5.4. ERMUSR 01-08-2013 Elk River
Municipal Utilities UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING
TO: FROM:
Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission Wade Lovelette— Superintendent of Technical
John Dietz, Chair Services
Daryl Thompson, Vice Chair
Allan Nadeau, Trustee
MEETING DATE: AGENDA ITEM NUMBER:
January 8, 2013 5.4
SUBJECT:
Electric Distribution System Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition Project (SCADA)
BACKGROUND:
In March of this year we had met with United Services Group (USG) to go over
Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) plans and get it installed at each of our
substations. This gives us real-time data and control of switching from remote locations. In other
words, each of our substations can be monitored and controlled by a computer.
DISCUSSION:
Part of the installation costs were saved by us providing the labor to do the trenching and
pulling of the wire and fiber optic cable. We had to change the controllers for the breakers at
each feeder. Each controller has a fiber optic communication card that talks to the computer to
gives us the information that we are requesting. SCADA can also be used as a safety tool in
LockOut-TagOut.
This system will be beneficial for our Outage Management System (OMS). During
outages we can see if a main feeder has tripped out or if the outage is localized to a smaller area.
It will also give us control of the feeders at the power plant or from a laptop computer.
Today, we can see every one of our substations and what the amperages, voltages and
power factors are on our computers. The affected employees have been trained in cyber security
and operation of SCADA through USG. We are using it to just view only. We will eventually be
able to open and close breakers, set them to non-reclosing, ground trip block and then return
them to normal operations.
I have set up the laptop to show what it looks like on a computer screen.
ACTION REQUESTED:
No action needed.
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