Siemens launches resilient time sync for digital substations
New Siprotec 5 Grandmaster Clock secures time-critical protection in digital substations, eliminating GNSS vulnerabilities and boosting grid cybersecurity.
Image for illustrative purposes / Image credit: Uwe Seidner
Siemens has introduced a new time synchronisation solution for energy infrastructure, unveiling its Siprotec 5 Precision Time Protocol (PTP) Grandmaster Clocks. Designed to safeguard the backbone of digital substations, the new GMC platform ensures continuous, fail-safe time synchronisation for protection systems, shielding them from external interference and strengthening overall grid resilience.
Today’s digital substations often depend on redundant GNSS-based timing sources. Even with redundancy, they are susceptible to disruptions caused by solar activity or intentional attacks such as jamming or spoofing. These time disturbances can trigger sudden “jumps” in the system clock, forcing merging units to resynchronise. During this process, essential protection functions may be temporarily disabled, potentially leading to false tripping or the unnecessary shutdown of critical equipment, driving up operational costs and risking system stability.
Siemens’ Siprotec 5 solution mitigates these risks by separating global time synchronisation from sampling synchronisation. The platform uses internal oscillators within the protection devices as secure time references, operating independently of external GNSS sources. The devices include integrated IEEE 1588v2-compliant PTP Grandmaster Clocks, ensuring precise, uninterrupted synchronisation.
A standout feature of the system is Siemens’ patent-pending Seamless PTP grandmaster changeover technology. When external clocks come back online, they must first align with active backup clocks before taking over, preventing disruptive changes to the system time base and keeping protection functions continuously available.
By allowing process bus networks in digital switchgears to run autonomously without external access points, the solution also enhances cybersecurity through network isolation.
Source: GPS World
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