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Cellular Equipment in Electric Utilities
By Keith McKechnie USAT Solutions Engineer
Summary With further advances in cost effective communication systems, more and more cellular equipment is finding it’s way into SCADA systems for the electrical grid. It is fascinating that this industry contains both the slowest advancing tech- nology and the fastest advancing technology.
Not much has changed with trans- mission and distribution lines
...but with communication systems we are rapidly approaching a point where a typical system lifecycle could be less than 5-years.
Because of new requirements for grid efficiencies and renewables, communication systems have to by necessity be flexible, secure, cost effective, and be able to be deployed rapidly.
In this paper we will review typical use cases of cellular routers and gateways in electric utilities.
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Electric Utility Use Cases
Fixed – SCADA Mobile – Fleet Vehicles
The use cases that we typically deal with in the Electric Utility space are broken down into two categories:
• Fixed asset monitoring and control, SCADA systems. (Mostly on the distribution side.)
• Mobility, which is your fleet vehicle communication and management.
Reclosers & Sectionalizers
Sierra Wireless GX450 Cellular Router Inside Mobile Mark
LTM301 On a USAT GP09
On the Distribution Automation side, cellular equipment is used with Reclosers and Sectionalizers.
In this example there is a Sierra Wireless cellular router with a Mobile Mark MIMO (Multiple In Multiple Out) antenna on a USAT Ground Plane all running on a Verizon Wireless Private Network with a secure line of service to the utility’s SCADA operations center.
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Additional Applications for Fixed Location SCADA
• Capacitor bank controllers
• Sub Station Fault detection and Security Cameras
• Volt-VAR Optimization
• Transmission Line Switch Monitoring
Equipment Interfaces
Cellular routers interface quite nicely with the Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories SEL-651R for instance. But really, anything that uses an Ethernet, Serial, or USB port as it’s means for communication will work fine with cellular routers. Other manufacturer’s equipment that we interface with are; Eaton Cooper, ABB, GE, Beckwith Electric. Etc.
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Solar Site Monitoring and Industrial Metering
Cellular equipment is used in Alternative Generation such as solar monitoring as well as industrial metering and Aggre- gators. One application we do with a large utility involves reading a pair of legacy meters at multiple sites that only communicate via an RS232 serial port. One of our cellular routers shown here comes with two RS232 serial ports and is used for this application. Connected Fleet Vehicle
On the Mobility side it is the connected Fleet Vehicle. Essentially each vehicle has it’s own Vehicle Area Network. In this example from Sierra Wireless you have a high-end vehicle router with high up-time connectivity due to having the ability to use multiple WAN interfaces. It has multiple cellular radios and the ability to use Wi-Fi as WAN when it pulls into a depot. With onboard Ethernet and Wi-Fi you have connectivity to tablets, laptops, and cameras. With GNSS you have accurate real time location data that can tie into a dispatch system. With I/O lines you have the ability to connect sensors to gather additional intelligence such as the boom position. Other capabilities available are: A telemetry inter- face for Engine Diagnostics and vehicle status. Driver behavior and score card, along with electronic logging.
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Typical Cellular Routers Used:
These are the typical Cellular Routers that we deal with that have been used in the electric utility space:
Sierra Wireless is the major player for utilities. Also used are Digi, CalAmp, RedLion, and Cradlepoint. Each one has some unique features that make it the best and most cost effective fit for the application. The main areas to drill down on when selecting the best fit device are:
• Communication interfaces Used
• Protocols needed
• Certifications and Specifications Required
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Typical Spec Sheet
Common Requirements for Utilities: • Class 1, Div. 2 • Temperature range from -30° C to +70° C • IP65 or better Ingress Protection • MIL-STD-810G • SAE J1455 • FCC Certifications • Network Operator Certs (Verizon, AT&T, etc.)
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Key things you want to look for and find on the spec sheets are:
Make sure it has all the Carrier Certifications that you need:
For Environmental, critical items are operating temperature and ingress protection:
In addition, make sure it meets all the capabilities and functional requirements.
For Example:
Ethernet – Serial (RS232/485) – USB – Wi-Fi
TCI/IP, UDP, DF1, MODBUS, DMP3, IEC61850
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From a functional standpoint look for:
• Ethernet Speed & Number of Ports • Network and routing…. Does it support what you need? • Serial Port Capabilities– Especially when interfacing with legacy RTUs and Controllers. • USB & I/O Support
What are it’s security capabilities? Does it have port filtering for instance…
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Cell Routers Typically Used and Their Specs:
Relevant Specifications -40°C to +70°C Class 1, Div 2 MIL-STD-810G GX450 RV50 RV50 - Lowest Power RS-232 serial port TCP/UDP PAD Mode Modbus (ASCII, RTU, Variable) PPP DNP3 Interoperability Reverse Telnet Configurable I/O pin (Additional on GX450 X-Card) Custom Events Engine Security- In/Out Port Filtering/Trusted IP, MAC Filter- ing, LDAP, RADIUS, & TACACS+
Relevant Specifications -30° to +70°C UL 60950, SAE J1455, MIL-STD-810G MG90 5-Ethernet Ports RS232, USB, and GPIO OBD II / J1939 / J1708 Interfaces Dual LTE Cellular Modems Dual Wi-Fi – 3x3 MIMO, 802.11 b/g/n/ac 48 Channel GNSS Receiver Full Vehicle Router w/Mobile VPN FIPS 140-2 Certified Data Encryption
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Cell Routers Typically Used and Their Specs:
Relevant Specifications -30° to +70°C EN60950-1, SAE J1455, MIL-STD-810G 5-Ethernet Ports IBR1700 USB and GPIO OBD II / J1939 / J1708 Interfaces Dual LTE Cellular Modems Tri-Band Wi-Fi – 802.11 b/g/n/ac & Wave 2 48 Channel GNSS Receiver Full Vehicle Router FIPS 140-2 Certified Data Encryption
Relevant Specifications Industrial RTU with a cellular interface -40° to +75°C Class 1, Div 2 RAM9000 5-Ethernet Ports (5th w/WAN) RS-232 AND RS485 serial ports (Serial-IP Conversion) Modbus RTU/TCP/ASCII/RTU DNP3 - slave Comm w/ SCADA equipment on native protocols Powerful Events Engine I/O controller w/digital, analog I/O, & Relay
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Omni-Directional Directional
Single
MIMO
Cellular antennas solutions are broken down to fit into 4 basic quadrants • Single Antennas • MIMO Antennas • Omni Directional • Directional
It is important to note that 4G LTE requires two antennas or a MIMO solution. This is especially true now that Verizon and others are moving from Transmission Mode Two (TM2) to Transmission Mode Four (TM4) on their systems. You use to be able to get away with one antenna with TM2 but not any longer with TM4 being rolled out.
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The Antenna Solution MUST cover all the USA LTE Fre- quency Bands with Reasonably Equal Gain
Because you have no control on which LTE band your device operates on….. The Antenna So- lution MUST cover all the LTE Frequency Bands used in the US with Reasonably Equal Gain
We have found that a company called Poynting does this reasonably well and they are now starting to be deployed large scale in the utility space.
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Important Services to Consider from Turn-Key Providers—Configuration & Provisioning Configuration Design—Security is #1
Finally, when deploying cellular communications systems into utility infrastructure it is important to work with a good turn-key provider that can help you in both configuration and provisioning.
Security is of course the #1 concern for these ap- plications and most of the user manuals for these devices are over 500 pages long and so it is im- portant that you are implementing all you can to insure your device and system are secure.
Provisioning: Activation—Load Settings—Test & QC—Asset Tagging
On the provisioning side you have …..
- Activation: Someone needs to work with your network operator such as Verizon to en- sure the SIM card and device are activated cor- rectly with the expected network settings and functions.
- Load Settings on the device: The actual settings designed can vary quite a bit from one application to another and can even be unique to every single device. Someone needs to load these settings onto each device and…
- Test: Each device and all interfaces on the device much like you would for any formal Quality Control process so that you have good confidence of a trouble-free experience before you release the product to the installation team.
- Asset Tagging: This is simply a la- bel installed on the device with key provisioning infor- mation identifying it correctly for each stage of deploy- ment and life cycle management.
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Device and System Management
Each of the main cellular router vendors have man- agement options that allow you on a single pane of glass to manage your devices, update firmware, re- mote configuration, and have a complete history of the communication status such as signal strength, sign -to-noise ratios, data usage, etc., things that make troubleshooting to resolve issues more efficient.
Summary—Cellular Communication Advantages in Electric Utilities
• Quickly Deployed + Flexibility
• Added redundancy
• Lower costs vs. Fiber & Wi-MAX Infrastructure Design and Deployment in many cases
• Minimizes truck rolls and reduces operational costs
• Many cases the ONLY practical Communication means (Rural Areas)
• Automated and closed-loop control of switching devices, voltage controllers, and capacitors
• Connect and control reclosers, capacitor banks, substation IEDs, and more
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About USAT
USAT Corp— Wireless Communication – Value Added Distributor and Solutions Provider
Headquarters in Chapel Hill, NC 20+ Years in the Utility Industry
USAT Corp is a 20-year old solutions provider and a value added distributor focusing on cellular wireless based Internet-of-Things. They partner with top tier providers of cellular routers and antennas that deliver best-in- class connectivity. They are a key provider of mission critical connectivity to Public Safety, Oil & Gas, Utilities, as well as the Retail space. They also provide engineering, technical support, and provisioning services.
About 25% of their sales are to Utilities. And about 25% of their utility customers are Electric Cooperatives and Municipalities.
M2M / IoT Hardware High Performance Antennas Configuration & Support
USAT Corp 605 Eastowne Dr. 888-550-8728 Chapel Hill, NC 27514 Page 15 [email protected]
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About the Author
Keith McKechnie USAT Solutions Engineer (919) 942-4214 - [email protected]
Wired and wireless communication industry veteran spanning three decades in various roles from test engi- neer to senior design engineer in a corporate R&D environment. Former voting member of the IEEE 802.3 standards committee. Listed as inventor in 10 patents mainly in the communications field. Has obtained the highest-level FCC commercial & amateur radio operators licenses.
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