UG-1037
ePAQ-9100
4
Introduction
Copyright © 2017 QEI
1
Introduction
A generally accepted Electric Utility Industry definition of Automation is the deployment of
substation and feeder operating and monitoring devices in order to optimize the management
of capital assets and enhance operation and maintenance efficiencies with minimal human
intervention.
The most common approach used by design engineers has been to install a device in the Substation
to act as an interface between a host computer system and various electrical apparatus components
located in the Substation. In today’s modern Substations the use of a Data Concentrator and/or a
Gateway for this interface is the preferred method. In many new applications utilities are beginning to
network substation devices or Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs) where a Gateway may be required
for the LAN to Host interface.
Today’s substations are in a transitional state from the traditional RTU based data acquisition
and control to an automated system utilizing intelligent devices. A majority of the EMS and
SCADA systems installed today are designed with serial data ports for low speed
communications in order to connect with older field devices. The Automation Engineer must
deploy a Gateway to bridge the gap between modern LAN communication and older
communication media and legacy protocols. QEI
’s
ePAQ-9100 Multifunction Gateway
is a
robust choice for the design engineer because of its inherent modularity and functionality.
The ePAQ-9100 is a microprocessor based automation platform that provides efficient
communications processing, secure control outputs, digital and analog inputs, and various
standard or user programmable automation functions at remote substations. The ePAQ-9100
is a self-contained unit that includes the central processor, various types of memory,
communications interfaces, A/D converter, select-before-operate (SBO) control and status
processing.
The primary gateway application of the 6CPP6 is substation communications processing
which includes protocol conversion and point-by-point data routing between communications
interfaces. A high performance, applications specific Embedded Real-Time Operating System
(ERTOS) ensures high rate of data transfer with minimum latency.
The ePAQ-9100 Multifunction Gateway can also serve as a Substation Data Concentrator and
provide significant expansion capability via numerous IEDs and traditional hardwired I/O
(RTU). The Gateway offers the optional capability to integrate with traditional hardware
components by utilizing parallel buses for banks of I/O panels specialized for status input,
analog input/output, and select-before operate control outputs, through connectorized ribbon
cables. These I/O panels provide a fully isolated multiplexing of the field inputs into the Central
Processor.
The ePAQ-9100 is particularly well suited for application in the rapidly evolving substation
LAN environment. EPRI has developed the Utility Communications Architecture (UCA
) to
provide a framework for interoperability by incorporating a rich set of standard
communications protocols and an extensive library of application specific data objects and
device models. This standard is emerging as the preferred choice of the Automation Engineer
when specifying an IED protocol and when networking is required. The ePAQ-9100 fully
supports UCA2.0 and IEC61850 over either TCP/IP or OSI. Also supported is DNP3 over
TCP/IP.