COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

PUTRAJAYA CAMPUS
FINAL EXAMINATION
(SOLUTION)

SEMESTER 2, 2016 / 2017

PROGRAMME : Bachelor of Electrical Power Engineering (Honours)/

Bachelor of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (Honours)

SUBJECT CODE : EPEB433

SUBJECT : Power System Communications

DATE : January/February 2017

TIME : 3 hours

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES:

1. This paper contains FOUR (4) questions.

2. Answer ALL questions.

3. Write ALL answers in the answer booklet provided.

THIS QUESTION PAPER CONSISTS OF 5 PRINTED PAGES INCLUDING THIS

COVER PAGE.
 EPEB433, Sem 2, 2016/17

QUESTION 1 [20 MARKS]

Figure 1 illustrates a simplified data network.

Kuala Lumpur Head
Office LAN
Computer Computer Computer

Computer Computer Computer Computer

Server Server

Branch Office router Seremban Branch

Office LAN
Server Server Branch office
router
Firewall
Wide Area Network

Kajang Branch Office

LAN

Internet
Computer Computer Computer

Server Server
Branch office router

Figure 1: Data network

a. What would your choice for a physical medium within the Local Area Network (LAN)
at the Head Office. Justify your choice. (CO1, Level 2)
[4 marks]

Answer: Copper cable because it is cheap and able to carry data bandwidth up to 100
Mbps.
b. What is the physical topology used within the LAN at the Head Office as shown in
Figure 1? (CO1, Level 1)
[2 marks]
Answer: Bus topology

c. What is a possible logical topology for an e-mail application within the Head Office?
Describe the operation. (CO1, Level 2)
[6 marks]

Answer: Client-server. Centralised controlled over the network performed by the server
towards all the clients (PCs)

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d. What is a Wide Area Network? Provide an example. (CO1, Level 2)

[4 marks]
Answer: Wide Area Network is a network that connects many smaller Local Area
Networks. It covers bigger geographical area. An example is Internet network.

e. The Open System Interconnect (OSI) model uses 7 layers. Which layer is responsible
addressing and routing? Give an example of a device that operates at this layer. (CO1,
Level 2)
[4 marks]
Answer: Layer 3 i.e. Network layer. An example of device that operates here is a router.

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QUESTION 2 [25 MARKS]

Power Line Carrier is one of a physical medium used in a power utility.

a. Describe the technology of power line carrier as a medium of communication. (CO3,

Level 2)
[4 marks]
Answer: Power Line Carrier is a technology of using the existing power cable to send
communication signal through frequency signal.

b. What are two environmental factors that may affect the signal performance of power
line carrier? (CO3, Level 2)
[4 marks]
Answer: Environmental factors rain, snow, sleet, dust on conductor, radio
interference, lightning
c. What is the purpose of using a coupling device(s) in Power Line Carrier? Provide an
example of one coupling device. (CO3, Level 2)
[4 marks]
Answer: The coupling device(s) are used to couple the impedance of the line to the
PLC equipment and reduce the voltage of the line to the operating voltage of PLC.

d. Explain why fiber optics is considered a better communication medium than Power
Line Carrier for power utility. (CO2, Level 2)
[4 marks]
Answer: Fibre optics are immune to electromagnetic (EMF) interference and can
carry higher bandwidth and data than PLC.
e. You are planning for a teleprotection application; describe any teleprotection
application. (CO4, Level 2)

[4 marks]
Answer: A current differential is a relay that uses communication to compare voltage
and current coming in and going out from two terminal ends of high voltage equipment
such as a transformer or a line.

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f. Choose between using Power Line Carrier and Fibre optics for a teleprotection
application by taking into consideration of these performance parameters: bandwidth
and error rate. Justify your answer. (CO4, Level 3)
[5 marks]
Answer: Fibre optic has higher bandwidth and very low error rate compared to power line
carrier. I would choose fibre optics.

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QUESTION 3 [25 marks]

David wants to build a Substation Automation application inside the Bangi substation.
Figure 2 below illustrates the architecture of the network.
SCADA

Other Intelligent Bay

Protection Relay Controller

CTs, VTs, etc.

Figure 2: Substation Automation architecture

a. Explain the type of communication architecture in this Substation Automation as
shown in Figure 2. (CO6, Level 2)
[4 marks]
Answer: This substation automation architecture is a type 2 architecture. The protection
and control applications are installed in separate devices. The bay controller normally
handles the higher level communications to the SCADA network, and a direct
communication link is established between the bay controller and protection device.
The protection device may or may not communicate directly to the SCADA network.

b. What is a Intelligent Relay? What is it used for? (CO6, Level 2)

[4 marks]
Answer: An intelligent relay is a protection device that uses a microprocessor. It is
used to provide protection scheme for the feeder for example distance protection or
current differential relay.

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c. Provide an example of and describe a substation automation application? (CO6, Level

3)
[6 marks]
Answer: A voltage control application control by a remote SCADA master.

d. Describe any two advantages of this network architecture? (CO6, Level 2)

[4 marks]
Answer:
Dedicated control and protection devices.
Failure of one device will not influence the applications of the other device
Execution of protection functions will not be slowed down due to other applications
demand on microprocessor time
Peer-to-peer communications of bay controllers possible, depending on communication
topology and protocol used
Peer-to-peer communications on a network between the protection relays will normally not
be required with a type 2 system.
Protection relays will have point-to-point communications in differential protection
schemes, or a dedicated network for busbar zone protection.

e. Identify one disadvantage of this network architecture? (CO6, Level 2)

[2 marks]
Answer:
More complex circuitry and wiring compared to Type 1 systems
Protection and control applications not integrated within one device, making programming
and configuration more complex
Installation, programming, configuration and commissioning of at least two devices per bay
Disturbance recordings and sequence-of-event reporting not integrated in one device,
placing higher demands on time synchronization
More loading on the communications network, also resulting in more complex configuration
of the network, as bay communications originate from more than one device
More physical space required on switchgear panels

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f. In your opinion, what is an improvement that can be done to improve Davids

Substation Automation architecture? Justify your answer. (CO6, Level 4)
[5 marks]
Answer:
Add a double bus to station level communication, this will improve reliability where
in the event of the failure of the primary station bus, the secondary bus will take over.

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QUESTION 4 [30 marks]

An overall system diagram of a SCADA is shown in Figure 3. You are the design engineer of
the SCADA system. Describe data acquisition method from a HV device of your choice
within a transmission substation. You need to display this information at the HMI/Operators
Workstation with a time response of 60 seconds and data throughput of 96%. Explain and
provide justification for your design. (CO5, Level 5, 6)

Figure 3: Basic SCADA architecture

Answer:
Examples of data acquisition are voltage, current, phasor, temperature etc. (5 marks)
Voltage from voltage transformer, current from current transformer, phasor from phasor
measurement unit, temperature from thermocouple unit.
Sampled and converted into digital values
Transmitted over wide area network, ie star, ring or mesh network for physical configuration
(10 marks)
Client-server logical configuration
Using polling or polling by exception media access method
Physical link are fibre optics
SCADA Master has HMI display that is use by operator to interact with the system (5 marks)
Received at front end of SCADA master, converted into display by CPU for HMI
Data of voltage, current, frequency, temperature, is displayed, sometime aggregated value
or use in other application such as EMS etc (5 marks)
Use fibre optic so that able to achieved 60s time response (5 marks)

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Use Client-server/master slave so that less overhead (envelope) info to achieve 96% data
throughput.

-END OF QUESTION PAPER-

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