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.