Power Substation Digital Twins for Virtualized IT/OT Integration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing power substations face challenges in integrating operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) infrastructures, requiring separate hardware for each, which poses inefficiencies and security risks.
Innovation Solution
A digital twin architecture is developed to virtualize power substation components, including electrical assets and Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs), using virtual machines to create cyber and physics-based digital twins, ensuring separation and integration of IT and OT environments, and enabling adaptive and predictive settings based on sensor data.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If separate hardware is used for IT and OT infrastructures in power substations, then system reliability is maintained through physical isolation, but device complexity and hardware requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges IT and OT infrastructures into a unified hardware platform using virtualization technology. Virtual machines create isolated execution environments for both IT and OT workloads on the same physical server, reducing hardware requirements while maintaining security through virtual boundaries rather than physical separation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates virtual copies of computing environments through virtual machines. Each virtual machine emulates a complete operating system and hardware stack, allowing multiple isolated IT and OT systems to run on shared physical hardware, thereby reducing the need for separate physical hardware while maintaining system reliability through virtual isolation.
2Reliability
If separate hardware is used for IT and OT infrastructures, then security isolation is achieved, but ease of operation and system integration deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a virtualization layer as an intermediary between physical hardware and IT/OT workloads. This virtual layer manages resource allocation, provides security isolation through virtual boundaries, and simplifies integration by allowing unified management of previously separate systems through a common virtualized infrastructure.
Solution Approach 2:
The unified hardware platform is designed to perform multiple functions simultaneously, hosting both IT and OT workloads through virtual machines. This multi-functional approach improves ease of operation by allowing a single system to replace multiple dedicated hardware systems, while security isolation is maintained through virtual machine boundaries.
3Device complexity
If virtualization is implemented to consolidate IT and OT hardware, then device complexity is reduced and hardware efficiency improves, but measurement precision and monitoring capability may deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the virtualized environment into dedicated virtual machines for IT and OT workloads. Each virtual machine maintains isolated monitoring and measurement capabilities, ensuring that consolidation does not degrade monitoring precision. The segmentation allows precise monitoring of each workload while benefiting from hardware consolidation.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for virtualizing power substations may include generating, for a first physical device of a power substation, a first virtual machine that models characteristics of the first physical device; generating, based on forecasted weather and operational parameters of the power substation, settings for the first virtual machine; generating, based on physical sensor data for the power substation, virtual sensors; generating, based on virtual sensor data from the virtual sensors and the settings, an asset digital twin model of the first physical device; generating, based on the virtual sensor data and the asset digital twin model, a cyber digital twin for the first physical device; generating, based on the virtual sensor data and the asset digital twin model, a physics-based digital twin for the first physical device; and generating a substation digital twin virtually representing the power substation, including the cyber digital twin and the physics-based digital twin.