LAN based data communication in modern energy management systems (EMS)

The use of energy management systems (EMS) demands high reliability, real-time behaviour and more and more economical systems. The last demand requires the use of inexpensive standard components, whenever possible. The following article discusses the realization of EMS, especially system communication, with respect to these constraints. Problems due to conventional use of standardized communication protocols in distributed supervisory systems in general and highly-reliable systems in particular are shown. Multicast communication concepts are presented as solutions, using standardized protocols in a problem specific way. The presented concepts fulfill the necessity of using standard components as wed as the specific demands towards EMS.