A model-driven approach to Smart Substation automation and integration for Comision Federal de Electricidad

Historically, utility substation engineering and protection departments have tended to work independently from grid operations. For example, EMS (Energy Management System) or SCADA systems typically do not fully model substation protection schemes and conversely, substation protection schemes typically have limited knowledge of the power system network topology models of the grid. At CFE - Comision Federal de Electricidad, Mexico, this is exactly the challenge being faced. However the need for a “Smart Grid” or particularly a “Smart Substation” creates new requirements for real-time measurement data and utility model sharing between these two separate worlds. While protection and grid operations traditionally try to work closely to share more detailed information, it is likely that these departments still will not merge easily. Thus, there is a need for the introduction of a unified platform established in CFE that has visibility on merged network models and device models such that new overarching enterprise-wide applications can be developed for the utility. This paper discusses standards for network and device modeling can be leveraged to create an open and flexible development environment.