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| The Grand Coulee Dam is the largest hydropower plant in the United States. |
SUNNYVALE, California – October 6, 2009 – Real-Time Innovations (RTI), The Real-Time Middleware Experts, announced today that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has selected RTI Data Distribution Service for an upgrade of the Grand Coulee Dam’s control system. RTI’s middleware will integrate components of the dam’s next-generation Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, enabling more efficient and reliable hydroelectric power generation.
The Grand Coulee Dam is the largest hydropower plant in the United States. The plant must carefully control how it supplies power to the grid. Failures that cause power spikes or dropouts are not acceptable. The project to retrofit the control system is for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) in cooperation with the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Hydroelectric Design Center (HDC) is the system integrator; HDC selected RTI Data Distribution Service to implement a highly available, high-performance and scalable control system.
The dam network connects a 40,000-point SCADA system controlling 30 generators to the transmission switchyard. In the new architecture, RTI Data Distribution Service will be used to integrate 50 to 60 Linux-based Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) on the central control network with Windows Human-Machine Interface (HMI) systems and various database and health-monitoring servers. The system will run on standard, ruggedized commercial computing hardware. The architecture will eventually be deployed on a network of 12 dams in the Federal Columbia River Power System.
Dave Brown, the project manager and system architect for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said, “We selected RTI after a comprehensive evaluation of Data Distribution Service [DDS] solutions. We liked RTI’s architecture because it eliminates all single points of failure. If a shared daemon fails, it impacts many critical applications. With RTI’s purely in-process solution, there is no dependence on shared services. We will be able to implement N-way redundancy for all critical subsystems.”
Automated Control Systems Inc. (ACSI) is a contractor on the project. ACSI president Dan Perrier added, “The dam control system processes waveform data, power metrics, temperatures, oil levels, vibration sensors and more. The current system uses many different protocols. DDS, with its flexible configuration and high performance, is easier to work with and is a better way to integrate the systems.”
Stan Schneider, CEO of RTI, observed, “We are proud to be an important part of such a large and strategic power system for the United States. Hundreds of mission-critical applications across several industries rely on RTI middleware. The selection of RTI Data Distribution Service for the Grand Coulee Dam speaks well of the maturity of both our product and the DDS standard.”
About RTI Data Distribution Service
RTI Data Distribution Service provides messaging for mission-critical distributed applications. It combines low latency, high throughput and fault tolerance in a scalable architecture for real-time systems. Systems built with RTI middleware are loosely-coupled; they communicate easily but under strict Quality of Service (QoS) control. Developers can specify the exact needed timing and reliability for each communication path. Direct peer-to-peer connection ensures fast delivery with no single points of failure. Automated configuration allows hot-swap, non-stop redundancy. Subsystems can start in any order, join or leave, or insert upgrades without impacting existing operation. RTI reliably delivers the right data to the right place at the right time.
About RTI
Real-Time Innovations (RTI) is a standards leader. RTI’s middleware complies with the Object Management Group (OMG) Data Distribution Service (DDS) for Real-time Systems standard. DDS is the leading standard for real-time middleware, with dominant and growing adoption in military systems, air traffic control, and transportation systems. RTI chairs the OMG DDS committee and has a seat on the OMG board. In the power industry, RTI actively contributes to the North American Syncro-Phasor Initiative (NASPI) effort to define the new standard for interconnected power generation.
RTI is the world’s leading supplier of middleware for embedded systems. RTI supports a broad range of mission-critical applications in defense, intelligence, simulation, industrial control, power generation, transportation, finance, medical devices, and communications. RTI is privately held and headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA. For more information, please visit www.rti.com.