Upgrades to remote-control systems at EDF GDF services

EDF is upgrading its distribution network remote control systems. By the end of 1997, three centres run by EDF GDF Services (in Paris, Lyon and Versailles) will be equipped with a Siemens SCADA system. A number of functions developed by EDF as part of work on the Austral project (event reporting, diagnostics, service resumption assistance, etc.) will then be implemented on the SCADAs at Lyon and Versailles. At the same time, an alternative upgrade solution is being investigated for the 75 computerized remote control systems (CRSs) developed by EDF around 1980. In December 1996, EDF started experimentation on a new prototype SCADA at the Nimes centre. For this prototype, the existing real-time CRS software, with all its functionalities, was ported onto a Unix workstation. High-reliability communication with the primary substations is provided by a meshed X25 transmission network and all data on primary substations and the medium-voltage grid is managed by a new configurator. To facilitate incident analysis, an off-the-shelf user interface will provide graphic representations of the grid in different degrees of detail: with dynamic colour coding of feeders. The new architecture for the prototype SCADA implements object-oriented data modelling of the grid components. Application modules-developed by EDF (e.g. Austral functions) or third-party manufacturers (e.g. user interface with dynamic colour-coding of grid features)-will then be able to access this data much more easily than they did on the previous architectures, which used remote procedure calls. This new approach will be one of the first practical applications of recent EPRI and IEC work on open upgradeable remote control systems.