In the US, it is common to base these systems on standards and reports published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.  But, to avoid needless duplication of effort by others, what sort of research have you conducted so far?  Would you please detail your current findings?

Thanks for the response,

I am currently reviewing general SCADA specs of different manufacturers for the electrical utility market.  I understand what SCADA is and what it can do, however, I do not understand alot of the small details written in some of the specs.  This is making it tough for me to do a comparison between systems.  I am searching for any papers or studies done on this subject, that I can use to better educate myself and hence, make a better decision.

Chris

I think the term SCADA is used to loosely. SCADA stands for supervisory control and data acquisition. The supervisory control could include RF links, land lines, internet, RS485 networks, RS232, etc. The medium used to transport the data will have its own set of standards to follow. How the data is acquired is open as well. It will usually involve a series of dumb transducers that spit out a 4-20mA signal in proportion to a pressure for example. Or they could include a voltage monitor that talks over a RS485 network using modbus. I havent researched standards for SCADA systems, per say. But I do know there are standards for communications protocols, etc. I don't believe you will find any 'standards' that talk about SCADA systems in general.

IEEE Std 1379-1997, "IEEE Trial-Use Recommended Practice for Data Communications Between Intelligent Electronic Devices and Remote Terminal Units in a Substation"

IEEE Std C37.1-1994, "IEEE Standard Definition, Specification, and Analysis of Systems Used for Supervisory Control, Data Acquisition, and Automatic Control"

Also, archived standard (superseded or withdrawn) IEEE Std 999-1992, "IEEE Recommended Practice for Master/Remote Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) Communications" may have useful tidbits.

A periodical that may help is described at: http://www.ieee.org/organizations/pubs/magazines/cap.htm [IEEE Computer Applications in Power]

Thanks for the input guys....much appreciated.