The systems for automating processes and switchgear/controlgear are growing together within industrial plants. Joint monitoring and control with only one control system offers potential savings with regard to investments, maintenance, and operation.

The IEC 61850 standard has become established as the global standard for integration of switchgear/controlgear automation into the control system. All leading manufacturers of protective equipment have already implemented this standard in their devices.

The station controller for SIMATIC PCS 7 PowerControl based on the software controller WinAC RTX controls the transfer of electrical data between the intelligent electronic devices (IEDs), e.g. protective equipment, and the superimposed operator system using the IEC 61850 MMS protocol. It is particularly suitable for small to medium-sized systems with standard availability requirements (no redundancy).

The modular embedded controller SIMATIC S7-mEC or a Microbox PC type SIMATIC IPC427C/IPC427D with SIMATIC WinAC RTX is used as a hardware platform for the station controller.

The driver blocks in the product package of the station controller are equipped with an interface for the PCS 7 PowerControl Library. The PCS 7 PowerControl Library that can be ordered from the Switchgear Automation chapter of the ST PCS 7 T catalog, supports management and visualization of electrical switchgear via the SIMATIC PCS 7 process control system.

Note:

Station controllers for SIMATIC PCS 7 PowerControl can be used together with SIMATIC PCS 7 V8.0 and V8.1.