Draft IEC 62351-7 - Network and System Management objects

The IEC TC 57 Committee Draft for IEC 62351-7 TS Ed.1 has been published the other day (document 57/1003/DTS):
Power systems management and associated information exchange – Data and communication security – Part 7: Network and system management (NSM) data object models

Closing date for comments: 2009-08-07
(contact your national TC 57 committee for a copy).

These NSM data objects will be used to monitor the health of networks and systems, to detect possible security intrusions, and to manage the performance and reliability of the information infrastructure in power systems.

Scope and Objectives

Power systems operations are increasingly reliant on information infrastructures, including communication networks, intelligent electronic devices (IEDs), ... Therefore, management of the information infrastructure has become crucial to providing the necessary high levels of security and reliability in power system operations. Using the concepts developed in the IETF Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) standards for network management, IEC 62351-7 defines Network and System Management (NSM) data object models that are specific to power system operations. These NSM data objects will be used to monitor the health of networks and systems, to detect possible security intrusions, and to manage the performance and reliability of the information infrastructure. These data objects are defined as abstract data objects. These abstract data objects will be mapped to specific standards, such as IEC 61850, IEC 60870-5, IEC 60870-6, IEC 61968/61970 (CIM), web services, SNMP. These mappings will be defined later.

The utility industry should take these activities very serious - the many objects that will be standardized have a crucial impact on the power system monitoring! It is likely that the infrastructure will provide much more status information (provided by many "software" sensors) than the power delivery process (breaker status, voltage, current, oil pressure of a transformer, ...). Be aware that the ICT (information and communication technology) infrastructure will become very comprehensive (!!); may no too complex - but providing hundreds or thousands of new "Signals" not needed today! Get involved in the future of YOUR power system.