Real-Time safety: Analyzing coordination time for networked automation systems

safety is the main concern during electric power fault clearance. The main objective of automation systems, in this circumstance, is to coordinate protection functions to avoid potential risks. These risks may cause both economic and societal losses. The failure of protection coordination could lead to non-clearance of power faults. Besides, the long duration of these faults may lead to melted materials and blasts. Hence, faults continuity causes severe consequences. The role of communication network should be therefore evaluated. This paper analyzes contributions of automation system networks, such as their latency, during faults clearance. To validate network design in safety applications, protection, automation and coordination must respect time-critical constraints. Results prove that faults of communication network and inappropriate configuration can cause delayed arc-flash clearance. Additionally, the paper proposes mitigating techniques such as priority policies and use of virtual local networks to reduce End-To-End delays.