OREANDA-NEWS. IDGC of Centre under its target program to improve reliability and observability continues the development of remote control systems in 35-110 kV substations. The program involves the upgrade of 37 major substations in 2014.

IDGC of Centre's power engineers perform a phased upgrade of outdated operated remote control and communications systems and implement new ones. In 2013 the work on the implementation of the remote control system and construction of communication channels was performed at 46 substations.

As part of the work on the replacement of outdated remote control systems it provides for a significant increase in the number of controlled connections at facilities, as well as the number of measured parameters. Data transfer is provided with modern protocols for redundant digital communication channels. In 2013 the company formed its target program for the development of an automated process control system (APCS), which will involve implementation of remote control systems for all substations of the main grid. Besides IDGC of Centre's power engineers use the latest approaches to equipping workplaces of dispatching points in Distribution Zones using “personal video walls”, providing simultaneous visualization of the entire distribution grid in the service area of the Distribution Zone in the traditional form and the display of facilities on the map.

Modern automated supervisory control systems are a complex consisting of automated workplaces of operators that have specialized software installed for the visualization and process control, data processing servers and data transmission channels, allowing in real-time to receive information on such parameters as voltage level, load, frequency of electric current, status of various actuators and also to control operational modes of substation equipment and remotely perform switching via remote control. APCS is a tool to enhance equipment operation, improve reliability of power supply and optimize technological losses. On average, after reconstruction, the number of signals transmitted and received by each substation is increased by 3 - 3.5 times.

Thanks to remote control an operator can simultaneously monitor the operation of large sections of the grid, quickly make effective decisions based on complete and accurate information, promptly implement switching to prevent occurrence of inadmissible operating modes of equipment and emergency response. New remote control has a high accuracy class for measurement of parameters, as well as “binding” of logged events to the exact time, synchronized with the system time of the Grid Control Centre (GCC) of a branch.