Exploring the Benefits of Smart Substation Virtualization and Digitalization_20230726

1. Exploring the Benefits of Smart Substation
Digitalization and Virtualization
Speaker: Kaspar Cheng
ISG/Ind. Infra., Advantech IIOT

2. • Demands and Challenges in modern grids
• How virtualization makes it easier and safer
• vPAC introduction and solution
• Advantech, enabling the digital substation
Agenda

3. • Net Zero from Renewable Energy
• Generation Mix
• Sensors, Communications,
Computers
• Grid Operation and Controls
• Resiliency and Cybersecurity
• Government Policy
Modern Grids Scope

4. Grid Scale
Power
Storage
Solar Farm
Wind Farm
Data Center’s
Rooftop &
Parking lot
Solar
Power Storage
Net Zero by 2050
Microgrid’s
Electrification
of
Transportation
Sector
Enhance Reliability, Safety, Security, Manageability and Edge Analytics
Energy Demand Quadruple's
Emergence of “Bi-Directional” Grid

5. Digitalization of Substation
CAGR > 6%, Market Driven by
• 2050 Net Zero, ESG Trend, RE100
• Renewable: distributed, variability, intermittent
• Digitization -> Digitalization -> Transformation
Segmentation (T&D)
• CSP (Common Substation Platform)
• VPR (Virtual Protection Relay)
Key player, Target customer
• GASS (GE, ABB/Hitachi, Siemens, Schneider)
• Emerson, Eaton, Honeywell… etc.

6. • Make grid operations more flexible in the face of increasing complexity
• Sustainability goals and increasingly distributed and intermittent sources
• Decrease labor costs
• Simplify asset management
• Collect and analyze more data
• Increase network/cyber security and resiliency
• Improve standardization and interoperability
• Transition to safer physical edge environments
• Reduce the total number of physical devices to own/maintain
Challenges
Software-defined approach is needed as the next evolutionary step for grid-serving devices

7. Virtualization for protection and control
Without Virtualization
What is virtualization?
Powered With Virtualization
Virtualization enables the
hardware resources of a
single computer—processors,
memory, storage and more—
to be divided into multiple
virtual computers.
Technology is not new – well
proven and widely used -
Only thing changing now is
the fact that virtualization
platforms can guarantee real-
time performance
Application
Application Application

8. High Performance with Workload Consolidation /
Standardization
Running real-time (e.g. Protection) and non-real-time (e.g. SCADA) workloads together
bare metal with ESXi hypervisor
• Histograms above show time added by hypervisor (measurements with Cyclictest)
• VMware enables real-time performance with a simple GUI selection
• VMs are isolated - real-time workloads can run adjacent to non-real-time on the same host
• Keeping maximum hypervisor latency under 120µs
• Long-duration tests (30, 60, 180 days) are continuously being performed
Identical latency between bare metal and VMware hypervisor configured for low-latency performance
1 Virtual Machine 2 Virtual Machines 3 Virtual Machines

9. How virtualized approaches help?
Less hardware and increased performance, flexibility and speed
100+ 2
Virtualized Software
Reliable & Intelligent Server
IEDs/ Protection Relays

10. Here we are
Virtualized is for Containerized
Moving forward to
flexible management

11. vPAC (virtual Protection Automation Control)
Driving standards-based, open, interoperable, and secure software-defined architecture
to host protection, automation, and control solutions for power system substations.
Customer-Driver Ecosystem

12. ECU Product Position
ECU-4784 ECU-479 ECU-579
Proven H/W Platform
(GASS Applied)
Complete Solution
(EXP, API, OS, VMKH)
Entry HW Solution
(Atom, Legacy platform)
ECU-4784 Upgrade
(Computing, I/O Bandwidth)
RAS Improvement
(Hot Swap Power & RAID SSD)
Flexibility for Local CTOS
(CPU, Memory, Storage, EXP)
Energy Server Grade
(Support 20+ Cores, VMs)
Leading Technology
(IPMI, Security,*SR-IOV)
Incremental Market
(Digital Substation, Protection)
Legacy SCADA Server SCADA Server SW-Defined VM Server
12nd/13rd/14th

13. ECU Product Key Feature
IEC 61850-3 & IEEE 1613 Certified 2U RM System
iBMC/IPMI, VMware ESXi 7, *SR-IOV + HSR/PRP
DI/DO, Isolated COM, SFP, TPM Option
ECU-4784 ECU-479 ECU-579
100-240 Vdc/Vac, 48VDC Redundant Power Option
HSR/PRP, IEEE 1588 v2, IRIG-B, SNMP v2.0
Redundant Fan (-20~60°C)
Fanless (-25~70°C)
Intel RSTSW RAID High Speed HW RAID 0/1/10
Compatible with mainstream virtualization technology according to the customer’s test result, not Advantech‘s official announcement
Co-working with VMware’s team to support ESXi on Intel hybrid core (P + E) architecture

14. Co-Creating the Future
of the IoT World
Co-Creating the Future
of the IoT World

15. ECU Server Roadmap
Developing
Available Planning
SCADA
Server
ECU-579
• Intel® Xeon® 1st/2nd Gen. Scalable Processor Family
• Scalable CPU up to 24 Core, 150W
• 12 x DIMM sockets support up to 768GB DDR4
• Up to 2 x hot-swappable PSU and 4 x hot-swappable fan
• Up to 4 x 2.5" hot-swappable SSD, 1 x M.2 2280 SATA SSD
• Up to 2 x PCIe x16 Gen3, PCIe x8 Gen3, PCIe x4 Gen3
• IPMI 2.0-compliant management
Software-Defined
Virtualization
Server
2U Rack-mount
• 2 x Swappable Power Supply
• 4 x DP & LAN & Swappable SSD
2U Fanless Rack-mount
Position
2024
ECU-479
• Intel® Core® 13rd Gen. Processor Family (Alder Lake-S) w/ PL = 25W
• Socket CPU up to 8+8 Core, 2 x SODIMM support up to 64GB DDR4
• 2 x hot-swappable PSU (100-240 AC/DC) & 1 x ECUP Expansion Slot
• 4 x 2.5" hot-swappable SSD
• 4 x Display Port, 4 x GbE LAN, 2 x COM
• 4 x Standard PCIe with Low Profile Form Factor
• iBMC out-of-band management
Q3’2023
ECU-579 v2
• Intel® Xeon® Sierra Forest CPU up to 64 E Cores
• 8 x DDR5 DIMM sockets
• 2 x DP, 8 x GbE, 3+2 x USB
• 2 x hot-swappable PSU and 4 x hot-swappable fan
• 4 x 2.5" hot-swappable SSD, 1 x M.2 2280 NVMe
• Up to 2 x PCIe x16 Gen3, 3 x PCIe x8 Gen3
• IPMI 2.0-compliant management

16. ECU Workstation
Developing
Available Planning
2024
Position
• 8 x Giga LAN
• 10 x Isolated RS-232/422/485
• Dual Power Redundant
2U Fanless Rack-mount
Legacy
SCADA
Server
ECU-4784-G58SCE/U
• 2U Rack-mount
• Intel 9th Xeon E-2276ML
• DDR4 16G w/ ECC (up to 64G)
• 2 x Video Output (DVI-D & I)
• 2U Rack-mount
• Intel 6th Xeon E3-1505L v5
• DDR4 16G/32G w/ ECC
• 2 x Video Output (VGA & DVI)
ECU-4784-E56/E57SAE
ECU-4784-G58SDE
• 2U Rack-mount
• Intel 9th Xeon E-2276ML
• DDR4 16G w/ ECC (up to 64G)
• 2 x Video Output (DVI-D & I)
Q1’2023
ECU-4784-E36SCE/U
• 2U Rack-mount
• Intel 6th Core i5-6300U
• DDR3L 16G
• 2 x Display output (DVI-D/I)
ECU-4784-E45SCE/U
• 2U Rack-mount
• Intel 6th Core i7-6600U
• DDR3L 8G
• 2 x Display output (DVI-D/I)
ECU-4784-C36SCE
• 2U Rack-mount
• Intel 6th Celeron 3955U
• DDR3L 8G
• 2 x Display output (DVI-D/I)
ECU-4784 v2 (ECU-469)
• Intel® Core® 13rd Gen. Processor
Family w/ PL = 15W
• Socket CPU up to 8+8 Core, 2 x
SODIMM support up to 64GB DDR4
• 2 x PSU & 2 x 2.5" SSD
• 8 x GbE LAN, 10 x COM
• 2 x ECUP Expansion Slot
• 1 x VGA & HDMI

17. ECU I/O Expansion Card Roadmap
HSR/PRP
Card
Developing
Available Planning
Ethernet
Card
UNOP-1514*C/*RE/*PE
• 4-Port Gigabit Ethernet
• Intel® 82580 Controller
• IEEE 1588 PTP support
ECU-P1524-*AE/*GAE
• 2 x SPF with HSR/PRP
• 2 x SFP for Eth. Comm.
• 1 x RJ45 (Internal Link)
ECU-P1522LPE-A
• 2 x SPF with HSR/PRP
• 1 x RJ45 (Internal Link)
• LP/HL PCIe interface
• MbE/GbE Auto Switch
ECU-P1524SPE
• 2 x SPF with HSR/PRP
• 1 x RJ45 (Internal Link)
• FH/HL PCIe interface
• MbE/GbE Auto Switch
*AE: Megabit Ethernet
*GAE: Gigabit Ethernet
*C: Fiber
*RE: RJ45
*PE: SFP
ECU-P1528RE/PE-B
• 8-Port Gigabit Ethernet
• IEEE 1588 PTP support
Q1’2023
*RE: RJ45
*PE: SFP
FH: Full Height
HL: Half Length
LP: Low Profile
HL: Half Length
*ECU-P1522LPE-SE
• 4 x SPF with HSR/PRP
• Support SR-IOV
• 1 x RJ45 (Internal Link)
• LP/HL PCIe interface
LP: Low Profile
HL: Half Length
Q1’2023
EOL Q2’2022
EOL Q4’2023

18. Siemens WinCC Virtualization

19. ABB SCC 600

20. GE eLumina
https://www.gegridsolutions.com/systems_services/catalog/hvdc/

21. • American independent, nonprofit organization
• Address challenges in the energy industry, including reliability, efficiency, affordability, health,
safety, and the environment
• proposed by Congress, to create an independent research and development organization to
support the electricity sector and address its technical and operational challenges
• Publish CSP: Utility Requirement Assessment in 2022
EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute)

22. VMware Real time

23. https://storware.eu/blog/microsoft-hyper-v-in-the-shade-of-vmware/
ECU-579 compatible with 4 Virtualization Technology about 60% coverage.

24. Virtualization on HSR/PRP Communication
• Renewable Energy Challenge:
– Complexity of power grid
– More IEDs, More efforts for protection
• VPR Benefit
– Cost (Device, Labor, Deploy, Maintain, Mgmt)
– Flexibility, Reliability, Optimization
• Protection Approach
Approach Path
Traditional 1-1 to 1
Virtualization (Computing)
Virtualization (Communication)
M-1 to 1
1-M to 1
IED w/ Open API M-M to M
• Supported by ECO partners
– Intel, IC, BSP, FW, TCC, SR-IOV
– TTTech, HSR/PRP IP on FPGA
– VMware ESXi Hypervisor w/ real-time for edge
– Kalkitech SW and validation