Implications of IT in Substation Maintenance at Saudi Electricity Company

Running head: IMPLICATIONS OF IT
IMPLICATIONS OF IT
Name of the University
Name of the student
Author Note

1IMPLICATIONS OF IT
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................1
Discussion..................................................................................................................................2
Better information flow of Substations..................................................................................3
Various IT systems and its implications................................................................................4
Better performance and system activities..............................................................................7
Better information layer.........................................................................................................8
Better substations...................................................................................................................9
Better communication system................................................................................................9
Conclusion................................................................................................................................10
References................................................................................................................................11

2IMPLICATIONS OF IT
Introduction
The implication of IT in the substation maintenance at SEC or Saudi Electricity
Company is profound. Compared to the other industrial sectors, the power delivery system
was way behind in terms of technology in the late 2000s. Innovative IT solutions such as
HMIs or human machine interfaces, advanced sensing devices, servomotors and PLCs or
Programmable Logic Controllers were already implemented in the other industrial sectors in
Saudi Arabia. At that time, the Saudi Electricity Company was using age old
electromechanical devices and oscillographs which needed to be maintained periodically.
Solid state devices were also used which were installed in the last decade.
In the following assignment, the implication of IT technology on the substation
maintenance section at SEC or Saudi Electricity Company has been discussed and evaluated.
Several IT Technology implementation has been discussed (currently used and future use)
and their consecutive implication on the maintenance staff has been evaluated. Other than
several IT Systems, the report also discusses about the SCADA system that has been
implemented in the Saudi Arabian Company. The implication of this new IT technology on
the mentioned sector has been assessed and evaluated in the following sections of the report.
Discussion

3IMPLICATIONS OF IT
Figure 1: Logo of SEC
(Source: "Saudi Electricity Company", 2018)
With the introduction of IT technologies such as SCADA or Supervisory, Control,
and Data Acquisition systems and microprocessor relays (first generation), the technological
innovation in the substation maintenance of SEC evolved geometrically. With the dawn of
the information age, SEC has implemented protective relays as IEDs or Intelligent Electronic
Devices. The result of this installation was that the system became much more able to
perform all types of protective functionalities for isolating faults from the healthy system
parts (Murphy, Twaha and Murphy 2014). Another implication of this implementation is that
it will be able to communicate, perform and collect logic data with other devices such as
processors of modern SCADA systems to allow dispatchers to control and monitor the
substations remotely. Analog signals such as voltage, power and current are some of the
example of data that are collected with the help of protective relays.