A substation automation system for the ECOPETROL power plants at Cantagallo and Yariguí

The following paper shows the birth and development of a distributed automation system at the Cantagallo and Yariguí electrical generation centers. An architecture based on MODBUS at the I/O devices layer and an Ethernet network as core for the communications is proposed. It is important to highlight that the Cantagallo center is operated remotely. System integration is implemented by a Vijeo Citect SCADA, there, the use of the several Modbus protocol versions is predominant at the generation centers hardware. It also shows the software involving the Quantum PLC programming, the HMI application and the SCADA which will be the main automation component. Currently the application is successfully working at the two ECOPETROL generation centers.