UCA Users Group to Promote Communications Standards.Business Editors/Energy Writers A group of 15 utility companies and 19 utility suppliers have joined together to create the UCA(TM) Users Group for the purpose of providing a forum to promote the use of the Utility Communications Architecture (UCA) in the electric, gas, and water industries. The UCA Users Group is a not-for-profit corporation A not-for-profit corporation is a corporation created by statute, government or judicial authority that is not intended to provide a profit to the owners or members. A corporation that is organized to provide profits to its owners or members is a for-profit corporation. incorporated in the state of Washington in 2001 with a mission to enable integration and interoperability of utility devices and systems through the use of international standards. "With the imminent publication of IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission, Geneva, Switzerland, www.iec.ch) An organization that sets international electrical and electronics standards founded in 1906. It is made up of national committees from over 60 countries. IEC - International Electrotechnical Commission 61850 for substation and feeder automation and the world-wide success of other IEC standards In order to distinguish standards published by the International Electrotechnical Commission numerically from other international standards, their number range was shifted in 1997 by adding 60000. So what used to be called IEC 27 is now officially IEC 60027, and so on. for inter-control center communications we have an excellent foundation of globally accepted international standards that utilities can use today to improve the integration and interoperability of their systems and really lower their costs", notes Kay Clinard, President of the UCA Users Group. "We have an excellent group of the leading utilities and industry suppliers that are totally committed that will help us get our important work started. We urge everybody with an interest in furthering our goal of interoperability and integration for utilities to join us." The activities of the UCA Users Group will include conducting training and educational programs, disseminating technical and business information via the web, sponsoring promotional programs in coordination with industry trade events, providing a forum for members to coordinate their efforts with the various technical committees setting the standards, and implementing testing and product certification Product certification or product qualification is the process of certifying that a certain product has passed performance and/or quality assurance tests or qualification requirements stipulated in regulations such as a building code and nationally accredited test standards, programs. The UCA concept was originally developed by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI EPRI Electric Power Research Institute EPRI European Parliaments Research Initiatives ) of Palo Alto Palo Alto, city, California Palo Alto (păl`ō ăl`tō), city (1990 pop. 55,900), Santa Clara co., W Calif.; inc. 1894. Although primarily residential, Palo Alto has aerospace, electronics, and advanced research industries. , CA to develop a common infrastructure for real-time utility communications across the utility enterprise. With the initial concepts in hand, technical experts from around the world convened under the auspices of the International Electrotechnical Commission See IEC. (standard, body) International Electrotechnical Commission - (IEC) A standardisation body at the same level as ISO. (IEC - see http://www.iec.ch) Technical Committee 57 to formulate globally accepted standards for utility automation. The first such standard resulting from the UCA effort was published in 1996 as IEC60870-6 TASE TASE Tel Aviv Stock Exchange TASE The All Seeing Eye TASE Tactical Air Support Element TASE Thrust Assessment Support Environment TASE Telecontrol Application Service Elements (IEC communications protocol) .2 (telecontrol application service element number 2) and is used for inter-control center communications. The UCA 2.0 substation automation protocol is currently available as Technical Report 1550 from the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, New York, www.ieee.org) A membership organization that includes engineers, scientists and students in electronics and allied fields. - see http://www.ieee.org). A single world-wide standard for substation automation is being developed under IEC as IEC61850. The IEC61850 work is based on both UCA 2.0 and European experience and provides additional functions such as a substation configuration language and a digital interface to non-conventional current and potential transformers. Future plans will bring standards for system modeling and utility-specific enterprise application integration (EAI (Enterprise Application Integration) Refers to various techniques used to share data and business processes in large enterprises. When companies acquire another organization, disparate information systems have to be made to work together. ) under the UCA umbrella. "The same basic concepts embodied in the IEC standards for electric utilities are very applicable to all utility operations including water and gas utilities and transportation", says Clinard. "We are already working with various water and gas groups to expand the UCA concepts into these areas as well." The group's next meeting is scheduled for September 12-13, 2002 at the Sawgrass Sawgrass can be:
The UCA Users Group is a not-for-profit corporation consisting of leading utility user and supplier companies that is dedicated to promoting the integration and interoperability of electric/gas/water utility systems through the use of international standards-based technology. Membership information is available at: http://www.ucausersgroup.org/Archives/TUGInvite2002.doc (TM) UCA is a trademark of the Electric Power Research Institute. Used with permission. |
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