NOJA Power Supplies IEC 61850 Enabled Reclosers for ELETROBRAS Ariquemes II Substation in Brazil

NOJA Power announces today the success of the project carried out jointly with the customer Eletrobras Distribuição Rondônia (EDRO), an integration solution that uses optical fibers and the IEC 61850 protocol, allowing all the equipment in this substation to communicate with each other in a dynamic way, by sending internal coded messages. Many of the operations are sent directly by the Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs).

With an ambitious Smart Grids development project, Eletrobras Distribuição, from the state of Rondônia made a high investment in NOJA Power’s equipment recently and decided to use this equipment for the implementation of the IEC 61850 protocol (developed by the NOJA Power R&D team), thus ensuring that the company remains at the technological forefront of low and medium voltage equipment for many years to come.

Although the DNP3 protocol is the one most used by Brazilian companies, including Eletrobras, for many applications, the protocol IEC 61850 was employed to ensure that all the different equipment of the Ariquemes II substation could interoperate. For this application all RC-10 controllers were connected in an industrial optical switch installed in the control room of the substation and then connected to the local network.

All network communication is based on the TCP/IP protocol and all reclosers’ information and commands can be exchanged between all IEDs in the substation via GOOSE messages. Finally all device status, remote commands and measure monitoring are sent to the SCADA system through the "cloud" using MMS protocol and then available to the customer at the control center over a secure connection.

About the IEC 61850 Protocol

Since the beginning of the process of automation of network systems and substations, different communication protocols have been developed for the protection and supervision of electrical system. This led to the emergence of the IEC 61850 protocol, which has abstract data types that can be mapped to different subprotocols, such as the MMS (Manufacturing Message Specification), GOOSE (Generic Object Oriented Substation Events) and SMV (Sampled Measured Values). The IEC 61850 protocol is designed to work on TCP/IP networks and over LAN connections.

The great trump of this protocol is to meet the demand of all layers of the substations because, through these different types of communication both vertical and horizontal, it allows the user to use only this communication standard for both communication between IEDs and for communication of acquisition of field data, thus replacing SCADA protocols such as DNP3 and IEC-104.

With the equipment described above and the support of the NOJA Power technical team for configuration, the technical team of Eletrobras Rondônia was successful in implementing the new project. With an investment of R$ 12 million, the project of the Ariquemes II Substation is composed of 6 feeders using modern technological resources and security systems.

The new substation, along with the Ariquemes I Substation, will serve the 43 thousand consumers of the city of Ariquemes and region, as well as providing more security and quality to the energy supply and increasing the reliability of the electricity system of the region.

"The demand for the use of the IEC 61850 protocol has grown significantly in Brazil and our reclosers are able to meet this demand simply and efficiently and the customer can continue to rely on the wide range of functionality of the RC-10 control." says Tarcísio Santos, Service Manager of NOJA Power. "Although this customer acquired the NOJA Power equipment some time ago, when this protocol was not yet available, they were able to easily access this functionality through a simple and free firmware update and with the full technical support of our company. This shows not only the ability of NOJA Power to deliver innovative products, but also to provide unrivalled service worldwide. "

"I was involved in this project together with the specialized Eletrobras technical team and it was, in fact, a great experience since it was necessary to use all the functionalities of IEC 61850, putting into practice all the tests and training performed on this new tool in the last year", says Felipe Mori, from the Department of Services of NOJA Power Brazil. "It is rewarding both professionally and personally to see our equipment meeting the high demands of the substation industry. As we have always focused on our mission to keep users informed about the latest technologies available in the equipment and to act together when necessary. "

NOJA Power's OSM line ACRs are fundamental elements of Smart Grids and provide a comprehensive set of automation features. These units measure voltage across all six bushings, three-phase current measurement, directional protection, and extensive power quality monitoring and data logging capabilities. The OSM line has undergone extensive type-testing routines in the independent KEMA laboratory in the Netherlands to ensure long operating life and reliability under the most severe environmental conditions. Since its launch, the OSM line of ACRs has been installed by dealers in more than 90 countries around the world.

The RC-10 is ready to work with SCADA, provides directional overcurrent protection, ground fault and ground fault relay, automatic reclosing relay, synchronous relay, instantaneous measurement, event log , demand register and remote terminal unit (RTU) in a single package.

About the ELETROBRAS Distribuição

Eletrobras is a publicly-held company controlled by the Brazilian government. With a focus on profitability, competitiveness, integration and sustainability, the company leads a system composed of subsidiaries operating in the areas of generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, a holding company (Eletrobras Eletropar), a research center (Eletrobras Cepel) and half the capital of Itaipu Binacional.