UCA Presentation

SEAMLESS REAL-TIME INFORMATION INTEGRATION ACROSS THE UTILITY ENTERPRISE TO REDUCE COSTS

1. Summary
Utility deregulation is expanding and creating demands to integrate, consolidate and disseminate real-time information quickly and accurately within utilities. Utilities spend an ever-increasing amount for real-time information exchange; costs for utility-wide system integration and data maintenance are exploding. The IEEE has published a suite of international standards in the "Utility Communications Architecture" (UCA, IEEE TR 1550) that meets these requirements.

UCA's objective is to dramatically improve device data integration into the information and automation technology, reducing costs for engineering, commissioning, operation, monitoring, diagnostics, and maintenance, and increasing the agility of the whole life cycle of a substation. UCA differs from most previous utility protocols in its use of object models of devices and device components. These models define common data formats, identifiers, and controls, e.g., for substation and feeder devices such as switches, voltage regulators, and relays. The models specify standardised behaviour for the most common device functions.

The standards selected in UCA (Ethernet, TCP/IP, and MMS) define and communicate data and metadata: some 3,000 standardised objects with names and type information which can be used by applications for on-line verification of the integration and configuration of databases throughout the utility and for online data exchange. Metadata provides self-description that significantly reduces the cost of data management, and reduces down time due to configuration errors.

The UCA models, services, and protocols for substation devices are currently being integrated into the drafts IEC 61850 (Communication networks and systems in substations; to be balloted by end of 2000).

This paper gives an overview on utility's crucial integration requirements, the IEEE UCA (IEC 61850) solution, and the seamless utility-wide data integration.

2. Objectives of UCA
The objective of UCA is to provide for seamless integration across the utility enterprise using off-the-shelf international standards to reduce costs. UCA Version 2.0 has been published as IEEE technical report TR1550 in November 1999.
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EPRI and NettedAutomation offer a CD ROM containing a UCA/IEC 61850 and MMS Evaluation Kit as well as the UCA Specification: the EPRI Version 1 and the IEEE Version 2 (Nov 99) for the fastest possible start to learn about UCA technology.

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	UCA Presentation at Power-Gen Asia in Bangkok by Karlheinz Schwarz on Friday 22.September 2000 the fastest possible start to learn about UCA technology SEAMLESS REAL-TIME INFORMATION INTEGRATION ACROSS THE UTILITY ENTERPRISE TO REDUCE COSTS 1. Summary Utility deregulation is expanding and creating demands to integrate, consolidate and disseminate real-time information quickly and accurately within utilities. Utilities spend an ever-increasing amount for real-time information exchange; costs for utility-wide system integration and data maintenance are exploding. The IEEE has published a suite of international standards in the "Utility Communications Architecture" (UCA, IEEE TR 1550) that meets these requirements. UCA's objective is to dramatically improve device data integration into the information and automation technology, reducing costs for engineering, commissioning, operation, monitoring, diagnostics, and maintenance, and increasing the agility of the whole life cycle of a substation. UCA differs from most previous utility protocols in its use of object models of devices and device components. These models define common data formats, identifiers, and controls, e.g., for substation and feeder devices such as switches, voltage regulators, and relays. The models specify standardised behaviour for the most common device functions. The standards selected in UCA (Ethernet, TCP/IP, and MMS) define and communicate data and metadata: some 3,000 standardised objects with names and type information which can be used by applications for on-line verification of the integration and configuration of databases throughout the utility and for online data exchange. Metadata provides self-description that significantly reduces the cost of data management, and reduces down time due to configuration errors. The UCA models, services, and protocols for substation devices are currently being integrated into the drafts IEC 61850 (Communication networks and systems in substations; to be balloted by end of 2000). This paper gives an overview on utility's crucial integration requirements, the IEEE UCA (IEC 61850) solution, and the seamless utility-wide data integration. 2. Objectives of UCA The objective of UCA is to provide for seamless integration across the utility enterprise using off-the-shelf international standards to reduce costs. UCA Version 2.0 has been published as IEEE technical report TR1550 in November 1999. ... EPRI and NettedAutomation offer a CD ROM containing a UCA/IEC 61850 and MMS Evaluation Kit as well as the UCA Specification: the EPRI Version 1 and the IEEE Version 2 (Nov 99) for the fastest possible start to learn about UCA technology.