The transmission and especially distribution of electricity has always been Netcontrol’s main focus. With new, distributed power production on the one hand and the stricter control of power quality and the related sanctions on the other hand, however, this field is facing new challenges. Netcontrol has been working on these challenges for years and is able to provide solutions that help the network operator cope with the requirements.
Today everything depends on the continuous availability of electricity, and the transmission network forms the backbone of the electricity system. Therefore the reliability and quality requirements on all equipment used in the transmission network are extremely high.
The requirements are especially high when it comes to the data communication with geographically distributed HV/HV and HV/MV substations. The monitoring and control of the grid depends on a fully secure and reliable system of communications. Netcontrol’s gateway solutions, the Netcon Gateway Server and the Netcon GW502, are used by several transmission grid operators to fulfill these needs.
The requirements are high not just regarding reliability and security, but also capacity. The transmission substations can be quite large, and their automation requires a very large number of IO data items or “points”. The Netcon 500 RTU solves this issue by scaling up to several thousands of IO through the interconnection of several Netcon 500 racks.
Netcontrol has a comprehensive portfolio of products for the management of the electricity distribution network, spanning from the SCADA master station to the actuators at remote disconnector stations.
Netcon 3000 is the most common SCADA system in the Nordic countries, having a customer base of over 130 network companies. An open system, Netcon 3000 is typically integrated into other systems such as the distribution management system (DMS). Here standard interfaces like OPC or ELCOM90 or ICCP/TASE.2 are used. The information from the advanced browser based reporting system of Netcon 3000 can be accessed from the office network over a dedicated, secured connection.
The SCADA system must communicate in real-time with the distributed sites that are to be monitored and controlled. The communications has to be reliable and secure, but still able to support all the legacy communication protocols in use. The Netcontrol gateways with the Netcon NFE software are an ideal choice for such legacy connectivity. NFE supports conversions among dozens of different protocols while maintaining strict cyber security. The Netcon Gateway Server is normally used as the NFE application and security platform at the control centre, whereas the Netcon 500 with its Netcon GW502 module is deployed at the primary (HV/MV) substation level.
The substation automation system is typically renewed every 20–25 years. Netcontrol’s solutions for the monitoring and controlling of primary (HV/MV) substations are based on the Netcon 500 gateway and RTU. This is built for retrofit so that it fits physically into the space used for old equipment and can communicate with both old and new parts of the substation automation system. It is a modular, dynamic and expandable solution that can replace several old parts. It is exactly what customers are looking for when updating the automation in an old substation to get all the features required in today’s substations.
The availability requirements for power networks are constantly increasing, and most outages in the low voltage network are caused by faults on the medium voltage side. Their average duration can thus be significantly reduced through improved fault location and the remote control of switching equipment. The Netcon 100 primary (MV/MV, MV/LV) substation automation system also helps utilities optimise their substations investments because it provides accurate data and trends of transformer loads.
For disconnection stations, Netcontrol provides pole-mounted actuators which can be remotely controlled and help to isolate faulty areas from the rest of the network. Our powerful and reliable actuator Netcon 1 is used in thousands of sites in harsh conditions.
Netcontrol also has the versatile PDR 300 data radio that can be used for master station connectivity of disconnector stations over a private VHF or UHF radio network.
