Digital Substations

The digital substation components allow interfacing with all old and new technologies. To interface with existing equipment, we offer standalone merging units and breaker IEDs (SAM IO system).

In general, digital technology will reduce testing in the future, as all systems will become supervised and will allow you to shift from fixed, time-based to condition- or risk-based maintenance schemes. Specifically testing the digital substation provides a safer testing behavior that reduces the effort for disconnection voltage and current circuits

The digital substation is a concept that has different entry layers. Incremental steps can be taken to introduce this concept. For example, you can begin with monitoring or communications to test how it benefits you in the short term. Once you’ve undertaken this step, the next step could be to translate this learning to the network or enterprise level. In short, you do not necessarily have to begin with an entire digital substation and instead can start with a test concept. Hitachi Energy also has a long history of successfully delivering digital substation projects, having worked on more than 50 digital substations, and we are perfectly positioned to guide you through the project based on your pace and specific organizational needs.

Safety is improved because there are fewer signal connections or inadvertently opened CT circuits that could harm personnel during commissioning and service activities. 

Digital substations help reduce your carbon footprint because they require less space for protection and control panels. Also, functions previously executed by physically separate equipment can be integrated into one device.

Achieve higher productivity with new asset management systems that include monitoring and diagnostics data from substation equipment. This added insight substantially improves the efficiency of service activities. Monitoring and diagnostics is a strategic feature for utilities, further reducing outage time and increasing reliability.

Since its publication in 2004, the global IEC 61850 standard has been accepted at a remarkably fast rate. Developed with the support of Hitachi Energy, it is the first truly global standard in the electric utility field.

But the evolution hasn't stopped there. Since the advent of the IEC 61850 edition 2 in 2011, which takes the standard outside of the substation, Hitachi Energy invested tremendous efforts in implementing this standard in its systems, tools, and products. We believe IEC 61850 is the basis for a successful and modern digital grid.

The defining feature of a digital substation is the implementation of a process bus. The introduction of IEC 61850 in 2005 was a key enabler for digitization and digitalization of power systems everywhere. The various technological advances spurred by IEC 61850 raised customer expectations about the quality and reliability of power supply. The IEC 61850 process bus enables the substitution of point-to-point copper connections between IEDs and other devices (e.g., instruments transformers, gas monitoring, etc.) with a safe and standardized optical communication bus. 

Hitachi Energy has a longstanding experience in digital substations, placing it at the market forefront of this technology innovation, ensuring compliance with the highest standards in the industry.