International Journal of Recent Development in Engineering and Technology Website: www.ijrdet.com (ISSN 2347-6435(Online) Volume 3, Issue 1, July 2014) Recent Trends in SCADA and Power Factor Compensation on low Voltage Power Systems for Advanced Smart Grid Yahia Bahaa Hassan1, Nabil Litayem2, Mohyi el-din Azzam3 1Department of Computer Technology, Wadi AL Dawaser Technical College, Technical and Vocational Training Corporation, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 2Computer Science and Information, Salman Bin Abdulaziz University , Wadi College of Arts and Science, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 3Department of Electrical Engineering, Menya University, Egypt Abstract— This paper presents an extending a smart grid The power factor regulator is designed to optimize the to switched capacitor banks at the low-voltage three-phase control of reactive power compensation. Reactive power four-wire distribution systems. New power factor regulators compensation is achieved by measuring continuously using MSP430 microcontrollers will be proposed instead of the reactive power of the system and then compensated ordinary regulators to be suitable for connecting to the by the switching of capacitor banks. At the end user Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system that actually has been implemented since 2005 in the Middle connection points, the integrating breaker switched Egypt Electricity Distribution Company(MEEDCO). In capacitor banks into a compact design with the intelligent MEEDCO, there are quite a lot of mounted power factor control unit offers a reliable and affordable reactive power regulators in different locations, but most of these regulators compensation solution for distribution systems. The are far from each other and also far from the control center of benefits of doing so are: MEEDCO's SCADA system. This paper also discusses the (1) Improvement in power factor, which either eliminates suitable technology to communicate the suggested regulators with the control center efficiently and how this will be done in or reduces the demand charges imposed by the utility. the framework of a secure smart grid. (2) Reducing the energy loss in electrical conductors by reducing the required current. Keywords— Data Transfer, MSP430, Smart Grid, SCADA, (3) Maintaining a proper voltage level at the end user for Security. improved productivity of industrial processes. I. INTRODUCTION (4) Releasing of valuable system capacity. Electricity distribution companies own and operate the (5) Increasing the useful life of pieces of distribution infrastructure required to connect customers to the network. equipment. At present, the low-voltage three-phase four-wire (6) Improvements in planning where planning engineers distribution systems are facing the poor power quality can more precisely decide to place additional capacitor problems such as high reactive power burden, unbalanced banks to account for load growth. load excessive neutral current and voltage distortion [1]. For years, many electric utilities have implemented Industrial plants typically present a poor power factor to the SCADA systems for better control [4]. SCADA can incoming utility due to proliferation of diode and thyristor provide information in a real-time environment that rectifiers, induction motors and harmonic rich loads. Low identifies problems as they occur and can take corrective power factor is the predominant problem nowadays [2]. action when assistance is needed [5]. SCADA systems Poor power factor has various consequences such as provide centralized monitoring and control of field devices increased load current, large KVA rating of the equipment, spread over large geographic areas. SCADA systems use a greater conductor size, larger copper loss, poor efficiency, wide variety of networking technologies to enable poor voltage regulation and reduction in equipment life. transmission of field data from field sites to the control Therefore it is necessary to solve the problem of poor centers and of control information from control centers to power factor. To improve the power factor, shunt capacitor field sites. Once field data reaches the control system, banks have been applied in many power distribution software systems provide capabilities to visualize and systems and industrial circuits for reactive power analyze the data. compensation [3]. 156 International Journal of Recent Development in Engineering and Technology Website: www.ijrdet.com (ISSN 2347-6435(Online) Volume 3, Issue 1, July 2014) Based on automated or human-driven analysis, action is Proper monitoring of a process can maintain operations taken as needed such as recording the data, processing at an optimal level by identifying and correcting problems alarms or sending control information back to field sites. before they turn into significant system failures. SCADA Since SCADA had already been in use in most electricity systems are divided into three important components, distribution companies and coupling SCADA systems with namely: the embedded intelligence in the Intelligent Electronic 1- Master station or the control center, which gathers all Devices (IED) can generate a wealth of useful information. relevant data in a system, maintains a database and So, the proposed power factor controller using MSP430 processes commands issued through a human-machine microcontroller (IED)at the end user should be monitored interface by an operator. In complex systems, this and controlled by SCADA technology to get several component may consist of multiple servers running features such as supervision, remote control and remote distributed application software. measurement. The monitored data can be the following: 2- Remote Terminal Units (RTU), is an IED that can be 1. The net interval energy consumption, the local voltage, installed in a remote location and acts as a termination current, power factor, active power and reactive power. point for field contacts. The RTU can transfer collected 2. Status of a power factor controller (open or closed data to other devices and receive data and control switch) commands from other devices. 3. The time the data are collected and recorded. 3- Communication infrastructure, is used to transport Therefore, the extension of intelligent control over information between the control center and field sites via electrical power grid functions to the distribution layer and communication mediums such as telephone line, cable, beyond (via distribution automation) is a key enabler for fiber and radio frequency such as broadcast, microwave smart grid success. Smart grid is developing a more and satellite. sophisticated electricity delivery infrastructure that requires SCADA obtains and processes the information issuing embedding intelligence and communications at every node from dispersed equipment in remote locations. It then sends of the electric-power delivery system. Extending a smart this information to the operations control center. The grid network to power factor controller at the end user SCADA simultaneously supervises and controls processes results in improvements in grid reliability, visibility into and installations located throughout large areas, generating critical load information, asset management, reduced a set of processed information such as trend graphs, operations and maintenance costs and also results in historical information, operating reports and event improvements in customer satisfaction. The rest of the programming among others. By implementing SCADA in paper is organized as follows. Section 2 introduces a the automation process, users can learn the status of the background for the SCADA system, smart grid and installations under their responsibility and coordinate, in an MSP430 microcontroller. Section 3 shows the proposed efficient manner, the detection of errors and anomalies in strategy to embed the reactive power compensation systems the electric grid. SCAD also allows users to execute into MEEDCO's SCADA system. maneuvers to reestablish service , carry out maintenance in the field , supervise and control critical operations and II. BACKGROUND receive information in a dynamic manner and in real time A. SCADA systems for its ulterior processing. With the fast development of computer application B. Smart grid technology, SCADA system is widely used in industry It is a common belief that the energy, control and field, especially in a power system where SCADA is communications technologies have reached the level of developing speedily [6]. SCADA is a smart grid maturity which is sufficient to put forward a new power distribution application providing the process control utility shift known as the smart grid [9]. Huge and strong systems that enable computerized management of interests on a smart grid have increased extensively in distribution grid elements [7]. The main purpose of recent years around the world. A smart grid is a complex SCADA is gathering real-time data, monitoring and distributed infrastructure composed of a set of domains and controlling equipments and processes in the critical stakeholders. infrastructures [8]. 157 International Journal of Recent Development in Engineering and Technology Website: www.ijrdet.com (ISSN 2347-6435(Online) Volume 3, Issue 1, July 2014) According to the conceptual model of the National The utilization of these Microcontroller Unit (MCU) Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), these becomes too broad due to the introduction of new domains correspond to customers, markets, providers, innovative features apart from