Digital Substations

The digital substation components allow interfacing with all old and new technologies. To interface with existing equipment, we offer standalone merging units and breaker intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) (SAM600 I/O system).

In general, digital technology will reduce testing in the future, as all systems will become supervised and will allow you to shift from fixed, time-based to condition- or risk-based maintenance schemes. Specifically testing the digital substation provides a safer testing behavior that reduces the effort for disconnection voltage and current circuits.

The digital substation has different entry points, making it easy for you to get started with the application and amount of technology that best fit your organization’s current needs and level of maturity. For example, you can begin with monitoring or communications to test how it benefits you in the short term. Once you’ve undertaken this step, the next step could be to translate this learning to the network or enterprise level. In short, you do not necessarily have to begin with an entire digital substation and instead can start with a test concept. Hitachi Energy has a long history of successfully delivering digital substation projects, having worked on more than 50 digital substations, and we are perfectly positioned to guide you through the project based on your pace and specific organizational needs.

Digital technology improves safety because there are fewer signal connections or inadvertently opened CT circuits that could harm personnel during commissioning and service activities. 

Digital substations reduce your carbon footprint because they require less space for protection and control panels. Also, functions that were previously executed by physically separate equipment can be integrated into one device.

Achieve higher productivity with new asset management systems that include monitoring and diagnostics data from substation equipment. This added insight substantially improves the efficiency of service activities. Monitoring and diagnostics are strategic features for utilities, further reducing outage time and increasing reliability.

Take the lead in the digitalization of your grid, ensure longer lifecycle of your assets, and ensure a more secure communication environment with IEC61850 Ed. 2.1 Hitachi Energy certified products and tools.  Hitachi Energy’s SAM600 and PCM600 are designed and certified to comply to the latest IEC61850 Ed. 2.1 standard, enabling interoperability and reliable communication between digital assets even in complex systems.

Since its publication in 2004, the global IEC 61850 standard has been accepted at a remarkably fast rate. Developed with the support of Hitachi Energy, it is the first truly global standard in the electric utility field.

The evolution hasn't stopped there. Since the advent of the IEC 61850 edition 2 in 2011, which takes the standard outside of the substation, Hitachi Energy invested tremendous efforts in implementing this standard in our systems, tools, and products. We believe IEC 61850 is the basis for a successful and modern digital grid.

The defining feature of a digital substation is the implementation of a process bus. The introduction of IEC 61850 in 2005 was a key enabler for digitization and digitalization of power systems everywhere. The various technological advances spurred by IEC 61850 raised customer expectations about the quality and reliability of power supply. The IEC 61850 process bus enables the substitution of point-to-point copper connections between IEDs and other devices (e.g., instruments transformers, gas monitoring, etc.) with a safe and standardized optical communication bus. 

Hitachi Energy has a longstanding experience in digital substations, placing it at the market forefront of this technology innovation, ensuring compliance with the highest standards in the industry.