9.10 Substation Automation

Substation automation is not an easy thing to be achieved in existing substations. Automation in a substation is considered as provision of new generation intelligent electronic devices (IEDs), programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and computers to monitor and communicate. It is always simple to incorporate these components in new substations at the design stage itself. But in an existing substation, which is already using some old types relays, automation is a question of what can be done to reduce the operating expenses and improve customer service, from practical and economical viewpoint. One way to improve customer service is giving the control over the feeder breakers to the operator of distribution substations. This effectively reduces the number of trips that have to be made to substations and allows service to be restored more rapidly after an outage. The question is also, how the operator is able to decide the tripping or otherwise of certain feeders, which are achieved by the capability of the substation to record the data over a period.