Centralized Protection and Control (CPC) Systems within a Substation

May 2022

Centralized Protection and Control (CPC) Systems within a Substation, the next great disruptive technology to design and implement electrical power substation protection and control systems is being examined today. Approximately 30 years ago, the industry went from designing around many single function devices to using multifunction devices and integrating them to perform many ancillary functions. The next revolution may be to use a centralized computing platform running (virtual) protective relays in a software environment to protect all the individual apparatus and zones of protection in an electric power substation. Primary analog power system quantities, such as voltages and currents, are digitized by process interface units (PIU) and interfaced to the CPC via fiber optic Ethernet communications links. The IEEE PES Power System Relaying & Control (PSRC) Committee has an active group writing PC37.300, Guide for Centralized Protection and Control (CPC) Systems within a Substation. The guide is expected to be out for IEEE balloting during Q4 of 2022. Interested individual can express their interest in IEEE SA website to receive meeting invitations. The IEEE PES Power System Communications and Cybersecurity (PSCC) Committee has a study group examining the need for writing a standard for system architectures supporting the virtualization of substation protection and control applications associated with such a CPC system.

Active Committees/Task Forces of Interest
Technical Reports & Applicable Papers or Presentations
Technical Reports:
  • IEEE PES Technical Report (TR55): Centralized Substation Protection and Control (December 2015)
    • Note: This version of the IEEE PES TR55 has just been re-posted via the IEEE PES Resource Center to reflect an updated version of the report.
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