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Preliminary Findings from Mid-2010 Study of Energy Management Systems, SCADA and DMS/DA Systems

June 21, 2010 update. This interim client summary is based on tabulations of 65 survey completions from very large, large and mid-size North American utilities, together accounting for about 20% of served end-users. Bold print indicates a change from the preliminary findings released on June 14. These observations on some of the key topics covered in this year’s study (the 12th Newton-Evans Research world study of EMS, SCADA and DMS/DA over the past quarter century) will continue to be updated for clients as our sample size increases dramatically. The current sample represents about 20% of North American end users of electricity. The next update will feature observations and findings from more leading investor-owned utilities and will represent about 25% of served North American end users.

Smart Grid Initiatives – Funding

  • Most utilities plan to proceed with self-funded approaches to smart grid initiatives. Nearly 80% indicated that they would be making some effort over the next 24-36 months on funding smart grid initiatives.

Control Systems Upgrades and Replacements

  • Several upgrades and system replacements are being planned for EMS (23%) and for SCADA (29%) during the 2010-2012 periods.

Separation or Integration of Outage Management Systems from SCADA Systems

  • The majority (56%) of “early respondent” utilities reported having implemented OMS as a separate system and an additional eight percent plan to separate OMS from SCADA. This is a change from several years of earlier questioning on this topic.

Separate Generation Management System versus Automatic Generator Control (AGC)

  • For the majority of responding utilities (many of which no longer are vertically integrated), generation management systems (GMS) do not apply. AGC signaling from SCADA is sufficient for the majority of utilities (about one-third) that do own/operate or communicate directly with electric power production facilities. Eleven percent cited use of a separate GMS.

Combining Platforms for Control Systems

  • About one-third of the early respondents have an interest in combining EMS and DMS on a common platform. More than 40% expressed an interest in combining DMS with OMS on a common platform.
    • However, more than one half indicated that they do have cyber security concerns when EMS/DMS or DMS/OMS are combined on a single platform.

Linkages Between and Among Control Systems

  • Current linkages from the major T&D control systems to other utilities, to historian records systems, backup control centers and plant-level DCS systems are well-established.
    • Future links are being planned with AMI/AMR, MDMS and DA/DMS systems.

Protocol Usage and Plans in North America

  • DNP LAN growth has been substantial over the past two years with DNP serial users upgrading rather than migrating to IEC 61850 in North America. Modbus use and plans remain strong as well among North American utilities.
  • There has been some (minor) momentum building for including IEC 61850 in about 40% of the TOP 25 utilities. However, beyond that small group, there is no sense of urgency among the more than 3,000 North American utilities to adopt IEC 61850 in the near future.
    • About two-thirds indicated no plans to implement IEC 61850 by 2012, and the remaining one-third indicated they may consider some level of adoption.
    • Reasons for not implementing IEC 61850 revolve around “continuing (successful) use of other protocols” and “minimal awareness” of IEC 61850.

Usage and Plans for Using Third Party Services in the 2010-2012 years:

  • About 20% of respondents among this group of 65 utilities indicated a current need for one of more of these services: smart-grid related services; vulnerability assessments; training services; and pre-packaged distribution automation solutions.
  • External assistance likely to be requested by 2012 centered on three topics; vulnerability assessments, vulnerability remediation and managed security services.

Key Components of “Smart Grid” Activities

  • On the first tier of responses, two topics were ranked as being more important than others. These were: control systems and AMR/AMI.
    • The second tier was comprised of protection and control, outage management systems, substation automation and distribution automation.
    • The third tier included geographic information systems and integrated volt, Var control.