Application of remote input and output for breaker controls and alarms using serial fiber optic cables

Distributed Generation... Wide Area Management Systems... Synchrophasors... Alternative Energy... Cyber Security... IEC 61850... AMI...and finally, the granddaddy of them all, SMART GRID. In just a few years, the electric transmission system has gone from obscurity, to a high-profile Wall Street darling, saturated with buzz words, acronyms, and new products. An industry that has changed little over the past hundred years is suddenly thrust into a dynamic environment where dramatic change is required to keep abreast of both customer expectations and federal regulations. With so much noise in the industry, it is difficult to determine which designs and new technologies will help improve the transmission grid, as well as integrate easily with already existing standards and equipment. At Entergy, we believe that the path to future enhancements in our grid lie firmly in the hands of a solid communications infrastructure. Without communications, the so-called “Smart Grid” can never be achieved and we see advanced communications systems as the enabling technology that will allow us to vastly improve every facet of our operations. Relay design engineers, in particular, can see the benefits of such an infrastructure. Intelligent relays capable of using communications networks instead of copper cables can realize faster operations and easier access to information. We are just beginning to scratch the surface of the capabilities of communications enabled relays, and at Entergy's Neches Substation, we took a large step forward with an experiment that challenged our existing standards, and forced us to look at relaying in a new light. We developed and implemented a plan to use a fiber communications medium instead of copper to accomplish breaker commands as well as alarm collection. We also developed plans to build a fiber Ethernet network used exclusively for relays communications. This paper will discuss our designs, successes, and failures in our real-world experiment.