Platform Architecture

00Executive Summary

HOP Sensors is a cloud-native SCADA observability platform built for electric utilities. Substation systems transmit data over HTTPS to a REST API. A machine learning engine scores every substation for anomalies every 60 seconds. Operators view results in a live web dashboard refreshing every 5 seconds. Automated email alerts notify staff of feeder trips and abnormal conditions — no on-premises hardware required.

01System Overview

The v5 platform is a six-service architecture running on DigitalOcean cloud infrastructure. Each service is containerized with Docker and orchestrated via Docker Compose, split between two servers: a SCADA droplet running all data pipeline services, and a mail droplet handling the public website and email delivery.

End-to-End Data Flow

  Substation SCADA Device  (RTU / IED / DMS)
          |
          |  HTTPS + API Key
          v
    FastAPI Ingest API  -------->  InfluxDB 3 Core
                                        |
                                 ML Service  (z-score, every 60s)
                                        |
                                 Alerting Service  ------->  Email (SendGrid)

    React Dashboard  <--------  FastAPI Query API  <--------  InfluxDB 3
    portal.hopsensorsllc.com -- refreshes every 5s
      

Service Inventory

02Data Ingestion

Substation systems transmit data over HTTPS using a pre-shared API key. Three endpoints handle the three data types the platform tracks.

Example Payload

// POST /ingest/telemetry  --  Header: X-API-Key: <key>
{
  "substation_id": "SUB001",
  "feeder_id":     "FDR002",
  "device_id":     "SUB001-FDR002",
  "site_name":     "Portland North",
  "latitude":      45.5231,
  "longitude":     -122.6765,
  "voltage_kv":    229.8,
  "current_a":     1187.4,
  "power_mw":      274.2,
  "frequency_hz":  60.002
}

03Time-Series Storage

HOP Sensors v5 uses InfluxDB 3 Core, a purpose-built time-series database optimized for high-frequency, append-only measurement data. The platform queries via SQL, replacing the Flux query language used in v4.

Database Schema

04ML Anomaly Detection

The ML service runs a statistical z-score anomaly detector on grid frequency. Every 60 seconds it fetches the most recent 20 readings per substation, computes a rolling baseline, and scores the latest reading. No training data or GPU resources required — fully interpretable and auditable.

Scoring Algorithm

# For each substation -- last N=20 frequency readings:
mean  = mean(readings)
std   = stddev(readings)
z     = (latest - mean) / std          # standard deviations from baseline
score = min(abs(z) / Z_THRESHOLD, 1.0) # normalized to [0.0, 1.0]

# Classification:
NORMAL   : score <  0.4   # z < 1.0 sigma
ELEVATED : score <  0.7   # 1.0 sigma to 1.75 sigma
ANOMALY  : score >= 0.7   # z >= 1.75 sigma  --  triggers alert email

05Alerting Pipeline

The alerting service polls InfluxDB and the event API every 60 seconds. Three alert types with independent rate-limiting logic prevent alert fatigue. Delivery is via SendGrid SMTP through the mail droplet.

The SCADA droplet authenticates to the mail droplet's API with an X-Alert-Token shared secret. Email content includes substation ID, detected values, z-score, baseline context, and a direct link to the portal dashboard.

06Operator Dashboard

The dashboard is a React single-page application at portal.hopsensorsllc.com. It auto-refreshes every 5 seconds and requires only a modern web browser — no plugins, extensions, or client software.

Features: light/dark mode, time range selector (5m / 15m / 30m / 1h / 6h / 24h / 7d), role-based default tab (executives land on Executive View, operators on Telemetry).

07Authentication & Multi-Tenancy

Authentication is handled by a Flask app backed by SQLite. Users log in at portal.hopsensorsllc.com/login with work email and password. Sessions are server-side cookies; passwords are bcrypt hashed.

Per-user substation filtering is enforced in the React frontend via session data injected at login. Admins manage users at /admin without SSH access.

08Infrastructure

The platform runs on two DigitalOcean Droplets. All v5 services run as Docker containers with restart: unless-stopped, orchestrated by Docker Compose.

Public DNS points hopsensorsllc.com and portal.hopsensorsllc.com to the mail droplet's nginx. The portal subdomain is reverse-proxied to the auth service on the SCADA droplet. All containers share the v5-hopsensors-net Docker bridge network. InfluxDB (8181) and FastAPI (8000) are not exposed to the public internet.

09Security

10API Reference

All endpoints require X-API-Key header. Base URL: https://portal.hopsensorsllc.com/api

Ingest

Query