Industry Challenge

The global transition to renewable energy and the exponential growth of AI datacenters are placing new demands on smart power grid infrastructure. While renewable sources offer a sustainable path forward, they also bring variability and unpredictability to power generation. Simultaneously, the rise of generative AI and machine learning workloads is driving up electricity demand significantly. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the power consumption of U.S. AI datacenters is projected to reach approximately 34 GW by 2030, doubling from around 17 GW in 2023. This dual challenge—unstable renewable generation and energy-hungry AI infrastructure—is catalyzing large-scale modernization across global power substations and transmission systems.

Substation Transformation and Virtualization

To handle the new grid dynamics, an estimated 500,000 substations globally will need to be renovated, with approximately 15,000 substations upgraded annually. A cornerstone of this transformation is the transition from legacy SCADA and HMI systems to virtualized digital substations. In a virtualized substation architecture, control, automation, and monitoring functions are decoupled from proprietary hardware and hosted on cloud or edge-native virtual machines and containers.

This shift brings several key benefits:

  • Improved scalability for managing more devices and data streams
  • Higher service availability with VM failover and redundancy mechanisms
  • Increased energy efficiency through optimized resource allocation
  • Easier integration of AI and edge computing to enable predictive maintenance, anomaly detection, and intelligent load balancing

IEC-61850-3 certified Computer for Digital Substation Virtualization

Lanner offers the ICS-P770, an IEC 61850-3 certified industrial computer purpose-built for digital substations. Designed to withstand harsh substation environments and support high-throughput data processing, the ICS-P770 plays a critical role in virtualized power automation.

Key Features:

  • Intel® Xeon® 6 Processor with energy-efficient E-Cores, delivering scalable compute power for virtual machines, AI workloads, and control applications.
  • IEC 61850-3 and IEEE 1613 Certification, ensuring compliance with substation automation standards and electromagnetic resilience.
  • High-Speed Ethernet for Virtualization: Options for 4x 25GbE SFP28 or 10GbE RJ45 with SR-IOV support, enabling high-bandwidth VM networking and deterministic communication.
  • Wide Operating Temperature (-40ºC~55ºC) for deployment in demanding field environments.
  • Intel® QuickAssist Technology (QAT) for cryptographic acceleration, ensuring secure data transmission for virtualized IEC 61850 protocols
  • PCIe Expansion for HSR/PRP industrial-grade network cards, supporting high-availability and redundant communications.

 


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Conclusion

Virtualization is transforming substations into intelligent nodes in the energy value chain—ready to support the rising demands of AI infrastructure and renewable integration. With the IEC 61850-3 certified ICS-P770, Lanner empowers energy operators to build scalable, secure, and high-performance digital substations tailored for the AI-driven infrastructure of tomorrow.

Featured Product

ICS-P770

IEC61850-3 Certified Industrial Computer for Digital Substation

CPU Intel® Xeon® 6 Processor
Chipset N/A

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IEK-XF300

Time-aware Redbox-DAN PCIe NIC

CPU N/A
Chipset N/A

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