Basic SCADA systems - from the sensors to the screen
- Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line, Houston, TX (United States)
Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) Systems are specialized control systems used to monitor and control facilities which are geographically dispersed. They are commonly used in the gas, oil, electric, and water transmission and distribution industries. SCADA systems differ from other control systems in that they make extensive use of remote communications and are more tolerant to outages of the communications network than a typical control system installation in a plant environment. A basic SCADA system can be broken into five functional parts. These are: (1) Sensors and Actuators; (2) Remote Terminal Units (RTUs); (3) Communications Facilities; (4) Host Computer Systems; and (5) User Interfaces While the fundamental concepts of SCADA systems have changed little in the past 20 years, more sophisticated hardware and software has altered some of the traditional paradigms associated with these control systems. This is particularly true with respect to RTUs, host computer systems, and user interfaces. While this paper will focus on the fundamentals, it will attempt to provide the reader with current trends in the industry where applicable.
- OSTI ID:
- 146300
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-950553--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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