Advanced Digital Substations: Elevating Protection, Automation, and Control in Modern Power Grids

Dr. Moein Manbachi

P.h.D., P.Eng., SMIEEE | Project Leader

Dr. Moein Manbachi is a Project Leader with the Smart Microgrid Applied Research Team (SMART) within the Centre for Applied Research and Innovation of BC Institute of Technology in Vancouver. He was formerly a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of British Columbia .

Dr. Manbachi holds a Ph.D. degree in Mechatronic Systems Engineering from Simon Fraser University and has over 15 years of experience in academia, industry, and R&D in the areas of power systems and critical energy ifrastructure cybersecurity. He was the author/co-author of more than 50 technical papers published in high-ranked journals and conference proceedings.

Dr. Manbachi is an IEEE senior member and an active member of CIGRE (membership through BCIT institute) and Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia. His main research areas include, but are not limited to, smart grids, advanced substation automation systems, critical energy infrastructure cybersecurity, power system optimization, and applications of digital twin technologies in power systems.

This course is designed to provide participants with a comprehensive understanding of the rapidly evolving field of digital substations. It begins by exploring the benefits and challenges of transforming conventional substations into digital ones. Participants will examine the integration of advanced technologies such as sensors, intelligent electronic devices, and communication networks into various modern digital substation architectures
 

Seminar Description

The course provides an in-depth analysis of automation principles, including the deployment of SCADA systems, and the integration of protection, control, monitoring, and communication systems. The course will then focus on the IEC 61850 standard, its background and history, features, and data object model. In addition, participants will gain a deeper understanding of IEC 61850 through practical implementation and case studies. It also examines IEC 61850's versatile applications beyond substations, including its integration with other smart grid components such as Distributed Energy Resources (DERs).

The final section immerses participants in real-world scenarios through case studies and practical applications. Through an analysis of successful digital substations and IEC 61850 deployments, participants will be able to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges and solutions encountered in the real world. As a result, participants will gain basic knowledge of how advanced digital substations are designed, developed, implemented, and managed, and how to utilize the IEC 61850 standard to improve substation automation, interoperability, flexibility, and reliability.
 

Objectives

Upon successful completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• Understand Substation Automation Systems (SAS) designs in modern substations
• Learn how employing protocols/standards, such as IEC 61850, supports Protection, Automation, and Control (PAC) systems in advanced digital substations by using Generic Object-Oriented Substation Events (GOOSE) messages and Sampled Values (SV) streams.
• Learn how advanced IEC 61850 substations operate and are maintained during normal and abnormal conditions
• Understand how digital substations are monitored and controlled in real-time using Human Machine Interface (HMI)
• Learn how to monitor digital substations using cloud-based applications