Reliability calculation for substation automation systems

A device for calculating a reliability of a Substation Automation (SA) system for a substation with a plurality of substation devices and substation communication elements, comprising:

• computing means for identifying, from a standardized configuration representation of the SA system including logical data flow definitions of a first SA functionality, a physical data flow path and corresponding substation communication elements enabling data flow related to the first SA functionality;
• memory means for storing a reliability indication for each identified substation communication element;
• and
• computing means for calculating, based on the reliability indications from the memory means, a reliability of the identified physical data flow paths related to the first SA functionality, and for calculating a reliability of the SA system based on the reliability of the identified physical data flow paths related to the first SA system functionality, for calculating a reliability for the first SA functionality based on the reliability of the identified physical data flow paths, for calculating reliabilities for further SA functionalities having identified physical data flow paths, and for calculating the reliability of the SA system based on the corresponding reliabilities for the first and further SA functionalities.

A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium having a computer program recorded thereon that causes at least one processor of a computer processing device to calculate a reliability of a Substation Automation (SA) system for a substation with a plurality of substation devices and substation communication elements, the computer program causing the at least one processor to execute operations comprising:

• identifying a plurality of substation devices for performing a first SA functionality;
• calculating a reliability of the SA system based on a reliability of the identified substation devices;
• identifying, from a standardized configuration representation of the SA system including logical data flow definitions of the first SA functionality, a physical data flow path and corresponding substation communication elements enabling data flow related to the first SA functionality;
• providing a reliability indication for each identified substation communication element;
• calculating based on the provided reliability indications, a reliability of the identified physical data flow paths related to the first SA functionality;
• calculating a reliability for the first SA functionality based on the reliability of the identified physical data flow paths;
• calculating reliabilities for further SA functionalities having identified physical data flow paths;
• and
• calculating the reliability of the SA system based on the corresponding reliabilities for the first and further SA functionalities.