Protection and Control System Modernization

SEL Engineering Services offers solutions and services that ensure quick, seamless, and cost-effective substation system modernization. With decades of experience designing, manufacturing, and integrating IEDs, we’re experts in how hardware and software operate within power protection, management, and control systems.

SEL Engineering Services provides comprehensive consulting, design, manufacturing, installation, and commissioning services for retrofit programs.

Our local support teams work with you directly to find the ideal replacements and upgrades for existing devices and systems. And our engineers also help manage outage scheduling, minimizing downtime windows during retrofit work and ensuring a seamless transition back into normal operations.

Our pre-engineered direct replacement assemblies combine rugged, field-proven SEL relays with specialized mounting plates, interposing terminal blocks, and other hardware to ensure quick, seamless, and cost-effective upgrades. Complete, preassembled retrofit kits are available for legacy relay models from various manufacturers.

SEL also creates custom-designed assemblies to meet specific protection, communications, and mounting requirements.

Digital secondary systems—often called digital substation solutions—help minimize the cost and complexity of substation systems, improve protection, and increase your power system’s operational flexibility.

A substation’s secondary system includes all the devices and systems that protect, monitor, and control the substation’s primary equipment (such as busbars, transformers, and circuit breakers). Digital secondary systems are generally composed of two separate, but interlocking communications systems: the process bus and the station bus.

Process bus systems acquire data (voltage, current, breaker status, and more) from primary equipment and use digital communications to coordinate protection schemes and other actions in response to those data. Station bus systems allow power system operators to monitor, control, and remotely access substation devices and to integrate substations with regional SCADA systems.

Digitizing substation systems brings significant benefits:

• Reduced O&M costs—Replacing long runs of copper wiring with a small number of fiber-optic cables reduces construction and maintenance costs.
• Increased reliability—Digital systems not only help reduce wiring-related malfunctions, but also run self-diagnostics and alert operators when a device or communications failure is detected.
• Visibility and control—Integrate substations with regional SCADA systems. Manage and configure a fleet of devices remotely with Data Management and Automation (DMA) software.

SEL designs, installs, and commissions digital secondary systems that meet your specific requirements and operational goals.

SEL substation automation solutions enable grid owners to automate the collection and storage of data captured by modern IEDs, so that it can be used to improve system control, reduce O&M costs, mitigate cyber threats, and comply with safety and security standards.

SEL substation automation solutions provide:

• Visibility into system operations—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 automation—Streamline compliance reporting with automated data concentration, and produce audit-ready, actionable reports.

SEL Blueframe is a secure operating system and software platform designed for operational technology (OT) applications. Customizable, versatile, and scalable, it is designed to manage and exchange data seamlessly between supported applications.

Blueframe supports a growing number of SEL software applications, including:

• Data Management and Automation (DMA): Automatically collect, store, and manage device-specific information to simplify management of your system of devices and support compliance.
• Distribution Management System (DMS): Monitor, optimize, and control distribution systems with a suite of integrated wide-area control applications.
• SEL-5056 Software-Defined Network (SDN) Flow Controller: Configure and manage SEL SDN switches to create Ethernet networks optimized for operational technology (OT) applications.

SEL offers modernization solutions and services for any part of the grid, scaled to your needs. Partner with us on individual projects or multi-year modernization programs.

We design electric power systems, coordinate procurement and construction, manufacture the relays, build the panels, and install and commission the protection and control systems.

• Simplicity at Every Stage—Streamline your grid modernization program with a single PO. We offer a single-vendor solution for the entire process—from design and permitting through building, installation, and commissioning. This simplifies budgeting, project management, and timelines, ensuring on-time delivery.
• Advanced Technology—SEL solutions offer the fastest protection available. They also improve systemwide visibility and control through cybersecure remote engineering access, automated event collection, and precise fault location, among other benefits.
• Access to Experts and Product Support—Engineering support is available to you before, during, and after a project. After commissioning, you receive 24/7 support from SEL application engineers. Technical support is available for the lifetime of every SEL device at no cost.
• Reduced Total Cost of Ownership—Our simplified project management approach, advanced technology, and expert support lower your O&M costs in the short term and for the entire life of your modernized system.

We believe you should never have to worry about whether your protection and control systems will be working when you need them most. That’s why you always have access to SEL engineers—and every device we manufacture comes with a ten-year warranty and free technical support.