Visibility of asset performance is essential for all industries, in particular the electrical power industry. With so many different vendor devices in the field, interoperability and exchange of information between devices is critical to managing and operating the supply network.
Servelec Technologies, a market-leading provider of remote telemetry units (RTUs), and its South American partner Open Control, a respected integrator of industrial control systems, understand the importance of interoperability, and have collaborated to develop the IEC60870-101/104 open protocol for the Kingfisher RTU range.
Used extensively within electric power systems, IEC60870-101/104 provides interoperability and delivers a single telemetry solution for customers. Its integration into the highly resilient yet flexible Kingfisher RTUs will be of great benefit to Open Control’s customers across Chile, Argentina, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela, as well as Servelec’s customers around the world, allowing them to further expand or consolidate their networks.
Alberto Chamorro, Managing Director of Open Control, said, “The availability of IEC60870-101/104 is important to allow Open Control to expand the Kingfisher telemetry sites that we are managing, and most importantly to provide our customers with a single telemetry solution for all devices at our customers’ sites.”
This development has been possible thanks to both the flexibility of the Kingfisher RTU range, and a strong partnership between Open Control and Servelec Technologies in Australia, where the high availability and high resilience range of Kingfisher RTU products are manufactured. Since 2006, the two companies have worked hard to create a solid partnership that is able to provide even greater product benefits to customers.
The joint development of the IEC60870-101/104 protocol between Open Control and Servelec Technologies commenced over 12 months ago, with Servelec Technologies in Australia implementing the protocol on the Kingfisher CP-30 Telemetry platform and Open Control undertaking extensive testing in its offices in Santiago, Chile.
Through collaboration involving Open Control working alongside Servelec Technologies at its Melbourne offices, the partnership is ready to release the IEC60870-101/104 protocol for the range of Kingfisher RTUs.
Rodney Linton, General Manager of Servelec Technologies in Australia, said, “The collaboration between Open Control and Servelec has worked brilliantly for both parties. Open Control has brought a wealth of protocol and application knowledge on the IEC protocol which our designers are taking full advantage of.
“This joint work is ensuring that firmware and software that we develop on this project for our telemetry platforms is not only ‘release ready’ but also ‘industry’ ready. This collaboration is a perfect example of how manufacturers and integrators can work together to assist each other in attaining a result which ultimately will benefit the end users of the product.”
The development team of Hernan Perez, Paul Bremer, Alberto Chamorro and Shikand Satheesh (pictured) are now nearing the end of testing, and Open Control will soon leave Australia with an operating IEC60870-101/104 implementation for use in the South American marketplace. In Australia, the development team will finalise testing, and add the IEC60870-101/104 protocol implementation to the Kingfisher CP30 and CP35 range so that the protocol will be available to all Kingfisher users.
Terry Siggins, Global Sales Director for Servelec Technologies, said, “Our sincerest thanks must go to Alberto Chamorro and Hernan Perez of Open Control for working with Servelec on the development of the IEC protocol. Joint initiatives such as this allow the sharing of knowledge and experience, which helps fast track developments for the benefit of both Servelec and our partners.”
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