Moxa, a leader in industrial communications and networking, is partnering with a Thai engineering contractor to digitally upgrade a substation in Pattaya to support its transformation into a smart city, contributing to Thailand's economic growth and enhancing its competitiveness within ASEAN.

Moxa announced its collaboration with Thailand's Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) and Italthai Engineering, a leading engineering contractor for EPC services.

Thailand is emphasizing the adoption of renewable energy sources in line with the global trend toward low-carbon economic development, and Pattaya has become a pilot city for this new paradigm through the digital transformation of smart substations.

PEA has announced that it will lead the energy transition through digital upgrades of substations to minimize unstable voltage supply during power outages, in line with the Thai government's Energy 4.0 plan. PEA is working with Italtai Engineering on a number of pilot tests, including a smart grid project to increase the availability of highly variable renewable energy sources.

Italtai Engineering said it leveraged Moxa's network expertise in IEC 61850-based substation automation systems to optimize overall network management and improve power grid flexibility and efficiency.

Moxa, with its experience developing over 7,500 substation transmission and distribution systems worldwide, provided expert advice on topology design to help PEA transition from a 30-year-old system to one with streamlined, standardized design and automated management capabilities.

The digital substation upgrade uses Moxa's IEC 61850 PRP/HSR redundant network to enable substations to operate automatically and achieve real-time communication.

Additionally, the digital transformation has brought Pattaya's PEA power network into compliance with IEC 61850, the international standard for intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) in substations.

“Implementing and maintaining communication systems in digital substations requires trusted experts,” said Pongsakorn Yuthagovit, Deputy Director General of PEA. “Moxa’s expertise in critical network communications will help lay the foundation for optimizing the flexibility and efficiency of smart grids through automated communication, monitoring, and management of the entire power network.”

“We are honored to support PEA by providing our expertise in Pattaya substation automation,” said Andy Sun, Director of Moxa’s Vertical Markets Business Unit and Country Manager of Moxa Korea. “Korea is also committed to achieving its 2050We understand that Moxa is committed to ensuring a stable power supply and efficient energy transition, with the goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2020. As a leading industrial networking company with 35 years of experience in industrial networking and connectivity, we are committed to leveraging our network expertise and experience in building global power networks, such as the Pattaya project, to contribute to Korea's smart energy journey."