
Data acquisition begins at the RTU or PLC level and includes meter readings and equipment
statuses that are communicated to the SCADA as required. Data is then compiled and formatted
in such a way that a control room operator using the HMI can make appropriate supervisory decisions
that may be required to over-ride normal RTU (PLC) controls. (A SCADA system includes all the pieces,
HMI, controllers, I/O devices, networks, software, etc.)
SCADA systems typically implement a distributed database which contains data elements called points.
A point represents a single input or output value monitored or controlled by the system. Points can
be either "hard" or "soft". A hard point is representative of an actual input or output connected to
the system, while a soft point represents the result of logic and math operations applied to other
hard and soft points. The point values are normally stored as value-timestamp combinations;
the value and the timestamp when the value was recorded or calculated. A series of value-timestamp
combinations is the history of that point.