Reminder: Many ISO/IEC Standards Are Publicly Available

ISO and IEC provide free access to many older and newer standards like

ISO/IEC 27000 (Fourth edition 2016-02-15):

Information technology — Security techniques — Information security
management systems — Overview and vocabulary

Click HERE for the above standard ISO/IEC 27000.
Click HERE for the complete list of publicly available standards.

IEC 61850 - Take a Closer Look For The Best Possible Start in San Diego

FMTP (Uppsala, Sweden), NettedAutomation (Karlsruhe, Germany), and OPAL-RT (Montreal, Canada) will conduct a one day intensive course that opens doors You never dreamed possible:

Demystifying and mastering the complexity of IEC 61850

Location:
Holiday Inn Express San Diego South - Chula Vista
632 E Street
Chula Vista, CA 91910

Date:
Monday, 30 January 2017 from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM (PST)

The online registration is now open:
Click HERE for Registration.

A 60 US$ Early Bird Discount applies until 31 Dec 2016.
Register today!

Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) - Security Framework

The Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) has published a draft Security Framework (173 pages).
The framework is quite interesting for all experts involved in information exchange systems ... also in the energy application domain.
The Introductions says in the second paragraph:
"These [IIOT - Industrial Internet of Things] systems differ from traditional industrial control systems by being connected extensively to other systems and people, increasing their diversity and scale. They also differ from traditional information technology (IT) systems in that they use sensors and actuators in an industrial environment. These are typically systems that interact with the physical world where uncontrolled change can lead to hazardous conditions. This potential risk increases the importance of safety, reliability, privacy and resiliency beyond the levels expected in many traditional IT environments."
The power systems are using sensors and actuators communicating with protection and automation systems for the last decades. The industry has developed the standard series IEC 61850, IEC 62351, IEC 60870-5-104, DNP3, IEC 61968/70, and IEC 61400-25 to provide a basis for safe, reliable, resilient, and secure power delivery systems. These stable standards are state-of-the-art in power delivery systems. And they are referenced in many Frameworks and Roadmaps. The series IEC 62351 is one of the crucial series dealing with security in power automation systems:

Click HERE for a copy of the IIC framework [pdf, 4.6 MB].
Click HERE for a white paper about the IEC 62351 series [pdf, 3.5 MB] and HERE for a page on Wikipedia.

The IIC Security Framework gives an overview about many aspects in the future distributed automation and which aspects are crucial to be managed. 

Basic Application Profiles (BAPs) using IEC 61850

IEC TC 57 has proposed to develop a new Technical Report (TR):

IEC TR 61850-7-6: Communication networks and systems for power utility automation –
Part 7-6: Guideline for definition of Basic Application Profiles (BAPs) using IEC 61850
(57/1782/DC)

The proposed work will:

• describe the methodology of profiling in the context of IEC 61850
• give a common understanding about the modular profiling concept of basic application profiles (BAP)
• define the contents of a standardized basic application profile (BAP template)
• give guidance for the use of that BAP template
• and also show an example of a BAP.

IEC-61850-Seminar in Karlsruhe vom 06.-09. Dezember 2016 zu Einem Unschlagbarem Preis

Wir bieten vom

06.-09. Dezember 2016 in Karlsruhe ein IEC-61850-Intensiv-Seminar an

Die drei (3) Blöcke (1 Tag + 2 Tage + 1 Tag) können einzeln oder in Kombination gebucht werden. Sie entscheiden selbst, ob Sie nur einen Tag von Ihrem Arbeitsplatz fern bleiben möchten oder zwei, drei oder vier. Je nachdem, welche Zeit und welchen Bedarf Sie haben.

Am ersten Tag wird ein Überblick über das Normungsumfeld und die einzelnen Normen gegeben. Im Mittelpunkt stehen dabei die grundlegenden Eigenschaften und Bedeutung der Normenreihe IEC 61850 für Systemdesign, System- und Geräteengineering, Datenmodellierung, Datenmodelle (Schutz, Messwerte, Steuerungen, Power Quality Monitoring, Wind Power, Hydro Power, Dezentrale Erzeuger, ...), Kommunikationsmöglichkeiten (Client/Server, Publisher/Subscriber) und Sicherheitslösungen (IEC 62351).

Der Vergleich mit IEC 60870-5-104, DNP3, Modbus und Feldbussen rundet den ersten Tag ab.

Am zweiten Tag werden die Modellierungsmethode, die vielfältigen Modelle (Logische Knoten), die Kommunikationsdienste und -protokolle und die System-Konfigurations-Sprache (SCL) im Detail vorgestellt. Die Lösungen nach VHPready und FNN-Steuerbox werden präsentiert und diskutiert.

Am dritten Tag werden anhand vieler praktischer SCL-Beispiele Systembeschreibungen (SSD), Systemkonfigurationen (SCD), Gerätekonfigurationen (ICD und CID für Server/Publisher, Client/Subscriber und Server/Subscriber) diskutiert, erstellt und formal geprüft. Dabei kommt eine Reihe von Werkzeugen und Geräten zum Einsatz.

Am vierten Tag wird das Erlernte in praktischen Übungen mit marktgängigen Steuerungsgeräten, Gateways und Werkzeugen vertieft. Eine Windows-Evaluierungspaket mit Client, Server, GOOSE-Publisher, Client/GOOSE-Subscriber und Server/GOOSE-Subscriber wird allen Teilnehmern kostenlos zur Verfügung gestellt; dieses Paket kann auch nach dem Seminar noch genutzt werden.

Und viels andere mehr. 

Eine Spezialität unserer Seminare ist, dass die Teilnehmer zu Wort kommen: Fragen, Erfahrungen, Bedenken, Berichten über gelungene und weniger gelungene Projekte!
Es erwartet Sie ein lebhafter Dialog zwischen dem Referenten und den Teilnehmern.
Sie können den 1. Tag, den 2. und 3. Tag sowie den 4. Tag getrennt oder in jeder Kombination buchen!
Mit unserer Schulung bereiten wir Sie hervorragend auf neue Herausforderungen vor!

Klicken Sie HIER, um mehr Details und die Anmeldeinformationen herunterzuladen [pdf, 320 KB].

Reservieren Sie noch heute Ihren Platz!

Die mehr als 4.100 Teilnehmer meiner über 230 Seminare seit 2004 würden sicher alle bestätigen, dass das komplexe Thema IEC 61850 unbedingt eine geeignete Schulung verlangt -- und dass wir eine erst-klassische und einzigartige Schulung bieten! Zu einem unschlagbaren Preis! Garantiert!

Es erwartet Sie Erfahrungen mit hunderten von Firmen und Organisationen!

Wind Energy Generation Systems: Edition 2 Drafts of IEC 61400-25 Published

IEC TC 88 has published recently the following draft documents for the edition 2 of the corresponding parts:

IEC 61400-25-1: Wind energy generation systems -
Part 25-1: Communications for monitoring and control of wind power plants -
Overall description of principles and models
(88/587/CDV)

IEC 61400-25-4: Wind energy generation systems -
Part 25-4: Communications for monitoring and control of wind power plants -
Mapping to communication profile
(88/600/FDIS)

IEC 61400-25-5: Wind energy generation systems -
Part 25-5: Communications for monitoring and control of wind power plants -
Conformance testing
(88/589/CDV)

IEC 61400-25-6: Wind power generation systems -
Part 25-6: Communications for monitoring and control of wind power plants -
Logical node classes and data classes for condition monitoring
(88/606/FDIS)

Note 1: The title of TC 88 was changed in 2015 from Wind turbines to Wind energy generation systems
Note 2: Please note the tissue database for the whole standards series:
http://tissue.iec61400-25.com/default.mspx

Major Changes in these documents:

IEC 61400-25-1:
Changes compared to Edition 1:
• General harmonization of text and overview models with the other parts of the IEC
61400-25 series
• Harmonization of definitions in other related standards
The users of IEC 61400-25 have formed a community, USE61400-25. For further information
see http://www.use61400-25.com.

IEC 61400-25-4:
A lot of modifications have been implemented in order to harmonize with other parts of the series IEC 61400-25 as well as with IEC 61850. Note that a mapping to OPC UA is not part of this
second edition of IEC 61400-25-4

IEC 61400-25-5:
The scope of revision includes:
• Harmonization with test cases in IEC61850-10 Edition 2.0
• The use of SCL in the conformance testing process is out of the scope for Ed2, but will be considered for Edition 3.
• Reduction of overlap between standards and simplification by increased referencing to the IEC 61850 standard series
The following main revisions have been made compared to Edition 1.0:
• The complete document has been restructured in order to match the structure of IEC 61850-10 Edition 2.0.
• All test cases applying SCL files are still not a part of the present document as the SCL specifications for wind power domain are still pending to be published.

IEC 61400-25-6:
This edition includes the following significant technical changes with respect to the previous
edition:
a) Major restructuring of the data model to accommodate needed flexibility.
b) UFF58 format is no longer used.
c) Access to data is now using the standard reporting and logging functions.
d) Recommendations for creating data names to accommodate needed flexibility have been
defined.

IEEE PES published Report on "Centralized Substation Protection and Control"

The IEEE Power System Relaying Committee has published a very comprehensive report worth to be read by power system engineers dealing with substation protection and automation (partlywith focus on the  North American market):

Centralized Substation Protection and Control IEEE PES
Power System Relaying Committee Report of Working Group K15
of the Substation Protection Subcommittee
(2015-12)

Excerpt of the Introduction:
"The power grid is now more dynamic than ever before and newer tools are increasingly developed to manage the grid better. Renewable energy sources are changing power system characteristics at a time when utilities are also focusing on improving customer service and resiliency of the grid, by using advanced monitoring and control technologies....
In addition, communication technologies are advancing and related international standards are maturing to be deployed in substation environment. ... the IEEE Power System Relaying Committee has formed a working group to prepare a report describing and analyzing the state-of-the-art technologies for centralized protection and control (CPC) within a substation...
This report starts by reviewing the advancements in substation protection and control technology. Next the report describes CPC and reviews its history. Then the report reviews some of the existing
technologies that can support CPC.
Finally the report concludes that CPC technology, when appropriately applied, significantly improves the reliability of protection and control systems and the power grid at an affordable cost - with enhanced applications capability and maintainability for both hardware replacement an software upgrade."

Click HERE for the full report [pdf, 80 pages, 4.4 MB]

The report gives inside views of the challenges in managing future power systems. Power systems are very complex - and will become more complex in the near future. In addition to the fact that "utilities are also focusing on improving customer service and resiliency of the grid" the utilities are quite often focusing on increasing their shareholder values ... and outsourcing many tasks. In the German "vdi nachrichten" (a very famous weekly German technical newspaper) I read yesterday an interesting statement of the new president of the BDEW (Bundesverbandes der Energie- und Wasserwirtschaft):

Translated: " ... Unfortunately the industry invests too little in view of the challenges in research and development. The German Pharmaceutical industry employs 40,000 humans in R&D laboratories.
In the energy industry there are not such research and development mechanisms. That is not because of the fact that our industry is come to a hold and does not see challenges. It is financially no more able to implement comparable research activities. We have no more enterprises, which can do that. Everyone knows nevertheless around the difficult situation of many large energy enterprises. Also normal public distribution utilities cannot advance innovative developments in the storage area."

Original: " ... Leider investiert die Branche angesichts der Herausforderungen zu wenig in Forschung und Entwicklung. Die deutsche Pharmaindustrie beschäftigt 40 000 Menschen in F- und E-Laboren.
In der Energiewirtschaft gibt es solche Forschungs- und Entwicklungseinrichtungen nicht. Das liegt nicht daran, dass unsere Branche verstockt ist und Herausforderungen nicht sieht. Sie ist finanziell nicht mehr zu vergleichbaren Forschungsleistungen in der Lage. Wir haben keine Unternehmen mehr, die das können. Jeder weiß doch um die schwierige Lage vieler großer Energieunternehmen. Auch normale Stadtwerke können bahnbrechende Entwicklungen im Speicherbereich nicht voranzutreiben."

Vendors, too, are struggling with similar challenges. We need more universities to compensate these situations. When it comes to the definition and application of information exchange systems in power or energy systems, we could be quite happy that we have the well accepted standards IEC 61968/70 (CIM), IEC 60870-5-104, DNP3, IEC 61850, IEC 61400-25, ICCP/TASE.2 (IEC 60870-6), ...

Distribution On-Load Tap Changer Control Using IEC 61850 Client /Server Architecture

Mr. Andrius Maneikis has successfully finished his master thesis at KTH (Stockholm, Sweden) in electrical engineering with the title:

Distribution On Load Tap Changer Control Using IEC 61850 Client /Server Architecture

Please click HERE to download his thesis [pdf, 93 pages, 17 MB].

Abstract. Distributed generation is transforming the power system grid to decentralized system where separate units like wind power generators or solar panel shall coexist and operate in tandem in order to supplement each other and make one extensive system as a whole so called smart grid. It is utmost important to have a control ability over such units not only on a field level but on a system level as well. To be able to communicate with numerous devices and maintain interoperability universal standard is a must. Therefore, one of the core standards relevant to smart grids is IEC 61850 – Power Utility Automation which comes into assistance and tackles aforementioned challenges. This project uses IEC 61850 architecture to implement client/server windows applications for on-load tap changer remote control. The proposed solution and designed applications are tested together with a real time simulator [OPAL] where simple power system is modelled to emulate the system response to control signals in a real time. In this way, the implemented applications can be tried and assessed as if performing in real environment. Consequently, a user of the client application is able to remotely control voltage on the power transformer's secondary side and manipulate the switching equipment simulated in the model.

Huge KIT Energy Lab 2.0 - Relies on IEC 61850

The KIT (Karlsruher Institut für Technologie) in my hometown Karlsruhe/Germany is deeply involved in several projects related to the Energiewende. One of the crucial components is the "Energy Lab 2.0".

In "A Concept for the Control, Monitoring and Visualization Center in Energy Lab 2.0" the authors Clemens Düpmeier, Veit Hagenmeyer, Ralf Mikut, and Karl-Uwe Stucky present an interesting concept.

Click HERE for a 16 page presentation presented in November 2015.

The research focuses on the APPLICATION of Control, Monitoring, and Visualization of various aspects of energy systems (gas, electricity, heat) - not just electrical systems.

IEC 61850 is THE solution for the process instrumentation - share process information in a standardized way.

These people have understood that the focus is on applications rather than on protocols ...
The 14 Layer Cake I had after a nice dinner in Jakarta shows that the automation of the energy systems of the future is more than "just another protocol" ... applications based on standard protocols are the crucial aspects:



Hm, the cake was very delicious.

FITNESS Pilot: Are You Fit For The Future?

Are You Fit For The Future?
IEC 61850 is a crucial component in the FITNESS pilot project:

Presentation of the project: Thursday October 27, 2016 from 1:30 PM to 5:30 PM

Future Intelligent Transmission Network SubStation (FITNESS) is the pilot live multi-vendor digital substation demonstration in GB. The project was successfully awarded under RIIO NIC, Ofgem, in late 2015 and detailed design work began in 2016. Together with our partners GE Grid Solutions, ABB, Synaptec and the University of Manchester we will like to invite to share the objectives of project FITNESS, selection of substation architecture, discussions about change in substation design principles to optical measuring techniques and of course international substation standard IEC 61850. The event will be a part of the international IEC WG10 “Power systems management and associated information exchange” meeting and will provide an excellent opportunity to discuss and interact with international experts:



Source and details (SP Energy Networks)

Receive a 40% Discount when You Register Soon For the IEC 61850 Training in Singapore (24-26 Oct)

The three-day IEC 61850 intensive training course in

Singapore on 24-26 October 2016

will give all professionals in the utility industry a comprehensive introduction on IEC 61850. It provides all crucial knowledge engineers need regarding the scope, use-cases, capabilities, benefits, restrictions, limits of IEC 61850, and availability of products (IEDs and Tools).

We are extending a 40% discount for participants who registers with us by 14 October 2016.

Click HERE for more information.

I look forward seeing you there.