PNDC is working with various communication equipment vendors to assess the performance and stability of current differential protection service carried over next generation networks.

Teleprotection schemes conventionally use point-to-point connection or circuit-switched networks for data communication. As these communication services are becoming difficult to source and maintain, there are technical and commercial drivers to move to next generation communication network, such as the MPLS network and advanced SDH network. PNDC is working with various communication equipment vendors to assess the performance and stability of current differential protection service carried over next generation networks. Our efforts are focused in such a way as to verify the communication technologies and platforms can satisfy the performance requirements before proceeding to field trial and deployment. A complete hardware-in-the-loop testbed integrating our RTDS power system simulator, protection relays and communication nodes are built and used for this purpose.

Our work in this area is ongoing and is enabling visibility of the ability of next generation communication networks to rise to these demanding challenges.