Practical_modern_SCADA_protocols_-_dnp3,_60870-5_and_Related_Systems

14.2 UCA development
UCA protocol 363
Figure 14.1 is a timeline showing key milestones in UCA’s development.
The electric industry-through EPRI-began UCA’s development in 1988, and published
UCA Version 1 in 1991. Following publication of UCA Version 1, EPRI enlisted the
support of the water and gas industries through the AWWA Research Foundation
(AWWARF) and Gas Research Institute (GRI).
The electric industry developed and tested UCA technology during the years 1992
through 1997. EPRI commissioned and completed a number of successful demonstration
projects at electric utilities and combined electric/gas/water utilities. This period also
solidified the UCA device object model and common application services model concepts,
which provide the most powerful aspects of UCA as an application standard.
UCA’s development period culminated in 1996 and 1997, when EPRI published draft
UCA Version 2. The Water UCA effort also achieved major milestones in 1996 and 1997
with completion of the Water UCA Functional Definition and Standards Assessment.
Figure 14.1
UCA timeline (Figure courtesy American Water Works Association)
EPRI began a successful campaign to have the IEEE oversee UCA’s continued development.
As a result, the IEEE published UCA Version 2 as an IEEE standard in 1999.
UCA-2 addressed the issues that were identified in field testing of the original specification,
and it embraced the Internet suite of protocols which had become widely accepted
since the early days of UCA-1.