The station is on three levels, with ten 450m long subsurface platforms. At peak times it will run up to 17 high-speed trains an hour to the Midlands and the North. There will be 50,000 high speed train seats over the three-hour morning peak.
Accommodating the increased capacity meant installing a new substation for the control of traction and electrical power across the site. It also needed an upgrade of the telemetry system for the rail network’s electrical supply. They chose CC-Link IE open gigabit industrial Ethernet to deliver a reliable and accessible high-speed network for the project.
To upgrade the substation control system specialist engineering company Sella Controls proposed using TRACKLINK remote terminal units (RTUs) developed in partnership with Mitsubishi Electric. A PLC processes signals from field devices and sends reporting data to SCADA systems in the control room.
Since Euston station has always featured a large infrastructure, the control system uses an unusual framework. Unlike smaller railway terminals that only use a single RTU to address their needs, the London railhead’s electricity generation, transmission and distribution system comprises many parts. Known as substations, they are key for effective power distribution and control. The master RTU links the remote I/O panels placed at each substation. This allows the main controller to perform auto reconfiguration in the event of a power loss at a substation.
Jay Sampat, Project Manager at Sella Controls, explains: “An RTU is often a single panel deployment within a substation. But depending on the structure of the railway terminal and its substations, some I/O can be remote. An example is Euston terminus, which comprises Euston Concourse, Euston East, Euston West, and the new primary location at Barnby Street Station. Whilst it needs this type of setup to successfully cover the entire infrastructure, it makes inter-substation communications particularly challenging.”
CC-Link Open Network Technology
To ensure fast, dependable inter-substation data transfer needed a proven high-bandwidth open network technology, Mitsubishi Electric advised using CC-Link IE. Its open industrial Ethernet technology offers gigabit bandwidth and uses a token passing method to provide real-time, deterministic communications. This minimises latency and jitter, enabling the transmission of large volumes of data without congestion.
Chris Elliott, Business Development Director for Rail at Sella Controls, adds: “The setup developed is unique, marks the first application of CC-Link IE for railway traction power control to deliver inter-substation connectivity. We look forward to setting up more innovative control systems like this across the country soon.”
Combining CC-Link IE with Mitsubishi Electric’s iQ-R modular PLC produced a fast, responsive building block for the RTU. Moreover, the incorporation of a GOT 2000 HMI within the master RTU panel increases visibility and accessibility.
Since the completion of the upgrade, the new telemetry solution has delivered a reliable traction power infrastructure within the terminal. John Browett concludes: “We are proud of the use of our open network technology, CC-Link IE, to support this large-scale infrastructure project. As railways continue to advance and incorporate innovative technologies, we are in a strong position to deliver cutting-edge connectivity solutions to help realise reliable and accessible networks.”