remote control equipment - Indian Railways Institute of Electrical ...

7.1 Introduction
REMOTE CONTROL EQUIPMENT
A Remote Contral Centre (RCC) is set up near the Traffic Control Office on each Division
having electric traction, to work in close liaison with the traffic control. The RCC includes the
main control room, equipment room Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) room. Remote Control
Laboratory and Battery Room and is the nerve centre of the Traction Power Control
Types Of Equipment
The FMVFT equipment (stronger type equipment) was in use for all electrification schemes
prior to 1980. Being mainly all relay system. the equipment has become outdated. Salient
features of the system can be seen in ealier print of this book.
The SCADA equipment based on State of the art technology has come into use after 1980.
Considering the fast growth and development of computer based equipment. newer types with
enhanced capabilities and new makes are being introduced. Addional facilities at each new
RCC is also natural as new features get incorporated.
7.2 SCADA - TRENDS
Supervisory Control is generally defined; “ as a form of remote control comprising an
arrangement for selective control of remotely located units, by electrical means, over one or
more common interconnecting channels”.
In the Electric Power industry, supervisory control may be used in as simple an
application as controlling a single distribution feeder. In its most complex form, referred to as
Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, it may control all generation,
transmission and distribution over a wide geographical area, from one centralized location.
There were undoubtedly many methods of remote control invented by early pioneers in
the supervisory control field, and long since forgotten. For sure, SCADA did not begin with
electronic sensors and analog to digital coverters; but with a person reading a measurement
and taking some mechanical control action as a result of that measurement.
From 1900 to early 1920’s many varieties of remote control and supervisory systems
were developed. Most of these, however were of one class or the other i.e. either remote
control or remote supervision. Perhaps one of the earliest forerunners of modern supervisory
control was a system designed by John Harlow in 1921. This system automatically detected a
change of status at a remote station and reported this change to a control centre. In 1923,
John Bellamy and Rodney Richardson developed a remote control system employing an
equivalent of our modern “Check-before-operation” technique to ensure the validity of a
selected control point before actual control was inintiated.
Perhaps the first logging system was designed in 1927. This system monitored
information from a remote location and printed any change in the status of the equipment.
together with the time and date when the change took place.
At this time, of course, there was a little choice in the type of components available,
thus, all of these systems were electro-mechanical.
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