Electricity Utility - Protection Relays

The Client Issue
How to retain and manage a wide variety of setting data related to Protection Relays and be able to bring together this information into a Circuit Protection document while not restricting the processes of the Network Protection Officers?

Background Information
Protection Relays are a cornerstone of the Network Protection strategy of any Electricity Utility. They hold vital setting information that determines the reliability and safety of the Electricity Network.
A set of Protection Relays is nearly always configured to work in unison to protect a particular section of the Network. Each relay is configured with settings particular to the section of Network they are protecting and the role that the relay is to perform. Establishing the correct settings for a relay is undertaken with considerable attention to detail and requires a level of skill and understanding particular to this specialty field. Establishing the settings and producing a Circuit Protection document can be very time consuming.
Of course, relay manufacturers have decided over the course of time to create protection relays with all manner of different functionality, and with the advent of electronic relays, with all manner of functionality. Setting data can be quite different between relay types and between different manufacturers.
Relay manufacturers provide setting output files for their electronic relays. These output files are usually produced in proprietary formats only used the particular manufacturer. Many of these settings can be copied and pasted from these output files.

The EMS-WASP® Solution
The EMS-WASP® Asset Register is highly configurable for both asset categorisation and attribution. It allows the connection of asset objects one to another by way of configurable relationship types and connection rules. It was determined that the best configuration of the asset register for the required solution would be to create new asset categories of Protection Relays and Protection Circuits. Assets recorded in these categories would then be related by a new "Circuit Protection" relationship. Attributes on both categories would hold key information that could be used in the production of Circuit Protection documents.
Relay Settings needed a special solution due to the variation in the quantity and structure of the settings between different relays. It was determined that all relay settings for all relay types could be held in a common format. From this commonly formatted data, the production of Circuit Protection documents would become achievable.
To address the problem of achieving data in a common format, the solution needed to accommodate several common problems. It needed to be easy to use and be future proof i.e. be capable of working with new types of relays and therefore settings without reconfiguration or rewriting the solution. It was determined that Protection Officers could format the setting data from any type of relay from into manufacturer into a template spreadsheet that held the common data format. The template had very few rules therefore meeting the requirement of being easy to use while still being future proof.
Using the solution meant the Protection Officer would now register the Protection Relay as an asset and relate it to the Protection Circuit it belonged to. From a new security controlled screen in the asset register, the Protection Officer can generate the empty spreadsheet file that will receive the settings. With the file now available, the Protection Officer can complete the spreadsheet with the setting data. On completion the Protection Officer can upload the settings into the EMS-WASP® database. Once all Protection Circuit relays are loaded, the Protection Officer can produce the Circuit Protection document.
To facilitate changes or re-use of relay setting data on another relay, the settings from an existing relay can be copied to become the final or initial settings of a new or another relay. These settings can be reworked before saving into the EMS-WASP® database.

The Business Benefits
This solution brought with it many business benefits. The Network Protection Officers were consulted and involved throughout the analysis, implementation and acceptance phases of the solution. They were given and took ownership of "their" solution to "their" business issue. The corporate operational asset register now contained Protection Circuits and Protection Relays related to each other and other Network infrastructure assets. The Protection Relay setting data for all relays was now held in a common format, was therefore available for analysis and all held in a robust corporate data repository.
Network Protection Managers now had a well defined and auditable business process for maintaining network protection data. Other organisational staff had access to protection asset and setting data from a reliable corporate repository.

Protection Control document is now a consistent and manageable process with many steps now being automated by the involvement of a dedicated Protection Setting screen for protection assets and common EMS-WASP® data processing functionality. Protection Control documents can be generated, reproduced and are maintained by the normal business processes including the maintenance of network assets, protection assets and setting data.
Other information sources relating to protection assets can be associated with the asset objects in the EMS-WASP® Asset Register. Many stand alone protection information data repositories were archived following data transfer to the EMS-WASP® Asset Register.
Time savings have been achieved by –

• Introduction of a well understood common business process for managing all Network Protection assets and data.
• Protection data is now available in a common format from a widely available corporate repository.
• Automation of the production of Protection Control documents.
  

Organisational risk has been reduced by the moving of Network Protection data into a robust corporate operational Asset Register. The solution is now self managed and maintained by the Network Protection Officers ensuring a continued repayment of investment to the organisation.