IEC 61850-3 Ed2 CDV is out for ballot

The CDV for IEC 61850-3 Ed.2 is out for comments and ballot:

Communication networks and systems for power utility
automation – Part 3: General requirements

The ballot closes 2012-10-19

This part of IEC 61850 defines general requirements, mainly regarding construction, design and environmental conditions for utility communication and automation IED's and systems in power plant and substation environments. These general requirements are in line with requirements for IED's used in similar environments, for example measuring relays and protection equipment.

IEC 61850 is used in many applications in the power distribution. The applicability of the requirements (defined in the above CDV) for distribution networks or DER seems to be defined in a more details. Currently clause 6.7.1 defines “In addition to the mentioned electrical plants, Electricity Utilities can install apparatus in control centers, radio repeaters, or low voltage distribution points in industrial, commercial or residential areas. These locations are covered by other generic standards or product standards.”

Does this mean that all or most or some requirements defined in IEC 61850-3 Ed2 are not applicable for these locations? etc.

It is highly recommended that experts from all over have a close look at this CDV to make sure that IEDs applied in DER and distribution networks are not burdened with requirements not needed.

Contact your IEC TC 57 national committee for a copy of the IEC 61850-3 Ed2 CDV.

IEC 61850 Extensions for FACTS

IEC TC 57 is about to develop the information model for FACTS (Flexible AC Transmission Systems)

IEC TR 61850-90-14: Communication networks and systems for power utility
automation – Part 90-14: Using IEC 61850 for FACTS (Flexible AC Transmission Systems) data modeling

If you are interested in this work contact your IEC TC 57 national committee.

Work on IEC 61850-90-11 started -- Logics

It was agreed internationally to develop IEC TR 61850-90-11: Communication networks
and systems for power utility automation – Part 90-11: Methodologies for modelling of logics for IEC 61850 based applications.

The scope could be quite narrow, taking into account simple logics for input and output signal … but it could cover also the way how to program complex distributed applications. The standards like IEC 61131-3 or IEC 61499 may be taken into account.

Some discussion on the use of IEC 61499 …

New Work on Security for SCL, CIM, DNP3 XML-Files

XML files are used for IEC 61970 (CIM), IEC 61850, and IEEE 1815 (DNP3)
and IEEE C37.111 (COMTRADE). How can one trust that the content of an XML file for these applications has not been modified? etc.

A new work proposal has been published:
Power systems management and associated information exchange – Data and communications security –
Part 11: Security for XML Files (future IEC 62351-11)

The ballot closes 2012-07-27

This work is one of the crucial aspects of the future power systems – the various files may contain very sensitive information that has to be protected … like the protection relays and protection engineers protect the power system!!

I hope that the management takes this work very serious!

Denver (CO): Workshop on International Standards for Smart Grids and SCADA Application Domains

A two day Workshop on International Standards for Smart Grids and SCADA Application Domains will be conducted by two gurus of standards for power systems on

September 18 – 19, 2012 – Hyatt Regency Denver (CO) Tech Center

Topics are among others: NIST SGIP standards catalog, IEC 61850, IEC 62351 (security), DNP3, … security measures, solutions, and needs, as well as the global market penetration of standards in power systems, …

Details and registration information for the Smart Grid Standards Workshop can be found here.

If you want to have a specific topic presented and discussed during the workshop, please let me know.

Stockholm: Course on IEC 61850 and Interoperability in SmartGrids including CIM

The School of Electrical Engineering KTH, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm is conducting a course on interoperability issues in electrical power delivery systems 11-13 June 2012.

This course will provide fundamental knowledge to the interoperability issues in the Smartgrid, introduction to state of the art systems and technologies, and hands-on practice with relevant industry standard tools.

Aims and Objectives of the course are among others:

• Introduction and understanding of Interoperability issues in the Smartgrid
• Introduction to the state of the art systems, methodologies and frameworks for interoperability in the Smartgrid: IEC 61850 and related standards like IEC 62351 (Security), CIM, …
• To perform hands-on practice and exercises on interoperability solutions in IEC 61850 based industry standard automation and control systems
• Hands on IEC 61850 substation automation systems with introduction to software
  tools and IEDs
• Interoperability in 61850 based environments with multi-vendor IEDs
• Interoperability in 61850 based advanced Smartgrid use cases
• KTH LAB hands-on/demo
• Overview and introduction to leading research projects in the field

Program of the Course on IEC 61850 and Interoperability in SmartGrids [pdf]

General course information and updates.

I look forward to meeting you there.

If you know someone who may be interested in this event please forward the information.

Solvimus bietet IEC 61850 für den Niederspannungsbereich

Die solvimus GmbH (Ilmenau) bietet mit Ihren Steuerungen der auvis-Reihe und dem
Gerät MUC.easy für Smart Metering verschiedene Produkte, welche diese Norm
unterstützen. IEC 61850 wird somit auch in der Niederspannungsebene
verfügbar.

Pressemitteilung zu IEC 61850 in solvimus-Produkten.

USA: IEC 61850-90-5 – Synchrophasor Communication appreciated

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) and the North American SynchroPhasor Initiative (NASPI) applauded the publication of IEC 61850-90-5 as an improved synchrophasor data communication solution.

Access the FERC and NASPI press release on IEC 61850-90-5.

More details on IEC 61850-90-5 see below.

IEC TR 61850-7-510 ed1.0 has been published

The new part IEC 61850-7-510 has been officially published:

Communication networks and systems for power utility automation -
Part 7-510:
Basic communication structure - Hydroelectric power plants - Modelling concepts and guidelines

Download the Preview of IEC 61850-7-510

IEC/TR 61850-7-510:2012 provides explanations on how to use the Logical Nodes defined in IEC 61850-7-410 as well as other documents in the IEC 61850 series to model complex control functions in power plants, including variable speed pumped storage power plants. This publication is to be used in conjunction with IEC 61850-7-410 which introduced the general modelling concepts of IEC 61850 to hydroelectric power plants.

This document lays a ground for control devices like PLCs to implement the information interface. One simple implementation could be to integrate an IEC 61850 gateway into a PLC. The gateway could, for example, be implemented with an powerful embedded controller.

The controller would implement the information model and the services like GOOSE for operational status, Setting limits or Reporting of status or measured values:

A gateway could be easily build with available embedded controllers that provide an easy API for IEC 61850 clients, servers, publishers and subscribers.

IEC TR 61850-90-5 ed1.0 published

The new part IEC 61850-90-5 has been officially published:

Communication networks and systems for power utility automation -
Part 90-5:
Use of IEC 61850 to transmit synchrophasor information according to IEEE C37.118

Download the Preview of IEC 61850-90-5

IEC/TR 61850-90-5:2012 provides a way of exchanging synchrophasor data between PMUs, PDCs WAMPAC (Wide Area Monitoring, Protection, and Control), and between control center applications. The data, to the extent covered in IEEE C37.118-2005, are transported in a way that is compliant to the concepts of IEC 61850. However, given the primary scope and use cases, this document also provides routable profiles for IEC 61850-8-1 GOOSE and IEC 61850-9-2 SV packets. These routable packets can be utilized to transport general IEC 61850 data as well as synchrophasor data.

IEC 61850 Approved for NIST SGIP Catalog of Standards

The SGIP (Smart Grid Interoperability Panel) membership voted to include the IEC 61850 Standard Series into the Catalog of Standards (CoS) with approval of some 100 per cent.

The IEC 61850 series of standards define object models, abstract services, and mappings to communications protocols for field devices and systems. The scope of IEC 61850 includes information exchanges within substations, for protective relaying, between substations, between substations and control centers, within hydro power plants, for distribution automation, for managing distributed energy resources (generation and storage), and for managing charging of electric vehicles.

See the complete list of approved standards for the NIST SGIP Catalog of Standards, including IEC 61850

This is a major step towards the application of IEC 61850 in North America and other regions. The use of IEC TC 57 information and information exchange standards is rapidly growing all over!

The interest in small boxes like the various COM.TOM’s (as gateways between IEC 60870-5-101/104, DNP3, Modbus … and also between these and IEC 61850, and for collecting measurements of the electrical system and equipment) is picking up all over. One big utility is about to install 40.000 of these boxes to monitor transformers in distribution substations! More to come.

Report on the big South-Western US Blackout on September 08, 2011

Some 6 months after the big blackout in the Pacific Southwest, leading to cascading outages and leaving approximately 2.7 million customers without power in parts of Arizona, Southern California, and Baja California, and Mexico, a comprehensive report has been published.

The Key Findings, Causes, and Recommendations are as follows:

“The September 8, 2011, event showed that the system was not being operated in a secure N-1 state. This failure stemmed primarily from weaknesses in two broad areas—operations planning and real-time situational awareness—which, if done properly, would have allowed system operators to proactively operate the system in a secure N-1 state during normal system conditions and to restore the system to a secure N-1 state as soon as possible, but no longer than 30 minutes. Without adequate planning and situational awareness, entities responsible for operating and overseeing the transmission system could not ensure reliable operations within System Operating Limits (SOLs) or prevent cascading outages in the event of a single contingency. As demonstrated in Appendix C, inadequate situational awareness and planning were also identified as causes of the 2003 blackout that affected an estimated 50 million people in the United States and Canada.”

One of the crucial needs for real-time operations is the availability of real-time INFORMATION – to become aware of the situation at the level of the electrical process, primary equipment, secondary functions, and distributed power resources! This requires real-time information exchange which seems to have not been properly installed, available or used. One challenge is to handle the many vendor and user specific communication protocols. It is very surprising that even at the power transmission level the awareness seems to be showing gaps. The situational awareness (supported by real-time information exchange) at the high voltage levels is one of the most crucial issues in power systems!

So, what is the situation in the implementation of real-time information exchange systems in the lower voltage levels? Hm … IEC 61850 installed all over would definitely help to get a good awareness of the situation of the system – allowing to proactively operate the system.

More standard based communication (IEC 61850, DNP3, …) to come.

Read complete power outage report.

Draft IEC 61850-90-7 – Object models for photovoltaic, storage, and other DER inverters

IEC has published the following very crucial draft for ballot (57/1239/DTR):

IEC 61850-90-7 Ed. 1:
Communication networks and systems for power utility automation –
Part 90-7: IEC 61850 object models for photovoltaic, storage, and other DER
inverters

The ballot closes on 2012-06-29.

This 114 page Technical Report describes the functions for inverter-based Distributed Energy Resources (DER) systems, including photovoltaic systems (PV), battery storage systems, electric vehicle (EV) charging systems, and any other DER systems with a controllable inverter. It defines the IEC 61850 information models to be used in the exchange of information between these inverter based DER systems and the utilities, Energy Service Providers (ESPs), or other entities which are tasked with managing the volt, var, and watt capabilities of these inverter-based systems.
These inverter-based DER systems can range from very small grid-connected systems at residential customer sites, to medium-sized systems configured as microgrids on campuses or communities, to very large systems in utility-operated power plants, and to many other configurations and ownership models. They may or may not combine different types of DER systems behind the inverter, such as an inverter-based DER system and a battery that are connected at the DC level.

The crucial object models for IEC 61850-90-7 have already been implemented on the Beck IPC Development Kit 61.

Please contact your national committee to get a copy of this crucial document.

A list of crucial models defined in IEC 61850-90-7 can be found here.

Draft IEC 61850-90-4 – Network engineering guidelines

IEC has published the following draft for ballot (57/1238/DTR):

IEC 61850-90-4 TR Ed.1:
Communication networks and systems for power utility automation –
Part 90-4: Network engineering guidelines for substations

The ballot closes on 2012-06-22.

Please contact your national committee to get a copy of this crucial document.

This 192 page Technical Report provides definitions, guidelines, and specifications for the network engineering of IEC 61850 based (substation and other) automation.
It addresses issues such as Ethernet technology, network topology, redundancy, traffic latency and quality of service, traffic management by multicast and VLAN, network-based clock synchronization and testing of the network.