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Q&A: Station-Level Virtualization - A Practical Path for Substation Modernization

Published on 07 Oct, 2026

Social media graphic featuring a server cabinet in an electrical substation. The COPADATA and Welotec logos are displayed in the foreground. This image, or parts of this image, were generated or edited using [AI].

What happens when the discussion about substation virtualization gets practical?

Questions quickly move beyond “Can we virtualize this?” to “How would we actually operate it?”

Following our webinar with COPA-DATA, we have compiled 19 questions and answers on Station-Level Virtualization in one document.

Anton Krupskii from Welotec and Stefan Hufnagl from COPA-DATA address questions including:

• Can existing hardware be used for virtualization?
• How do you migrate an existing brownfield RTU and HMI?
• Who should administer and patch the hypervisor?
• How fast does failover need to be?
• How should CPU, memory and network resources be sized?
• How do PRP and OT/IT isolation work in a virtualized architecture?
• How does the engineering process change?
• Can hardware-based and virtualized protection coexist during the transition?

And the discussion goes further into cybersecurity, lifecycle management, process-bus performance, backup strategies and emerging standards for virtualized PAC.

A practical resource for anyone evaluating how virtualization could fit into their own substation architecture.

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Topic:

Q&A: Station-Level Virtualization - A Practical Path for Substation Modernization

Speaker:
  • Stefan Hufnagl
  • Anton Krupskii

Meet our experts

Featured Speakers

Portrait Stefan Hufnagl

Stefan Hufnagl

Industry Specialist Energy at Copa-Data

As a member of the Energy Industry Management team of COPA-DATA, Stefan is dedicated to the design and improvement of modern energy solutions. With more than 20 years of experience in industrial automation he contributes into the continuous development of the zenon Software Platform from COPA-DATA.

From a cross-disciplinary perspective Stefan anticipates trends in power transmission and distribution, generation and storage as well as industrial segments, promoting standardized digital and software-defined automation solutions.

Portrait of Anton Krupskii

Anton Krupskii

Vice President Digital Substation at Welotec GmbH

Anton is leading business development, marketing strategies and product development for the substation automation portfolio at Welotec.


With extensive experience in international business development, computing
technologies, and a strong focus on digital substations, Anton drives
innovation and actively shapes the future of substation automation,
contributing to the IEC, CIGRE, vPAC Alliance and the open source communities.