Remote Resource Guide 2011 - (Page 4)

Resource Guide - Market Update The Potential Role of Technology Transfer for Managing the Emerging Smart Grid and Other SCADA-Using Critical Infrastructure Sectors Charles W. Newton, Founder Newton-Evans Research Company SCADA market segments including water, transportation (QEI, ACS), pipeline (Tejas most importantly), gas LDC (ACS, Tejas and others). The gas and oil SCADA community was centered in Houston and New Orleans. As gas and oil industry went through a period of decline, this group of integrators was actively looking to transfer skills to other SCADAusing industries. Included were CAI, TANO, Teledyne Geotech, and Systronics (later part of Foxboro- now Invensys). QEI and Bristol (later Bristol-Babcock) were also cross-industry SCADA suppliers. In the water segment, Johnson Controls (later to become successful as a unit of ARINC in rail/transit transport SCADA and nuclear safety SCADA), Simmonds Precision, BIF Accutel, Autocon, Aquatrol, and Bristol also supplied waste water treatment systems. Water and waste treatment had common process automation traits and terminology that matched up well. Among the group of process control or “DCS” suppliers that served industrial process automation, (including power generation facilities), Honeywell, Foxboro, Emerson and Westinghouse DCS (later to become a unit of Emerson Process) were co-leaders, and because of their large size, were early multi-industry SCADA market participants and successfully accomplished significant technology transfers within their own companies to serve multiple process automation/SCADA markets. Horizontal transfer takes some of the advanced concepts, techniques, tools and applications from one industry and migrates, or adopts, the applications and/or the platforms and/or remote communications methods to another industry with similar requirements. To properly understand the role of control and information technology transfer and process automation transference, we have to go back in time a quarter century or more and determine the root similarities of what Newton-Evans had observed as early as 1982, then again in 1986 based on major studies completed at that time for the Chrysler Corp.’s highly regarded Electronic Systems business (now part of Siemens VDO Automotive), in Huntsville, Alabama. Similar follow-on studies were undertaken during the 1990’s and early 2000’s by Newton-Evans under commissions from Advanced Control Systems, Digital Equipment Corporation, Hewlett-Packard and Siemens Corp. Over the course of nearly two years spent on the Chrysler studies, Newton-Evans conducted surveys and interviews of more than 1,000 operations and engineering officials from more than 850 electric, water and gas utilities, transmission pipelines, refineries, railway and transit systems, and discrete and process manufacturing businesses. What we found a quarter century ago was this: much of the pioneering SCADA-related work in each industry had significant commonality in terms of (a) required basic control applications, (b) operational requirements for supervisory control functions; (c) computer platforms used; (d) telecommunications methods employed for remote site access (e) and the humanmachine interface design considerations. At that time there were only a few systems integrators that internally undertook technology transfers from one business unit to another. Real-time computer manufacturers were apt to be interested in all SCADA-using segments, and sought to assist integrators with what platform hardware designs and operating systems they could make available. Leading real-time computer manufacturers in the 1975-1990 periods included the “Florida Three” of Harris Corp., ModComp, and SEL/Gould, along with key suppliers such as DEC and H-P. At the high end providing large computer processing capabilities were Control Data Corp (CDC) and IBM. Much of the company’s work effort during this early period of limited SCADA technology transfer was spent in meeting with officials from these manufacturers and with SCADA integrators, principally those seeking to apply their SCADA capabilities, knowledge and experience in one industry to other SCADA-using segments. Leading firms serving the electric power market during the 1980’s and early 1990’s included Boeing, Leeds and Northrup, Ferranti, ESCA (now the EMS component of Alstom Grid), Systems Control (now the EMS component of ABB), Landis & Gyr (SCADA business now part of Siemens), EBASCO, Westinghouse, CAE (now part of GE Energy), Tejas (now Telvent), QEI, Quindar (Survalent) and Ilex (now C-3 Ilex). Occasionally these companies would win contracts in other 4 www.RemoteMagazine.com Historical Background: Horizontal Technology Transfers Across SCADA-Using Industries The FAA, in partnership with Harris Corp., has recently developed one of the country’s most advanced implementations of something akin to what we have been discussing as an emerging requirement for the national’s smarter electric grid operations. The FAA Telecommunications Infrastructure System (FTI) is an example of a system of effective management tools for nationwide situational awareness and visualization so vital to the daily operation of a communications-centric community as air traffic. Such technology can be adopted and migrated to other SCADA-using sectors to enable nationwide overviews of events in critical infrastructure industries. The complex engineering design, development, implementation and operation of the current FTI system is the result of a multi-year partnership between the FAA and Harris Corp. Harris, as noted earlier had been an early real-time computer manufacturer and large SCADA systems integrator. So what makes the FTI system so unique and why should the electric power community or other critical infrastructure segment care? The system, as presently configured, ensures communication integrity, availability and security for the nation’s commercial aviation activities, under the aegis of the FAA. The FTI center has been in operation for seven years now, and remains a vital, leading edge example of what FERC and NERC have been seeking for situational awareness, visualization and highly reliable performance in control centers operated by the nation’s ISO’s, RTO’s and large transmission utilities. Please See Newton-Evans continued on page 6 Today’s Need for Technology Transfer: Finding an Example in Commercial Aviation’s Cornerstone Operational Communications Control System  http://www.RemoteMagazine.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Remote Resource Guide 2011

Remote Resource Guide 2011
Contents
The Potential Role of Technology Transfer for Managing the Emerging Smart Grid and Other SCADA-Using Critical Infrastructure Sectors
Meter Data Management: Faster Decisions, More Visibility
Automated Operation
Communication
Data Acquisition
Lightning Protection
Network Solutions
Power Products
Remote Monitoring and Control
Security
Shelters and Enclosures
Calendar of Events

Remote Resource Guide 2011

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