Application of the Fiber Optic Network in Underground Protection Systems

This article describes the application of a communication network using optical fiber in underground protection systems. This application aims to use optical fiber in order to remove electromagnetic and atmospheric interference in these systems, increase the data transmission capacity and maintain a low operational cost. This fiber optic network is developed with the ring communication topology, allowing the use of communication protocols such as DNP3 and those within the IEC 61850 standard (MMS and GOOSE). As a redundancy protocol, this network will use the REP (Resilient Ethernet Protocol) as an alternative to the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP). As protection systems, Underground Fault Tracking, Distribution Transformer Sensing, Self-healing and Logical Selectivity initiatives will be studied. The content presented in this article is part of the Urban Futurability research and development (R&D) project, from Enel Distribuição São Paulo. The project was carried out in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, in a region with a high-density load and about 20,000 consumer units of the residential and commercial type.