A total of 16 electrical control systems across 13 electrical control rooms are to be migrated onto the TPCMS, with servers and workstations distributed to meet the needs of each Route.
Telent has reached a significant milestone in delivering a national SCADA platform for Network Rail with the successful commissioning of its latest electrical control system at Raynes Park in London.
Following successful testing at the Manchester and Three Bridges Rail Operating Centres (ROCs) and Raynes Park Electrical Control Room (ECR), the latest version of Telent’s Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) Traction Power Centralised Management System (TPCMS) will allow Network Rail to monitor and control its traction power network. TPCMS is a single national SCADA system that meets the requirements of all control areas, bringing increased resilience and enhanced functionality that supports safe and efficient operations.
Telent was awarded a contract by Network Rail in 2013 to design, supply, install, test and commission into service TPCMS, replacing all existing and life expired SCADA systems and migrate them to a single national platform that enables local control.
Once installed nationwide, the new TPCMS will control both AC and DC traction power electrification networks, including electrification system derived supplies, and connect to over 1,200 remote outstations, serving all current and future electrification SCADA needs throughout its service life. The development and delivery of a suite of training courses in all aspects of the operation and maintenance of the new system will also be provided.
The project team developed the technical solution based on the original requirements set out by Network Rail, developing the design further to accommodate the latest technology while, critically, allowing for communications to all the existing legacy field asset within the Network Rail infrastructure.
Software development
The first site to go live with TPCMS software was Romford in February 2018, where version 2 (v2) of the new software was installed. This was followed by Sandhills (Merseyside) in October 2018 (v3) and Raynes Park in November 2019 (v3.2.1).
The incremental versions of the software each included additional TPCMS functionality until, with the release of v3.2.3, approximately 60 per cent of the final functionality required by Network Rail was achieved.
Early in 2021, Telent and Network Rail jointly conducted a review of the software, reaching the decision that the current version under test (v3.2.3) would need a major rework before it would be capable of growing to include all the required functionality. Therefore, Telent engaged Ematics (part of the Morson Group) to develop a new version of the TPCMS software that would be capable of doing so.
In the meantime, v3.2.3 was deployed to Canterbury, Selhurst and Paddock Wood, as well as being uplifted at Romford, Sandhills and Raynes Park ensuring for the first time that all regions using TPCMS were on the same consistent version of software.
Meanwhile, the design of v5.0 was completed, with the software passing its factory acceptance test (FAT) in June 2023. In December 2023, the team received endorsement from the Network Rail Safety Panel to commence testing of the v5.0 software on the new Infrastructure at the Manchester ROC. This testing was successfully completed before Christmas, with successful communications established between the test RTU (remote terminal unit) at the Raynes Park ECR and the Manchester ROC – a massive step forward for the programme.
Over the same period, a team comprising Telent, software developer Ematics, Codra (software platform/driver), B Squared Controls (configuration), iOCO (software testing) and iSource (commissioning resources) undertook an obsolescence upgrade for the majority of the core TPCMS equipment. This included upgrading all the virtual environments to allow for the testing and implementation of the v5.0 software.
Successful roll-out
Raynes Park was chosen to be the first ECR to run the new version of the software, which will then be rolled out to the remaining sites over the following 18 months. The use of a single platform, sharing a common interface across regions will lead to a reduced demand for training.
The introduction of Remote Secure technology, safely interlocking isolation controls between ground staff and control room, will save costs and time in maintenance works as it will allow Network Rail to monitor and turn the power on/off for specific sections of track remotely, without causing disruption to other areas.
The Remote Secure functionality was developed to a high safety integrity level (SIL 2), with the functionality successfully integrated by the Telent & Ematics teams into TPCMS v5 to give the Electrical Control Room Operators a single control location for both TPCMS & Remote securing tasks. This functionality will be available to all control rooms as v5 is rolled out across the network, subject to a successful trial at Rugby and endorsement from the NR Safety Panel later this year.
It will also, so far as can be anticipated, be futureproof, including advanced options for planning/staging of isolations and interrogating faults on the network. Further software versions are expected to be rolled out in 2025, with added features and functionality.
Telent’s Engineering Director for Rail, James Morrissey said:
“We’ve drawn on our significant knowledge of Network Rail’s network and infrastructure, as well as our strong relationship with its team, to deliver a significant milestone towards a common SCADA platform for local control of traction power,”. “We’re looking forward to continuing this project and exploring with Network Rail the additional features that can be added to the system in response to emerging technologies.”
Rob Stinton, SCADA Senior Programme Manager at Network Rail says:
“The successful deployment of Version 5 at Raynes Park has been met with very positive feedback from our electrical control room operators and our wider business, the collaboration and support from the Route team in particular was essential to this success”.
Tom Royds, Programme Manager at Telent was equally satisfied,
“The Telent and Network Rail project teams have collaborated tirelessly to reach this critical milestone, delivering the first crucial stepping stone towards national rollout of the TPCMS v5 product”.
Network Rail’s Steve Pope, Programme Engineering Manager for the SCADA project commented:
“The successful deployment of both TPCMS v5 (SCADA) and the Remote Securing platform at Raynes Park, is a milestone that will lead to both safety and efficiency benefits, additionally replacing critical legacy control assets.
The TPCMS v5 platform provides Network Rail with a common data format, providing a unique opportunity for route teams to innovate further with new technologies, ultimately providing these benefits and efficiencies to all routes in the future via the unified TPCMS v5 platform.”