Developing an electrical distribution monitoring system

Modern industrial production processes have always been supervised and/or controlled in many different ways. The evolution of control methods was motivated by technological advances and by the requirements of the processes themselves. Many processes are supervised and controlled in an automated environment due to improvements in electronics and computer science. In the electric power industry, there is a strong need to control and supervise the production and distribution of energy, so as to avoid possible power failures. The supply of energy must always be guaranteed (even in adverse conditions), and control involves different systems (high and low voltage lines, compensation, and filtering systems, etc.), so operators require quick and reliable access to meaningful information. The option to interfere in some processes must be provided. All these goals are accomplished using an appropriate control architecture, communication networks, and symbolic representation of electrical network systems. Operator efficiency will be assured if these requirements are met. There are no unique guidelines for developing electrical monitoring projects, since any choice will depend on many specific variables; however, the most important points to take into account are as follows.