At LF Energy Summit 2024 in Brussels, Bastien Desbos and Florent Carli of RTE presented a session on the SEAPATH project. Their presentation highlighted the current applications of SEAPATH, its technical architecture, and the challenges and future opportunities of virtualizing substation environments in power grids. Key highlights from the session follow below, and the full video recording is at the end of this post.
Key Takeaways from the Presentation
1. SEAPATH in RTE’s Operations
Desbos began the session explaining that SEAPATH is part of RTE’s ongoing efforts to modernize its infrastructure and improve grid operations through virtualization and automation. The project focuses on implementing SEAPATH in substations to enhance their Protection, Automation, and Control Systems (PACS). The presenters emphasized that SEAPATH enables RTE to run its substations more efficiently and flexibly, integrating virtualization technologies without moving critical operations to the cloud.
2. Virtualization in Substations: Practical Use Cases
SEAPATH is operational in one of RTE’s substations since 2023, and additional substations are being equipped with it this year. The presenters discussed how RTE has successfully deployed virtual machines (VMs) running on SEAPATH in these substations, highlighting that it supports both Linux and Windows operating systems. A key aspect of their deployment is automating system configurations using IEC 61850 standards, streamlining the management and operation of substations. The flexibility of SEAPATH allows them to group multiple Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs) into fewer virtual machines, reducing hardware and enhancing system efficiency.
3. Challenges with Networking and Resilience
Carli discussed the critical challenges SEAPATH faces in networking, particularly with maintaining performance and resilience. To support high-speed, low-latency data transmission in substations, they have explored advanced networking techniques such as Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK) and Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV), which bypass traditional kernel networking stacks to improve efficiency. However, they highlighted ongoing limitations, particularly with achieving redundant networking setups, such as Parallel Redundancy Protocol (PRP), in virtualized environments.
4. Future Directions: VCC and Virtualization Optimization
Looking ahead, RTE is working on the VCC (Virtual Control and Command) project, which aims to further optimize virtualization within substations. A key challenge is balancing the need for high availability and performance with minimizing the number of virtual machines, thereby simplifying system architecture. The use of SR-IOV is a promising solution, but challenges remain with hardware vendors not yet offering fully compatible network cards for this setup, particularly regarding temperature resilience.
5. Industrialization and Scalability of SEAPATH
One of RTE’s key goals is to industrialize SEAPATH, making it scalable across its network of substations. With an aging infrastructure, RTE needs to renew about 500 substations annually, a task they are aiming to streamline through automation and virtualization. They emphasized that SEAPATH is not just a technology project but part of a broader IT/OT (Information Technology/Operational Technology) convergence aimed at digitizing grid operations and making them more flexible and adaptable.
