The concept of digital substations has existed in the power industry for a long time, but their adoption is hindered by outdated processes, regulations, conservative methods, and limited knowledge. However, thinking is changing, and digital substations are now receiving increasing attention.
What is the difference between digital substations and old or traditional substations? Digital substations use sensors and real-time data to provide remote monitoring and control, enabling digital communication and promoting efficient and profitable power supply systems.

We believe that digital substations bring the following five most valuable benefits to public utilities.
Lower deployment costs
Compared to traditional substations, digital substations are more efficient in terms of cost and installation time. Why? Because they greatly reduce reliance on copper cable wiring.
Typically, traditional substations rely on several kilometers of copper cables and thousands of terminals to support control systems and point-to-point communication, such as circuit breakers, current transformers, voltage transformers, and protective relays.
The development of substations is driven by the increasing digitalization process, mainly driven by the widespread adoption of IEC 61850. This progress involves not only the utilization of site buses, but also the integration of process buses. Process buses require the installation of digital devices such as merging units and process interface units in the switch station. These devices transmit basic data to intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) located in the control room. High speed data transmission is achieved through fiber optic Ethernet.
Therefore, digital substations mainly rely on fiber optic connections to support the digitization of transmission and distribution systems. This simplifies substation infrastructure design and greatly reduces the amount of copper cable wiring required. For example, in small and medium-sized substations, we estimate that copper cables can be reduced by nearly 30 kilometers and replaced by less than 1.5 kilometers of fiber optic cables.

Safer to manage
Digital substations have significantly improved safety and reduced electrical hazards commonly found in traditional substations.
In traditional substations, using copper cables to transmit signals from the switch station to the control room poses potential safety risks, especially when connecting current and voltage transformers. Each copper wire has the potential to cause electric shock.
In digital substations, current and voltage transformers are replaced with LPIT (Low Power Transformer), providing higher safety and reliability. Unlike traditional transformers, LPIT does not output electrical signals; instead, it transmits measured current and voltage to a fully digital energy meter (digital energy meter).
One of the significant advantages of digital substations is the elimination of electrical connections between high-voltage equipment and protection and control systems. The reduction of electrical connection points minimizes the risk of manual contact currents. By reducing potential risks, digital substations help to lower labor costs associated with hazardous working environments.

Helps to connect the substation control room
Transforming into a micro data center
The substation control room will become a micro data center, containing its own computers, storage, networks, power, cooling, and other infrastructure for a given workload. Digital substations are the driving force behind this transformation.
Micro data centers can help utility companies reduce costs and rapidly expand or shrink. Introducing edge computing into the real world and closer to data sources enables the control room to support faster deployment and lower latency.

Support easier maintenance
The service life of relays, protection devices, and control equipment in the substation control room is usually between 10 and 15 years. After that, the equipment should be upgraded. Digital substations make equipment upgrades and replacements faster and easier, and enable remote management. Downtime is greatly reduced, while also reducing the risk for maintenance personnel.
Reduce the hard connection of devices to the network, digitize maintenance documents, and make them easy to access.
The simple and open architecture of digital substations also makes future expansion easier, faster, and more economical.

Provide access to real-time data
Digital substations provide power grid companies with the ability to capture, utilize, and transmit accurate real-time data, unlike traditional substations that can only provide limited access to such information. This real-time data enables power grid companies to effectively monitor and control grid stability, and respond quickly to grid conditions.
This enables better visualization at the station and higher-level control center levels, thereby improving system flexibility. It also allows power grid companies to access their digital systems more deeply and flexibly standardize their data into a universal data model based on the IEC 61850 Substation Configuration Language (SCL).

Realize digital substation
Belden’s experts can implement your digital substation and automation plan. We can help you advance your digital journey, harness the power of data to shape the future of utilities, and be prepared to respond to constantly changing market trends.
Experts and consultants working at the Belden Customer Innovation Center are always ready to share their in-depth understanding of hardware, software, and operational elements with you. They will evaluate your processes and network to identify challenges and opportunities. Then, we can design and customize your solution from scratch to achieve your specific KPIs while providing a network that outperforms industry benchmarks.