Plan ahead for substation automation

Technological improvements to intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) and the communication facilities and protocols that enable their integration are occurring at a rapid pace. To ensure that ongoing internal efforts integrate the IEDs has proper direction given industry developments, MidAmerican Energy Company developed a substation automation (SA) plan and is in the process of implementing it at two pilot substations. This paper describes the methodology used to develop the business case for expanding the implementation of SA technologies at MidAmerican's substations and summarizes the results of this analysis.