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fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TPWRD.2016.2598572, IEEE
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Smart Substation: State of Art and Future

Development
Qi Huang, Senior Member, IEEE, Shi Jing, Jian Li, Dongsheng Cai, Jie Wu and Wei Zhen

 information and adoption of open standards in substation [5].

Abstract—Smart substation, revolutionarily changing every Hence IEC 61850 was proposed, in which SV (Sample Value)
aspect of modern substation, is developing fast in the world and network is defined in process bus, enabling transmission of
in massive deployment in China. A smart substation is typically digitized sampled measured values from electronic instrument
implemented by sophisticated combination of smart primary
transformers to protection and control relays, smart substation
high voltage equipment and hierarchically networked secondary
devices. Based on IEC61850 communication protocol, the can be facilitated [6]. Modern substation automation system
functionalities such as the information sharing and based on IEC61850 has been a well-accepted technology to
interoperability among smart electric equipment are realized in provide infrastructure of smart grid in transmission system [7].
smart substations. It is regarded as the basis for the development Starting from the beginning of this century, the popular
of smart grid and represents the future development trend of application of electronic instrument transformer (EIT) based
substation technologies. This paper reviews the fundamental
on unconventional measurement theory greatly improves the
vision of smart substation. The state of arts and the challenges
encountered in the practice of engineering implementation are power system reliability and stability [8][9]. The optimized
presented. The future developments, to solve the present integrated design of primary and secondary system, especially
challenges and promote the development of smart substation, are in gas insulated substation (GIS), greatly enhances the
also described. intelligence level in substation control, reduces the secondary
Index Terms—Smart substation, smart grid, station-area cable and maintenance workload [10]. Now the digital
protection, IEC61850, smart primary high voltage equipment.
substations with IEC 61850 communication standard are
widely deployed in the world. The development of digital
I. INTRODUCTION
substation greatly speeds up the construction of substation and

T HE development of smart grid profoundly affects the

design, construction and operation of substation, which
serves as a point of access for various power system elements
reduce the cost both in construction and maintenance [11].
However, for implementation of intelligent functionalities,
there lack standards and specifications for system architecture
such as transmission lines, transformers, generators (including and network configuration in digital substation. Many of
renewable sources) and loads [1]. As a typical place to enable advanced applications cannot be realized due to the
the functionalities of monitoring, control, and secure operation incomplete information system and inconsistent
of the geographically widespread bulk power system, the communication interface. Other limitations of digital
substations are strategically important [2]. substation include the incompatibility (e.g., with IEC61970),
Traditional substations cannot satisfy the requirements of lack of verification and testing measures [1] [5].
modern complex power grid, which is characterized by In order to fully implement smart grid, two fundamental
expanded size, increased utilization of renewable energy and requirements are necessary: the dynamic condition
complex operational conditions [3]. Modern substation design management of primary high voltage (HV) equipment, and the
should consider high requirements for reliability, security, coordination between substation and higher level control
interoperability, re-configurability, controllability, center as well as inter-substation synergies [12]. Therefore, as
maintainability, flexibility, reduced cost and environmental the important node of smart transmission/distribution power
impact [4]. The demands for low-carbon and environment grid, a smart substation must be able to: 1) acquire and share
friendly production of electric power, highly interactive the real-time operation data; 2) realize the interaction among
control and high reliability, drive the digitization of the device information, operation & maintenance and dispatch
strategies; 3) realize optimized life-cycle asset management
based on real time conditions; and 4) support the power
This work was supported in part by Natural Science Foundation of China
(NFSC, Grant No. 51277022). system real-time control, smart regulation and many other
Qi Huang, Shi Jing, Jian Li and Dongsheng Cai are with Sichuan advanced applications [13].
Provincial Key Lab of Power System Wide-area Measurement and Control, The concept of smart substation is proposed based on digital
University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC),
Chengdu, Sichuan 611731, [Link]. (e-mail: hwong@[Link]). substation. In a smart substation, a uniform application
Jie Wu and Wei Zhen are with the Sichuan Provincial Key Lab of Power platform is built by adopting modern advanced sensor,
System Wide-Area Measurement and Control. They are also with Sichuan electronics, information, communication, control and software
Electric Power Test and Research Institute, Chengdu 610072, Sichuan, China
(e-mail: zhenwei34156@[Link])
technologies.

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voltage (HV) equipment[16][17]. The former guarantees the

System-wide
Protection & Control

flexible exchange and sharing of information. The later,

Other substation
Other substation
implemented by embedded advanced sensor and actuator,
SDH

SDH SDH
guarantees the interoperability among primary and secondary
SDH

GPS
Local Dispatch /Control
Center
devices, hence it enables the comprehensive monitoring of the
Gateway Database server Application Server
state of the HV devices. The smart HV equipment is also the
major difference compared to conventional digital substation.
The fully digitized information flow enables the replacement
of traditional cumbersome copper wires and hardwired
Station layer network

Station area Relay protection &

Relay protection &
measurement & interfaces with communication links by flexible high-speed
protection &
control IED
measurement &
control IED
Bay layer control IED

Process layer network

fiber optic cable. This makes the uniform interface possible,
Process layer network

Switching and reduces the cost and footprint as well. The most important
GOOSE/SV/1588
Switching
equipment equipment
impact is that advanced functions, such as station area
Smart Smart
MU MU
IEEE1588
Master clock
Terminal
protection and system-wide control, can be realized [18].
Terminal

ECT/EVT Different from the conventional substation, whose

Integrated smart
HV equipment
ECT/EVT

functionalities are realized by assembling components

Fig. 1. Power system operation, protection and control scenario with smart according to design, smart substation makes those
substation model. functionalities possible by field configuration of modularized
The advanced functionalities such as automatic operation components. The characteristics of smart substations can be
control of substation, condition based maintenance (CBM) of summarized as follows [5]:
equipment, self-adaption of operation state, distributed  Customized functionalities based on design
coordinated control and smart analysis & decision making etc.,  Integrated secondary system and smart primary
are implemented, ensuring a reliable, secure, economic and equipment
efficient power system [5].  Digitized data, standardized model, networked
China is leading in massive commercial deployment of information exchange, integrated applications and CBM
process bus and smart substation [14]. Till the end of year  Increased controllability and observability
2014, more than 1500 smart substations were constructed, and  Transition from traditional “passive regulation” to
State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) planned to construct “active control”
1400 smart substations in the year 2015[15]. The technical  Enhanced flexibility, security and reliability, and more
standards and guidelines for construction of smart substations environment friendly and compatible footprint
are formulated.
III. IMPACT OF SMART SUBSTATION
This paper will review the smart substation technologies,
and present the state of art. The most prominent aspects, as The impact of smart substation is profound in all aspects of
compared to those in conventional substations, such as substation design, operation and control, and even power
protection, design and operation will be elaborated. The system operation and control. In this paper, several aspects
challenges as well as the future development trend will be that are most greatly changed are described.
discussed. A. Primary high voltage equipment
The paper is organized as follows, Section II presents the
In a smart substation, the primary HV equipment should be
architecture of a typical smart substation and its highlighted
intelligent. An intelligent device is characterized by digital
characteristics, Section III discusses the impact of smart
measurement, networked control, visualized state monitoring,
substation on every aspect in a substation, Section IV presents integrated functionality, and interactive information. The
the challenge of current practical smart substation and the integrated smart primary HV equipment is the key to smart
strategic planning for next phase development, and Section V substation and smart grid. It is implemented by embedded
concludes the paper. smart component, which is composed of many IEDs
(Intelligent Electronic Device) designed for the measurement,
II. SMART SUBSTATION MODEL AND CHARACTERISTICS monitoring and control of the host equipment. In typical smart
Fig.1 shows the scenario of the power system operation, HV equipment, smart sensors or actuators are embedded in the
protection and control based on a smart substation. Inside a host HV equipment, while the smart component performs
smart substation, a so-called “three-layer-two-network” functionalities such as measurement, monitoring, control,
structure and IEC 61850 protocol are adopted. IEC 61850 metering and protection of the host equipment. These
supports a very powerful and flexible network-based, object- functions, integrated by advanced communication and
information technologies, are implemented localized to the
oriented communication implementation that allows for
host equipment [17].
flexible and expandable multivendor solutions, as well as
The most important smart HV equipment are electronic
standardized engineering and design.
instrument transformer (EIT) and smart switching devices
The most prominent characteristics of smart substation are (SSD) [17]. The extensive application of EITs avoid the
the networked substation automation system and smart high

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problems of electromagnetic saturation and complicated stronger ability to access important data, and reduced
secondary wiring, by replacing conventional electromagnetic configuration and system management time [13].
inductive current or potential transformers based on ferrous The measurement of main operation parameters (voltage and
cores and windings to measure heavy current and high voltage current) is generally performed by electronic instrument
in power system. EIT generally has the advantages such as transformer. In some of the smart substations, due to the
small size, light weight, low price, high accuracy, long life users’ anxiety about the EIT technology, conventional
span, broad bandwidth and better transient performance. With instrument transformers are still used. The signals are
EITs, precise and sophisticated data from substation primary digitized at the location of merging unit (MU). The sampled
equipment can be acquired. These data can be shared for output is available to protection and control through process
many applications, including operation, control and bus, and can be shared by many advanced functions.
maintenance, and many other purposes (e.g., market IEC 61850 has been identified as a cornerstone technology
applications). Unconventional sensing methods of EITs also for field device communications and general device object
ensure simple insulation structures (hence small footprint) and data modeling. A SAS can be easily represented in SCD
excellent dynamic performances [19]. (Substation Configuration Description) file in Substation
SSD is one of the key enablers for smart substation. Configuration description Language (SCL) format, and
Different from conventional switching devices, SSD adopts correlated to the primary HV system through SSD (System
standard communication interface (IEC61850), and integrates Specification Description). There are three logical networks
functionalities of the condition monitoring, measurement & (might be integrated into one physical network), i.e., GOOSE
control, protection and communication, satisfying the demand (Generic Object Oriented Substation Events), responsible for
for integrated power flow, information flow and fast and reliable transferring event data as well as the
service/business flow [20]. protection & control signal over entire substation networks,
Other smart HV equipment applications include the self- MMS(Manufacturing Message Specification), responsible for
evaluation and self-description of the conditions of operation, transferring real time process data and supervisory control
control and workload [21]. E.g., a typical smart transformer is information among networked devices and/or computer
composed of a HV transformer embedded with sensors for applications, and SV (Sampled Measured Values), responsible
neutral current, oil temperature, dissolved gas, partial for exchanging sampled value according to publish/subscribe
discharge and on-load tap changer, etc. mechanism. With high-speed Ethernet, the IEC 61850-based
Another aspect of smart primary HV equipment is the communication system will be able to manage all of the data
extensive application of power electronics in transformer and available at the process level as well as at the station level [26].
breaker, especially in some distribution substations [22]-[24]. With network communication and digital system, the
The solid-state devices which can provide the ability of functions of secondary systems are fundamentally evolving.
renewable integration, promising reliability and high Beside the traditional functions such as control, protection and
efficiency. This will significantly contribute to the high monitoring of primary system, SAS is expected to provide
controllability and integrated design in smart substation more information related to new functions such as the
technology. The short response time (a few ms) of solid state monitoring of the dynamic performance, the aging, and the
transformer and breaker can only be supported by high-speed dynamic capacity of the system. More advanced local
information processing, which is nearly not possible in analytics and data management shall be performed within the
traditional substations. It is necessary to model the multi time substation level [16].
scale dynamic behavior of various power electronic devices One of the profound changes in smart substation is that SAS
and build a multi-scale control and protection platform to systems are generally placed close to the bay in the switching
ensure that a power system penetrated with significant power yard [27]. Hence the assembled SAS technology emerges, in
electronic devices operates flexibly and efficiently. which the secondary system is integrated in a so-called “pre-
The smart primary HV equipment can help to facilitate many configured cabin”. An example of pre-configured cabin is
advanced functionalities such as advanced asset management, shown in Fig.2. The constituent secondary systems are
on-line monitoring, fault prediction, and CBM, greatly manufactured, integrated and tested in a factory. Then the
improving the asset utilization, reducing the life-cycle cost pre-configured cabin is shipped to the substation site and
and enhancing the reliability of power network. installed in the switching yard. All the components satisfy
“plug and play” and provide standard interface. This makes
B. Substation automation system
modular design and field configuration of various functions
The substation automation system (SAS) forms the basis for possible. The assemble-style construction of substation greatly
operation and control of transmission, distribution, and enhances the construction efficiency and convenience for
customer applications. The SAS in a smart substation is commissioning test & maintenance.
entirely based on IEC 61850. The design of a SAS is shifted Substation automation has slowly evolved from the classical
from function (protection, measurement, control, monitoring, remote terminal unit to popular network based terminal unit
communication, tele-control, fault recording and metering etc.) nowadays. It is believed that SAS in smart substation will
oriented in traditional substations to bay (bus bar, transformer, advocate towards a new evolutionary step in distributed
feeder and breaker etc.) oriented [25]. This design enables a
automation. Hence, novel complex wide area control and
hierarchical distributed automation system. The network-
protection can be implemented, and intermittent renewable
based architecture guarantees a system of better response time,
energy can be efficiently integrated by the power grid [2].

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Metering master station

IEC60870-5-102
Electricity data
Station layer
acquisition terminal
Station layer IEC61850-8-1
network
Bay layer Digital energy meter
(a) (b) IEC61850-9-2
Bay layer
Fig. 2. Pre-configured cabin for secondary system during construction of a
network
smart substation, (a) outside view and (b) internal view.
MU Proprietary
range
Security & Process layer vendor protocol
stability control network
power Process layer ECT EVT
network
inter- Wide-area Fig.4. The structure of a metering system in a smart substation.
station protection

station
The station-area and wide-area protection can be regarded
Station-area
cross protection
as the backup protection of localized protection, to speed up
bay the action time (0.3-0.5s). In order to improve the efficiency
Localized protection and coordination level in control area and system-wide area
bay
protection, more advanced enterprise system applications have
0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10 t(s) to be developed to coordinate the distributed intelligence in
Fig.3. Hierarchical protection scheme and its coordination. the substations.
D. Metering
C. Protection The smart substation ensures that the metering process
Although protection in smart substation can be regarded as achieves timeliness, high precision, high reliability and data
part of substation automation, it is discussed here because the uniqueness. Simultaneously, novel type of metering device is
protection is mostly impacted by smart substation at present light, small in size and inexpensive.
[28]. The metering system in a smart substation exchanges
The advanced SAS in a smart substation ensures the information upon IEC 61850 protocol, and the measurement
implementation of modern advanced control and protection, of electrical power is transformed from traditional analog
such as wide area control and protection, since the use of measurement to digital measurement. Digital metering system
high-speed peer-to-peer communications using GOOSE has the advantages such as fast data transmission &
messages and sampled values from MUs allows for the processing, high anti-disturbance capability, realizing the
introduction of distributed and wide-area applications. integrated real-time acquisition, transmission and processing
Traditional protection is generally equipment oriented, while of information. The highly integrated information platform of
smart substation can protect the power system as a whole [29]. smart substation greatly saves the engineering cost, and the
In conventional substation, protections generally work digital communication improves the reliability of metering
independently with grid operations. For example, EMS system. Furthermore, compared with traditional metering
(Energy Management System) or SCADA (Supervisory system, the EITs in digital metering have the advantages such
Control And Data Acquisition) systems typically do not fully as high accuracy, free from saturation and wide dynamic
model substation protection schemes and conversely, range [34].
substation protection schemes typically have limited Fig. 4 shows a typical diagram of smart substation metering
knowledge of the network topology models of the power grid system. The IEC 61850 can easily help transition from
[30][31]. In a smart substation, the functionalities such as traditional distributed metering system to a centralized scheme
relay protection, security & stability control and measurement with powerful networking and communication capability, and
in a substation can be integrated. Also, the measurement and allow seamless access of remote metering analysis system.
control in several stations can be integrated into an integrated The measurement of voltage and current signal is performed
digital system. Therefore, a hierarchical protection system can by ECT (Electronic Current Transformer) and EVT
be formed: local protection system, which is located close to (Electronic Voltage Transformer). Their digital outputs are
the HV equipment in the switching yard (generally placed in a assembled at an MU, and then available for many applications.
local cabinet); station area protection, responsible for cross- The energy metering is performed by a terminal installed at
bay protection; and wide-area protection, realizing system- bay layer. The master metering station receives the
level protection [32]. This configuration can protect the measurement from many terminals and performs necessary
integrity of power system, avoiding cascading failure even management functionalities about the metering system.
under significant penetration of intermittent distributed AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure) as well as smart
generation. Fig.3 describes the relationship of hierarchical meter is an integral part of the revolutionary smart grid
protection schemes [33]. The main protection may act in 20 to movement. The digital metering technology will play an
30 ms. The backup protection may extend to maximally 1.2s, important role in the development of smart substation.
to satisfy the requirement for selection and reliability. Although theoretically the digital metering would improve the

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metering accuracy (e.g., for a metering EIT with 0.2% can be synchronized with SNTP (Simple Network Time
accuracy, the traditional metering system with copper cable Protocol). For the devices at process layer and bay layer,
transmission may have an overall accuracy of 0.7%, while a sophisticated time synchronization scheme must be designed.
digital metering system with fiber transmission would reduce The physical interface for time synchronization in 9-2 is based
to 0.4% [35]), the digital metering also brings many upon the 1-PPS (Pulse Per Second) signals defined in IEC
challenges. When the signal is at small level, the error of 60044-8 [19]. The 1s accuracy requirement can only be
digital metering system may be relatively large. At present, it achieved by direct synchronization such as IRIG-B (Inter-
is necessary to develop calibration and error tracing Range Instrumentation Group) or IEEE 1588 [38]. IEEE 1588
techniques in digital metering, to improve the accuracy under provides a means of distributing time across a substation that
special conditions caused by many complex operation compensates for propagation delay and provides absolute time,
conditions, e.g., the non-sinusoidal condition caused by hence can be used for process layer synchronization[41][42].
penetration of renewable energy [36]. However, at present, due to the doubt about the uncertainties
caused by network communication, IRIG-B is popularly used,
E. Time Synchronization
forming a so-called “direct-sampling-direct-tripping”
It is necessary to establish a uniform time clock in a modern measurement and protection system.
large-scale interconnected power system [37]. Precise time
clock allows to improve system reliability, reduce costs, better F. Operation and maintenance
understand power system operation, predict and prevent Smart substation is characterized by highly integrated system,
system-wide faults, test and verify the operation of protective smart devices, automatic operation control, standardized
devices. For the analysis, power engineers may need to cross- information exchange, and coordinated protection and control.
check system-wide events at certain given time. For control, The deployment of smart substation will significantly change
the devices need to operate sequentially according to the the management, operation, maintenance and dispatch [5]. For
absolute time reference. For the substation itself, the normal management crew, a whole-view data platform is deployed, to
operation of a digital system heavily relies on the fact that facilitate whole-view knowledge of devices’ state and full life
every constituent component works at the same pace. cycle device management. For operation crew, the integrated
The automation system in a substation is a mission critical smart operation & control, and smart inspection as well as
task and must be synchronized across large-scale distributed visualized devices’ state enable the advanced technologies
power switches in a substation to enable smooth power such as smart sequence control, integrated dispatch and
transfer and maintain the integrity of power system. The control, station-area protection, smart early-warning and
requirement of time synchronization in a substation can be decision-making, fault isolation and system recovery, optimal
categorized into 5 classes, from 1s (T5 class, e.g., for operation and control, and interaction with large customers.
metering) to 1ms (T1 class, e.g., for event time stamping) For maintenance crew, the interconnected smart devices, on-
[38]. line monitoring systems and powerful information platform
As far as substation automation is concerned, the following ensure the transition from planned maintenance to CBM. And
applications require time synchronization: real-time data it is possible to achieve PHM (Prognostics and Health
acquisition from IEDs, RTUs and MUs; real-time process Management) with advanced asset management information
control of equipment like protection relays; fault recording for and real-time operation information of both primary and
fault and performance analysis; and transmission of Ethernet secondary system [43]. For dispatch crew, increased
protocols like GOOSE and MMS. It is expected to transition controllability and observability are realized by advanced
to ubiquitous time synchronization in future smart substation. power network analysis functionalities. All these
Fortunately, advances in electronic engineering and high- functionalities ensure a fast automatic responsive power
speed communications have made precise time network, reducing fault recovery time, and enhancing the
synchronization in the power grid more practical and cost- efficiency of power system operation management.
effective. The successful application of satellite time The operation and maintenance of smart substation will be
synchronization in synchrophasor and WAMS (Wide-area easier than traditional ones. However, the digitized
Measurement System) has proven that Satellite time information flow in fiber optic cable is not transparent to
synchronization such as GPS (Global Positioning System) is a operators and maintenance crews. It is necessary to deploy
reliable high-performance synchronization technology, proper information platform to provide virtual logical
especially in wide-area network environment [39]. However, relationship among every device. Also, it is possible to
stability and accuracy of satellite time synchronization may develop some advanced test approach, e.g., whole-view test,
subject to the influence of ionosphere. Furthermore, the to ensure that the networked secondary system works as
stringent requirements for installation and comparatively high desired with acceptable performance [1][44].
cost would limit the massive deployment in a substation [40].
G. Auxiliary system
At present, synchronization over LAN (Local Area
Network), which is enabled by networked communication, is The smart auxiliary system integrates the video monitoring
widely adopted in smart substation. The master time source is system, as well as other environmental monitoring systems
placed at the station layer, establishing a uniform station-wide that do not directly relate to the production of electric power,
time clock. The time source is generally from a satellite, to solving the “monitoring and control island” problem in
synchronize with other substations. The station layer devices traditional substations. The physical security of power system

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TABLE I THE COMPARISON OF SUBSTATION EVOLUTION

Smart substation
Item to compare Conventional substation Digital substation
State of art Next generation
Structure of substation Bay layer, station layer Process layer, bay layer and Process layer, bay layer and Integrated process layer and
automation system station layer station layer bay layer, station layer
Substation automation Comprehensive substation Repeated data acquisition, Repeated data acquisition, Shared data; integrated
automation information island information island station area functions
Electromagnetic instrument Hybrid electromagnetic Hybrid electromagnetic EIT
Link to primary equipment
transformer transformer and EIT transformer and EIT
Only transmit remote Only transmit remote Transmit complete data and Transmit complete data and
Link to master dispatch
measurement, state, control and measurement, state, control models models
station
regulation and regulation
Proprietary, IEC60870-5-103 IEC61850, support IEC61850, support IEC61850, support
Communication protocol interoperability interoperability, compatible interoperability, compatible
with IEC61970 with IEC61970
Involved with large number of Involved with large number Networked communication, Hierarchical protection
hard-copper-wire of hard-copper-wire no protocol conversion,
Relay protection
better interoperability;
distributed
Limited to SOE (sequence of Require the synchronization Uniform station-area Uniform accurate station-
Time synchronization events) of data acquisition synchronized time, SNTP, area synchronized time,
IRIG-B SNTP, IRIG-B, IEEE1588
Separated from secondary Separated from secondary Intellectualization of Smart primary devices
Primary equipment
devices devices primary devices
Hard to implement Networked analysis function Integrated data platform More advanced functions
Advanced applications available will be deployed on
integrated data platform
Confusing information; Digitized information Integration of auxiliary Integration of auxiliary
complicated protocol; work system and SCADA based system and SCADA based
Auxiliary system
independently on IEC61850; intelligent on IEC61850; intelligent
linkage control linkage control

can be greatly enhanced by linkage control. Therefore, it is The backbone of a successful smart substation operation is a
necessary to integrate the AMS (Auxiliary Monitoring reliable, resilient, secure, and manageable standards-based
System), such as video monitoring, safety guard, fire alarm, open communication infrastructure that provides for
environmental monitoring, SF6 gas leakage monitoring, intelligent linkages among the elements of the power grid
access control, lighting, air-conditioning, fans and pumps in while participating in the decision making that delivers value
the substation, into an integrated system with primary and to the utility, supply, and demand entities connected to it. In a
secondary system [16]. This was impossible in traditional smart substation, the AMS should be connected to the
substation, where the AMS are operating independently and integrated information platform and linkage control should be
there is no linkage control among these systems. This situation implemented to realize event-driven surveillance, so that its
leads to low security level, and increases the workload of control and operation will be more secure and reliable [45].
personnel as well as associated cost. Without the linkage Fig.5 is a typical structure of AMS in a smart substation, in
control system, many events cannot be effectively prevented, which the AMS is allotted in security region II and is isolated
which greatly limits the performance of AMS. from security region I (where the smart substation primary and
To dispatching
& control center
To other master stations
secondary system locate) by a firewall. Therefore, the AMS
Data
should be modeled by IEC 61850 in a smart substation, so that
communication
Comprehensive gateway the unified platform can access all data of the substation.
application
server

Security Region Ⅰ: IV. FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

Smart substation
primary &
secondary system
Region Ⅱ Region Ⅲ,Ⅳ
At present, the ideal smart substation as described in Fig.1 is
To master To master
still under development and not found in engineering practice.
video
stations
metering
stations The available smart substations can be categorized into
transitional substation and practical substation. In the first one,
only the station layer and bay layer are implemented;
traditional current/voltage transformers are used in the process
Fire/safety/environment
video
On-line Power
Metering
layer. In the second one, three layers are all implemented.
monitoring monitoring supply
However, it is found that the EIT technology cannot fully
satisfy the technical requirements in some substations [19]. In
Fig. 5. The structure of the auxiliary system in a smart substation. order to fully implement the smart substation, it is necessary
to improve the EIT and smart HV equipment technologies.
Also, the practical problems, such as electromagnetic

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7

compatibility, low-reliability and short life-span of electronic [8] Shenglin Wang, Xin Cao, Lei Chen. Study of ECT based on Rogowski
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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TPWRD.2016.2598572, IEEE
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[30] R. Lopez, A. Moore, J. Gillerman. A model-driven approach to Smart Huang Qi (S99, M03, SM09) was born in Guizhou
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Talebi. Performance evaluation of energy meters in nonsinusoidal China, MS and and Ph.D degree from University of
environment based on IEEE 1459 standard. 22nd International Electronic Science and Technology of China(UESTC),
Conference and Exhibition on Electricity Distribution (CIRED 2013), Chengdu, Sichuan, P.R. China, in 2006 and 2013
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Symposium (NAPS), 2014, pp.1 - 6 scholarship by China Scholarship Council (CSC) to
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pp. 1-6 automation in 1982, from Xi’an Jiaotong University
[48] Jorge Cardenas, Alberto Lopez De Viñaspre, Rodrigo Argandona, (XJTU), Xi’an, Shanxi, China. After that, he works in
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protection, power system analysis and state-of-the-art
technology development.

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