Orion Grid Automation from NovaTech Automation
Helping Utilities Build the Power Grids of Tomorrow

Conrad Oakey, CEO and Ray Wright, SVP Marketing

US power grids are at an evolutionary crossroad. A significant portion of the country’s existing transmission and distribution infrastructure is decades old, more frequent extreme weather events are stressing the system, the shift to renewable energy sources is creating new control and monitoring challenges, and security threats are real. The old automation solutions cannot address the demands of the new grid and retiring technical and operational expertise is making change even tougher. This is where NovaTech Automation steps in with secure, flexible “Orion” grid automation and a staff to perform the engineering, packaging, and commissioning work.

NovaTech leads the industry with Orion retrofit solutions to replace legacy substation RTUs, many of which offer no cyber security and can no longer be supported. Many of the Orion retrofit solutions can be implemented without lifting a wire, reducing nearly all downtime.

In addition, Orion integrates easily with proliferating intelligent devices in the substation and on the wires. Its pre-configured “picklists” and intuitive configuration help eliminate the substation’s dependence on disjointed proprietary systems. A single Orion serves multiple roles in the substation as the RTU, HMI, Logic Processor, Alarm Annunciator, and Sequence of Events recorder while meeting stringent NERC CIP guidelines. The same Orion can handle emerging requirements for Distribution Automation including FLISR and reactive power management. Smaller electrical coops and municipals even use the flexible Orion as their SCADA control system.

Orion is also being engineered to meet emerging challenges in renewable energy penetration. Smaller Orion “edge devices” with integral radio communication and supporting renewable energy protocols will provide solutions to integrate rooftop solar into DERMS and ADMS. In larger grid-scale solar and wind, Orion will be enhanced with algorithms to manage the inverters, storage, reactive power devices, and grid interface to meet dynamic requirements.

“Our main aim is to help electrical utilities meet the demands of the modern grid,” mentions Ray Wright, the SVP of Marketing of NovaTech Automation. “This means products, staff and smarts for modern grid automation inside and outside the substation, clever solutions for retrofits and renewable integration.”

Supplementing Orion hardware and software is the experienced NovaTech “Systems and Services” organization with the depth to handle panel design, packaging, configuration, acceptance testing, installation, commissioning, and training. “Our Systems and Services people can help utilities implement automation in their operations. We can install it, automate it, and even package it in a rack and panel,” says Conrad Oakey, the CEO of NovaTech Automation.

An example of this approach can be found in the company’s association with a major Midwest utility that embarked on a multi-year replacement of all their Remote Terminal Units (RTUs). As part of the project, NovaTech Automation worked with the utility to custom build and configure an Orion solution to function identically to one of the brands of RTUs they were replacing.

The team used NovaTech Automation’s Configuration Director (NCD) to configure the new RTU to mirror the performance of the units they were replacing, including communicating using the competitor’s proprietary protocol. With the same number of communications ports, installing Orion only required bolting it to the floor, and moving cables from the old RTU to Orion once the configuration was completed. Downtime was nearly eliminated, and the utility could move forward with modern, secure automation with the flexibility to handle new challenges.

Success stories like these are powering NovaTech Automation’s journey forward. “At NovaTech Automation, we make it easier for utilities to focus on providing reliable and affordable electricity to their customers,” informs Oakey. “We will continue on this track by keeping the simple things virtually effortless and making the hard things pretty easy too.”