New TC 57 CDVs For Public Comments Posted

IEC TC 57 has posted two new CDVs for public comments (for everybody to read the document for free):

57/2068/CDV
IEC 62351-3/AMD2 ED1: Amendment 2 - Power systems management and associated information exchange - Data and communications security -
Part 3: Communication network and system security - Profiles including TCP/IP 

57/2069/CDV (67 pages)
IEC 62351-8 ED1: Power systems management and associated information exchange - Data and communications security -
Part 8: Role-based access control 

This effort will transform the existing IEC TS 62351-8 ED1 from an IEC TS (Technical Specification) into an IS (International Standard) ED1

Excerpt from the Scope:

"The scope of this standard is to facilitate role-based access control (RBAC) for power system management. RBAC assigns human users, automated systems, and software applications (called “subjects” in this document) to specified “roles”, and restricts their access to only those resources, which the security policies identify as necessary for their roles.

As electric power systems become more automated and cyber security concerns become more prominent, it is becoming increasingly critical to ensure that access to data (read, write, control, etc.) is restricted. As in many aspects of security, RBAC is not just a technology; it is a way of running a business. RBAC is not a new concept; in fact, it is used by many operating systems to control access to system resources. Specifically, RBAC provides an alternative to the all-or-nothing super-user model in which all subjects have access to all data, including control commands. ..."

Be aware that RBAC is required in systems where multiple clients (in the sense of, e.g., IEC 61850) need to access a server. One use case is where multiple power market participants want to manage a power resource. 

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IEC TC 57 Just Published IEC 61850-90-20 - Guideline to Redundancy Systems

IEC TC 57 Just Published 39 page document 57/2080B/DC

IEC TR 61850-90-20 ED1, Communication networks and systems for power utility automation –
Part 90-20: Guideline to redundancy systems

Excerpt:
Scope
This part of IEC 61850 describes use cases of redundant systems.
The purpose of this document is to suggest how to model redundancy systems within the IEC 61850 domain and provide a guideline on implementation possibilities.
This report considers duplication of function and devices and not systems.
The report is not a guideline on the design of redundancy systems, guidance on designing
redundancy systems can be found in textbooks like

• High Availability and Disaster Recovery: Concepts, Design, Implementation by Kalus Schmidt, ISBN-10: 3540244603
• Blueprints for High Availability: Designing Resilient Distributed Systems by Evan Marcus, ISBN-10: 0471356018

Comments to this draft are due by 2019-04-12 at the latest

IEC TC 57 Just Published IEC 61850-10-3 on Functional Testing of IEC 61850 Based Systems

IEC TC 57 published 79 page document 57/2082/DC:

IEC TR 61850-10-3 – Communication networks and systems for power utility automation –
Part 10-3: Functional testing of IEC 61850 based systems

Excerpt:
The growing success of the IEC 61850 series calls for guidelines for testing of substations implementing this standard. This technical report aims at producing a practical guide for protection, automation and control (PAC) engineers on best practise for testing of IEC 61850 Edition 2 with Tissues/Ed. 2.1 based devices and systems.
Since the release of the first edition of the IEC 61850 standard in 2002-2005 thousands of substations have been built making use of the new multi-part standard. Most of those systems are more integrated and complex than the previously deployed, making use of multi-function capable IEDs and the rich feature set of IEC 61850. Especially the sending and receiving of protection trips via GOOSE messaging control commands/indications, monitoring and time synchronisation information over the same shared equipment or network will need to drive changes to existing test methods and practices as many of the traditional test boundaries have changed.
Despite the large number of commissioned IEC 61850 substations considerable uncertainty among end-users (system integrators and power utilities) regarding the correct testing procedures still exists. Devices implemented according to the first edition of the standard also utilized a limited part of the test related functionality in the standard. Much of the functionality included in IEC 61850 to allow efficient, functional oriented testing has been clarified and extended in the second edition of IEC 61850 parts, 6, 7-1 to 7-4, 8-1 and 9-2. Therefore, there is a need to help the industry by describing the methods and principles for testing the IEC 61850 based applications.
This Technical Report provides insight into the changing requirements and practice of testing following the introduction of IEC 61850 based devices and systems. One example is the disappearance of so-called ‘hardwired’ connections between substation automation devices.
These connections are replaced by communication networks and this means that traditional simulation and isolation of signals for the purpose of testing is no longer possible.

Comments to this draft are due by 2019-04-19

IEC TC 57 Just Published Draft IEC TS 618540-1-2 - Extending IEC 61850

IEC TC 57 just published the 43 page draft 57/2084/DTS:

Communication networks and systems for power utility automation IEC 61850-1-2 -
Guideline on extending IEC 61850

CLOSING DATE FOR VOTING: 2019-06-07

Excerpt of the draft:
------------
1 Scope
This document is intended for any users but primarily for standardization bodies that are considering using IEC 61850 as a base standard within the scope of their work and are willing to extend it as allowed by the IEC 61850 standards. The document identifies the required steps and high-level requirements in achieving such extensions of IEC 61850 and provides guidelines for the individual steps. Within that scope, the document addresses the following cases:

• The management of product-level standards for products that have an interface based on IEC 61850
• The management of domain-level standards based on IEC 61850
• The management of transitional standards based on IEC 61850
• The management of private namespaces based on IEC 61850
• The development of standards offering the mapping of IEC 61850 data model at CDC level
• The development and management of IEC 61850 profiles for domains (underlying the role of IEC 62361-103 and IEC 61850-7-6)

The document includes both technical and process aspects :
On the technical side, the document:

• Reminds the main basic requirements (mostly referring to the appropriate parts of the series which host the requirements or recommendations)
• Lists all possible flexibilities offered by the standards
• Defines which flexibilities are allowed/possible per type of extension cases

On the process side, the document covers:

• The initial analysis of how the existing IEC 61850 object models and/or communication services may be applied and what allowed extensions may be required for utilizing them in new or specific domains (including private ones). The results of that step are expected to be documented
• The extension of the IEC 61850 object models for new domains. The typical associated work is to identify existing logical nodes which can be reused “as is”, to determine if existing logical nodes can be extended, or to define new logical nodes
• The purpose and process to use transitional namespaces, which are expected to be merged eventually into an existing standard namespace
• The management of standard namespaces
• The development of private namespaces

---------------

It is highly recommended to have a closer look at this document and review the content in detail. Because in the end it will be used as a very crucial "cook-book" for those that need to extend the standard series IEC 61850 and IEC 61400-25.

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IEC TC 57 Just Published Draft IEC 61850-90-20 On Redundancy

IEC TC 57 just published the first Draft IEC 61850-90-20 on System Redundancy:

57/2080A/DC
IEC TR 61850-90-20 ED1
Communication networks and systems for power utility automation –
Part 90-20: Guideline to redundancy systems

Excerpt from the Introduction:

"The paper “CIGRE B5-109: Redundancy challenges on IEC 61850 systems and Migration
Paths for IEC 61850 Substation Communication Networks” introduce redundancy concepts as
follows
“Device redundancy of substation control units may be required in order to increase the availability of the substation automation system at the station level. System level redundancy is achieved by hot-hot or hot-standby configuration of duplicated station units that need to exchange information to ensure data consistency as well as coordinated and safe operation.
IEC 61850 communications in redundant configuration of duplicated clients faces challenges how to ensure that database in both central station control units are synchronized and that no events are lost during the switchover from the primary to secondary IEC 61850 client.”
A proposed redundancy system consists of two IED entities forming a logic IED. One or more lower level IEDs, e.g. merging units or circuit breaker, delivering the input data for the IED entities and getting results from the IED entities. One or more higher level clients receives output data from the IED entities for supervision or HMI.
Additionally, a higher level IED might exist, which supervises the state of the redundant system. In this context this concerns especially the state of the IED entities, so that a failed IED can be detected and repaired before the second IED fails.
The communication between the redundant system application and the lower level IEDs takes place with IEC 61850, mainly based on IEC 61850-8-1(MMS) reporting and commands, for time critical functions with IEC 61850-8-1(GOOSE) and IEC 61850-9-2(SV).
The communication to station level clients based on IEC 61850 is typically MMS based for supervision, commands and settings configuration changes. Since MMS is acknowledged service, server and client are aware of each other and the client supervises the servers. If both redundant system IEDs are hot, the client might select which of them it takes for executing a service request."

The TC57 P-members are invited to submit comments to this draft by 2019-03-29 at the latest.

Please note:
The application domains that need redundant systems may be crucial (for some high voltage systems) but may not be applicable for most systems in the energy delivery domain. This document is really of interest for a small, special group of experts ... not everybody interested in using IEC 61850 for exchanging some signals may need to check that draft document.
One challenge with IEC 61850 is: Which subset out of a big standard series do I need to understand for my application - that means: YOU HAVE TO KNOW YOUR APPLICATION !!