August 31, 2015 by Donald Krambeck
This article walks through SCADA systems used to automate various power systems used in numerous industries. It also details what the system is made up of, how they optimize performance in large-scale systems, and how these systems still poses a threat to a company's vulnerability to data and resources.
SCADA systems automate power systems used in many industries. Here's an inside look at what they are and why you should know about them.
Recommended Level: Beginner
Inside SCADA Systems
A SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) is an automation control system that is used in industries such as energy, oil and gas, water, power, and many more. The system has a centralized system that monitors and controls entire sites, ranging from an industrial plant to a complex of plants across the country. A SCADA system works by operating with signals that communicate via channels to provide the user with remote controls of any equipment in a given system. It also implements a distributed database, or tag database, that contains tags or points throughout the plant. These points represent a single input or output value that is monitored or controlled by the SCADA system in the centralized control room. The points are stored in the distributed database as value-timestamp pairs. It's very common to set up the SCADA systems to also acquire metadata, such as programmable logic controller (PLC) register paths and alarm statistics.
While these systems simplify a given infrastructure, their components are quite complex. There are five essential composing parts of a SCADA system:
Human Machine Interface (HMI)
supervisory system
Remote Terminal Units (RTUs)
Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs)
communication infrastructures
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