Our Story: NASA DSN-Caliber Engineering
A specialized protection & controls engineering team — built on NASA Deep Space Network rigor, serving prime contractors nationwide.
Who We Are
One engineering team for your entire protection and controls scope — protection studies, relay programming, testing, commissioning, and EPMS/SCADA — across every major IED and controller platform. Ziggurat Automation eliminates the coordination overhead of splitting P&C work across multiple specialty subcontractors.
We serve AE/EPC/MEP prime contractors building and modernizing Tier III and Tier IV data centers. As a subcontractor, our success is measured by yours: commissioning milestones met, owner acceptance tests passed, liquidated damages avoided. We deliver executed systems — not specifications handed off to others for implementation.
Vendor-agnostic and standards-based. We design to IEC 61850 for interoperability and IEC 62443 for cybersecurity, using a Distributed Control Architecture that eliminates centralized controller dependencies. The result: systems that can be maintained and extended regardless of equipment vendor.
Your Team Lead
Mahmoud Hamwi, PE — California Professional Engineer (Electrical), License PE #25919. Before founding Ziggurat Automation Inc., he served as Senior Electrical Engineer and Cognizant Development Engineer at Peraton, where he held configuration-item ownership for the Power System Controls subsystem across NASA's Deep Space Network.
That role meant full technical authority over a distributed control system spanning three continents — 134 IEDs per complex across 8 manufacturer platforms, governed by IEC 61850 GOOSE over PRP networks with 2(N+1) redundancy. Design, programming, FAT/SAT, commissioning, and technical training — one engineer accountable for the complete protection and controls lifecycle.
Prior roles in manufacturing automation and industrial controls engineering built his cross-platform fluency — protection relays, PLCs, SCADA/HMI, and motion control across vendors and industries. That breadth is why Ziggurat consolidates your entire P&C scope under one subcontract.
The engineering practice predates the company. Protection studies, relay programming, L1–L5 commissioning, and cross-platform integration were all developed and validated in production at NASA's Deep Space Network. Same physics, different facility — the relays, the standards, and the protection engineering are the same whether the loads support deep-space communications or hyperscale compute.
Built on NASA Deep Space Network Rigor
These engineering practices were developed managing protection and controls across NASA's Deep Space Network — the global antenna infrastructure enabling communication with interplanetary spacecraft. When a protection failure means losing contact with a spacecraft, every system must be deterministic, documented, and verified.
The Challenge
Replace a legacy powerhouse control architecture with a no-single-point-of-failure, standards-based distributed control system — maintaining uninterrupted power to seven critical loads supporting deep-space communications across three sites on three continents. The 2.4 kV medium-voltage powerhouse required 2(N+1) redundancy with dual MV supply paths, each with N+1 source redundancy and independent controls. The communication protocol backbone: IEC 61850 GOOSE over PRP (Parallel Redundancy Protocol) dual-star networks for deterministic failover.
The Architecture
The solution centered on a Distributed Control Architecture using SEL RTAC-based controllers with peer-to-peer GOOSE messaging — no central server whose failure could cascade. Zone-selective interlocking via IEC 61850 GOOSE enabled fast, selective fault clearing. PRP dual-star networks with Cisco Catalyst 9500 distribution cores and IE-2000 industrial edge switches provided deterministic failover with QoS prioritization for protection traffic. Board-by-board phased cutover maintained mission continuity during implementation — every transition had deterministic rollback points.
- IEDs (intelligent electronic devices) per complex design
- 134
- IEDs across three continents
- 400+
- manufacturer platforms
- 8
- redundancy architecture
- 2(N+1)
Key Achievements
- Zone-selective interlocking using IEC 61850 GOOSE for fast, selective fault clearing in production infrastructure
- PRP dual-star network with deterministic failover and QoS for protection traffic
- Multi-vendor integration across SEL, Woodward, CAT, ABB, Electro Industries (EIG), Eaton, Cisco, and UPS OEM equipment
- Phased cutover maintaining mission operations — board-by-board implementation with zero communication loss
- Full lifecycle delivery: design, programming, FAT/SAT, commissioning, and technical training across three continents
“More than 70 percent of projects fail Tier Certification assessments during the first round of demonstrations.”
— Uptime Institute — Annual data center commissioning survey
The rigor required by NASA's Deep Space Network — deterministic architectures, exhaustive testing, traceable documentation — directly addresses the commissioning and certification failures that plague data center projects. That same engineering discipline applies to every engagement.
Work With This Team
Put This Track Record Behind Your Next Commissioning
Book a scoping call to discuss how NASA DSN engineering discipline applies to your data center P&C requirements.
Credentials
Professional Engineer License
Mahmoud Hamwi, PE — California Professional Engineer (Electrical), License #25919, Active. Enables stamping of engineering drawings, Engineer of Record capability, and professional accountability per state engineering board.
Standards Expertise
Protection & Communications
IEC 61850 (GOOSE, MMS, SCL), IEEE C37.90, IEEE 242 (Buff Book), IEEE 1584
Network Redundancy
IEC 62439-3 (PRP), IEEE 802.x
Cybersecurity
NERC CIP, NIST SP 800-82/53, IEC 62443, IEC 62351, IEEE 1686
Electrical Safety
NFPA 70/70E, IEEE 399, NFPA 110/111
Programming
IEC 61131-3 (Structured Text, Ladder, FBD, SFC)
Systems Engineering
ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288, V-Model lifecycle, SysML
Vendor Platform Experience
Production experience across all major protection relay, automation controller, power metering, and network infrastructure platforms.
Project Experience
Five NASA Deep Space Network projects spanning architecture design, progressive commissioning, protection retrofit, and powerhouse upgrades — all for NASA/JPL via Peraton.
DSCC Powerhouse Control System Modernization
Madrid, Goldstone, Canberra — three continents
Complete modernization of power system controls across all three Deep Space Communication Complexes. 134 IEDs per complex design, 2(N+1) redundant MV architecture, IEC 61850 GOOSE over PRP networks. Multi-vendor coordination across 8 manufacturer platforms with board-by-board phased cutover maintaining mission operations.
Result: SPOF-free distributed control system maintaining uninterrupted power to seven mission-critical deep-space communication loads.
See full project scope →MDSCC Progressive Commissioning
Madrid, Spain
Board-by-board cutover maintaining live mission operations during transition. Deterministic rollback points per phase with functional testing of interlocks, load transfers, and black-start drills. Commissioned 31 devices across SEL, Woodward, and Cisco platforms.
Result: Board-by-board cutover with zero mission interruption — 31 devices commissioned across three vendor platforms.
See commissioning approach →CDSCC Architecture Design
Canberra, Australia
Network consolidation and generator controls migration. Consolidated isolated networks into a segmented PRP dual-star architecture and migrated generator controls from legacy OMRON PLCs and Woodward LS-5s to modern easYgen 3400 and LS-6 controllers.
Result: Consolidated isolated legacy networks into a unified, segmented PRP dual-star architecture.
See architecture details →GDSCC Powerhouse Upgrades
Goldstone, California
Zone-selective interlocking via IEC 61850 GOOSE across SEL-751 relays, ATS controller upgrades from legacy Siemens PLCs to Woodward DTSC-200, MV protection retrofit to SEL-751, and SCADA/HMI platform refresh with metering historian integration.
Result: Zone-selective interlocking validated in production using IEC 61850 GOOSE across multi-vendor equipment.
See ZSI implementation →MDSCC MV Switchgear Upgrades
Madrid, Spain
Protection retrofit from Schneider relays to SEL-751, redundant SCADA gateway deployment, GPS-based IRIG-B time synchronization, and UPS sizing with hot-swap/bypass design. Delivered technical training to site engineers and technicians covering relay testing, control logic programming, and breaker circuit interlocks.
Result: Site engineering team trained on relay testing, control logic programming, and breaker circuit interlock verification.
See retrofit and training details →Bring This Engineering Rigor to Your Project
Tell us about your data center P&C requirements and we'll respond within one business day with a preliminary technical discussion.
For procurement: Download our capability statement