Substation alarm monitoring system

Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system is the primary source of data for many activities in an electric utility. The scope of SCADA is broad such that the data requirements overlap between planning, operations and maintenance. SCADA is attractive because it provides timely information within a wide area. Lack of interoperability and high cost of communication constrains the depth and breadth of SCADA information sharing. This paper describes the design and implementation of a cost-effective and flexible system, called substation alarm monitoring system or SAMS, that was developed in-house to share centralised SCADA data for operations and maintenance. A comparison between SAMS and its predecessor, remote alarm monitoring system or RAMS is provided. Finally, we examine the effectiveness of the system presently used by nine TNB Transmission regional offices throughout the Malaysian Peninsular.