SCADA systems are generally used to monitor and control equipment in industries such as telecommunications, water and waste control, energy, oil and gas refining, and transportation—mainly systems that are geographically widespread. This course explores the evolution of these systems, the differences in the SCADA types, and how they evolved from monolithic to distributed to networked.

This program will review the typical SCADA hardware components, as well as how different telemetry points are processed and the data flow all the way from the field, through RTU, to front-end processor, to control room. Attendees will discuss how data can be processed for the end user, as well as alarm processing, switching controls, processing logic in database, and putting it into the dynamic graphic user interface for end-to-end control and monitoring.  

SCADA 101 will explore the best data maintenance practices, such as maintaining data standards and templates, creating the point list and checkout lists, performing point-to-point testing, and maintaining the quality assurance systems independent from productions where jobs are run first. It will also go over the uses of dispatch training system for the real-time data and data analysis for performing various actions to the system and how they affect the systems.  

In the end, students will gain a solid understanding of how SCADA systems work, how and why they were developed, how they are structured, its database and data collection techniques, and the uses of the dynamic data by the end user.  

Learning Outcomes

• Discuss the history and evolution of SCADA systems 
• Identify the basic hardware and software components of a SCADA system 
• Examine communication protocols that are used to transmit, collect, store, and manage data 
• Describe the increase need for cyber security for ICS 
• Evaluate different instrumentation measurement technologies 
• Review SCADA system architecture and discuss the data flow from field to control room
• Identify alarm processing and supervisory control  

MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 2023

• SCADA Overview
• SCADA Definition 
• SCADA History and Evolution
  • By technological evolution
  • Telemetry-based SCADA
  • Minicomputers
  • Microprocessors – PLC
• SCADA Types 
  • By market evolution
  • Monolithic
  • Distributed
  • Networked
• SCADA System Components
• Common SCADA Abbreviations
• Typical Hardware SCADA Architecture
  • Master administrator – data repository
  • Communicator – data acquisition
  • Front end processor – RTU 
  • Historian – data archiving
  • Human Machine Interface – individual users
• Typical System Division
  • Primary system
  • Backup system
  • Training system (DTS)
• RTUs
  • RTU protocols types
  • RTU scans rates and options
  • Field devices
• SCADA Data Collection – Point Types and Uses
  • Analog points (measurements)
    • Limits
    • Setpoints
    • Secondary sources
  • Accumulators (periodic collection)
    • Meter collections
    • Counter values
  • Status points (indication and controls)
    • Alarm processing
    • Supervisory controls
• Data Collection and Q&A Session

Course Adjourns for the Day

TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2023

• Review of Day 1
• Data Management
• Maintaining the Data and Best Practices
  • Constructions project
  • Engineering points list
  • Data standards
  • Safe job processing (QAS and productions systems)
  • Station one-line drawings and dynamic graphic user interface
  • Point to point testing
  • Checklist and procedures
• SCADA Security and Additional Applications
• Network Processing 
• Dispatch Training
• Cyber Security of SCADA

Course Concludes

Ivana O’Deen
Principal Database Specialist, Xcel Energy

Ivana O’Deen is a current Principal Database Specialist at Xcel Energy. She has been with Xcel Energy for over 15 years, where she has been responsible for managing and training employees on SCADA/EMS systems. Prior to her employment at Xcel Energy, she worked 11 years for Siemens, EMS division in Minnetonka, MN. During her employment at Siemens, she helped prototype numerous clients’ databases and displays, and she conducted the in-house training of Siemens Spectrum database and display systems management.