Development of an educational SCADA training kit for electric railway system monitoring and control

Abstract

The increasing dependence on supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) technology in electric railway systems underscores the need for practical and low-cost training platforms that reflect real supervisory control environments. Conventional educational tools often rely on software-only simulations or high-cost industrial equipment, resulting in a persistent gap between academic instruction and operational practice. This study presents an educational SCADA training kit designed specifically for railway power monitoring and control. The system replicates essential SCADA functions including real-time data acquisition, breaker operation, environmental monitoring, fault handling, and operator interface visualization through a modular hardware software architecture suitable for academic laboratories. Performance evaluation was conducted across multiple operational scenarios, including normal operation, induced faults, temperature variations, and emergency commands. Key performance indicators such as responsiveness, sensing accuracy, alarm reliability, and stability were measured over 50 repeated trials. Results show 98.7% responsiveness within a 200 ms threshold, sensor accuracy above 97.5%, and 100% alarm reliability across 25 fault events. Continuous testing confirmed stable operation without communication or actuation failures. These findings demonstrate that the proposed kit offers a reliable, scalable, and pedagogically valuable platform for teaching SCADA concepts in railway automation, while also supporting research and prototyping in supervisory control applications.