Due to the Energy Transition, the use of power transmission and distribution grids is changing. The control architecture of power grids needs to be swiftly adapted to take account of infeed at lower grid levels, higher dynamics in flow patterns, and more distributed controls (both internal controls and grid flexibility services from third parties). In this context, TSOs and DSOs require a new generation of Digital Substation Automation Systems (DSAS) that could provide more complex, dynamic, and adaptative automation functions at grid nodes and edge, as well as enhanced orchestration from central systems, in both flexible and scalable manner. Virtualization is seen as a key innovation in order to fulfill these needs.
SEAPATH, Software Enabled Automation Platform and Artifacts (THerein), aims at developing a “reference design” and “industrial grade” open source real-time platform that can run virtualized automation and protection applications (for the power grid industry in the first place and potentially beyond). This platform is intended to host multi-provider applications.
Due to the nature of the virtualized applications, whose function is to regulate, control, command and transmit information relating to the operation, management and maintenance of an electrical substation, the virtualization base must meet the challenges of reliability, performance and availability.
Features
- Hosting of virtualization systems: an heterogeneous variety of virtual machines can be installed and managed on the platform.
- High availability and clustering: machines on the cluster are externally monitored in order to guarantee the high availability in case of hardware or software failures.
- Distributed storage: data and disk images from the virtual machines are replicated and synchronized in order to guarantee its integrity and availability on the cluster.
- Intelligent virtual network: the virtualisation platform is capable of configuring and managing the network traffic in a data layer level.
- Administration: system can be easily configured and managed from a remote machine connected to the network as well as by an administrator on site.
- Automatic update: the virtualisation platform can be automatically updated from a remote server.