FDIS of IEC 61850-3 “General requirements” published

IEC CO has just published the 67 page FDIS (57/1391/FDIS) for the IEC 61850-3 Edition 2:
Communication networks and systems for power utility automation –
Part 3: General requirements

Ballot closes 2013-11-08

What’s new?

1. Requirements are in line with those of other equipment used in the same environment (e.g. protection relays);
2. Product safety added based on IEC 60255-27;
3. EMC requirements completed and in line with IEC 60255 series and IEC 61000-6-5.

Main clauses are:

• Environmental conditions
• Ratings
• Design and construction
• Tests
• Marking, labeling and packaging
• Rules for transport, storage, installation, operation and maintenance
• Product documentation

How Does IEC 61850-3 Apply for IEDs Outside Substations?

I have been contacted several times on the question: “What are the requirements in IEC 61850-3 (General requirements, EMC, EMI, …) that have to be applied in DER, SA, … Wind turbines, Hydro Power stations?”

In IEC 61850-3 these applications are partly excluded (57/1246/CDV) says under

6.7.1 Electromagnetic environment

“… In addition to the mentioned electrical plants, Electricity Utilities can install apparatus in

control centers, radio repeaters, or low voltage distribution points in industrial, commercial or residential areas. These locations are covered by other generic standards or product standards. …”

An IED for a Hydro power plant, PV inverter, other DER or DA application to become compliant with IEC 61850-3 requires some definition in IEC 61850-3 for these domains. Pointing to “other standards” is to fuzzy.

I would highly appreciate to get your opinion which most crucial standards for other areas than HV/MV substations are applicable. We could then summarize the result and publish some guidelines … hints.

Please contact me in case you have some useful hints on the applicability of IEC 61850-3 outside substations.

IEC 61850-3 Ed2 CDV is out for ballot

The CDV for IEC 61850-3 Ed.2 is out for comments and ballot:

Communication networks and systems for power utility
automation – Part 3: General requirements

The ballot closes 2012-10-19

This part of IEC 61850 defines general requirements, mainly regarding construction, design and environmental conditions for utility communication and automation IED's and systems in power plant and substation environments. These general requirements are in line with requirements for IED's used in similar environments, for example measuring relays and protection equipment.

IEC 61850 is used in many applications in the power distribution. The applicability of the requirements (defined in the above CDV) for distribution networks or DER seems to be defined in a more details. Currently clause 6.7.1 defines “In addition to the mentioned electrical plants, Electricity Utilities can install apparatus in control centers, radio repeaters, or low voltage distribution points in industrial, commercial or residential areas. These locations are covered by other generic standards or product standards.”

Does this mean that all or most or some requirements defined in IEC 61850-3 Ed2 are not applicable for these locations? etc.

It is highly recommended that experts from all over have a close look at this CDV to make sure that IEDs applied in DER and distribution networks are not burdened with requirements not needed.

Contact your IEC TC 57 national committee for a copy of the IEC 61850-3 Ed2 CDV.

Wireless Temperature Sensors for Switchgears and IEC 61850

Monitoring the temperature of likely failure points within electric power switchgear provides invaluable data on the health of that piece of equipment. Wireless solutions for temperature monitoring of medium-voltage and high-voltage switchgear are appropriate means to get critical information about the health of switchgears – especially for aging switchgears that have an ever more crucial impact on the reliability of the electric power system.

Ruggedized passive wireless radio-based temperature sensor and monitoring systems are a great answer for medium-voltage and high-voltage electric power switchgear. The access to the these measured temperature values through IEC 61850 is now available by Intellisaw.

Access the Intellisaw website to read the benefits of their Wireless sensors.

Check the temperature measurement model STMP of IEC 61850.

Belden seeks to acquire networking specialist RuggedCom ‎

Ruggedized network infrastructure compliant to IEC 61850-3 is crucial for the implementation of Smart(er) Grids. RuggedCom – one of the well known brands in the substation domain – is one of the companies that offers network components to build the needed communication infrastructure.

One of RuggedCom competitors, Belden (Hirschmann is a brand of Belden), wants to take RuggedCom over.

Click HERE for the press news.

This shows that the Power Industry is following the native Ethernet solutions. IEC 61850 is based on the native Ethernet solution in contrast to the industrial automation domain where a lot of even standardized solutions like EtherCat, ProfiNet, PowerLink, … compete with each other Ethernet-based and traditional Fieldbuses, e.g., Profibus, CAN, Interbus, …

The Electric Power System has a highly standardized process: the 3 phase A.C. system (50 or 60 Hz). This single process requires a single communication solution: IEC 61850 based on native Ethernet.

Does IEC 61850 require special Ethernet Switches?

NO and Yes! It depends which services you are looking for. The communication profiles for client/server and GOOSE messaging are defined in IEC 61850-8-1.

The services and protocols for client/server communication are defined in the "TCP/IP T-Profile":

This table shows that the mandatory services and protocols are "standard" Ethernet ... you may purchase in a shop round the corner. There is no need for a special Switch etc.

In case you want to run GOOSE (or sampled values) messages, this requires IEEE 802.1Q (VLAN and Priority Tagging):

DataLink: Priority Tagging/ VLAN IEEE 802.1Q  (mandatory)

Ethernet Switches for rugged applications in substations have also to conform to IEC 61850-3 (EMC, EMI, Temp range, ...).

For applications outside substations you may use "standard" Ethernet switches.

IEC 61850-3 compliant Gigabit Ethernet Switch from Hirschmann

Hirschmann goes Gigabit for substation and other applications. The new Ethernet Switch offers 16 Gigabit Ethernet combination ports (1000 BASE-TX) that will also connect SFP fiber optical transceivers (100/1000 BASE-FX/SX/LX/LH). All ports support version 2 of the Precision Time Protocol (IEEE 1588 V2) as well as optionally Power over Ethernet (IEEE 802.3af).

Further characteristics include an operating temperature range of -40 to +70 °C, high resistance to jarring, and extensive insusceptibility to electrical discharge and magnetic fields. Passive cooling (no fans) and a redundant power supply add to ensure high operational safety. Furthermore, the new Hirschmann™ Gigabit Ethernet switch meets the standards and approval requirement of IEC 61850, IEEE 1613, EN 50121-4, EN 50155, cUL 508, cUL 1604 C1 Div2 and GL.

EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute) tested 10 Megabit Shared Ethernet for UCA 2.0 (Utility Communication Architecture) in the mid nineties. I remember when we had some 25 PCs connected to test UCA communication services. EPRI called me during these days to come to Los Angeles to give a presentation on the performance of Ethernet compared to Profibus DP. At that time many experts already believed that Ethernet is a serious option for Substation automation. Nowadays almost all experts are supporting Ethernet - some people that just know the old Shared Ethernet of the eighties don't believe that this is the right solution. After some explanation they change their mind - usually.

Click HERE for product information.
Click HERE for a paper published in 1991-11 on the use of Ethernet instead of Token passing [PDF, 720 KB] - at that time the author did not know about Gigabit Ethernet.
Click HERE for a paper published in 1991-03 on the use of Ethernet as a fieldbus [PDF, 720 KB].

Gigabit Ethernet and IEEE 1588 for Substations

IEC 61850-3 compliant Gigabit Ethernet with IEEE 1588 time synchronization available for substation automation and protection. Korenix offers an IEC61850-3 Modular Managed Ethernet Switch, equipped with 4 on-board Gigabit RJ45 / MINI GBIC combo ports plus 3 modular slots for maximum 24 10/100 Base-TX Ports or 18 100Base-FX Fiber interfaces ports.

Click HERE for more details.

IEC 61850-3 compliant Computer for Substations and Power Plants

Moxa has announced the Moxa's DA-681 x86-based embedded computer line, that has just passed IEC 61850-3 power certification. This specially designed IED (embedded system) is intended for any power automation and substation application that require to be compliant with the IEC 61850-3 standard.

The general purpose IED has six Ethernet Ports and many other serial ports! It runs Embedded Linux, WinCE 6.0, or WinXPe.

Click HERE for more details.