LF Energy, along with Alliander, RTE and its new member, Savoir-faire Linux, announced the second project in its Digital Substation Automation Systems (DSAS) initiative——SEAPATH or Software Enabled Automation Platform and Artifacts.

As part of DSAS’ objective to create the next-gen digital substation technology, SEAPATH will provide a reference design and a real-time, open-source platform for grid operators to run virtualized automation and protection applications.

SEAPATH seeks to consolidate multi-provider automation and protection applications with redundant hardware requirements onto one platform that grid operators can use to emulate and virtually provide these services.

“Clean energy sources like renewable energy and electric vehicles cause increasing fluctuations in power supply and demand that are difficult for grid operators to control and optimize. SEAPATH and our other DSAS projects like CoMPAS alleviate these challenges by making electrical substations more modular, interoperable and scalable through open-source technology,” said Dr. Shuli Goodman, Executive Director of LF Energy.

The project will help with time and cost-efficiency, innovation, vendor-agnostic implementations and the convergence of utility practices.

RTE developed and contributed the initial code for the project in partnership with open source integrator Savoir-faire Linux.