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Recording and documentation criteria proposed for the complete life cycle of digital substation automation systems in Brazil - findings and trends

Abstract:

In the last decade, the Substation Automation System (SAS) suffered a huge technological evolution process in order to cope with the integration and interoperability requirements of the modern systems stakeholders. The SAS documentation, normally generated during the different phases of the basic and detailed design, manufacturing and commissioning, is a very important topic, in order to address the DSAS requirements. The work proposed herewith intends to discuss the main factors that influence the guidelines for the preparation of documents, establishing which documentation is really required to help the user staff during the entire lifetime of the SAS. The results of a research done among the Brazilian transmission and distribution utilities about the procedures normally used during expansions, new installations and addressing the tendencies resulting from the growing application of the SAS based on the IEC61850 standard will be presented. The first impact that may be seen during a DSAS deployment using the IEC61850 standard occurs in the initial stage of the system specification, design and engineering. In this stage, the use of the IEC61850 standard allows the engineering staff to develop a formal and consistent specification of the DSAS. In case the user does not provide a formal specification document, it may be prepared by the system provider or by the DSAS integrator. This article will describe some examples of these scenarios. A computational environment is needed, involving professionals of several areas, with different needs and skills, able to create documents of different kinds. Based on the performed research already mentioned, this article describes the vision of the Brazilian utilities, users and suppliers, beginning with the conception and initial design until the equipment and systems acquisition process, including the installation, tests and commissioning. The article also proposes the analysis of the context of the different stages of the application of the IEC61850 standard in Brazil.