The Demo of the IEC 61850-8-3 (WebSocket) is now Ready for You to Explore

First: The IEC 61850-8-3 Committee Draft (57/2980/CD)

Specific Communication Service Mapping (SCSM) – Mapping to Direct Message Specification (DMS), JSON Encoding Rules, and WebSockets

was out for comments in September and October 2026. The comments are mainly editorial ... the comments show high support of the draft ... no critical comment!

The Demo of the IEC 61850-8-3 (WebSocket, as an alternative to MMS) solution provided in the context of the Netbeheer's RTI 2 (Real-Time Interface 2) PoC is now Ready for You to Explore!

Here is the announcement I received today:

Hi everyone,

An exciting milestone to share!

I'm happy to announce that the RTI demo has officially been merged into the main branch of the Netbeheer Nederland iec61850-websocket repository!

But that's not all! To make deploying and exploring the demo as easy as possible, we've also created a dedicated repository:

iec61850-websocket-demo

With this repository, you can set up a fully functional demo environment locally using only Docker — no development environment required!

This makes the RTI demo much more accessible, allowing everyone to explore and experiment with it independently.

What can you expect?

Once the demo is up and running, you'll see an environment featuring:

• One System Operator (SO) and two customers acting as Flexibility Service Providers (FSPs).
• Secure communication between the SO and FSPs using TLS 1.3. The secured connections are clearly indicated by the TLS icon in the interface.
• External system integration: Both the SO and FSP2 have an attached box representing an external system. These systems can interact with the demo through plugins, enabling IEC 61850 operations. In the current setup, this is demonstrated by switching LEDs on and off within the interface. 
• 

​Explore IEC 61850 operations yourself

Navigate to the Traffic menu to explore the IEC 61850 communication and operations in action.

Here, you can:

• Execute IEC 61850 operations manually and immediately observe the results.
• Run a playbook that automatically executes a predefined sequence of IEC 61850 operations.
• Follow the execution step by step, directly within the Traffic page.
• Observe logging between the components on different levels 

Currently, one playbook is included, providing an easy and interactive way to experience how the RTI demo works.

And this is just the beginning! The demo already includes many more features (like data-models, Oauth2-security) and capabilities than we can cover in this single email. I encourage everyone to explore the environment and discover what's possible.

What's next? Bringing the demo into the physical world!

Over the coming month, we'll be putting the finishing touches on the physical part of the demo, built around Raspberry Pis.

This will take us beyond a fully virtual demonstration, allowing IEC 61850 operations to interact with actual physical devices and making the results directly visible in the real world.

Curious about what such an integration might look like? Here's a sneak peek: dr-ssd1306 – Raspberry Pi Demand Response Demo

A big thank you to everyone involved!

A special thanks to everyone who contributed to making this milestone possible! Whether through development, testing, reviewing, sharing ideas, or providing valuable feedback, your efforts and collaboration have helped bring the RTI demo to where it is today.

Give it a try!

With this milestone, we've not only integrated the RTI demo into the main development branch but also significantly lowered the barrier to getting started.

Fire up Docker, explore the demo, and experience firsthand how secure IEC 61850 communication works between a System Operator and Customers as Flexibility Service Providers!

Enjoy exploring! Feedback, ideas, and suggestions for future improvements are, of course, very welcome.

Met vriendelijke groet,

Robert-Jan Peters
Energy system architect | System Operations

Background information: 

https://blog.nettedautomation.com/2026/09/what-is-iec-61850-8-1-mms-compared-to.html 

https://blog.nettedautomation.com/2025/12/long-awaited-christmas-gift-for-smarter.html