Displaying items by tag: Ovarro

Saturday, 21 August 2021 00:12

Making smart grids possible

Distribution automation for a failproof, diversified energy grid

In July 2021, the European Commission announced new ambitious targets for green energy. By 2030, 40 per cent of all the energy consumed in Europe should be generated renewably. While this is great for the planet, it adds another layer of complexity to energy grid management. The solution? Smart grids. Here, Johan van der Veen, an account manager specialising in energy at remote monitoring and control expert Ovarro, explains how distribution automation makes smart grids possible.

With rapid diversification and rising customer demand, these are challenging times for grid managers. The transition to solar, wind, and wave power means that energy production is as changeable as the weather — quite literally. This is compounded by growing demand for energy thanks to electric vehicles (EVs) and electric heating.

As a result, the energy distribution landscape is changing. Rather than the traditional top-down structure of one producer to many customers, now there is a shifting dynamic of energy being fed back and forth as usage peaks and troughs.

But, if supply and demand don’t align, it can lead to higher rate of power loss or unavailability incidents. Nobody wants a power failure, especially with heavy fines and public opinion on the line.

All this means that energy grids need to work harder and, without huge amounts of investment in extra infrastructure, the easiest way to achieve this is to make them more efficient — smarter, even. Datawatt, now part of Ovarro, has been working on making grids smarter since 1977 — well before the term smart grid even existed — with distribution automation technologies.

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Work smarter not harder

Distribution automation covers the final part of the energy network, between the last station and customers’ homes and businesses. While in the past this section of the grid has been unmanaged apart from meters, recent years have seen a trend towards extending monitoring and control activities to this low voltage side.

Smart grids rely on monitoring equipment to collect data and analyse it. All this information can be used to predict problems, or identify them quickly once they do occur, helping grid operators take preventative or remedial action.

In layman’s terms, an electricity grid is like a chain of cables — a failure in one link means the whole chain doesn’t work. Smart grids can automatically identify and isolate the fault location, remotely switching gear so customers are supplied from another part of the grid.

Previously, grid engineers would have had to drive between distribution stations until they found the one with the fault. Smart grids with remote monitoring capabilities streamline this task so that maintenance teams can go directly to the source of the problem, reducing outage duration.

Solutions for smart grids

Ovarro offers remote monitoring and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems designed for distribution grids. The Datawatt Smart Grid (DSG) series of remote telemetry units (RTUs) operates with flexibility and security in mind, adhering to European Network for Cyber Security (ENCS) security standards. The DSG operates on Linux, the modern open-source platform known for reliability and stability.

Ovarro RTUs like the DSG collect and manage data, before making it available to other systems for processing and analysing. As well as RTUs, Ovarro assembles cabinets that include a combination of its own products and third party hardware, offering complete solutions that are quick and easy to install in the field.

For smaller operators, there’s the Datawatt Stream webscada, a central system and web portal that collects data in real-time and makes it immediately available on digital devices. Ideal for controlling different locations and processes, this easy to use system ensures worry-free management and maintenance. Furthermore, the data can also be imported into the customer’s central system, so everything is available in one place. 

It’s access to data that makes grids smart. Therefore, RTUs and SCADA systems are the building blocks of modern smart grids, collecting and analysing the large amounts of process data necessary for faster, and better, decision making.

As the energy sector comes to rely more heavily on renewable energy generation, in accordance with European climate targets, more effective distribution management will become essential. Automation offers one solution, with RTUs like the DSG series able to collect, analyse and act on data, helping to prevent power outages and resolve any faults quickly.

For more information on remote monitoring for energy grids, head to Ovarro’s website.

About Ovarro

Ovarro is the new name for Servelec Technologies and Primayer, and it hasrecently taken over the companies Datawatt BV and ControlPoint Ltd. Ovarro's technology is used throughout the world to monitor, control and manage critical and national infrastructure.

Our connected technology is always there, always on. Secure, proven, trusted; integrating seamlessly with our clients’ assets. Collecting and communicating data from some of the most remote locations and harshest environments on the planet. Enabling businesses to work smarter and more effectively.

Ovarro works with customers across water, oil & gas, broadcast and transportation to help monitor, control and manage their assets.

Published in Green Industry
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Monday, 16 August 2021 10:03

Unbreaking the record for cyber-attacks

Remote telemetry units (RTUs) help prevent cyber-attacks against critical infrastructure

According to Forbes, 2020 broke all records for data lost in breaches and sheer numbers of cyber-attacks on companies, individuals and governments. These threats are also becoming more sophisticated with emerging technologies like machine learning, artificial intelligence and 5G. Fortunately, remote telemetry units (RTUs) allow for better control and visibility when accompanied by advanced development and deployment techniques. Here, Matthew Hawkridge, chief technology officer at Ovarro, the supplier and manufacturer of remote monitoring technologies, explains why secure RTUs can mitigate threats against critical national infrastructure.

But why the rise in incidents? One explanation is that the increased move towards digitalisation and Industry 4.0 has raised cyber-security risks.

Cyber-attacks can also affect critical network infrastructure (CNI) like energy, water or oil and gas networks — the UK Government’s National Cyber Security Council (NCSC) is always concerned about the prospect of Russia or China hacking into Britain’s water supply chain. Cyberthreats to CNIs include espionage, targeted attacks from malicious actors, such as hostile states and criminals, and accidental data loss. All have the potential to disrupt our lives and damage the economy.

But how can CNI operators embrace digital transformation and all its benefits without inviting cybersecurity risks? The answer lies in RTUs and deployment with the latest NCSC Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF).

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Secure ease-of-access

For decades, telemetry unit systems have been used for remote monitoring of power consumption and battery backup in networks for energy, water and telecommunications by gathering information about critical assets. They work on the simple premise that, if the condition of an asset is understood, then it can be managed efficiently and respond quickly to change. There is immense value in being able to optimise operations and to detect and respond faster to impending issues.

These systems are also equipped for Wi-Fi and the advent of 5G — for example, for process plants with servers in the cloud or in a nearby, air-conditioned control room, the RTU gathers information about critical assets. RTUs are emerging as one of the drivers for the IoT because they can gather and manage large volumes of data for analysis. Also, they are secure against cyber-attacks.

Ovarro’s TBox RTU is equipped with a Firewall with four levels of authority, HTTP session authentication and SSL/TLS & X.509 certificates. It also meets the IEEE802.1X standard for devices that connect with other devices on local area networks (LANs). Ovarro also works with highly qualified “CHECK” approved third party penetration testers,  cybersecurity experts that help us investigate and discover potential vulnerabilities and weaknesses in our products’ defences. We also  publish security advisories on new discoveries upon patching for complete transparency..

Going forward, Ovarro is committed to  meeting the IEC-62443 standard to secure industrial automation and control technology systems. But how are these efforts applied in a real-world setting, and where do RTUs fit in?

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Better Industry 4.0

PetroChina Southwest Oil and Gas Field Company approached Ovarro to support with a digital upgrade project at its Chongqing Gas Mine. The mine is located in the jurisdiction of 277 industrial gas wells with a daily production capacity of 20 million cubic meters. Specifically, the customer wanted to improve remote monitoring of all its key gas wells with a better use of data. A key feature of this digital transformation would be the installation of an internet protocol (IP) camera at each site, giving regular images of the well head. But how could this be achieved securely?

Ovarro’s solution was to install a total of 70 solar-powered TBox RTUs within a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system. The RTUs have the responsibility of capturing and transmitting an image snapshot each hour, or upon an alarm. In the case of a communications outage, the historian capabilities of the RTU can store months-worth of historical data on pressure, process shut-off valve position and more. This can be backed-up and transmitted to the central control station later, helping protect against data loss.

PetroChina has praised the TBox’s built-in cyber security suite with authentication and encryption technology, which provides state-of-the-art protection of the customer’s assets and data. This example shows that CNI managers can embrace the advantages of Industry 4.0 without compromising cybersecurity. With the right technology like RTUs in place, let’s hope that 2020’s cyberattack records remain unbroken in the future.

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About Ovarro

Ovarro is the new name for Servelec Technologies and Primayer. Ovarro's technology is used throughout the world to monitor, control and manage critical and national infrastructure.

Our connected technology is always there, always on. Secure, proven, trusted; integrating seamlessly with our clients’ assets. Collecting and communicating data from some of the most remote locations and harshest environments on the planet. Enabling businesses to work smarter and more effectively.

Ovarro works with customers across water, oil & gas, broadcast and transportation to help monitor, control and manage their assets.

Published in Technology News
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Wednesday, 28 July 2021 12:40

Enabling optimum use of existing data

Cloud-based applications are providing opportunities for more resilient and flexible network management options, enabling them to make better use of existing data, writes Alan Cunningham, subject matter expert at technology specialist Ovarro.

Several sectors ― such as oil and gas, broadcast, transportation, power and process ― are under pressure to make operations more efficient, but in many cases ageing IT systems are halting progress. With budget constraints, meaning the replacement of all legacy systems is not an option, advancements in cloud-based analytics tools are providing cost-effective operational enhancements in areas like alarm system management.

2021 07 28 124253Technology provider Ovarro is working in partnership with several companies across a range of sectors to develop software tools that enables them to gain clearer insights into what is happening in their processes and internal networks. In many cases the new tools are utilising data that has already been captured, but has not been streamlined or managed effectively. 

“A lot of our clients talk about being data rich, information poor,” explains Alan Cunningham. “They’re collecting vast amounts of data out in the field from various devices, such as remote terminal units, but they do not have the tools to allow them to see the wood for the trees.

“If they can better use what is already being collected, they will be able to manage their operations far more efficiently without the expenditure of replacing legacy assets.

“A supplier could launch a fantastic piece of technology, but if a customer needs to invest heavily in capex products to see the benefits it might not be a big seller. If they can take information that already exists and see historical patterns, it becomes more powerful.”

One example of this is AlarmVision, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) application that presents real-time dashboards, which analyses the stream of alarms coming into a company’s control room from its telemetry system. SaaS applications are cloud-based and can be accessed via any device with an internet connection, as opposed to a software product that is entirely installed on a device or network.

AlarmVision dashboards give a measure of control over alarms, based on internationally recognised key performance indicators, and allow action to be taken to help operators maintain or gain control. The ability to gain real-time, or backwards-looking, analysis of how the control room is operating against the standards provides an insight into whether there is a risk of critical alarms being missed. 

Users can also identify the root cause of the largest proportion of alarms being generated on their system – for example, a faulty piece of equipment could be causing 10 per cent of total alarms on a given day. For instances like this, it gives companies and municipalities insight to action and prioritise resources.

However, missing any of these alarms, because they are swamped by the nuisance alarms, could be catastrophic for customers, the environment and the company. In fact, in the worst-case scenario, this could also lead to penalties or even prosecutions which must be avoided.

If these insights, provided by AlarmVision, have enabled a control room to act on the network to reduce the noise — the nuisance alarms — they are far less likely to miss the most important alerts. And when the noise goes quiet, there is a chance to see what is real versus what is nuisance.

Looking ahead, Ovarro’s next-generation analytics tools are also being designed as SaaS programmes to reduce customer costs in configuration, maintenance, support and upgrade. While additional functionalities are currently being developed to add to AlarmVision, Ovarro’s end goal is to completely remove alarms from the equation.

Ovarro wants to enable companies to be fully predictive and to be looking at how an alarm can be predicted before it becomes an alarm, moving companies from a reactive model to a proactive model. This is where Ovarro wants to take its alarm management system, as this is the direction the oil and gas, broadcast, transportation, power and process sectors need to be moving in.

More information about AlarmVision can be found here.

About Ovarro
Ovarro is the new name for Servelec Technologies and Primayer. Ovarro's technology is used throughout the world to monitor, control and manage critical and national infrastructure.
Our connected technology is always there, always on. Secure, proven, trusted; integrating seamlessly with our clients’ assets. Collecting and communicating data from some of the most remote locations and harshest environments on the planet. Enabling businesses to work smarter and more effectively.
Ovarro works with customers across water, oil & gas, broadcast and transportation to help monitor, control and manage their assets.

Published in Technology News
Tagged under

Smaller RTUs can gather data from sites that are too small for economic data collection by existing equipment.

As the energy industry diversifies — often by connecting smaller power generation assets to the main grid — a problem has arisen. Traditional remote telemetry units (RTUs), used to monitor points where large generation plants connect with the grid, are often oversized for these smaller assets. Here, Matthew Hawkridge, chief technology officer at Ovarro, looks at why smaller, more economical RTUs will be essential for a diversified energy market.

Diversification of the energy sector is a double-edged sword. On the one side, there is a huge benefit in the reduction in reliance on fossil and nuclear fuels as well as the creation of market opportunities for new investors and new consumers. On the negative side, many of the alternative energy sources — like Solar power plants and wind turbines — do not have the same level of control as traditional plants.

This requires precise monitoring and control at every interconnect to the grid, increasing the demands for data by the grid’s operational systems.

RTUs (Remote Telemetry Units) have long been used in the energy sector for managing power distribution. But, the economic impost of installing a large, traditional, power grid RTU, for system management, at every one of these small interconnects is a challenge for the industry. Smaller RTUs can meet this challenge.

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What impact have renewable power generation plants had on existing systems?

Wind, solar, hydro, biomass and wave solutions for power generation have all added significant sources to traditional networks in recent years. Renewable energy now produces a growing proportion of most developed countries’ total energy output — recently exceeding 20 per cent for the first time in the UK.

Compared to large coal, gas and nuclear plants — where a single point of entry to the system carries the bulk of supply — operators now need to manage a much wider portfolio of assets, with much smaller demands at each location. This has resulted in a need for smaller RTUs.

Why is there growing demand for smaller, smarter RTUs?

A typical power station is around 1 Gigawatt (1GW). The RTUs to monitor the connections between these facilities and the power grid are not suitable for the vast range of smaller, renewable options — such as solar, biomass and wind — where supply power is measured in kilowatts. At these smaller-sized power connections to the network, the asset monitoring and control RTUs used for a full-scale power distribution would be overkill.

Operators require smaller, but still capable, RTU solutions that have been proven in power monitoring and control in parallel markets. We’ve seen growing demand for our RTUs which can be cost-effectively deployed, but still provide operators with the data they need.

TBox RTUs, for example, have been used for decades to monitor power consumption at critical assets. RTUs allow telecommunications operators to monitor the incoming supply from the main grid and any local backup generation or backup storage at their facilities. In the event of a grid failure, RTUs help them decide what actions need to be taken to ensure continued operations of the critical telecommunications network.

Using an  RTU in the renewable sector

Our TBox RTUs are being used on wind turbine towers in Greece, monitoring production, rather than consumption, at each tower. These kinds of RTUs, even with a small footprint, have enough capacity to manage the limited number of I/O points that are required at each power generation tower — which Ovarro has found with a number of its customers.

The TBox has also been used on 30MW solar power plants in France and on grid connected Solar Arrays in Australia, producing as little as 250kW. These interconnects are much smaller than the gigawatt connections of a large power plant, but still require localised monitoring and often, control. The small TBox RTU is well suited to these applications.

Is monitoring smaller power plants less complex?

Not necessarily. In fact, while power management may be less complex, smaller power plants can have a more complex set of communication demands than traditional plants. Small sites are often independently owned and managed and must share data with numerous stakeholders. The ability of an RTU to collect data from numerous sources and distribute information to numerous stakeholders is a key advantage when compared to other process controllers.

What is the RTU responsible for on-site?

At small sites, the RTU is both the site controller and the site communications gateway. The RTU collects data directly, and can also provide a secure VPN, to other devices that may be operating on site, such as, programmable logic controllers (PLCs) managing solar panel tilt and azimuth control, weather stations and digitally networked power relays. The collected data is then made available to the grid operators who can issue commands back to the RTU to regulate the station. In parallel, the RTU relays key information to the asset owner or investor and to maintenance crews.

In Australia, data is also sent in parallel to cloud based data servers for local communities and schools, for educational purposes. With its ability to report alarms and historical data via email, SMS, FTP and MQTT, a TBox is the ideal choice for small power plants that need to manage both physical assets and wider communications demands.

Can RTUs be used with “non-grid” power networks?

Yes, large facilities such as hospitals, universities, airports and railway lines often have their own internal power network that needs management. They have the same control and communications requirements as the main grid, at marginally less complexity.

Electrified railway networks, too, source their main supply from the grid and then distribute the power along the railway network. The demands on RTUs used in the Railway Network have many similarities to a Power Network RTU - they are exposed to remote environments, occasional voltage spikes and must be able to store, manage and report large volumes of data and above all else, control the local switchgear.

Are smaller RTUs resilient to the network environment?

Yes, an important feature with any RTU is resilience to the site environment. Ovarro RTUs can operate in these rugged conditions at temperatures between -40 and +85 degrees Celsius and have up to 5,000 volts of isolation on I/O cards to protect the CPU from spurious electrical events.

In addition to being resilient to the environment, RTU systems should have layers of redundancy so it can continue to operate even if a major event damages one piece of the system. The Kingfisher RTU for example, can be configured with fully redundant Power Supplies, CPUs, and multiple communication paths. It means they can continue to manage intensive SCADA and telemetry applications, even in the event of a partial system failure.

What if the power generator fails?

RTUs have always operated in areas where power is either unreliable or unavailable. Each Ovarro RTU draws only a few Watts and can easily run off a solar power system or even a small and insignificant feed from the site generator. The RTUs also incorporate a battery management system and can run off a small rechargeable battery for extended periods. This removes the need for a UPS for the RTU. In addition, Kingfisher RTUs support multiple power supplies so that parallel connections to AC and DC supply systems can be used to diversify supply and minimise the risk of total failure.

How will RTUs evolve in the future?

For many years there has been an ongoing trend in increasing the volume of data collected from the field. This centralised data collection and analysis are vital for long term trend identification and planning, however, a localised response is still required for low latency control. If you need a field hardened PC, or “edge computer” for monitoring electrical current, temperature, emissions, power and asset health, then you need an RTU.

RTUs are specifically designed to perform local control and in parallel, gather and relay information to SCADA or the cloud where it can be analysed and trended, providing operators with the information they need for efficiency management and asset management in addition to real-time control.

About Ovarro

Ovarro is the new name for Servelec Technologies and Primayer. Ovarro's technology is used throughout the world to monitor, control and manage critical and national infrastructure.

Our connected technology is always there, always on. Secure, proven, trusted; integrating seamlessly with our clients’ assets. Collecting and communicating data from some of the most remote locations and harshest environments on the planet. Enabling businesses to work smarter and more effectively.

Ovarro works with customers across water, oil & gas, broadcast and transportation to help monitor, control and manage their assets.

Contact Ovarro:

Rotherside Road, Eckington, Sheffield, United Kingdom, S21 4HL
Phone: +44 (0) 1246 437580

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Web: www.ovarro.com

Published in Power & water
Tagged under