Crucial Vulnerabilities Exist in the VxWorks IPnet Stack

According to Security Week (reported the other day):

"In late July, IoT security firm Armis disclosed eleven vulnerabilities found by its researchers in the VxWorks real time operating system (RTOS). The flaws, six of which have been described as critical, can allow a remote attacker to take control of impacted systems.
Armis said the vulnerabilities exist in the VxWorks IPnet stack and they expose over 200 million mission-critical devices from around the world to attacks, including in the healthcare, manufacturing, cybersecurity, tech, and industrial automation sectors. ..."

Devices from several vendors might be impacted ...

Click HERE for the full report. There you find links to the vendor's recommendations ... You know what that could mean? One vendor notes: "Applying the update causes the device / module to go through a single restart cycle."

ABB Presents the Benefits of Substation Digitalization with IEC 61850

A nice video by ABB (Steven Kunsman) explains "all the benefits of substation digitalization ... it’s little wonder there’s so much interest in the shift to this technology. Supported by the open communication capabilities derived from IEC 61850’s, substation assets are providing a growing volume of health and operational data that’s enabling higher levels of both reliability and performance. This excerpt from an ABB Automation & Customer World Workshop provides key highlights of how the digital substation is also safer, smaller, and simpler to commission and operate than traditional substations."

Click HERE for the video.

LIMA/PERU: PROTECCIÓN, CONTROL Y AUTOMATIZACIÓN CON LA NORMA IEC-61850

NAKAMA SOLUCIONES S.A.C., FMTP, and NettedAutomation conduct a 5 days course on

PROTECCIÓN, CONTROL Y AUTOMATIZACIÓN CON LA NORMA IEC-61850

in Lima (Peru), NM Lima Hotel, Av. Pardo y Aliaga N° 330, San Isidro 15073

Del 13 al 17 de Noviembre del 2017
Horario: De 09:00 a 17:00 horas

Click HERE for general information.
Click HERE for the full program.

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)

How to get Interoperability and Interchangeability with IEC 61850?

The standardization process in the context of IEC 61850 is picking up quite fast. As you have learned in the posts of today and older ones, there are several new topics on the list of items to work on for future new parts of IEC 61850.
One of the crucial objectives is the interoperability and INTERCHANGEABILITY of devices from different vendors in a multi-vendor system.
To reach this goal, we need standards! Sure. But what is absolutely required is the EDUCATION of experts from Vendors, Utilities and System integrators.
We offer the right courses for you: With focus on protection, automation and SCADA.In English and German.
Due to the request from power engineers FMTP and NettedAutomation have scheduled several dates for public training courses in 2017:
The next courses are:

19-23 September 2016 in Stockholm, Sweden [EN]
10-13 Oktober 2016 in Karlsruhe, Germany [EN]
07-09 Dezember 2016 in Karlsruhe, Germany [DE]

Click HERE for more details.

Hurry to reserve your seat!

You would get more than in any other course - because two of most experienced experts (Andrea Bonetti and Karlheinz Schwarz) will guide you through the most crucial aspects of IEC 61850. The combined experience of the two is unparalleled.

IEC 61850 Applications Outside Power Utilities

IEC 61850 is often applied in non-utility application domains. Three examples are documented in the following papers:

1. Refinary in North America
"Integrating SCADA, Load Shedding, and High-Speed Controls on an Ethernet Network at a North American Refinery"
This paper discusses the implementation of an Ethernet communications network in a ring that connects substations in a closed communications loop at a large industrial facility. Data are transmitted at protection speeds and must be dependable for industrial power system operation and maintenance applications. The redundant electric power system Ethernet communications network is used for a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system that automates industrial electric power system operations.
Click HERE for the complete paper [pdf]

2. Petrochemical Plant
"SACE Emax 2 -- IEC 61850 integration with MV systems"
PVC plant in Jemeppe needed to upgrade the LV side of the electrical plant, so that it could be fully integrated into IEC 61850 protocol used in MV switchboards. Not only customer needed to monitor status and parameters from air circuit breakers installed in the LV switchboards, but also to control them remotely and to interlock them with MV ones.
Jemeppe plant was aiming at a higher system productivity, by avoiding protocol converters, and an increase of safety for technicians thanks to remote control for air circuit breakers.
Click HERE for the complete paper [pdf]

3. Siemens helps Solvay
Solvay Group: International Chemical and Pharmaceutical Company
Solvay uses IEC 61850 for the Operation of high, medium and low voltage systems.
Worldwide systems in use with IEC 61850 up to the network control level, others being planned
Click HERE for more information [pdf]

IEC 61859 Training Course in Stockholm is Filling-Up - Reserve your Seat Now

FMTP, KTH, OPAL RT, and NettedAutomation have scheduled a very comprehensive IEC 61850 Training in Stockholm (Sweden) for 19-23 September 2016.
The course is filling-up very fast.
Please reserve your seat as soon as possible.

Click HERE for the brochure with all details.
A similar Course (4 days) is scheduled for Karlsruhe (Germany) 10.-13. October 2016.

See you soon.

The Complete Content of the IEC 61850 News Blog is now Available as Single PDF Document

For those readers of this IEC 61850, IEC 60870-5/6, DNP3, … news blog that want to get the complete content as a single pdf document, it is just a click away … it contains 1120+ posts from 2008 until 2016-04-09. Once you have downloaded the file you can easily browse the content … search … mark … copy … You will find useful information about the standards, vendors like ABB, HMS, Siemens, or utilities …

Click HERE to download all posts of the IEC 61850 blog in a single pdf [14 MB, 823 pages DIN A4]

Enjoy!

In case you have a question, drop us an EMAIL.

The Complete Content of the IEC 61850 News Blog is now Available as Single PDF Document

For those readers of this IEC 61850, IEC 60870-5/6, DNP3, … news blog that want to get the complete content as a single pdf document, it is just a click away … it contains 1000+ posts from 2008 until 2015-04-28. Once you have downloaded the file you can easily browse the content … search … mark … copy … You will find useful information about the standards, vendors like ABB, HMS, Siemens, or utilities …

Click HERE to download all posts of the IEC 61850 blog in a single pdf [11.3 MB, 766 pages DIN A4]

Enjoy.

In case you have a question, drop us an EMAIL.

Seminar on IEC 61850 for Protection Engineers in Brussels – English and French speaking

Please note for the Seminar scheduled for 16-18 February 2015 in Brussels (Belgium): 

NEW SERVICE: Both English and French speaking – Presentations in English and Question/Answers in English and French. We have a native French speaking expert present (Romain Douib, FMTP).

Click HERE for the course details.

Many NEW IEC 618850 Training courses in 2015 – especially for protection engineers

More than 10 years after the first substation have been equipped with IEC 61850 conformant devices, we see now the need for more education. Several new trainers have entered the market.

BUT: What about training for the most crucial engineers in the power delivery system: Advanced education of the many protection engineers? They need much more than to understand protocols (MMS, GOOSE, SV) and the configuration language! They need to understand how IEC 61850 impacts the whole protection system: When and HOW to use GOOSE for breaker failure protection? How implement interlocking schemas? And how to test systems based on IEC 61850?!? How to … What you should not do! We could answer all your questions.

These and many other questions MUST be answered by real protection engineers. One of the few well (with IEC 61850 experienced) protection engineers is Andrea Bonetti (FMTP). Andrea spent part of his time in Substations!! Watch his introduction in a 5 min video.

After the first joined course for protection and SCADA engineers in Prague last week, NettedAutomation and FMTP offer several new courses especially for protection and SCADA engineers during the next months:

26-29 January 2015
Guayaquil (Ecuador)

16-18 February 2015
Brussels (Belgium)

09-11 March 2015
Berlin (Germany)

27-29 April 2015
Hong Kong

18-20 May 2015
Bratislava (Slovakia)

Click HERE for details, program, and registration information.

Other dates and locations are under preparation.

Extended Training: FMTP and NettedAutomation cooperate on Practical Training for Power System Automation and Protection

FMTP Power AB (Uppsala, Sweden) and NettedAutomation GmbH (Karlsruhe, Germany) have each long-term experience in the application of standards for protection and control as well for communication and SCADA applications. Both companies have agreed to join their long-term experience in training and consultancy for power system automation and protection.

FMTP and NettedAutomation offer the most comprehensive and vendor-independent education and practical training courses – they combine their knowledge and practical experience with substation control and protection (Mr Andrea Bonetti who worked for ABB, Megger, and STRI) and communication technology and SCADA (Mr Karlheinz Schwarz).

Some years ago Mr Bonetti and Mr Schwarz conducted together several training courses and seminars. They discovered the value of their combined knowledge and experience for customers and decided recently to provide common seminars based on their  combined experience of more than 60 years. The combination of basic Theory and extensive Practical Help is what the industry needs – to keep the power flowing.

First training courses by Andrea Bonetti and Karlheinz Schwarz will be conducted in fall 2014; the first events will be in-house training courses.

FMTP and NettedAutomation will also cooperate with local partners in Asia, South America, North America, Middle East, Africa, and Europe.

If your organization is interested to cooperate, please contact us.

Click HERE for the complete press release.

Click HERE for a brochure on the first 3 days training.

Are you looking for IEC 61850 TICS, PICS, PIXIT, … Documents?

I talked the other day to experts of a big user. We shared our experience of increased “information hiding” when it comes to the availability and accessibility of the various documents like PICS, PIXIT, TICS, … Product handbooks, manuals, … When you checked websites of major vendors some years ago, you could find a bunch of technical material … I have figured out that these documents are quite often hidden … or not anymore available online.

I found still good examples for downloading many of the these crucial documents:

Click HERE for a Website of ABB to find PICS and other documents

Click HERE for a Website of Alstom Grid to find PICS …

Click HERE for a Website of Schneider Electric to find PICS and other documents.

Click HERE for a Website of Siemens to find some 30 PIXIT documents.
Click HERE to see a list of some 40 references to IEC 61850 Ethernet Module EN100.

Congratulation to the IEC 61850 Teams!

Enjoy the documents. Are you looking for help to understand these documents? Why do we need these at all? Isn’t IEC 61850 a standard? … and then all these documents …

Click HERE to get help!

IEC 61850-Why all the Hype?

A report written by two ABB experts asks “IEC 61850-Why all the Hype?”.

“This question was on the mind of the operations manager of a municipal utility when he visited the ABB Smart Grid Center of Excellence (CoE) in Raleigh, N.C. He was considering developing a smart grid substation standard design using IEC 61850. ... He wanted to determine whether the IEC 61850 standard is all hype or could meet their requirements.”

The report concludes: “Our visitor was satisfied with the performance and ease of access to real-time data enabled by the IEC 61850 architecture. He said that the engineering definition and structure defined in the standard
will simplify engineering and integration for the technical team. He was convinced that building a system on the foundation of the IEC 61850 standard would more than satisfy the goals of increased operational efficiencies, maximized system interoperability and support for implementation of advanced applications, which will ensure long-term system viability.”

Download the report “IEC 61850-Why all the Hype?” [pdf, 168 KB]

IEC 61850 Extensions for Control Systems in Thermal Power Plant

Part 90-13 of the IEC 61850 series is under way. The draft document specifies the additional common data classes, logical nodes and data objects required for the use of IEC 61850 in Thermal Power Plants.

Some years ago the power plant control systems started to connect to the power plant internal power delivery system for the power loads inside a power plant.

In a whitepaper dated 2007 Joerg Orth, ABB AG, Mannheim, published an interesting white paper on the connection between the two systems based on IEC 61850: “Future power plant control - Integrating process & substation automation into one system”

“Today’s power plants are highly automated. All subsystems of large thermal power plants can be controlled from a central control room. One subsystems area is the electrical auxiliaries for the unit transformer, the grid connection, excitation, synchronization, generator/unit protection, auxiliary transformers, HV-, MV- and LV-switchgear. In the past, these electrical devices were all hardwired to the DCS and I/Os. To this day, horizontal communication between electrical devices is still hardwired. In the last decade, serial communication protocols were introduced. Unfortunately, standardization of these protocols went in different directions. Today there are several standards on the market. … The future is talking IEC 61850 providing solutions for seamless integration concepts for new and refurbishment projects.”

These days the development goes a step further: IEC 61850 extensions for power plant internal (!) control functions. This is a new approach for internal control functions, because it has an impact on the power plant control system – not only on the internal and external substations.

The current draft of IEC 61850-90-13 defines, for example the following specific Logical Nodes for Thermal Power Plants:

EJCL	Power plant joint control function.
ESEQ	Start / stop sequencer.
ESPD	Speed monitoring.
EGTU	Gas turbine production unit.
EUNT	Thermal unit operating mode.
ESTU	Steam turbine production unit. For some data objects see below
EBCL	Boiler control function.
…	…
MENV	Environmental data
MGAS	Gas-flow measurement.
MOIL	Oil-flow measurement.
MSTE	Steam-flow measurement.
MEXH	Exhaust Gas Mass Flow.
…	…

Draft settings of the LN ESTU (Steam turbine production unit):

Turbine type (steam, gas, oil)

Turbine rated speed [s-1]

Turbine moment of inertia J [kgm2]

Maximum transient overspeed [s-1]

Runaway speed [s-1]

Rated power in turbine mode [MW]

Rated flow in turbine mode [kg/s]

High pressure inlet maximum pressure [Pa]

Intermediate pressure inlet maximum pressure [Pa]

Low pressure inlet maximum pressure [Pa]

High pressure control valve rated oil pressure [Pa]

High pressure control valve rated closing time [s]

Intermediate pressure control valve rated oil pressure [Pa]

Intermediate pressure control valve rated closing time [s]

Low pressure control valve rated oil pressure [Pa]

Low pressure control valve rated closing time [s]

As can be seen from this example, IEC 61850 arrived at the modeling and communication of the power plant internal control system level. More to come. The draft has been written by the IEC TC 57 WG 18. It will be discussed at its next meeting in March 2013 in Nice (France). WG 18 has already published the LNs for Hydro Power Plants (IEC 61850-7-410 Ed2).

ABB Whitepaper on IEC 61850 in Power Plants written in 2007 by Joerg Orth [pdf]

IEC 61850 For Water Supply System

The Hanover water supply implements an IEC 61850 based protection and control system for a new 6 kV switchgear solution. As this example shows, IEC 61850 is used also in medium voltage power systems out side typical substations of power utilities.

Read complete report “Secured power supply for Fuhrberg waterworks with ABB switchgear and Relion® protection” [pdf]

Nice 5 minute video on IEC 61850 benefits from ABB on YouTube

A fully automated distribution system can make the power grid much more reliable. The IEC 61850 standard can help us get there by overcoming the key hurdle of interoperability. This video provides three ways IEC 61850 is equipping utilities with the means to increase reliability and lower costs in distribution systems. Learn about these benefits and how IEC 61850 simplifies communication, data naming, IED configuration, and the engineering process.

View video on IEC 61850 from ABB.

Video from ABB on IEC 61850 for Feeder Automation

ABB has published a nice 3 minute video on IEC 61850 for Feeder Automation (Relay series 670)

ABB to deliver 17 IEC 61850 based substations to Rio Tinto (Western Australia)

ABB has won orders worth approximately $100 million for 17 substations to support Rio Tinto's iron ore expansion in the Pilbara … the protection and communication equipment will be compliant with IEC 61850.

News report on 17 new IEC 61850 based substations for Rio Tinto.

ABB review – Special Report IEC 61850

ABB has published already in August 2010 a very comprehensive and nice report on various aspects of IEC 61850. The report comprises 64 pages! Most visitors of this blog may not know the report.

The report starts with a very true statement: “Communication is more than exchanging data; it means globally understandable information based on syntax and semantic. This is behind IEC 61850, the topic of this issue of ABB Review Special Report.” It continues: “Electric energy is the backbone of our global society. Its reliable supply from conventional and renewable sources via complex networks requires seamless control that is only possible with the help of a standard providing a high-level and comprehensive description of the information exchanged.”

Most people are like to say that the Internet is the backbone of our global society – What would the Internet be without electric energy? How would your home look like without electric power? You would not be able to read this post without electric power. Many people see electric power like sunshine and rain – it is just here.

Click HERE for the report [pdf, edition August 2010]