Shanghai, China — Recently, North China Technology announced that its 12.1-inch industrial panel PC PPC-112T has been successfully applied and accepted in a SCADA system upgrade project for a provincial power company’s substations. As the core component of power system automation, the SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system undertakes key functions such as substation equipment data collection, real-time monitoring, and remote control, serving as the "nerve center" ensuring the safe and stable operation of power grids.North China Technology’s PPC-112T is equipped with an Intel J1900 quad-core processor, adopts a 5-wire flush industrial resistive touchscreen and a fully sealed fanless design. It precisely solves industry pain points including touch failure and poor equipment stability caused by strong electromagnetic interference in substations, providing highly reliable and highly adaptable human-machine interaction terminal solutions for SCADA systems, and helping upgrade the automation level of substations.
As key nodes in power transmission, substations require their SCADA systems to operate 24/7 uninterruptedly and perform the core "Four Remotes" functions: remote metering, remote signaling, remote control, and remote regulation. This places extremely high requirements on the reliability, adaptability and compatibility of on-site operation terminals. The industry commonly faces three prominent challenges:
Strong electromagnetic interference causes touch failure and affects operation accuracyHigh-voltage switch switching, relay protection operations and other processes in substations generate strong electromagnetic fields. Capacitive touchscreens rely on changes in electrostatic coupling between the human body and the screen for positioning. However, strong electromagnetic fields in substations severely interfere with these weak electrical signals, leading to touch drift, erratic jumps or even complete failure. This seriously affects O&M personnel’s accurate judgment of equipment status and timely issuance of operation commands, posing hidden dangers to the safe operation of power grids.
Harsh on-site environments challenge long-term equipment stabilitySubstation equipment continuously generates large amounts of heat during operation, accompanied by unfavorable factors such as dust, vibration, and outdoor temperature and humidity fluctuations. Traditional fan-cooled industrial terminals are prone to heat dissipation failure due to dust clogging, resulting in performance degradation and system crashes in high-temperature environments, directly threatening the continuous operation of SCADA systems. SCADA system interruptions may trigger serious consequences such as power grid dispatching errors and expanded equipment failures.
Insufficient interface expansion fails to meet multi-device collaboration needsThe normal operation of SCADA systems requires simultaneous connection to various field devices including PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers), smart meters, data acquisition cameras, relay protection devices, and temperature and humidity sensors, to achieve centralized data collection and coordinated control. Ordinary commercial tablets have limited serial ports, Ethernet ports and single interface types, which cannot meet the demand for simultaneous access of multiple devices, leading to incomplete system data collection and low equipment collaboration efficiency.
In response to the operational characteristics and industry pain points of substation SCADA systems, the PPC-112T industrial panel PC from Shanghai North China Technology achieves precise breakthroughs with a number of industrial-grade robust designs, fully adapting to the stringent operational requirements of SCADA systems and becoming the preferred solution for substation human-machine interaction terminals.
The PPC-112T is equipped with a 12.1-inch 5-wire industrial resistive touchscreen, which operates on the principle of physical pressure sensing. Signals are triggered by physical contact between the upper film and the lower glass substrate, completely isolated from the electromagnetic environment and inherently immune to interference. Even in strong electromagnetic environments generated by high-voltage switch operations, it maintains accurate touch response without drift or erratic behavior, fundamentally avoiding the touch interference problems of capacitive screens in substation scenarios and ensuring precise issuance of remote control commands. It also supports operation with gloves and styluses, fully matching the on-site working habits of O&M personnel.
Powered by an Intel Celeron J1900 quad-core processor (2.0GHz base frequency, 2.42GHz turbo frequency), this processor is part of Intel’s long-term supply program and has been verified in the industrial automation field for more than 10 years, ensuring stable supply chain support for the product in the next 3–5 years, perfectly matching the long lifecycle and stable operation requirements of SCADA systems.Its low-power design (only 10W TDP) ensures smooth operation of SCADA system graphical interfaces and data processing, while significantly reducing equipment heat generation, enabling stable 24/7 continuous operation.The MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) exceeds 100,000 hours, statistically equivalent to more than 7 years of average trouble-free operation per unit. This means most substations hardly need downtime maintenance due to hardware failures throughout their lifecycle, effectively reducing equipment O&M costs.
The whole machine adopts a fanless fully sealed design, with the front panel protection rating meeting industrial standards, which can effectively resist on-site dust and moisture intrusion and avoid circuit failures caused by dust entering the equipment. The fanless structure completely eliminates heat dissipation failure caused by dust accumulation in traditional fans. Coupled with wide-temperature operation capability, it ensures long-term stable operation of the equipment in a wide temperature range from -20°C to 70°C, perfectly adapting to the harsh environment of high temperature, dust and vibration inside substations, and guaranteeing uninterrupted operation of SCADA systems.
ANOVO PPC-112T is equipped with 2 Gigabit Ethernet ports, 6 USB 2.0 ports, and 4 COM ports (RS485). The interface configuration precisely matches the equipment connection needs of SCADA systems, allowing direct connection to PLCs, smart meters, protection devices and other field devices, providing reliable channels for remote metering and remote signaling data collection.Gigabit Ethernet ports ensure high-speed data upload of SCADA systems, enabling O&M personnel to obtain real-time equipment operation parameters; COM ports meet the serial communication needs of industrial devices, realizing multi-device coordinated control and centralized data collection, and comprehensively improving the operation efficiency of SCADA systems.
In a SCADA system upgrade project at a 220kV substation, the PPC-112T, as an on-site operation station, is widely deployed in the main control room and switchyard local cabinets, deeply integrated with the substation integrated automation system, and undertakes core tasks such as equipment status monitoring, operation command issuance, and real-time data feedback. The equipment can collect key parameters such as circuit breaker status, bus voltage, load current, and protection action information in real time, and visually display them in the form of single-line diagrams on a high-brightness display, facilitating O&M personnel to quickly grasp equipment operation status.Through the resistive touchscreen of the PPC-112T, operators can directly issue remote control commands to perform switching operations, on-load voltage regulation and other actions, with millisecond-level response time, greatly improving operation efficiency.“The electromagnetic environment in substations is complex. We tried several capacitive touch tablets before, but touch drift occurred during switch operations. Unmanned stations often crashed and required heavy maintenance,” said Engineer Zhang, the O&M director of the substation.“After switching to North China Technology’s PPC-112T, the resistive touchscreen has performed very stably in strong electromagnetic fields, and the fanless design has completely solved the dust problem. The equipment has been running continuously in the high-temperature switchroom for more than a year. It has not only withstood the high temperature test of over 40°C during the summer load peak, but also maintained zero touch errors under strong electromagnetic impacts from multiple switch operations. The SCADA system availability has increased to 99.99%, greatly reducing our O&M workload.”The successful application of the PPC-112T in substation SCADA systems once again confirms North China Technology’s technological leadership in human-machine interaction terminals for high-interference industrial environments, providing reliable domestic industrial control support for smart grid construction.
Founded in 1992, North China Technology is a leading enterprise in the field of industrial computers, deeply engaged in core areas such as industrial automation, smart grids, energy and environmental protection. It focuses on providing highly reliable embedded industrial control products and overall solutions for various industries.The company’s industrial panel PC product line covers sizes from 10.1 inches to 21.5 inches, supporting both X86 and ARM platforms. With the advantages of high stability and high adaptability, its products are widely used in substation automation, power distribution terminals, new energy monitoring and other scenarios, providing solid support for the intelligent upgrading of the industrial sector.
Shanghai North China Technology | Marketing DepartmentTel: 137 0185 4300
