ITEE Innovation Expo 2008 : Project Details

IEEE 61499 Tutorial, Demonstration and Investigation

Abstract

To ensure the reliability and quality of supply in electricity distribution networks, distribution companies are moving toward a smart or active network concept. This involves a lot of changes in the entire network, ranging from automated fault isolation and supply restoration to seamless accommodation of a range of embedded energy sources such as solar PV. To be able to accommodate these changes to the distribution networks, modern standards and technologies have to be created and assessed.

IEC 61499 is a new international standard for distributed control systems and automation. It aims to be the successor of IEC 61131-3 standard which define function blocks in the PLC language. Its goal is to improve software productivity through the re-use of standard solutions and also improve the design flexibility by being able to plug-and-play software and devices from different vendors. IEC 61499 will try to overcome the hurdle of “semantic integration” of distributed components.

The aim of the thesis is to investigate and demonstrate a IEC 61499 standard-based replacement for DAS (Distributed Auto-Sequencer), which is being used by ENERGEX at the moment for arbitrary intra- and inter-substation sequences. The tool for IEC 61499 application development and testing for the purposes of this thesis is Function Block Development Kit (FBDK). This is a freely-distributed Java-based software development tool which is intended to allow users to develop and simulate IEC 61499 applications on a single platform and on specific Java controllers. The DAS Auto-changeover scheme 040 involving three sub-stations was used as a model for inter substation sequence and was modelled in FBDK using Function Blocks. The sub-stations are each modelled as having two high voltage transformers and two circuit breakers remotely controlled by the central command centre. The result was shown in a Java-based simulation with options to set the triggering conditions for the Auto-changeover scheme to get into running mode.