Enabling OEM Alarm annunciator with all the IEC 61850 use-cases, by directly plugging SYNC200 embedded modules

Customer: Multiple Fault Alarm Annunciator Manufacturers across the globe

Application Area:  Utilities

Business Case: 

The Fault Alarm annunciators were having protocols like Modbus / IEC 101 / DNP3 for fetching data from other devices and sending the annunciation status to the SCADA system. These Alarm Annunciators wanted migration to IEC 61850 and wanted to use the complete feature sets of IEC 61850. Many alarm annunciators also had direct I/O interfaces and they wanted these data to be exchanged via GOOSE publisher/subscriber blocks. As these Alarm Annunciators were using native tools and their protocols for configuration, it was needed to use the same for any configuration, even after the migration. Also, there were very fast migration requirements as these OEMs were losing opportunities because of the IEC 61850 requirements and newly launched alarm annunciators complying with the same completely.

The Solution: 

The SYNC200 Embedded protocol modules were plugged internally into the OEM device, interfaced with the TTL port to the device at one end, and directly exposing the SYNC200 Ethernet interface from the enclosure of the annunciator. The Ethernet interface had the option of IEC 61850 for collecting data from the IEDs or other devices and could also be used to exchange the data to SCADA via IEC 61850. The data exchange with the OEM device & SYNC200 was possible using the protocol supported by the device & could use the interfaces of TTL / I2C / SPI. For exchanging the fast messages via GOOSE, the I/Os associated with the alarm annunciators were directly connected to the GPIOs available in SYNC200 and Fast-Message-GOOSE-Bus functionality available in the unit was used for exchanging the data. Transparent / Pass-Through functionality within the SYNC 2XX for configuration scenarios using the existing tool and its native protocols were used for the requirements of configuring the alarm annunciators. For the latest requirements of IEEE1588 based time sync and PRP network redundancy requirements there was the flexibility of using SYNC261 with 2 * 10/100/1000-BASE-TX & 100-BASE-FX options.

Key Benefits:

By plugging the SYNC200 module internally into the alarm annunciators, the OEM was provided with the following key benefits.

• Enabled the OEMs' easy migration to the latest IEC 61850 within a month with all the new facilities available in the protocol including the latest Edition support. This can be used for fetching the data from other devices and sending the combined alarm annunciator status to the SCADA system.
• The Alarm annunciators can continue to use their existing tool for all the configuration requirements.
• Made the device complete futuristic concerning protocols and its updating, by just licensing/updating the firmware whenever new versions/protocols would be available in SYNC.