Telent’s railway electrical control system goes live with major upgrade

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’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 are 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”, Mr Morrissey continued.

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.

Network Rail’s, Programme Engineering Manager for the SCADA project, Steve Pope 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”.

From Raynes Park, the team now moves on to deploying v5 to other sites including Canterbury, Selhurst and Rugby, where TPCMS v5 should be in operation in time for Christmas 2024.

For more information about Telent, visit: https://telent.com/