Progress in using IEC 61850 in California and all over

Some 12 years ago I have presented a paper “Seamless Communication with IEC 61850 for Distributed Power Generation” at the DistribuTech 2002 in Miami (FL):

“… The driving force behind the standardization is to effectively and efficiently perform seamless device data integration and sharing information based on a rich, fine-grained data-stream about the state of the “power world” in any given instant. Every node in the network would have to be awake, responsive, flexible, and – most important – interconnected with everything else: A distributed energy web. … It is not sufficient to develop distributed generation systems that only produce electric power. …”

Click HERE for a copy of the full paper on “Seamless Communication with IEC 61850 for Distributed Power Generation” presented at the 2002 DistribuTech in Miami (FL).

Now, just a few (12) years later you could see this vision to become a reality, e.g., in California and other places all over.

Crucial needs and suggested solutions (IEC 61850, DNP3, …) discussed in the USA and especially in California are documented in the following interesting papers:

Click HERE for the SGIP Paper: “Distributed Energy Management (DER): Advanced Power System Management Functions and Information Exchanges for Inverter-based DER Devices, Modelled in IEC 61850-90-7” [pdf, 1.1 MB]

Click HERE for the paper “CEC/CPUC Smart DER Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Strategies and Alternative Configurations” [Word, 1.7 MB]

Click HERE for the paper: “CEC/CPUC Candidate DER Capabilities: Recommendations for Updating Technical Requirements in Rule 21” [pdf, 1.2 MB]

It is interesting that the third paper refers to German experiences with distributed power systems: “ … For instance, most of the smaller DER systems could be pre-set with default values that may not need to change for many years. However, if the settings need to be updated, or new functions should be activate, or other communication capabilities are necessary, the utilities would not have to replace DER systems (as has occurred in Germany).
For this reason, the preferred approach to Rule 21 is that key DER functions, default settings for those functions, and basic communications technologies would be mandated but not necessarily activated. “