Presentation: Piloting a Centralized Remedial Action Scheme (C-RAS) with Emerging Telecomm / Protection Technologies

One of the major issues facing electric utilities today is the optimization of the delivery of generation through constrained transmission networks. It is a common practice to deploy remedial action protection schemes at substations to protect facilities from overloading under contingency conditions. Such deployment strategies are difficult to implement and maintain. They have high development and maintenance costs, they are labor and hardware intensive, and process improvements are difficult. SCE is in the process of developing and deploying a state-of-the-art Centralized Remedial Action Scheme (C-RAS) project. The project relies on IEC 61850, high speed control center to substation telecom links, OSIsoft PI, and a unique architecture that provides the potential to react and control within 50 milliseconds of any major substation configuration and related data changes. The presentation will discuss the architecture, technical and business benefits, and report on the project results.