3.2.1 Why a New Approach Is Necessary
The recommendation that substation requirements be defined from the ground up may raise some questions. After all, the typical utility has spent decades refining current practices. While this is true, the odds are that yesterday’s good practice has become today’s rut. Ongoing practice tends to create a cultural mindset and organizational inertia that inhibits the practice from changing.
Project Management for Substation Automation
view future changes in terms of the existing technical framework rather than in terms of organizational needs. Because current practice has evolved from a much earlier time when constraints were much different, long-held assumptions may no longer be valid. Because old technology has worked for a long time and people feel comfortable with it, numerous things may be taken for granted. Along the way, certain desirable capabilities may have been dismissed as infeasible because the means to support them were nonexistent, immature, or too expensive. This baggage often has to be swept away, allowing a fresh assessment of what is needed and what is now feasible.
3.2.2 The Importance of Project Management
The excellence of the solutions we create is affected by two principal factors. One is how we view the problem to be solved. The other involves the application of the resources (for example, technologies, products, tools, or skills) that we have available. This is why a utility’s first “smart substation” project is such a watershed event—it offers a real opportunity to reassess these two interrelated areas. If this opportunity is ignored, a utility may seriously deprive itself of potential benefits. This loss will not only affect what is accomplished immediately, but can cripple the utility’s capability to effectively build on this work when adding advanced automation later. It is important to recognize that smart substations are a relatively new, technically advanced, and substantially pervasive approach to substation practice. Although the design and layout of the primary system (that is, the electrical infrastructure) may not be greatly affected, the effects on the secondary system will likely be breathtaking. From a skills perspective, smart substations enable more effective, less costly approaches to substation construction, engineering, installation, testing, and commissioning. From an operational perspective, smart substations enable more capable, flexible, open, and less costly approaches to system monitoring, control, protection, and automation. The smart substation concept is a credible, pragmatic approach for realizing all aspects of SA. It enables a utility to integrate a commonly shared technology infrastructure, supporting business objectives and the underlying functional requirements of demanding technical applications.
When a utility first initiates a smart substation project, there may be many unknowns and little experience with the new technologies. By necessity, project management will have expanded responsibilities in guiding initial smart substation projects to completion.
3.2.3 Project Scenarios
It is important to differentiate projects and programs as they apply to the substation arena. A project has a definite set of objectives—an implementation plan, a schedule, a budget, and a life that ends when the objectives are met. A program begins with an initial project that either starts from the beginning or is applied to an existing system. However, a program continues past the initial project, encompassing an ongoing life cycle of upgrades and expansions, typically realized through a succession of related projects.
A program will typically embody a migration strategy, shaped around the utility’s strategic and tactical priorities and cognizant of its limited resources. A migration strategy is a creative
Project Management for Substation Automation
endeavor, weighing prior investment, obsolescence issues, and available resources against the costs and benefits of proposed changes over time. As a utility develops its agendas for
progression over time, these efforts will likely be managed as a succession of projects within a substation automation program.
The projects that comprise a substation automation program fall into two areas—pilot projects and production deployments. They are characteristically different, as the following subsections explain. This information on pilot projects and production deployments is provided to meet the intention of these guidelines to enable a pragmatic course that is helpful to those who are not extremely familiar with this technology.
3.2.3.1 Pilot Projects
SA pilot projects, also known as proof-of-concept projects, are usually initiated as part of a utility’s introduction to the new SA technologies, methodologies, products, and practices. Because there is a lack of experience, the project goal is primarily to discover what is involved, map the minefields, identify the risks, get a handle on how to deal with discrepancies, and determine the real cost-benefits. In such a project, there may be midcourse corrections, minor pullbacks, and reassessments. In these cases, it is important to keep the logistics and project scale relatively small, so that these activities do not result in unacceptable, logistical cost overruns. Just as important is the fact that such projects allow a utility to really assess prospective equipment and supplier support before larger commitments are made.
3.2.3.2 Production Deployments
SA production deployments, also known as full-scale implementation projects, are intended to change the utility’s substation practices in a significant way. They assume that the proof-of- concept work has already been done, and that the risks are understood and manageable. There is more confidence in equipment and supplier support, because there has already been at least one round of experience. Because a project plan can be developed that confidently manages technical and process risks, project scope and logistics can be larger. Nevertheless, the project manager should never expect everything to go according to the project plan, because many utility
personnel will still be on a learning curve, and scaling up from pilot projects often raises its own issues. Some schedule and budget slack should be reserved, so that inevitable problems do not destroy the project plan. Otherwise, the project manager should expect to keep the project close to its original schedule and budget commitments.
3.2.4 Strategic Approaches
Utilities have different management missions defined by their unique business opportunities, strengths and weaknesses, and positioning within the larger utility market environment. Each utility needs to determine how substation automation fits into its own big picture and to adopt an appropriate strategy. One size does not fit all.
Project Management for Substation Automation
can be accomplished by evaluating the benefits and costs of these alternatives with respect to the baseline costs. For example, present worth analysis methods can be used to equalize costs over different time scales. Alternate strategies may include not only assessing different SA
functionality, but also different implementation scenarios. The following list provides examples of alternate implementation strategies:
• Do nothing: This baseline strategy represents a continuation of the status quo. It includes the
benefits and costs of not implementing any form of substation automation that is not currently within the baseline.
• Life-cycle strategy: This strategy involves replacing equipment and systems only when their
life-cycle indicates replacement and upgrades are timely. New equipment is added only as the new systems are eventually upgraded. Purely applied, this approach ignores synergies available through coordinated changes.
• Upgrade strategy: This strategy involves upgrading existing systems rather than replacing
them, even though not all benefits may be realized by using this approach. Depending on circumstances and the benefits that may be realized, upgrades may offer less value than replacements, even though they may be less costly to implement.
• Realize benefits rapidly: This attempt to realize benefits involves replacing systems
quickly. However, caution should be exercised because some benefits may be realized only if changes to utility practices or other systems are appropriately coordinated with these
replacements.
• Phased implementation: Phased implementation involve adding substation automation first
at locations that can benefit the most.
Hybrids of these strategies can also be assessed. For example, the SCADA system could be upgraded with SA functionality, even though its anticipated life cycle has not expired.
Combining this with phased implementation could stretch costs over a number of years, avoiding high capital expenditures during a shorter interval.
3.2.4.1 Objectives and Priorities
Adopting technology for its own sake is a bad idea. Every potential change to an existing system should be viewed as a business proposition. A utility must be clear about the expectations and costs of changing to a new system.
Until the past decade, most improvements to substations were viewed in technical terms. It was a mentality born of a regulated industry. System reliability was the most critical interest. That philosophy has changed dramatically. Now, improvements must be viewed in business terms— benefits and costs must be used to make hard economic choices. Only in this way can a utility achieve the most valuable gains in the shortest possible time, given its resources. Even system reliability and its related technical issues can be honestly characterized in business terms.
Project Management for Substation Automation
3.2.4.2 Migration Strategy
A migration strategy is an approach that considers a utility’s management priorities (tactical and strategic), its existing systems and assets, and its anticipated resources over time (for example, manpower availability, cash, and borrowing). Identifying where a utility wants to be in the next few years, and developing a plan to get there, are critical elements of a migration strategy. A well-considered plan is more likely to be successful over the long haul than reactive
improvisation. Once such a plan is in place, it can be periodically reviewed to ensure that prior assumptions still hold. Otherwise, mid-course corrections can be made.