Printable Agenda

DAY 1: Tuesday, June 26, 2012

7:30-8:30am Sign-in and Breakfast (provided)  

8:30-9:30am Central Lincoln PUD's Update on Smart Grid Project

       Presented by Shamus Gamache and Joseph Monsanto, Central Lincoln PUD

Central Lincoln People's Utility District (Central Lincoln PUD) is deploying advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and distribution automation assets as part of their Smart Grid Team 2020. In addition to the AMI, Central Lincoln PUD is also upgrading its electric infrastructure with an improved supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system, installation of an outage management system, automated distribution feeder controls, and regulators. Central Lincoln is also upgrading their substations with the latest technology including advanced real-time transformer monitoring and panel meters.  The enhancements improve power quality, system reliability, and system efficiency. 

9:30-10:30am Benton REA's Automation Project at White Pass Ski Area's Large

       Expansion Project

       Presented by Mark Hay, Benton REA

White Pass Ski Area is at the summit of US 12 located just 12 miles southeast of Mt. Rainier National Park. After decades of perseverance, White Pass is proud to announce the opening of Paradise Basin,an addition of 767 acres that doubles the size of the ski area. The extreme conditions and distance from the home office gave Benton REA a challenge to upgrade this portion of their system. The obvious need to improve reliability and communications to the IED's in the field was essential to keep this critical customer up and running. Mark Hay from Benton REA will discuss their system upgrade and what their next move will be for future expansion.

10:30-10:45am Coffee Break

10:45am-Noon Ten-Minute Presentations on the Latest Automation Technology

       from Various Manufacturers

       Presented by experts from the first 7 manufacturers

Noon-1:10pm LUNCH (provided)

1:10-2:30pm Easy Relay Integration into a Substation RTU and Developing an

       Economical Substation HMI

       Presented By John Popiak, Novatech

In the past, utilities have spent a lot of money creating and supporting local HMI solutions for their substation automation projects. You can now have a local HMI solution that uses an open-source graphics package (Inkscape) to build interactive screens accessible from standard web browsers. A browser can connect to a substation Gateway and view data from connected IEDs and RTUs. WEBserver displays can range from a single text-based screen to detailed substation one-line drawings with multiple password-protected drill-down screens for viewing IED data or establishing a pass-through connection with the IED. WEBserver pages for Data Archiving/Sequence of Events Recording and Alarm Annunciation are also available. No license fees or annual maintenance fees are associated with this open-source software!

When new relay models are introduced utilities are forced to create a new Default File for that specific new relay model. In the past, this has been a time consuming chore for the automation engineer. New technology simplifies the Default File creation process by automating the extraction of the relay "ID" and "DNA" from the new relay model. Using this data, the Gateway automatically creates the new complete and accurate Default File. The entire process only takes a few minutes.

2:30-2:45pm Coffee Break

2:45-4:15pm Migration to Ethernet - Advantages and Obstacles

      Presented by John Merryman, GarrettCom

4:15-4:30pm Open for Questions and Discussion

~~ Speakers, Attendees, and their Guests are Invited to DINNER at the acclaimed Paragon Restaurant in Portland's historic Pearl District ~~

DAY 2: Wednesday, June 27, 2012

7:30-8:30am Sign-In and Breakfast (provided), and 

NEW optional presentation over breakfast:  

Overview of the New Iniven Fidra Fiber Optic Switch

Presented by Mal Swanson, Iniven

The Fidra is a fiber-optic switch designed to monitor, reroute, repeat, boost and disable up to 3 fiber optic communication pairs. Utilizing industry standard SFP modules allows Fidra to support various optical communications including single/multimode, LED/Laser as well as multiple wavelengths. Common applications for Fidra include communications disabling; fiber optic path routing; wavelength and fiber type conversion; level monitoring; and local and remote loopback testing.  The Fidra was designed for applications such as protective relaying and other environments where substation hardened equipment is required. It resides in line with equipment utilizing fiber optic communications. It allows for testing and maintenance without the need to remove and reroute fiber cables, eliminating costly fiber damage and ruining components caused by improper handling.

8:30-9:30am Power System Equipment Monitoring - Today's "How's" and "Why's"  

Presented by Chris Dyer, POWER Engineers 

Power system apparatus, relays, and meters have traditionally been monitored and maintained manually on a scheduled basis. This has always been an imprecise science, and certainly a resource-intensive endeavor. Today, as result of technological advancements in automated monitoring equipment and communications infrastructure, and as necessitated by a shrinking workforce and increased regulatory pressures, more utilities are considering or implementing automated monitoring systems, including condition-based monitoring (CBM) and reporting. In this presentation, we discuss the drivers behind this evolution in monitoring, including a few brief case studies, and a look ahead to what's next.

9:30-10:30am Klickitat PUD's Implementation of Substation Gateway for Integration        into Substation Automation at XYZ Substation

       Presented by Ron Schultz, Klickitat PUD

This presentation will start with some background information about Klickitat PUD: their location, service territory, customers, distribution system and transmission system. Topics will include projects such as McNary Dam co-gen, wind projects, Landfill Gas... original plant and new CT Plant expansion.  Then the discussion will describe how Klickitat PUD grew from their original SCADA system, along with their transmission business line, and the need for the Orion substation automation system. It will cover what the Orion does and how it works, how they implemented it and why. Klicktat PUD's Ron Schultz will show some of the information reports they get and how they are used. The discussion will introduce future requirements and plans, including another backup Orion for TEA and proposed implementation of another Orion for their SCADA system.   

10:30-10:45am Coffee Break

10:45am-Noon Ten-Minute Presentations on the Latest Automation Technology

        from Various Manufacturers

        Presented by experts from the second 7 manufacturers

1:10-2:10pm Using GPS for NTP Server Time Synchronization; IEEE 1588 PTP

       Overview

       Presented by Steve Myers, Arbiter Systems

This technical talk describes how network time servers can obtain accurate timing information to provide a precise reference for computer time synchronization. It also discusses how NTP servers can utilize the atomic time generated by GPS to provide a timing reference for utility networks. Network Time Protocol, or NTP as it is more commonly known, provides a mechanism to synchronize the time of computing devices and other network infrastructure.

Precise time information is especially important for distributed systems in automation technology. With the Precision Time Protocol (PTP) described in IEEE 1588, it is possible to synchronize distributed clocks with an accuracy of less than 1 microsecond via Ethernet networks for the very first time. The demands on the local clocks and the network and computing capacity are relatively low. PTP knows different types of clocks and acts as a master to slave protocol. A clock in an end device is known as an ordinary clock, a clock in a transmission component like an Ethernet Switch is a boundary clock (BC) or transparent clock (TC). A master which is controlled ideally by a GPS receiver, synchronizes the respective slaves connected to it.

2:10-3:10pm Video Monitoring Solutions for Electric Utilities - Issues,

        Requirements, and Examples

        Presented by Anselm Viswasam, Systems With Intelligence (SWI)

Video systems have the versatility to be used for a wide range of applications within electrical substations, power plants, and other critical infrastructure. Although typically used for security, video systems can also be used for equipment monitoring, asset management, process control and safety. However, many challenges exist in implementing highly reliable video monitoring solutions due to the unique conditions present within a utility substation. In addition, sites that need to be monitored are typically located in remote areas with no personnel onsite and only a low bandwidth channel for communications. This presentation will introduce several real-world scenarios, examine the various issues and requirements needed for reliable and effective video monitoring solutions and present guidelines for video systems design and architecture for Utility Substations.

3:10-3:30pm Coffee Break

3:30-4:30pm Substation Integration: A Brief, Hands-On Look at Developing an

        Connecting IED's on an Automation Network