Friday, November 21, 2014

Can IEC 61850 be Applied in the Industrial Automation Domain?

Sure: It can. Why? Because IEC 61850 uses native standards like Ethernet, Ethertype, TCP/IP, UDP/IP, XML, MMS, … defines a dictionary of common information models, like MMXU (electrical measurements of a 3-phase AC system) that are applicable wherever a 3-phase AC System provides measurements like phase voltage or phase-to-phase voltages.

A motor with 3 phases is a motor with 3 phases everywhere! Or?

A very interesting paper by Dustin Tessier (Canada) discusses that IEC 61850 could be used in the power and industrial domain:

The Dual-Domains of IEC 61850 – Power vs Industrial Domains

“ … Despite the popular belief that the “power” domain and “industrial” domain have
intrinsically unique principles, this paper suggests the gap is decreasing, and through the
use of IEC 61850 we can adopt a single strategy that capitalizes on a common
technology platform.

… Whether it’s the SAS, DCS or PLC applications, these all share a common goal of collecting, processing, distributing and visualizing the data.

… No longer is the day where we ask, "Is this an industrial product or a utility
product?,
and the same applies to system integration services. IEC 61850 may have been
designed for the power domain, but it won't be long before we see it revolutionize the
industrial domain
.”

Click HERE for the paper [pdf, 100 KB]

Wherever there is electricity, IEC 61850 will be be involved one way or the other!

Click HERE for further discussion on the topic: Industrial and Power domain.

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