Power Management System
Real-Time™ System Architecture

ETAP Real-Time employs an open and extremely flexible architecture that allows seamless communication with almost any data acquisition system, providing a hardware-independent platform.

• Seamless integration
• Robust client / server architecture
• Multi-redundant system
• Scalable modular design
• OPC interface
• ODBC / SQL compliant database
• Enterprise-wide access
• Microsoft Windows platform
• Multi-tiered user access management
• ISO 9001 A3147 certified
• Hardware independent

User Access Management

ETAP relies on two tiers of user access control to provide program security. The first level is provided by the operating system under which ETAP is running. The second level of access control is provided by assigning multiple access level permissions to an authorized user.

Event Logging

Data acquired from the monitoring equipment is recorded to provide an event log of all activities in the system. The event log provides a complete history of the power systems operation when played back. Important facts such as sequence of equipment operation and maintenance records can be easily retrieved. History can be tabulated or viewed graphically on an hourly, daily, monthly, or yearly basis. Detailed, continuous data can be displayed with time increments down to the nearest millisecond. Events can be browsed and printed on-demand.

Open Database

For the system topology, ETAP organizes and accesses its database using the Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) allowing the use of any database format for which an ODBC driver is available such as Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server, and Oracle. ETAP users can integrate their data into the ETAP database using commercially available Database Management Systems (DBMS), or ETAP can integrate its data into any existing database.

Protocols

There is a wide variety of network adapters available to support networking of applications. ETAP supports all standard network protocols including MMS, ModBus, DNP, IEC 61850, IEC 60870, ICCP, NetBeui, T103, NetDDE, UCA, IPX/SPX, and TCP/IP via OPC (OLE for Process Control) interface. In addition to the above, ETAP can be set up to retrieve data from any process information database or historian.

High Availability

System availability is crucial to the reliable operation of a power management system. In addition to hardware redundancy and failsafe software features, ETAP Real-Time offers redundant client-server setup. Two levels of system redundancy are offered:

Centralized Redundancy

Centralized redundant architecture employs an active server with multiple standby servers. Upon failure of the primary active server, a standby server is promoted to the active state allowing for a seamless failover scheme. Should the failed server recover, the newly promoted active server remains as the primary system server.

Distributed Redundancy

Distributed redundant architecture is similar to that of the centralized redundant scheme with the additional capability to independently manage multiple systems. This scheme supports communication loss as well as physical isolation of multiple sites resulting in islanded systems. In such cases, a standby server at each location will automatically be promoted to an active state and resume managing its local system independently. After reestablishing the connection between the multiple sites, the system is returned back to the normal state with one active server resuming the management of the multiple sites.