Some Impressions From The MATPOST Conference 2023 in Lyon (France)

Andrea Bonetti has posted some impression from the "Digital Twin" world demonstrated at the conference.

Click HERE for the brief report.

What is the difference of a digital device and its twin? In the IEC 61850 domain, a IED (Intelligent Electronic Device) hosts a virtual IED (the models, services, bridges to the applications, ... applications). The host may be a protection device or any other computer platform that can run the software. Why do we talk about twins? We could have triplets or even quadruplets of the same virtual device ... when we run the software on three or four or more platforms.

A digital twin is a digital twin of a digital twin ... the crucial term here is: Virtual Device - this is what an IED in IEC 61850 is!

An IED in the IEC 61850 world could be:

1. A configuration of an IED section in an SCL document
2. An IED section of an SCL document hosted, e.g., in a relay or any other controller
3. A physical relay installed in a cabinet

Note that this virtualization was applied in MMS (Manufacturing Message Specification, ISO 9506) and used in IEC 61850-8-1. In MMS the virtual IED was named VMD - Virtual Manufacturing Device ... some 40 years ago ... hahaha ...

The following may help you to understand what virtual means:

If it's there and you can see it      It's REAL
If it's there and you can't see it    It's TRANSPARENT
If it's not there and you can see it      It's VIRTUAL
If it's not there and you can't see it      It's GONE

Roy Wills

Any question?