Primary Substation Communication

Electricity companies are constantly working to improve their quality of service, which requires a redundant and resilient data communications network. However, the situation today is that many primary substations are connected to the control centres via outdated leased lines and analogue modems with insufficient bandwidth and reliability. Upgrading the data communications networks could mean installing new fibre optic cables for up to 1,000 individual substations spread across large geographical areas which in most cases would not be economically feasible. Additionally, the scale of the network requires installation and configuration to be simple, and network maintenance to be easy and efficient, while cybersecurity must be effective, as security breaches can cause downtime in entire cities or nations.

Westermo solution

The use of Westermo Wolverine Ethernet line extenders enables pre-existing cable infrastructure to be reused to form new high-bandwidth networks at a fraction of the cost of installing new fibre optic cables. These Ethernet extenders have the highest MTBF on the market. Installation is simple and efficient, and initial configuration is made easy through WeConfig. In addition, WeConfig provides tools for network maintenance, including cable diagnostics, firmware upgrades, network hardening and cybersecurity.

Key benefits

• Reuse pre-existing cable infrastructure
• Easy set-up and maintenance directly from control room using WeConfig, allowing management of hundreds of units in a single click
• Highest MTBF on the market
• Built-in cybersecurity