A textile plant in Moldova, Poland, needed to create reliable serial and Ethernet communications with their power substation network. The plant is powered by a 330 kV substation, thirty 10 kV transformer substations, and a power generation substation. These substations use Areva’s IEC 61850-3 substation devices and an industrial Ethernet network infrastructure to build an optimized electricity transmission and distribution system and ensure greater energy efficiency for the textile facility.

Since the field sites use remote terminal units (RTU) and PLCs that transmit serial data, a serial-to-Ethernet solution must be used to deliver serial data through the Ethernet network to the automated power network’s SCADA system in the control room.

• Redundant Ethernet backbone to ensure constant power transmission/distribution and eliminate downtime from broken links or points.
• Serial-to-Ethernet device servers that connect relays and sensors to an Ethernet network and transmit the real-time data to the SCADA system.
• Network equipment with industrial reliability to meet strict substation environmental requirements, such as extended temperature tolerance.

A top priority for the substation SCADA system was to ensure high 24/7 availability of monitoring and control information from substation systems and processes. The textile plant selected powerful Areva Transmission and Distribution (T&D) energy management solutions and combined them with Moxa's redundant Ethernet switches. This ensured reliable and efficient communications between the RTUs and central SCADA system. The entire ring network backbone uses Moxa's EDS-518A Gigabit managed Ethernet switches to take advantage of Moxa’s proprietary Turbo Ring™ self-healing technology with recovery times of under 20 ms. These managed Ethernet switches possess a feature set ideal for stable, consistent operations in substation infrastructure: improved management, advanced security, media redundancy, redundant power inputs, EMI protection, and industrial-grade rugged design with a -40 to 75°C operating temperature range.

To facilitate communications between the SCADA system and the many remote devices, such as power meters and protective relays, each substation is equipped with Moxa’s NPort® serial device servers. The serial servers connect the RS-422/485 devices directly to Ethernet networks and transmit data to enable realtime information gathering and power asset management on the SCADA system.

 

  

 

• The redundant Ethernet Turbo Ring™ network (recovery time < 20 ms) increases network backbone reliability.
• The EDS-518A’s two Gigabit fiber optic ports and two fast Ethernet fiber ports fulfill the customer’s demanding bandwidth and long-distance transmission requirements.
• The EDS-518A can operate in a wide temperate range from -40 to 75°C, ensuring reliability in the harsh power generator environment.
• The NPort® 5650 serial device servers connect the serial devices (RTU and PLC) at the field site with the EDS-518A switches, giving the serial devices direct access to the Ethernet backbone.
• Moxa provides complete solutions that include industrial Ethernet switches and serial-to-Ethernet device servers, fulfilling customers’ needs at a onestop shop. 

Product

 

EDS-518A
• 2 Gigabit plus 16 fast Ethernet ports for copper and fiber
• Turbo Ring™ and Turbo Chain™ (recovery time < 20 ms at full load), and RSTP/STP
• Advanced management and security features
• -40 to 75°C operating temperature range

 NPort 5650
• Up to 16 serial ports supporting RS-232/422/485
• Real COM/TTY ports
• SNMP MIB-II for network management