarm or event inhibited, the abnormal state flag will

remain visible on all the displays and summaries.

By-point alarm inhibitOperators can inhibit individual points for alarm announcement. Alarms for these

points in the device are suppressed and do not appear in the Alarm Summary

display. Since it is still important to be able to scrutinize the alarm conditions and

events generated by testing, the system continues to poll the devices normally.

Events are still generated and appear in the event summary with an alarm-inhibit

flag to distinguish them from other events.

Audible alarmingThe HMI annunciates alarms either by beeping or playing sound files. If configured

to beep when an alarm is generated, the number of beeps will indicate the alarm

severity. Alternately, sound files are supplied that can be configured to play when

alarms of specific severity levels are generated. Additional sound files are easily

added to the system. Audible alarming announcement can be also inhibited on a

by-point basis.

Triggered programsOASyS DNA Realtime Services generates alarms and events from telemetered

and calculated point data as well as from application programs within the

Advanced Calculation Engine (ACE) subsystem. The system can be configured so

that specific alarms or events automatically trigger or activate programmed actions

in response.

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Disturbance mode (Storm mode)Within the InstAlarm subsystem, alarming can be configured to operate

in Disturbance mode, where low-priority alarms are not processed. Alarm

Disturbance mode suspends the processing of lower-priority alarms during

periods of peak alarm volumes. Disturbance mode includes the following

functionalities:

• Maximum severity level configuration

• Ability for applications or operators to enter or exit alarm disturbance mode

• Regeneration of alarms for analog, status, and rate points after exiting

disturbance mode

Storm mode expands the Alarm Disturbance capabilities with the ability to

suppress the lowest-priority alarms by AOR. The operator can define a different

priority level for each AOR when activating the Alarm Disturbance mode.

Test Mode alarm suppressionTest Mode alarm suppression reduces unnecessary alarms when field devices

are being tested as part of troubleshooting, maintenance and updates. Alarms

generated by such devices under these circumstances are not actionable,

because they are the result of work being done on the field equipment itself.

To use this feature, the user places the device into Test Mode via the GUI. Alarms

on any points in the device are suppressed and do not appear in the Alarm

Summary. Since it is still important to be able to scrutinize the alarm conditions

and events generated by testing, the system continues to poll the devices

normally. Events are still generated and appear in the event summary with a test

mode flag to distinguish them from other events.

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Alarm suppressionTo reduce nuisance alarms, Schneider Electric’s

ADMS supports different types of alarm suppression,

applicable to analog and status-telemetered points;

see Figure 5:

• Control-initiated alarm suppression – Operator-

initiated commands can cause many alarms to

appear as a direct result of the command. Control-

initiated alarm suppression prevents these alarms

from cluttering the alarm table.

• Hierarchical alarm suppression – Hierarchical alarm

suppression will prevent large numbers of alarms

from cluttering an operator’s display when they are

triggered as the result of a single device going into

alarm. This suppression applies to parent and child

device relationships only; four types of suppression

are applicable:

- Parent alarm timeout – When a parent point goes

into alarm or enters a different alarm state, the

children are marked as suppressed.

- Parent return-to-normal timeout – The parent

Return-to-Normal (RTN) timeout value assists

in suppressing child alarms that are held until

after the parent returns to normal. In reality, this

timeout value can be used either with or without a

configured parent alarm timeout value.

- Transient alarm suppression – Transient alarm

suppression is invoked when a status point

changes state, or when an analog point changes

between the high/low alarm states. In this case,

the child does not have a parent.

- Alarm hold-off – Alarm hold-off is used to

temporarily suppress child state alarms that result

from data crunching. Other types of alarms, such

as command failure, execute as normal. Alarm

hold-off is supported for analog and status points.

The combination of alarm suppression types does

not affect the performance of each type. An alarm is

suppressed when it satisfies one of the suppression

criteria.

Alternate Alarm Limit SetsThis feature allows the operator to select an alternate limit set and assign it to an

analog group. When a new limit set is assigned to a group of analog points, all

points in the group will immediately be subjected to the new limits.

Parent

Alar

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tate

normal

alarm

10 60 100 115 130 Time (Seconds)

Child2

Parent goes into alarmand children are markedfor alarm suppression

Child alarmsare suppressed

Parent returnsto normal

Child1 returns tonormal without

generating alarms

Child2 is in a different state from where it was at the time

of alarm suppression; therefore, an alarm is generated for Child2

Child1Child2 alarm suppression timeout

Child1 alarm suppression timeout

Figure 5. Alarm suppression capabilities.

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Dynamic Alarm LimitsDynamic Alarm Limit is a new feature in the Smart Alarming infrastructure where

limit values depend on predefined input signals. Dynamic Alarm Limit can be

profile-based, analog-based or interval-based. For example, this functionality is

useful when the maximum operational current of a transformer depends on the

weather temperature.

Dynamic Alarm Limit is, in effect, a special configuration of Alarm Limit Sets, so it

can be used combined with the Alarm Limit Set configuration.

Seasonal/24h alarm limitsThe Alternate and Dynamic Alarm Limits functionalities enable the administrator to

create seasonal or 24-hour limits.

Operator alarm overrideSchneider Electric’s ADMS lets the operator override the individual limits values.

The HMI will display a summary of all points whose alarms have been manually

overridden, including timestamp and identification of the user who applied the new

alarm limits.


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Logging and storage: Historian System

Numeric point limit violations and ‘returns to normal’ are logged as events, unless

the point is deactivated, manually overridden or event inhibited. Of course, it is

also possible to define alarm/event action classes that will not generate an event.

The event history, as part of Schneider Electric’s ADMS Historian System, provides

a chronological record of changes in the system’s condition, as well as actions

taken by system users over time.

Alarms and events are logged to Historian Services, and the logs are then stored

online for a configurable time period by the Historical Database for immediate

retrieval and analysis. After receiving data from other ADMS Services, Historical

Database can summarize this data for use in reports, displays, trends, reports and

analysis applications.

In order to manage events and analyze past alarm states, it is necessary to be

able to categorize events into various types. To facilitate this categorization, event

information available includes the source of the alarm (system, database, or

application); the alarm inhibit type if it exists (none, unknown, application-specific,

transient, parent alarm, parent control, inhibited, and test mode); and the type of

control for control events, i.e., alarm acknowledgements are distinguished.

Based on Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services, Schneider Electric’s ADMS

Historian System also automatically generates detailed reports organized

according to the location of the alarm, to facilitate compliance processes and to

monitor and improve staff performance.

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Conclusion

Electric utilities are seeing more solutions becoming available to them to help

realize the Smart Grid that will optimize distribution operations effectiveness and

efficiency. Schneider Electric’s InstAlarm Smart Alarming management solution is

designed to take advantage of the seamless integration of the field-proven OASyS

DNA SCADA and DMS services enabled by Schneider Electric’s ADMS. As this

comprehensive solution collects and analyzes real-time data from intelligent

field devices and recognizes and automates appropriate network adjustments,

the Smart Alarming solution identifies events judiciously at every level, helping

operators focus on truly significant performance issues and improve their response

efforts. Combining Smart Operations and Smart Alarming is a significant step

toward a streamlined, effective and safe Smart Grid.

Schneider Electric USA, Inc.

4701 Royal Vista CircleFort Collins, CO 80528Phone: 1-866-537-1091 + (34) 9-17-14-70-02Fax: 1-970-223-5577www.schneider-electric.com/us

December 2012

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smart alarming management

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