General Information

Presentation

This document presents the main characteristics of the Action.NET Extension for the registration of Equipment in an Equipment communication gateway project. In this project format, each equipment will be a data object, included in an ASSET that defines the substation and the feeder to which the reconnected is connected.

This customization includes the generation of data objects, supervision screens, communication channels with the Equipment and with a customer operations center, definition of points and their addresses, definition of alarm items and data for the historian.

To perform this customization, an application extension was created, Equipment Gateway with the objective of allowing the end user to use a data entry window, in which the name and other characteristics of the equipment and parameters for communication are defined. necessary for implementation

Key features

Initially, a complete project was created with several screens to show the current state of the Equipment and data, such as measurements, equipment statuses and windows for the command.

The base project has already defined:

• Several data models with tags to supervise and command Equipment from different manufacturers;

• Graphic symbols to represent the Equipment and its main states on screens.

• CSV files, one for each type of equipment with adequate parameterization for the creation of communication channels and nodes, as well as the points and their addressing.

• The extension will receive the data of the equipment to be created, name, location level, type – manufacturer, and addresses for communication (ied and tcpIp)

• The extension will create the Equipment object, alarm items, historian items.

• The extension will also create in the project the list of points with their addresses for the acquisition of data and sending commands from the Equipment using the DNP3 and IEC104 protocols.

• For the gateway functionality with the operations center, points will be created for the communication channels, and nodes of this type of communication.

Data Model

The extension used for the registration of Equipment in the Gateway is based on the architecture and data model used for the development of the project based on the Action.NET.

Basically, the ASSETS functionality is used for the separation and hierarchization of OBJECTS. Each piece of equipment, in turn, will be defined as a data object and will be allocated to one of these assets.

Each type of equipment will use its own template, according to its data map, and will have its characteristics defined in its own configuration file.

Each equipment will communicate with the Gateway through a communication node.

Communication Channels will be able to accommodate multiple Nodes.

Assets (Levels)

The ASSETS or levels will be used to represent the Substations and feeders of each substation. The equipment will be allocated to these feeders.

The following figure exemplifies this allocation. There is a Substation whose acronym is AGF, two of its feeders are shown. A01I7 and A01S4. In these feeders are the objects that represent the Equipment.

As new substation equipment not yet included in the project needs to be registered, these substations and their feeders must have their acronyms included in this tree, before the inclusion of the equipment itself.

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Objects and Types

Data objects in the Action.NET contain the representations of the data of a piece of equipment.

For equipment of different models, data prototypes compatible with the equipment data map were built.

Some data models (Types) are used for more than a single piece of equipment.

The following figure shows an example of Equipment, the Assets in which it is contained and its data type (prototype used)

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In the following figure we have an example of a type used for a recloser is type REL_BASE2

Which has its data included in four subtypes: Communication Part (INT), Commands (CMD), Measurements (MED), Protections (PROT) and States (STA).

Each of these subtypes contains the fact points, with basic types, which are the ones that are actually in the Equipment data map. The figure shows an example of an STA subtype.

Configuration files

Functionality

Each equipment to be registered has its map of points, has its own template (type), can have communication protocols and different communication parameters.

To simplify this registration, simple text files were created with the parameterization, one for each type of equipment.

So the extension Equipment Gateway uses these files to register the equipment object and the point addressing items. When the user is going to register a piece of equipment, he will define the name of the equipment and its type. With the type indication, the extension accesses the appropriate parameterization file and generates the data in the project.

These files have the name REL_XXXX.CSVwhere XXXX is the name given to this type of equipment. They must be placed in the same directory as the Action.NET Gateway project.

For each type of equipment, a category must also be created with the same name as the file, in this case REL_XXXX. These categories will be assigned to the created tag objects, so that they can be searched in real time by these groups.

The extension scans the existing files and presents the user with a list of Equipment types created from these existing files. The figure shows an example directory with the parameterization files.

For this set of files, the extension will show the user to choose the type of equipment to be created, the list in the following figure:

Contents of the parameterization files

The following figure shows a portion of one of the parameterization files. This is the file used for the parameterization of the type equipment NOJA. Also in the file are the parameterization for the creation of the CHANNEL and NODE objects within the channel.

The name of the Channel to be created will have the prefix CHA_ followed by the name of the equipment, if it is not specifically indicated on the parameterization screen.

The name of the node to be created will have the prefix NOD_ followed by the name of the equipment. If you want another prefix or no prefix can be defined in the parameter PrefixNode within the Equipment file, explained below

The content has curly brackets on each line and is described as follows:

Template: The name of the template that should be used in the creation of the object that will represent this equipment. In this case, the template REL_BASE.

Protocol: The name of the communication protocol used by this equipment. In this case DNP3V2. This protocol name will be used by the extension to create the Channel record (DeviceChannel) in the Action.NET project.

PrefixNode: The name to be used for the NODE will be this prefix defined herein followed by the name of the equipment. If the prefix is empty, the name of the node is the same as the name of the equipment.

ProtocolOptions: It is the text that will be defined in the creation of the channel for its parameterization. It can be included in the file on multiple lines, which will be concatenated by the extension and placed in the ProtocolOptions field of the DeviceChannel.

Timeout: This is the text that will be used for the Timeout field of the DeviceChannel parameterization

TagForCommStatus: It must contain the format of the tag name to be used to contain the communication status of the node, when in real time. In the example, RE_NOME.INT.COM. The extension to create the NODE will place this text in the Node parameter that indicates the Communication Status Tag. The text RE_NOME will be replaced with the actual name of the equipment being created.

PrimaryStation: The text that follows should be the same as if you created a node for the channel in question. The name of the node to be created will have the prefix NOD_ followed by the name of the equipment. The extension when creating this node will swap the texts "IP. IP. IP. IP", PORT and IED respectively by the IP address, Port and IED address that will be entered by the user when entering the data in the extension window. The word TAGCOMM will be replaced with the name of the communication status tag, indicated above.

BackupStation: Same as PrimaryStation for the second station or network.

POINTS Table - TagName Node Address – Base for the client node for the equipment

The following rows are the set of rows that should be created in the POINTS table for communication with the equipment. Only the TagName and Node columns should have these names RE_NOME for the tag name and NODE for the Node name. The extension will replace it with the name of the equipment and the specific node for the equipment being registered. The type, address and scalling columns must contain the correct content for each of the points on the equipment map

Base for the Server node for the Center

In this same file, after all the points for communication with the equipment, there will be another set of points to be used for communication with the operations center through the IEC 60870-104 protocol. The following figure shows some of these points. They follow the keyword ServerNode. In the same way, these descriptions must be made by copying a first prototype registered in this node of the POINTS table.

Addressing in IEC 104

By default, the extension application will use for each device the address range of 1000, to be added to the addresses defined in the parameterization file. For each new piece of equipment a new thousand: The first 1000, the second 2000 and so on.

Alternatively, addressing can be sequential by point type. For each new equipment, sequential addresses will be used, by type of point, from the highest addresses existing until then. To use this option, you must include, after the text ServerMode, The text AddressByType, as shown in the following figure.

Addressing for equipment in the IEC61850 protocol

For the description of the point tables of client nodes in protocol IEC 61850, if you want the field Address to become more generic, facilitating the inclusion of the Logical Node definition, the address field should be started with the text TYPE:<LOGICALDEVICE>.

When specifying the name of the equipment to be generated, you must include the definition of the Logical Node that will correspond, following the name in the form NAME\LOGICALNODE. The point type will be automatically generated for IEC 61850, according to Functional Constraint included in the address, In the example MX.

Equipment Gateway Extension

For the customization of a project, the extension Action.NET – Equipment Gateway.

With the project open, go to Run > Extensions and click the Equipment Gateway.

The parameterization window for the creation of facilities to supervise and control a new equipment will be displayed, among the predefined types, see the next item.

The extension obtains these types by checking the names of existing Equipment parameterization CSV files in the project directory (description of the contents of these files is presented in previous items).

Parameterization Window

The figure shows the parameterization window presented by the extension Equipment Gateway

Individual configuration

The user who wants to register a new equipment must fill in the fields shown. See the meanings below.

Equipment Name – Fill in the name that will be assigned to the equipment. This is the Tagname of the object. Thus, this name should be normalized with the rules of the Action.NET. Start with a letter and contain only letters, numbers, and the "underscore" (_ ) character.

Active– Choose one of the Substation Acronym and Feeder Acronym pairs shown in the list.

Kind- choose one of the available types of equipment, corresponding to the one being registered.

Address Ied – Address used by the IED for the protocol in question.

Communication– Select the option whether a new channel is to be defined for this IED or whether an existing channel is to be used.

• New Channel - If this option is checked, the following field must be filled in with the name of the channel.

• Existing Channel - In this second case, the name of the existing channel in which the new node should be included should be chosen from the following list;

Primary Ip/Port - Fill in the IP address of the main communication station or network.

Secondary Ip/Port - Fill in the IP address of the secondary communication station or network.

Serial- To the right of the IP and Port fields is an option for using serial communication. If this is the form of communication, choose the serial port to use.

ServerNode – Choose the IEC104 server node name in which the points of this equipment should be included, to be served to the operations center. These channels must be created manually by the user. This extension does not do this service.

After this setting press the CREATE to register the equipment. During this activity, some messages appear in the field above the button showing the progress of the execution.

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See the table of Objects the new tags created. In the tables of AlarmItens, Historian and Points, View the items created. Also conveniently created are the Channels and Nodes.

Multi-Device Configuration

In this same window you can also trigger the configuration of several Equipment at once. For this, a configuration text file must be made with the data for each equipment to be created.

This file is then placed in the project directory and by clicking the button next to the Configuration File field, a window appears to choose the file.

After this press the CREATE button. The extension starts the job by reading each line of the configuration file. The texts found in the file will appear in the fields of the window. All the Equipment defined in the file will be created one by one.

File Contents

The file must have one line for each piece of equipment. The header row indicates the fields that must be filled in separated by commas. You can include comment lines beginning with "//".

The word NEW: should be used before the channel name whenever you want to create a new channel. Otherwise, the name of the channel in which the node should be included.

Alternative parameterizations

The normal use of this extension for project generation is the one presented in the Data Model item. That is, each piece of equipment generates an object tag, has its own template, a file defining its characteristics, basically the communication node, and generates a communication node that can be placed in its own channel or shared with other nodes.

The use of this extension for alternative configurations has been done by incorporating new parameters that define these additional or alternative features. The following items present these parameterizations.

Equipment Definition File

NodeUnique:- This parameter allows you to define that the node to be generated by this equipment is not a new one, but the same one for all equipment that is defined for the same channel.

can be defined: NodeUnique:Channel - Informing that the equipment must have its points created on a node with the same name as the channel for which it was specified, without this parameter the node will be defined with the name of the equipment itself. It can also be used UniqueName:<Nomedeumcanal> , in this case the node name will be fixed, using the assigned channel name.

In both cases, the name of the node will be that of the channel by changing the prefix CHA_ by NOD_ (or by the text defined in PrefixNode, explained earlier.

AddressStepByIed:- It should be used in conjunction with the previous parameter, because if several devices of the same type are created, their address maps will be the same. This parameter defines how to shift the addressing to each new device. If a single point type is used, simply put this offset value in this parameter. If there are different offsets depending on the type, this is specified in the sequence.

Category - Object tags created in this generation are typically with the category defined for their type, equal to the parameter file name of the equipment. If it is desired that in addition to this category other categories are also placed, also existing in the project, the names of these categories must be defined in this parameter.

Configuration File (list of equipment to be created)

Some of the configurations presented here cannot be made when generating a single device, using the Extension Configuration Dialog.

description - This field does not exist in the Configuration Dialog. You can use it to include text in the Description column of an object tag's definition. The following alternatives are accepted:

Assets (levels without prior definition) - When using generation through this file, the assigned LEVEL (assets) may not yet exist in the project. They will then be automatically created before the object tag is included

Objects (equipment or bays) without Communication - You can also use this file to generate objects with templates that have no communication point. In this case, there is no need for the equipment's Definition File. This is the case of the line in the figure above, ST_STATE,MePDCL,SDSF that defines to create an object tag with the type SDSFm in Asset MePDCL, with the name ST_STATE.

Bays (or equipment) repeated - In the case of creating several bays with the same name followed only by a number for its characterization as Feeder1, Feeder2, etc, in which all the characteristics are the same, only with this differentiation, one can repeat the various lines by changing the names or one can use the qualified *N at the end of the equipment name.