Mission-critical communications for utilities

Mission-critical communications for power transmission

Unlike telecom-oriented vendors, who may step away from certain technologies, Hitachi Energy continues to support the extension of customers’ operational communication networks for decades. We continue to support critical applications based on traditional technology and provide future-proof technology that support hybrid solutions. 

• Teleprotection: Hitachi Energy's optimized teleprotection solutions lead to superior performance, higher availability, and reduced operational costs. With the latest generation of protection interfaces and devices, alongside the capability to enable the technology migration of these services. FOX615 provides integrated protection solutions for distance as well as differential protection applications over any kind of network technology (SDH or MPLS-TP). With the latest extension of IEC 61850 based protection interfaces, the FOX615 is the most advanced solution for your teleprotection system and provides you with a migration path to new technologies.
• Cybersecurity: Hitachi Energy's layered mission-critical communication architectures ensure improved network security. Additionally, Hitachi Energy has developed the first encryption card for mission-critical infrastructure with truly random numbers based on quantum physics. Improving cybersecurity of operational communication network by applying wire-speed encryption suitable for real-time applications. In addition, application-specific firewalling offers controlled access to the station bus for IEC 61850 GOOSE, sample value data, and static network design without an extensive control plane. This ensures the defense-in-depth approach and is supported all in the FOX615 platform.
• Power line carrier: Hitachi Energy draws on over 75 years of experience of data transmission on power lines. Hitachi Energy's power line carrier communications portfolio offers extensive functionality. It is easy to configure and to upgrade – thereby ensuring that the customer remains at the forefront of technology for years to come.
• IEC 61850 GOOSE: Recent development of IEC 61850 standard as well as activities in the Teleprotection industry lead towards generic packet-based protection schemes. For line distance protection the IEC 61850 standard allows the use of GOOSE messages. FOX615 with the integrated TEGO1 interface provides an IEC 61850 Gateway functionality where the TEGO1 interface card acts as an IED, connects to up to 8 different remote ends and provides selective filtering of GOOSE messages, translation capabilities in case of miss-matching configurations and controlled access to the station bus from remote ends through the WAN.
• Network management: All Hitachi Energy Communication Network solutions are fully integrated into FOXMAN-UN , including FOX615 and it’s utility-specific interfaces for distance and differential protection. FOXMAN-UN provides sophisticated supervision features, such as a graphical representation of the communication network, a view of the synchronization status of FOX615 network elements, and performance monitoring of links. In addition, FOXMAN-UN allows certain tasks, such as firmware distribution and activation, to be automated and scheduled.
• SCADA: Today’s utilities depend on automatic systems to monitor, control, and protect their network and the investment it represents. Modern automation isn’t just about collecting, and collating, data; though that remains a central task of any automation system, the increasing intelligence of IED’s, Relays, and RTUs offers scope for greater autonomy too. Mission-critical communications enable decisions to be made locally, or in concert with other local devices, while centralized SCADA systems alert human operators to decisions made by the machines.