state of technology power systems...and type b power modules shall use c-cell or d-cell batteries as...

SPECIAL REPORT

STATE OF TECHNOLOGYPOWER SYSTEMS

From sourcing and ensuring uninterrupted flows of clean electricity to monitoring, regulating and metering gen-eration and consumption throughout a facility, process automation professionals who want a smooth-running, efficient and reliable facility are well advised to seek and control power. This anthology of recent articles delves into the many aspects of power systems of interest in process plants.

Remote and wireless systems are speeding development and standardization of energy harvesting and improved battery systems. Line-powered supplies that used to only transform electricity and maybe offer surge protection are now monitoring and measuring current and voltage profiles, implementing alerts and alarms, and sending data up to higher-level systems for analysis and optimi-zation. And forward-thinking engineers are demanding increased integration of process and power automation systems.

Read on for our latest articles on power systems, and you can always find more at www.ControlGlobal.com.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

www.controlglobal.com

State of Technology: Power Systems 2

STANDARDIZATION COMING FOR WIRELESS 4 SENSOR POWER SOURCES

LITHIUM ION BATTERIES COME TO UPS 6

BRAIN POWER FOR POWER SUPPLIES 8

EXXONMOBIL TAKES ON ELECTRICAL INTEGRATION 10

PROCESS AND POWER/ELECTRICAL CONTROLS 12MERGING INTO UNIFIED SYSTEMS

http://www.acopian.com/



Standardization coming for wireless sensor power sourcesDocuments are in development to define general requirements, batteries and energy harvesting that allow for use of C- and D-cells.

By Ian Verhappen, P.Eng.

With the abundance of wireless devices coming onto the market, one of the requirements they

all need is power. Because wireless devices typically aren’t connected to a permanent power

supply, they also need the ability to store this power, hence some form of energy storage, in

most cases a battery. We’re all familiar with the standard sizes and connections for the batteries

we use in battery-powered devices, which to no one’s surprise are standardized, in this case in

the IEC 60086 series.

SC 65B WG16, under the leadership of Ludwig Winkel, who’s also the convener for the fieldbus

standards, is in the process of developing three standards for “Power sources for a wireless

communication device.” The three documents in development are IEC 62952-1 Ed 1.0, Power

sources for a wireless communication device–Part 1, General requirements of power modules;

Part 2, Profile for power modules with batteries; and Part 3, Energy harvesting. Parts 1 and 2

should be published in September this year, while Part 3 will be released by the end of 2017. All

three documents are far enough along that manufacturers are able to incorporate the concepts

in their devices today.

As with most multipart standards, the task for Part 1 is specifying the general requirements, and

because IEC SC65B is concerned with process automation applications, the developed stan-

dards must also address the use and replacement of devices in explosive atmospheres. One

aspect of this is the temperature classification, so Part 1 states the power module shall be usable

for temperature class T4 (maximum surface temperature of 135 °C) at ambient temperature of

60 °C and optionally to 80 °C, while complying with temperature class T3 (maximum surface

temperature of 200 °C) at an ambient temperature of 80 °C.

Other mechanical and physical requirements include continuing to operate under the following

conditions: ambient temperature range -40 °C to 85 °C with a rate of temperature change of 0.5



°C per minute while the power module (and its

connections) shall be able to withstand vibra-

tion at 2–9 Hz at 10 mm displacement and

9–200 Hz at 3 g (30 m/s2), as well as Type II

shock with peak acceleration 25 g (250 m/s2)

with no mechanical damage or interruption of

the electrical connection.

Part 1 also defines three different formats that

the power source (whose output shall not

exceed 20 V) can take: primary or secondary

batteries (Type A); a mechanical unit that con-

tains primary or secondary batteries (Type B);

or a generic energy-harvesting adapter mod-

ule (GEHAM) with a backup battery (Type C).

Part 2 builds on Part 1 by defining the bat-

tery profile, and provides selection criteria

for a battery with a mechanical interface as

given by the battery dimensions and electri-

cal characteristics specified in IEC 60086-1

and IEC 60086-2 (primary batteries). Type A

and Type B power modules shall use C-cell

or D-cell batteries as specified in IEC 60086-

1. The profile also specifies the lifecycle of a

power module from storage, maintenance

and operation, including disposal, as well as

guidelines related to transport and exchange/

replacement of the power source in an intrin-

sically safe environment.

The final document specifies requirements

and a profile for a power source containing

a generic energy harvesting adapter module

(GEHAM), and is based on the lowest-com-

mon-denominator approach by specifying

the minimum requirements to enable suppli-

ers and purchasers to reliably acquire devices

that work together from multiple vendors.

Electrically, the GEHAM shall accept, as a

minimum, any energy harvester output up to

100 mW and 12 V DC (maximum), while the

output voltage shall be DC, non-regulated

and the ripple shall not exceed the stated

maximum output voltage. The GEHAM output

voltage shall be clearly labeled, identifying it

as a nominal 5 VDC (for a nominal single, 3.6

V battery load) or 8 VDC (for a nominal dual,

7.2 V battery load).

In cases where a connector is used, IEC 61076-

2-101 M12 A-Coded connectors shall be used

with male connectors on both devices, mean-

ing the cable ends shall be female on both

ends. The connector can use from two to five

conductors, and shall follow the following pin

out and cable colors: Pin 1–ground (brown); Pin

2–communications (white); Pin 3–power (blue);

Pin 4–sense (black); and Pin 5–reserved (gray).

The above represents a significant amount of

work by the members of SC65E WG16 that, as

you can see, will certainly help with the adop-

tion of wireless field sensors by defining how

each of these devices will be powered and

the requirements for manufacturers of those

power supplies to interface to the devices.

Ian Verhappen’ P.Eng. is an ISA Fellow’ ISA Certified

Automation Professional (CAP)’ and a member of the

Automation Hall of Fame. Ian is a recognized author-

ity on Foundation Fieldbus’ industrial communications

technologies and process analyzer systems. Verhappen

provides consulting services on field level industrial com-

munications’ process analytics and heavy oil / oil sands

automation. Feedback is always welcome via e-mail ati-

[email protected] or on his Kanduski blog at http://

community.controlglobal.com/kanduski.



Lithium ion batteries come to UPSThe next COTS technology waiting to take hold in process automation is lithium-ion batteries.

By Dan Hebert, PE, senior technical editor, Control

Remember when the PC was introduced back in the early 1980s? Most thought it would

never be reliable enough for any type of process automation application. Fast forward 35

years, and it’s impossible to find a DCS without PCs at the server level, and many end users

are employing industrial PCs as real-time controllers.

Ethernet is another commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technology that has taken the process

automation world by storm after much early skepticism. End users were wary of its lack of

determinism, inability to deliver power and high cost. These challenges were met by Ether-

net speed increases, Power over Ethernet and ever improving price/performance ratios.

And along with Ethernet, other COTS communications technologies are moving into the

industrial realm including the Internet, web servers, browsers, cellular networks and Wi-Fi.

Many process control system components now contain a built-in web server and an Ether-

net port. Connecting them to the Internet gives worldwide browser access, often powered

by cellular communication networks or Wi-Fi.

According to Bedrock Automation, the next COTS technology waiting to take hold in pro-

cess automation is lithium-ion batteries. They’re a much better foundation for uninterrupt-

ible power systems (UPS) than lead-acid batteries.

“Automotive electrification and consumer mobility has been the catalyst for significant bat-



tery improvements in the past decade, with

emphasis on lithium-ion chemistries,” says

Albert Rooyakkers, Bedrock’s founder, CTO

and vice-president of engineering.

According to Rooyakkers, Bedrock has

“developed the next-generation industrial

control system with a revolutionary electro-

magnetic backplane architecture and deep-

ly embedded cybersecurity for the highest

levels of system performance, security and

reliability at the lowest system cost.”

A key component of Bedrock’s new control

system is its UPS, which also can be used to

power control systems from other suppliers.

“Lithium-ion batteries are sealed and can

be mounted in any orientation in our UPS,

while lead-acid batteries must be vented

and mounted upright. Lead-acid batteries

can also give off gas or leak toxic chemicals

in the event of damage or overcharging,

preventing them from being sealed,” ex-

plains Rooyakkers.

“Lithium-ion batteries charge faster than

lead-acid, can be up to five times lighter

and require three times lower volume than

lead-acid batteries with equivalent energy

capacity and cycle life,” adds Rooyakkers.

“All batteries consist of multiple cells, with

the number dependent upon the power

required. One design method is to stack the

cells and then monitor, control and contain

the stack. This is not the best way, although

it’s common with lead-acid designs,” he

notes.

“With lithium-ion batteries, each cell is engi-

neered as an independent system in a paral-

lel electronic topology. Our UPS battery

pack is thus less vulnerable to the status of

a single cell, and the charge and discharge

of each cell can be independently optimized

for safety and performance,” continues

Rooyakkers.

Bedrock assembles the lithium-ion cells,

electronics and connectors into a cell “ves-

sel” to ensure optimal alignment, contain-

ment and separation from every other cell

in the pack. The vessel provides for stress-

free thermal expansion and contraction dur-

ing charge cycles and temperate extremes,

as well as protection against vibration and

shock.

“Driven by severe criteria including NEMA

4X and FIPS 140, along with the require-

ment to withstand the most extreme

physical stresses, the result is a thick-walled

aluminum monolith. Our UPS is assembled

in a multi-ton press with water tight con-

nectors, and it can be field-mounted in any

orientation, either inside or outside of field

enclosures,” says Rooyakkers.

Dan Hebert is senior technical editor for Control

and Control Design. Email him at [email protected].



Brain power for power suppliesIf controllers and field devices already have diagnostics tool power, why can’t power supply devices have that too?

By Jim Montague

Everything is getting “smart,” and this trend appears to be holding true for power supplies

as well. Devices that used to only deliver power, convert it and maybe offer surge protec-

tion are now monitoring and measuring current and voltage profiles, implementing alerts

and alarms for predefined operating ranges, and sending data on power supply perfor-

mance up to higher-level systems and users for analysis and optimization efforts.

For instance, Richard Anderson, senior automation specialist at Solid State Automation and

Controls in Houston, Texas, reports in a whitepaper, “How to Develop Cost-Effective, Rug-

gedized, Skid-Based Applications for Remote Deployments,” that SSAC recently designed

and built a viscosity-reducing, skid-based, oil-mixing system for an unmanned produc-

tion platform in the Gulf of Mexico, and employed Siemens Industry’s Siplus S7-1200 PLCs,

ET200M I/O modules, MP377 HMIs and two power supplies in an explosion-proof, NEMA 7

enclosure and intrinsically safe track pad.

The two power supplies consist of two Sitop units, both capable of 24 Vdc and 120 Vac with

a redundancy module between them. They support and maintain high availability on the

skid’s equally redundant PLCs, which pull data from a flow sensor, and use 4-40 mA ana-

log wiring, HART, Profibus and Profinet communications protocols and Siemens’ Scalance

wireless modules to transmit it to the user’s onshore DCS. Likewise, S7-1200 PLCs can also

use Modbus RTU and Modbus TCP for communicating between legacy RS-232 and RS-485

http://solidstateautomation.com

http://solidstateautomation.com



systems and industrial Ethernet, while Sitop

1600 DC uninterruptible power supplies

have two Ethernet ports for integrating with

Profinet and reporting to users’ higher-level

networks.

I’d add not to take my word that power sup-

plies are getting smarter, but I can’t because

when I researched this topic, I ran across two

articles I wrote on it last year and the year

before. In the earlier article, “Power Supplies

Take Sophisticated Paths,” Roolf Wessels,

business unit manager for monitoring and

protection at Pepperl+Fuchs, said, “Power

supplies have always been a bit of a stepchild

compared to other process control devices,

but users are recognizing that power is the

most critical element in their applications.

You can lose a few I/O points and networking

nodes and still run an application, but losing

power means losing your whole application,

so it’s worthwhile investing in high-reliability,

high-efficiency power. As a result, users want

more diagnostics in their power supplies.

They already have diagnostics for predictive

maintenance and asset management in their

controllers and field devices, and now they

want it them their power supplies, too.”

In the more recent article, “Power Supplies

Get in on the Reliability Act,” Mike Garrick,

power supply manager at Phoenix Contact,

added, “Applications become more robust

when a power supply can report when its

connected field devices are drawing too

much current, while the integrity of the DC

bus is intact. For example, if the system is de-

signed for 10 amps, it’s become a reasonable

expectation for the power supply to provide

a signal to the process controller when the

load starts to draw more than 10 amps. This

signal is an early warning that the load is

drawing too much current, and maintenance

should be scheduled. When this early warning

is received, the controller knows the process

is running at the proper voltage at a current

beyond the nominal rating of the supply. The

reason for this could be a field device that’s

getting old and requires service.”

Jim Montague is executive editor of Control maga-

zine, and has served as executive editor of Control

Design and Industrial Networking magazines. He’s

worked for Putman Media for more than 10 years,

and has covered the process control and automation

technologies and industries for almost 20 years. He

holds a B.A. in English from Carleton College and lives

in Skokie, Illinois.

“Users already have diagnostics for predictive

maintenance and asset management in their

controllers and field devices, and now they want

them in their power supplies too.”



ExxonMobil takes on electrical integrationThe company’s latest effort to simplify and streamline capital project execution.

By Keith Larson, group publisher, Control

ExxonMobil made waves across the process automation industry by championing the

concept of configurable input/output (I/O) sub-systems to reduce project execution

risk, a methodology that has since been adopted across industry. Now Sandy Vasser and

his team of electrical and instrumentation engineers at ExxonMobil Development Com-

pany have taken up the cause of electrical integration to further simplify capital project

execution and help to bring the company’s often multi-billion-dollar efforts in on time

and on schedule.

“We continue to challenge everyone on things that we can continue to improve,” Vasser

said in his keynote address to the 2015 Honeywell Users Group Americas conference

today in San Antonio. The automation group has made terrific strides toward taking

its work off the critical project path, Vasser said. “Now we’re challenging the electrical

group to do the same.”

Electrical energy is a vital input to process manufacturing operations, often secondary

only to raw materials. And, just as the flow of process fluids through pipes, valves and

vessels typically is controlled by a dedicated process automation system, the flow of

electrons through transformers, circuit breakers and motors is the traditional domain of

a dedicated electrical control and monitoring system (ECMS). Historically, both types of

systems work largely independently to ensure safe, uninterrupted production. Indeed,

http://www.exxonmobil.com/



the differing dynamics of electrical and

process phenomena has led over the years

to the development of parallel systems,

suppliers and support organizations for

each type of system.

But for ExxonMobil, those days are gone.

“We’re completely eliminating the ECMS,”

Vassar said, noting that a modern distrib-

uted control system (DCS) can readily

take on electrical control and monitoring

tasks. “We need to take full advantage of

the power available in our systems today,”

Vasser said. Further, control systems that

speak IEC 61850, the language of intel-

ligent electronic devices (IEDs), allow fi-

beroptic network connectivity to banks of

low-voltage motor control centers, elimi-

nating the need for traditional hardwired

interlocks.

Like configurable I/O before it, electrical

integration satisfies ExxonMobil’s drive to

adopt new technologies and work pro-

cesses that are SCERT: simple, capital-

efficient, robust and timeless, according to

Vasser. The company also is applying this

philosophy to its capital project procure-

ment processes, replacing the traditional

specification development and bidding

process with pre-selected, standardized

equipment that can be ordered by part

number or customized through data sheet

parameters, whenever possible. “The

project team will create data sheets, not

specifications,” Vasser said, “and we’ll do

this at each level of the electrical infra-

structure.”

Keith Larson is group publisher responsible for Put-

man Media’s manufacturing automation titles Con-

trol and Control Design. Corporately, he also serves

as vice president of content across Putman Media’s

other magazine titles.

“We’re completely eliminating

the ECMS.” ExxonMobil’s Sandy

Vasser on the company’s drive

to bring process automation and

electrical controls functionality

into a single unified system.

http://www.controlglobal.com/voices/larson.html

http://www.controlglobal.com/

http://www.controlglobal.com/

http://www.controldesign.com/



Process and power/ electrical controls merging into unified systemsHere are the benefits they can provide together.

By Jim Montague, executive editor, Control

The ones and zeroes don’t care what physics or events they represent. Pressure, tempera-

ture, flow, oil, gas, chemicals, water, ore, slurries, pulp or tapioca pudding—it’s all the same

to them. Likewise, mathematics, algorithms, software and microprocessors are equally will-

ing to chew on whatever digital data comes their way—and now it’s power and electrical

control’s turn to join the process automation party.

The separation between process control and power is one of the oldest organizational bar-

riers on the plant floor. However, digital data is starting to flow more freely between them,

and their convergence is allowing users to achieve many and varied gains, improve efficien-

cy and reliability, and reduce costs at the same time.

“We’re seeing demand for integration of electrical control and process control across the

board among our clients from hydropower to large production plants, mostly due to greater

awareness of the IEC 61850 standard,” says Brian Harrison, president of Coast Automa-

tion Inc., a CSIA-member system integrator in Vancouver, B.C. “I think it began six or seven

years ago, when users tried to settle on a common programming language based on the

IEC 61131 standard, and then this commonality spread via the fieldbuses and Ethernet-based

protocols. Of course, everyone is looking for efficiency and energy savings, and IEC 61850

lets them look at power use at the production level, add meters to their motors and drives,

and monitor their consumption and efficiency on a combined SCADA package.”

http://www.coasteng.com/

http://www.coasteng.com/



Debbie Colclazier, product marketing man-

ager for DeltaV engineering tools at Em-

erson Process Management, confirms that

power and process control systems are

coming together. She recently returned to

Emerson from working for eight years at a

U.S. oil and gas refinery, and reports its staff

could see benefits from combining power

and process systems.

“We put in a large compressor with a

variable-speed drive at the refinery where

I worked,” says Colclazier. “The compres-

sor had its own substation, breaker control

and PLC. The interface to the PLC from

the DCS, combined with hardwired inputs,

allowed operators to initiate sequences

needed for starting or stopping the com-

pressor. The interface consisted of a se-

quenced set of communications between

the PLC and the DCS to open and close

breakers as needed, as well as providing

the status of the sequenced events to the

operators. In the past, electronic devices

used in substations had their own PLC-

type controls that could interact with a

main PLC to monitor and control those de-

vices. The DCS controls and the electrical

substation controls have remained primar-

ily separate until now, with maybe only a

few values being integrated via Modbus to

the DCS.”

HAPPIER TOGETHER—IN BRAZILThe benefits of combining and coordinat-

ing electrical and process controls and

their related systems can be huge, and

achieve unprecedented efficiencies and

joint performance gains. For instance, at

Petrobras’ Presidente Getúlio Vargas (Re-

par) refinery just north of Araucária, Brazil,

engineers report that integrated process

and power systems from ABB have saved

30% in engineering costs, 14% in installation

time and 20% in training costs, according to

Leandro Monaco, global product manager

for ABB’s 800xA system and electrical inte-

gration (Figure 1).

TWO BECOME ONEFigure 1: Integration of process and power on ABB’s System 800xA includes common interfaces that can access substation automation, electrification, instrumentation, safety devices and controls via vari-ous fieldbus protocols, IEC 61850’s manufacturing message specification (MMS) and generic, object-oriented substation event (GOOSE) messag-ing. Credit: ABB

http://www.emersonprocess.com/

http://www.emersonprocess.com/

http://www.petrobras.com/

http://www.abb.com/



Likewise, Vale S.A.’s huge iron ore mine in

Carajás, Brazil, has been working with ABB

to develop an integrated, remote asset

management and predictive maintenance

program for the mine’s electrical systems,

which would also improve its planned en-

ergy efficiency. “The ideal management of

a plant isn’t just increasing production, but

is also relating that production to energy

consumption,” state Monaco and Jose

Catarino, Vale’s automation and electrical

coordinator, who co-authored a whitepa-

per on the project. “Production depends

on the electrical system always being on,

but users don’t want to know more than

that they can always plug in and run their

process, even though one electrical device

failure can shut that production down. So

power systems don’t get much attention,

most electrical maintenance has been

mainly corrective, and this usually means

hours of lost production.”

These efficiencies are crucial because the

mine represents an almost $19.5-billion

total investment, and when it begins pro-

duction shortly, its 2,600 employees are

expected to produce 90 million tonnes of

iron ore per year. This will reportedly make

it the second-biggest iron ore mine in the

world behind Vale’s other Brazil-based

mine that produces 130 million tonnes per

year. However, it will use a truckless sys-

tem, which will reduce diesel fuel costs by

71% compared to its sister mine, so elec-

tricity will be its highest raw material cost.

Its electrical system will have 73 km of

230-kV transmission lines, 77 disconnec-

tors and reclosers, and 135 medium-voltage

(MV) substations with 1,500 to 2,000 intel-

ligent electronic devices (IEDs). The mine’s

processing plant will have 30 substations,

including one high-voltage and 29 MV, as

well as 500 IEDs and 12,000 MV and low-

voltage (LV) motors.

“One study showed that 63% of electrical

maintenance hours resulted in no needed

action, which is a big drain on labor,” ex-

plain Monaco and Catarino. “And a second

study showed that 62% of plants use pre-

ventive maintenance or just run to failure,

which is not good because electrical equip-

ment is high-value and can cause produc-

tion to stop. We’re proposing one way to

do predictive maintenance. Bringing in

open/close counts, trip counts, operating

current values, spring-charging times and

trip circuit supervision data into an asset

management function of a unified automa-

tion system for process and electrical ap-

plications can help avoid these traditional

problems. Combining production data and

energy consumption also enables greater

energy efficiency. We have to measure

precisely and in real time how energy is

coming into the plant; check how it’s being

distributed to each production area; do de-

tailed measurements down to the LV and

MV motors; and monitor the real-time ratio

between plant production rates and energy

used.”

http://www.vale.com/



They add the plant uses a fiberoptic net-

work with all meters and switchgear in one

place and logic interlocks between relays.

This reduced cable requirements by 110 km

and enabled implementation of MV motors

that comply with the International Electro-

technical Commission’s IEC 61850 standard

(see “The basics of IEC 61850”). “Vale has

also saved about 4 million man-hours in

pulling cables and in installing, commission-

ing, testing and maintaining devices,” added

Monaco. “The mine also needed 83% fewer

power meters in its substations, but has the

same functions, gets the same information

from its automation systems, and receives

per equipment and plant reports. As a re-

sult, it also needs 75% fewer maintenance

personnel.”

SAVED BY SUBSTATION STANDARDIZATIONDespite present and future gains, the path

to electrical/process control integration has

been long and circuitous, but it began to

straighten and shorten with the advent of

standards like IEC 61850 for designing elec-

trical substation automation.

“In many regards, integration of process

and power control has been happening for

a long time,” says Paul Vellacott, solutions

marketing manager for SCADA systems

at Honeywell Process Solutions. “What’s

changed is relays have gotten smarter, and

with standards like IEC 61850, more data

and control is reliably available via com-

munications interfaces. The realization now

is it’s not absolutely necessary to have

these as completely separate systems. Load

shedding, power control, mode control,

synchronization and other functions can be

performed from the same type of HMI and

controller. It’s just the end devices that are

different, though I don’t think we’re at the

stage of networks coming completely to-

gether. In fact, many aspects of load shed-

ding can be configured in the IED network,

rather through a separate PLC. And when

something goes wrong, the operator has ac-

cess to all the information, not just process,

so if a high-voltage relay tripped at the

same time, they can be analyzed together.

And maintenance teams can make decisions

remotely about how to fix the situation and

even change IED parameters, so there’s no

need to punch local panels anymore.”

FASTER PROJECTS, POWERFUL PICTURESBeyond improving project design, setup

and routine operations, combined electri-

cal/process controls can help save plenty

of power—and show users how they’re

doing it.

Harrison reports that Coast worked with

renewable energy provider Innergex in 2014

to build controls for a 50-MW, run-of-river

hydropower plant in British Columbia, which

was greatly simplified and streamlined by

combining its electrical and process con-

trols. The project implemented Schneider

http://www.honeywellprocess.com/

http://www.schneider-electric.com/



Electric’s Unity software in three M340

PLCs and used its Wonderware System

Platform SCADA software and chart-server-

based, unified design platform.

“All its controls have familiar interfaces,

common function-block programming

and tag naming conventions, and unified

interfaces to all power devices,” explains

Harrison. “These all made the project, com-

missioning and training easier. We had

less programming and spaghetti code, and

easier troubleshooting. Compared to a

similar plant we did previously that didn’t

combine power and process controls, I think

we spent 25-50% fewer hours on commis-

sioning and saved 10% on engineering time,

even though more time was spent at the

beginning.”

Likewise, Honeywell reports its Experion

PKS Orion control system also supports

IEC 61850 across its automation hierarchy

with a SCADA interface connecting Ex-

perion’s HMI to electrical substations and a

control-level Series C interface to connect

process controllers directly to IEC 61850

devices. By providing the power and elec-

trical management information directly to

the operator and the power control infor-

mation directly to the process controllers,

Experion and IEC 61850 substations be-

come a single process and power automa-

tion solution (Figure 2).

UNIFIED POWER/PROCESS PLATFORMFIGURE 2: By providing power and electrical management data directly to operators and power con-trol data directly to process controllers, Experion PKS Orion from Honeywell Process Solutions and IEC 61850 substations become one process and power automation solution. Credit: Honeywell

http://www.schneider-electric.com/



TOOLS FOR COOPERATIONTo help users take advantage of unified

power/process controls, many suppliers are

developing software and devices they can

use to tailor newly combined systems to

their applications, monitor and coordinate

their performance and gain the most inef-

ficiencies from them.

Colclazier reports that Emerson is using the

IEC 61850 manufacturing message specifi-

cation (MMS) protocol in its new Ethernet

I/O Card (EIOC), which can talk to 256 dif-

ferent devices, handle 32,000 signals and

will be released with its DeltaV distributed

control system, Version 13.3, in September.

“MMS brings monitoring and supervisory

control of electrical subsystems to the DCS,

as the EIOC can connect directly to the IEDs

to read process variables and display them

for the operator in DeltaV,” explains Colcla-

zier. “In the past, some variables could be

delivered via Modbus and serial interfaces

to a substation PLC, but users had to de-

cide and program values that needed to be

mapped for integration purposes. And since

the systems are dealt with totally separately

within organizations, this was rarely done.

“With the IEC 61850 MMS protocol, we can

read and write data directly to/from IEDs.

EIOC can deliver information from the IED

without a gateway or PLC, which allows re-

al-time monitoring and supervisory control.

Any IED supporting the IEC 61850 protocol

can be added to the EIOC network. Imagine

being able to bring the information from all

the substation devices into one place, the

DCS, where you can have alarms monitored

by operators and help prevent substation

events. This gives users the ability to histor-

ize values and events to help troubleshoot

substation events. This means less need for

laptops in the field, connecting to the devic-

es for data and no need for separate moni-

toring systems for each vendor’s devices,

from which it’s difficult or impossible to get

data into a plantwide historian. The EIOC

breaks the chain of the disjointed monitor-

ing of electrical substations by connecting

IEDs directly to the DCS.”

Bruce Jensen, manager of systems product

management at Yokogawa Corp. of America,

reports, “Our philosophy for integrating

power and electrical systems is to make

them subsystems of the process automa-

tion system. Yokogawa employs its Unified

Gateway Station (UGS), which uses the

Yokogawa NIC card for access to the control

LAN and an Ethernet physical interface to

the electrical/power subsystem. UGS bridg-

es the Ethernet interface of the electrical/

power system and the Vnet/IP protocol of

its Centum VP DCS system, and provides the

structure to create a tag and parameters of

the interested data.

“Once a tag is on the control LAN, all sta-

tions on the control highway can use the

data in the same manner as hardwired,

connected process data, including opera-

http://www.yokogawa.com/us



tor graphics, OPC interface to supervisory

systems, and in KPI calculations. Yokogawa

also provides an integrated operation and

monitoring IEC 81650 browser in its UGS

builder, which uses MMS to access specific

information of interest.”

THE BASICS OF IEC 61850Much of the credit for enabling closer

integration of power and process controls

goes to the International Electrotechnical

Commission and its IEC 61850 standard for

Communication Networks and Systems in

Substations, including designing electrical

substation automation, and facilitating com-

munications and interoperability of intel-

ligent electronic devices (IEDs) in modern

power grids.

Issued in 2004, its objectives are to use

open protocols that support self-descrip-

tive devices; to make it possible to add new

functionality; to base its complete commu-

nication profile on existing communication

standards; to be founded on data objects

that relate to the needs of the power indus-

try; and to enable high interoperability of

IEDS from different manufacturers.

The heart of IEC 61805 consists of object-

oriented data models that facilitate seman-

tic commonality of electrical infrastructure

functions among systems and devices. The

standard’s present edition also defines an

Ethernet-based, high-speed means of com-

municating generic object-oriented substa-

tion events (GOOSE) horizontally among

IEDs for interlocks and protection schemes,

as well as a TCP/IP-based manufacturing

message specification (MMS) for vertical

integration into supervisory systems.

While power transmission and distribution

systems were its main initial targets, IEC

61850 also affects power-generation and

process applications by increasing the vis-

ibility of operating and diagnostic data from

electrical assets. Electrical integration via

IEC 61850 provides seamless control room

access to real-time operational data and

diagnostics for integrated system users.

IEC 61850 also saves the hardwiring previ-

ously needed by the IEDs it helped replace.

Ethernet connectivity means I/O and its

former hardwiring aren’t required for com-

munication among IEDs, which means

fewer terminations, lower installation costs

and improved organization within substa-

tion cubicles. Also, its fiberoptic networks

mean communication links can run closer

to busbars without risking electromagnetic

interference.

Jim Montague is executive editor of Control maga-

zine, and has served as executive editor of Control

Design and Industrial Networking magazines. He’s

worked for Putman Media for more than 10 years,

and has covered the process control and automation

technologies and industries for almost 20 years. He

holds a B.A. in English from Carleton College and lives

in Skokie, Illinois.

http://www.iec.ch

http://www.iec.ch