Yorkshire Electrical Distribution live on Citect SCADA system

The system employs around 1,000 RTUs (remote terminal units) communicating to two central servers, using Citect’s free-of charge DNP3 driver, specially expanded to accommodate the number of remote sites. “CitectSCADA came highly recommended,” says Graeme Melia, technical engineer at YEDL. “We liked the fact that it is a very expandable system and extremely easy to use. Using the software we have just five templates covering all aspects of the distribution control system; if we want to add a new site we just add a line and tell the SCADA system which template to use, then its job done.” The system was developed and installed by ABB, working with Citect professional services. Its £40,000 Distribution Control System was Implemented as part of Ofgem’s Information Incentive Project, an initiative aimed at bettering the quality of electricity supply to users by improving control and monitoring of the distribution network. “The Distribution Control System offers a number of major benefits, both to customers and to us,” explains Melia. “First, quality supply improvements are gained through reductions in the number of supply minutes lost. With the Citect system we can switch networks around to restore supply after faults have occurred; if we have a fault between two substations we can isolate the section between the two and restore power quickly. “Second, the ability to set up protection remotely on pole-mounted auto reclosers to enable safe working on the system; this is imperative as some of the work is undertaken on live conductors. “Third, the fact that we have remote control of equipment scattered all around of our supply area means that we are able to address the costly issue of travel times to these sites.”