Utilities are rushing to modernize their substations to meet the ever evolving challenges they are facing to ensure a secure and reliable grid. Equipment provided by multiple vendors over the years, run different SCADA protocols. These protocols require dedicated hardware, called Remote Terminal Units (RTUs).

Adding new protocol support or features to a substation, traditionally has required replacing these RTUs. This was both a time and a labor-intensive process. In turn, this drove significant delays to any substation modernization project, while increasing complexity and organizational resistance to initiatives. Cisco and Eximprod’s solution for substations is now enabling utilities to rapidly modernize and transform the grid. Eximprod’s software based Virtual RTU ES200 runs on Cisco's IOx platform. This enables utilities to deploy and add new supported protocol and features at substations rapidly and remotely. Further, the robust application lifecycle management (ALM) features of IOx and Cisco's management software tools, allows utilities to closely monitor and manage the state, condition, and versioning of all deployed applications - even from highly constrained networks, such as over LTE.

Additionally, modern security features can be enabled across applications and locations - even at the substation. Many utilities take advantage of this capability to implement standardized corporate user logins, single-sign-on (SSO), and two-factor authentication, significantly improving the security posture of critical infrastructure.

The Eximprod ES200 application for Cisco IOx also introduces many new capabilities - features such as edge processing of gathered data, local decision making and ladder-logic, and Intelligent Electronic Device (IED) remote configuration are all possible.
Capabilities employed
Industrial networking Cisco Industrial Router (IR) Overview
Service management Cisco Field Network Director (FND) Docs • Learn • Lab
Thing connections Eximprod Virtual RTU ES200 Overview • Learn • Lab
Edge compute and app mgmt Cisco IOx Learn
Cisco Industrial Compute (IC) Overview