Substation Automation

SEL substation automation solutions enable you to analyze, visualize, and act upon the wealth of data captured by substation IEDs—helping you improve system control, protect valuable equipment, mitigate cyber threats, and comply with safety and security standards.

We offer products and services for every step in modernizing and automating your substations:

• Visibility Into Substation Systems—Implement secure data and event collection, visualization, and analysis to increase situational awareness and gain insight into functional performance at both the grid and system levels.

• Asset Monitoring and Predictive Maintenance—Keep high-value assets online by detecting incipient failures and directing preventive maintenance programs.

• Automated Protection and Control—Improve CAIDI and SAIDI metrics, protect mission-critical power system components, and automate substation device coordination.

• Workflow and Compliance Automation—Streamline compliance reporting with automated data concentration, and produce audit-ready, actionable reports.

• Secure communications—Improve cybersecurity and performance with a software-defined networking (SDN) solution that is designed for operational technology (OT) networks.

SEL substation automation systems are modular and scalable, so you can begin with components that meet up-front needs and scale up to full substation automation as time and budgets allow.

SEL substation gateway and remote terminal unit (RTU) solutions leverage the capabilities of our hardened automation controllers to provide the foundation for substation HMI, data concentration, and SCADA integration. SEL automation controllers provide flexible RTU functionality with superior reliability, extended I/O contacts, and powerful automation and control capabilities.

The SEL-3350, SEL-3555, and SEL-3560 Real-Time Automation Controllers (RTACs) feature an integrated HMI with a local display port and remote access, eliminating the need for an additional computer in the substation and avoiding the security vulnerabilities of Microsoft Windows-based operating systems.

For industrial applications, the SEL automation controller also becomes a powerful gateway between the substation and the factory, using the EtherNet/IP protocol to exchange data for real-time monitoring, process control, and power system integration.

Asset monitoring and predictive maintenance—also known as condition-based monitoring (CBM)—help protect critical substation assets, save money, and increase your system’s reliability by detecting signs of wear and stress in critical substation assets and directing preventive maintenance to the equipment that needs it the most.

SEL automation controllers provide the advanced data recording and analysis capabilities that make asset monitoring and predictive maintenance possible, and they can be integrated with virtually any system you have in place.

SEL Engineering Services teams integrate our devices with asset monitoring and predictive maintenance programs and combine CBM systems from multiple vendors into a single comprehensive solution.

Take advantage of the advanced capabilities and versatility of SEL protective relays, communications solutions, and automation controllers to provide SCADA integration and advanced power management and control.

With IEDs, software, and services from SEL, you can implement condition-based equipment monitoring; automated data collection; coordinated protection; load management; fault location, isolation, and service restoration (FLISR); and more.

SEL designs, develops, tests, and deploys complete SCADA systems to monitor and control your systems or processes. Our experienced Engineering Services teams provide solutions ranging from IED integration and simple standalone implementations to complex networked systems.

Digital secondary systems use IEDs and digital communications to protect, monitor, and control a substation’s primary equipment (such as transformers and circuit breakers).

A complete digital secondary system consists of IEDs that communicate via two separate but overlapping and interconnected systems: the station bus and the process bus.

Station bus systems use digital communications to facilitate the monitoring and control of a substation’s primary and secondary systems. They enable substation automation, SCADA integration, secure engineering access, and more.

The process bus is a protection system that digitizes analog measurements from primary equipment in the field and uses fiber-optic cables to transmit the data to protective relays. It also makes detailed data on protective actions and equipment status available to substation automation systems and reduces the cost, complexity, and safety hazards associated with long runs of copper wiring.

SEL Engineering Services implements two types of process bus systems:

• Systems based on SEL Time-Domain Link (TiDL) technology, which uses a time-deterministic protocol and direct connections to create robust, simplified process bus systems that don’t require network engineering or external time sources.
• Sampled Values (SV)-based systems, which offer the flexibility and interoperability of IEC 61850 protocols and intelligent merging units with built-in protection capabilities.

The reliability and versatility of SEL protective devices allow you to implement automated protection and load restoration schemes and achieve high levels of system availability with simple redundant solutions.

In addition, our powerful automation controllers and precise-time products enable wide-area control solutions for electric generation, transmission, and distribution systems as well as high-speed microgrid control and industrial power system management and protection solutions.

SEL solutions provide automated protection and control of both substation systems and grid-level systems, helping ensure the reliable delivery of electric power:

1. Improve distribution system reliability with Distribution Management System (DMS) software—featuring a FLISR solution that is scalable, is simple to implement, and runs on the secure SEL Blueframe platform.
2. Integrate and manage distributed energy resources (DERs) with the SEL-engineered, RTAC-based Grid Connect solution.
3. Set up advanced data monitoring to help protect and maintain high-value assets.
4. Use SEL Data Management and Automation (DMA) software to automatically collect oscillography and Sequence of Events information from system devices.
5. Implement volt/VAR management to improve your system’s power factor.

Streamline workflows and regulatory compliance processes with SEL solutions and engineering services.

SEL Blueframe is a modern software platform designed to meet the needs of OT environments.

Secure and scalable, Blueframe allows a seamless exchange of data between applications on the platform, minimizes the frequency of patches and upgrades, and offers features to prevent unauthorized access and potential attacks.

It can be embedded in the SEL-3350, SEL-3355, and SEL-3360 computing platforms or deployed in virtual environments.

The SEL-3555 RTAC can be combined with the SEL-2240 Axion modular I/O and control unit to create DFR systems that exceed NERC PRC-002 standards.

SEL Engineering Services implements complete DFR solutions, installing all the necessary devices and software and configuring the system to collect essential data and output audit-ready reports.

We offer a complete range of NERC PRC compliance services and solutions:

• Data collection and review
• Compliance checks
• Risk identification and prioritization
• Mitigation options and deployment plans
• Corrective actions, including settings verified by SEL engineers
• Compliance road maps and audit documentation reports
• Testing and maintenance plans and training

SEL provides cyber-secure communications solutions that make substation automation possible.

Our communications products are built to the same reliability standards as our relays and automation controllers. They support multiple communications protocols, including DNP3 and IEC 61850 standard protocols, so they can fully integrate with your existing devices and systems.

SEL SDN solutions—designed specifically for OT networks—eliminate common LAN security vulnerabilities with a deny-by-default software architecture that accepts communications only on preconfigured paths between authorized devices. This helps protect against attacks that originate from compromised devices on the LAN and also adds protection against unauthorized traffic that slips past firewalls.

Let us partner with you to modernize and automate your substations. SEL Engineering Services designs and implements fully integrated substation automation solutions, including:

• SCADA integration and HMI for visualization and control of substation systems.
• Asset monitoring and predictive maintenance.
• Data collection for standards compliance.
• Improvement of CAIDI and SAIFI customer reliability metrics.

Our expert engineering teams will consult with you at every stage of the project, from planning and design through commissioning of the system. We’ll install and configure all the necessary SEL equipment, integrate it with your existing infrastructure and processes, and ensure that the whole system meets your economic and operational objectives.

SEL Engineering Services will configure and commission a distribution automation solution that is designed specifically for your system.