Cyber Security and SAFETY in Power Systems

The National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) at NIST just released a draft of the NIST Cybersecurity Practice Guide, SP 1800-23, Energy Sector Asset Management, on September 23, 2019, and is requesting your feedback. Public comments on the draft will close on November 25, 2019. "...that will help energy organizations address the security challenges of OT asset management. ..."

The main objective is to have a look at "programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and intelligent electronic devices (IEDs), which provide command and control information on operational technology (OT) networks ..."

Click HERE for the Guide.

The Guide seems to be written by mainly non-protection engineers or even non-electrical engineers. I have read the other day in a discussion about the Guide that the term SAFETY was not mentioned in the  guide ... huch ...

Here is my explanation why SAFETY is not in the scope:

The safety in electric power systems is mainly managed by PROTECTION devices. These devices protect humans, equipment and power flow. Protection has the highest priority in electric power systems. Protection is also crucial for availability and reliability. Protection engineers are - in my view - the most critical engineers.

My experience is that IT and OT people fear the high voltage ... starting at 100 Volt or so ... so, that may be the reason the document NIST SP 1800-23 does not discuss any protection (SAFETY) related function.

They don't have Sr. protection engineers in their mind ... maybe they don't know what these engineers are doing ... and how important they are to keep the power flowing.

A friend of mine (a senior protection engineer) and I have conducted many IEC 61850 seminars together ... I have always admired him!!

My friend answered:

In general unfortunately it is as you describe.
The circuit breaker doesn’t work? The protection engineers have invented the “breaker failure”. This is a bit biased, any component can fail of course…
The Sampled Values are not delivered? The relay has to manage that. They are “delivered wrong”? The relay has to try to understand it and be robust.
Yes, it is probably more difficult to design and set a good protection system (including the design of the relay) than doing an airplane...

Just started: Grid 3.0

Have you heard about “Grid 3.0”? This seems to be the next phase of the power delivery system. Recently several U.S. organizations have discussed the future of the power delivery system. According to their view there are 3 phases so far:

• “Grid 1.0” can be thought of as the legacy grid of the 20th century
• “Grid 2.0” is the emergence of the smart grid with automation and information technology improvements, and
• “Grid 3.0” is what comes next: for example, a future grid with advanced grid operations and greater interactions with consumers and other infrastructures.

Click HERE to access a list of presentations from the

Grid 3.0 Workshop
March 26 to March 27
at NIST, Gaithersburg, MD

Click HERE for a workshop summary.

We are currently in all three phases at the same time. Most of the systems are still legacy (for the next 20+ years), a few start to use automation and information technology, and some start to think about the future … power engineers have always thought about the future (even 130 years ago). One of the big issues in Grid 2.0 and Grid 3.0 is the need for interoperable of systems. We can reach a high level of interoperability – if we want! This is less a technical issue. It all depends on decisions to be made by humans. If we decide to get it, we can get it. Some may not like interoperability at all. Or?

Anyway, let’s assume we get there: Would we then generate Data Tsunamis all over? It is likely that people start to push every data into the cloud – expecting that somebody may use it.

Make sure that you understand your needs – before you look for a protocol or a data model. We have a single protocol for most near-real-time data (IEC 61850-8-1) and data models for almost everything. But does everybody need everything? No!

The big question is: What do you need? To answer this: You need to understand your application.

Just published: NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards, Release 3.0

NIST (US National Institute of Standards and Technology) has published the other day the third version of the NIST Framework:

NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid
Interoperability Standards
Release 3.0
September 2014

The 240 page document gives a very broad and deep inside view into the current situation with regards to crucial interoperability standards.

The list of standards (series) comprises a total of 72 entries. The following 16 (out of 72) entries refer to IEC 61850 documents:

11 – IEC 61850-1
12 – IEC 61850-2
13 – IEC 61850-3
14 – IEC 61850-4
15 – IEC 61850-5
16 – IEC 61850-6
17 – IEC 61850-7-1
18 – IEC 61850-7-2
19 – IEC 61850-7-3
20 – IEC 61850-7-4
21 – IEC 61850-7-410
22 – IEC 61850-7-420
23 – IEC 61850-8-1
24 – IEC 61850-9-2
25 – IEC 61850-10
26 – IEC 61850-90-5

The term “IEC 61850” is used some 90 times. That means: IEC 61850 is a crucial standard in North America. Other IEC standards like IEC 61968/70 (CIM) and IEC 60870-6-TASE.2 (ICCP) or IEEE standards like DNP.3 are as well included in the list.

Click HERE to download the Release 3.0 [pdf, 12.7 MB]

Further standards like IEC 61400-25 will be included soon. There are still PAPs working on some issues, e.g., PAP 16 for Wind Power.

There seems to be no serious discussion anymore if IEC 61850 and related standards are accepted – the main question is: When and How to use the “IEC 61850 Framework”.

DRAFT Release 3.0 of the “NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards” out for comments

The next release of the famous framework and roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards has been drafted and published for comments on April 15, 2014.

The entire 255 pages draft version of the NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards, Release 3.0 (Draft), is available online here.

"We worked closely with the European Union to harmonize the NIST conceptual model with the one the EU is developing," says NIST's Paul Boynton. "We want both models to reflect each other, which is important so that manufacturers on both sides of the Atlantic will be able to sell devices overseas."

NIST seeks comments on the draft NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards, Release 3.0.  In particular, comments on technical, editorial, or general issues.

Comments must be received on or before 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on May 30, 2014.

Click HERE for further information on the process … how to comment …

One of the core contents deals with standards that support the vendors to build interoperable devices that could be applied in North America, Europe, and all over (!) is Table 4-1 (Identified Standards). The list grew from 34 to 74 standards from Release 2. The list refers to the following standards of primary interest in the context of this blog:

#12 IEC 60870-6-503 TASE.2 Services and protocol
#13 IEC 60870-6-702 Functional profile for providing the TASE.2
#14 IEC 60870-6-802 TASE.2 Object Models
#15 IEC 61850-1
#16 IEC61850-2
#17 IEC61850-3
#18 IEC61850-4
#19 IEC61850-5
#20 IEC61850-6
#21 IEC61850-7-1
#22 IEC61850-7-2
#23 IEC61850-7-3
#24 IEC61850-7-410
#25 IEC61850-7-420
#26 IEC61850-8-1
#27 IEC61850-9-2
#28 IEC61850-10
#29 IEC61850-90-5
#30 IEC 61968/61970 Suites
#31 IEEE 1815 (DNP3)
#64 IEC 62351-1
#65 IEC 62351-2
#66 IEC 62351-3
#67 IEC 62351-4
#68 IEC 62351-5
#69 IEC 62351-6
#70 IEC 62351-7
#?? IEC 61850-7-4 is missing – commented on it already.

15 out of 74 entries are referring to IEC 61850 standards! IEC 61850 conformant products and based systems are playing already a major role in the North American market – in the public utility world and in the power distribution in factories and production plants.

All in a sudden (as it seems to me!) managers in production facilities have figured out that electric power is very crucial for them – to save money or to increase profits.

Draft Version 3.0 of NIST Smart Grid Framework

NIST just published the draft version of the “NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards, Release 3.0” and asks for review.

Click HERE to visit the page with the link to download the draft [pdf, 6.4 MB]

The standard series IEC 61850 is a very crucial standard referred to throughout the document!

Check also the SGIP Catalog of Standards Information Library.

SGIP will migrate to SGIP 2.0 in January 2013

The Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) will transition from a public-private partnership to a self-financed, legal entity that retains a working partnership with government early 2013.

Since the formation of the SGIP in 2009, the activity of the SGIP by NIST personnel and member volunteers has been supported and enabled by the work of a Program Administrator that has been fully funded by NIST in the approximate amount of $5 to 7 million per year; a significant portion of those funds came from the ARRA program.

The SGIP 2.0 has five principal responsibilities:

1. To provide the technical guidance and coordination necessary to facilitate standards development for Smart Grid interoperability
2. To identify and specify the necessary testing and certification requirements, including providing the underlying rationale, to assess the achievement of interoperability using Smart Grid Standards
3. To oversee the performance of these activities to maintain momentum and achievement
4. To proactively inform and educate smart grid industry stakeholders on the definition of and the benefits attributable to interoperability
5. To conduct an outreach to similar organizations in other countries to help establish global interoperability alignment

Download the SGIP 2.0 Business Sustainment Plan - Roadmap to the Future of Smart Grid Interoperability

Interoperability requires subsets (or profiles) of the various standards. It would be great if the SGIP 2.0 would support the development of profiles for specific applications, e.g., for PV inverter with an IE 61850 interface. IEC 61850 provides many information models and services – just a few may be needed for very simple PV inverters. These profiles should have very few (or better no) optional definitions. If vendor A uses option 1 and B uses option 2 – then interoperability may be limited.

Somebody told me the other day: “If you accept a special feature of a vendor’s product, you may have to use this vendor’s products forever.” Don’t use any special function! If a profile has no options, then all products have to support the same information models and services … and protocols.

Denver (CO): Workshop on International Standards for Smart Grids and SCADA Application Domains

A two day Workshop on International Standards for Smart Grids and SCADA Application Domains will be conducted by two gurus of standards for power systems on

September 18 – 19, 2012 – Hyatt Regency Denver (CO) Tech Center

Topics are among others: NIST SGIP standards catalog, IEC 61850, IEC 62351 (security), DNP3, … security measures, solutions, and needs, as well as the global market penetration of standards in power systems, …

Details and registration information for the Smart Grid Standards Workshop can be found here.

If you want to have a specific topic presented and discussed during the workshop, please let me know.

IEC 61850 Approved for NIST SGIP Catalog of Standards

The SGIP (Smart Grid Interoperability Panel) membership voted to include the IEC 61850 Standard Series into the Catalog of Standards (CoS) with approval of some 100 per cent.

The IEC 61850 series of standards define object models, abstract services, and mappings to communications protocols for field devices and systems. The scope of IEC 61850 includes information exchanges within substations, for protective relaying, between substations, between substations and control centers, within hydro power plants, for distribution automation, for managing distributed energy resources (generation and storage), and for managing charging of electric vehicles.

See the complete list of approved standards for the NIST SGIP Catalog of Standards, including IEC 61850

This is a major step towards the application of IEC 61850 in North America and other regions. The use of IEC TC 57 information and information exchange standards is rapidly growing all over!

The interest in small boxes like the various COM.TOM’s (as gateways between IEC 60870-5-101/104, DNP3, Modbus … and also between these and IEC 61850, and for collecting measurements of the electrical system and equipment) is picking up all over. One big utility is about to install 40.000 of these boxes to monitor transformers in distribution substations! More to come.

SGIP calls for Comments on Draft NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards, Release 2.0

The NIST SGIP (Smart Grid Interoperability Panel) has published the

Draft NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards, Release 2.0

for public comments via Federal Register Notice on October 25, 2011

Click HERE for the NIST Framework and Comments page.
Click HERE for the Draft Release 2.0 [PDF, 5.3 MB].

What is new in the Release 2.0 (Draft)?

Interoperable standards and protocols for the Smart(er) Grids are the focus of NIST. To reach these objectives NIST developed a three-phase plan:

1. To accelerate the identification of an initial set of standards;
2. To establish a robust Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) to sustain the development of the many additional standards that will be needed; and
3. To set up a conformity testing and certification infrastructure.

The results of Release 1 (2009-11) have been improved in the draft Release 2. The most crucial result so far (in my view) is the fact that the relevant standards listed in Release 1 has been accepted – one way or the other – by the stake holders in the Smart(er) Grid community! There are some additional standards listed – but the list from 2009 is still representing the core standards.

The most crucial result of all these activities in the power utility domain is that we have prevented a situation found in the industrial automation market with more than 100 Fieldbus standards – with some 50+ in a single standard (IEC 61158)!

Draft Release 2 identifies 20 Smart Grid-relevant standards, 15 other requirement and guideline documents, 9 cyber security documents; and another list of some 60 specifications/requirements that are listed for further review. The 20 standards are:

	Standards
1	BACnet	Building Automation
2	ANSI C12	Metering
3	LON	Various applications
4	IEEE 1815 (DNP3)	Substation and feeder automation
5	ICCP (IEC 60870-6 TASE.2)	Inter-control center communication
6	IEC 61850	Power utility automation (Transmission, Distribution, Generation, …) at field level
7	IEC 61968/61970	CIM; communication between control center systems
8	IEEE C37.118/IEC 61850-90-5	Phasor measurements
9	IEEE 1547	Physical and electrical interconnections between utilities and distributed generation (DG) and storage.
10	IEEE 1588/IEC61588	Time synchronization
11	IETF RFC 6272	Internet Protocols
12	IEEE 1901	Broadband Power Line
13	Multispeak	Application software integration within the utility operations domain
14	NEMA SG AMI I	Smart meters
15	SB WEQ19, REQ18	Energy Usage Information
16	NISTIR 7761	NIST Guidelines for Assessing Wireless Standards for Smart Grid Applications
17	OpenADR	Open Automated Demand Response
18	OPC-UA	Exposes complex data and metadata defined by other information model specifications (e.g. IEC 61850, BACnet, OpenADR).
19	GML	Open Geospatial Consortium, Geography Markup Language
20	Zigbee Smart Energy Profile 2.0	Home Area Network (HAN) Device Communications and Information Model
	Requirements and Guidelines
21	OpenHAN	Home area network (HAN)
22	AEIC Guidelines	Testing criteria for standards-based AMI
23	SAE J1772	SAE Electric Vehicle and Plug in Hybrid Electric Vehicle Conductive Charge Coupler
24	SAE J2836/1	Use Cases for Communication Between Plug-in Vehicles and the Utility Grid
25	IPRM	SGTCC Interoperability Process Reference Manual (SGIP‘s Smart Grid Testing and Certification Committee)
26	--
	Cyber Security
27	Security Profile for Advanced Metering Infrastructure, v 1.0
28	Department of Homeland Security (DHS), National Cyber Security	Recommendations
29	DHS Cyber Security Procurement Language for Control Systems	Guidance to procuring Cyber security technologies for control systems products and services
30	IEC 62351 Parts 1-8	This family of standards defines information security for power system control operations.
31	IEEE 1686	Intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) to accommodate critical infrastructure protection
32	CIP 002-009	NERC Critical Infrastructure Protection
33	NIST Special Publication (SP) 800	Cyber security standards and guidelines for federal information systems, including those for the bulk power system.
34	IEC 61851	Charging electric road vehicles
35	NISTIR 7628	Introduction to NISTIR 7628 Guidelines for Smart Grid Cyber Security

The second list comprises standards for review like GPS, IEC 61400-25 (IEC 61850 for wind turbines), IEEE P1901 (Broadband powerline), ISO/IEC 8824 ASN.1 (Abstract Syntax Notation), IEEE 802, 3GPP, 2G, 3G, 4G, ISA SP 100 (Wireless), IEC 61000, ISA SP 99, ISO 27000, WS-Security, …

The second list contains standards that do (to my interpretation) NOT contain any competing solutions for IEC 61968/70, IEC 61850, IEEE 1815 DNP3, … they cover other crucial aspects. And there is very little overlap between the 35 standards listed above.

Congratulation to all people involved in the work of SGIP!

It would be very helpful to provide your comments to the draft – in order to reach a global consensus.

FERC and the five IEC Standard Families

FERC recommended in October 2010 to start a rulemaking process in order to mandate the five families (IEC 61968, IE 61970, IEC 60870-6 TASE.2, IEC 61850 and IEC 62351) for the North American market. For details click HERE.

After many meetings and discussions FERC decided now to recommend these standards – but not to mandate them.

There are good reasons to keep the standardization process going and not to stop the development of these standards and not to freeze the current content. As I always say: We are still at the very beginning of the development and application of theses standards. Of course, the basic technology is defined and mature – but we all need more experience and feedback so that the standards can be improved and extended.

Adoption of any of these standard series mandated by a regulator could harm the whole process of adoption of these standards – because it could stop or blockade the needed maintenance of the standards.

At this time, the five standard families are still recommended by NIST and FERC for guidance in the development of smart(er) grid supporting technologies.

For the standards IEC 61850, IEC 61400-25, IEC 60870-6 TASE.2, and IEC 62351 there seems to be no discussion anymore if these standards will be adopted by the power utility market or not !! The market HAS ADOPTED these standards already. Even if a utility does not ask for IEC 61850 – it will get it! What else?

These standards don’t need any rule making, don’t need to become mandatory standards in the North American market. They are already THE GLOBALLY ACCEPTED AND USED STANDARDS!! The North American market is also about to adopt these standards. The wait for the rulemaking is over (for now) – these standards can and will be used in North America as in the rest of the world.

Note: There is NO competing solution for these standards on my radar screen at all – really.

Click HERE for the official order of FERC [Docket No. RM11-2-000] dated July 19, 2011.

Building the 21st Century Grid – The White House reports today

On June 13, 2011, the White House will hold an event on "Building the 21st Century Grid." Starting at 10 a.m., the event can be watched live at http://www.whitehouse.gov/live.

Federal Smart Grid Initiatives highlights key government-sponsored programs and activities related to the development and modernization of the electric grid in the United States.

One of the four pillars of the future grid is:

Unlock the innovation potential in the electricity sector with a continued focus on open standards.

I hope that the electric power industry will follow a few open standards instead of a myriad of solutions. Could you imagine a situation were each state or county would have a different frequency and voltage of the electric system!??

There are two main standards: 230V/50Hz and 110V/60Hz … but there should be one standard to exchange information (measurements and statuses, …). The MMXU (a measurement model of 3 phase electrical system defined in the open standard IEC 61850-7-4) could be used for any kind of 3 phase system.

Click HERE for some more models.

If you are interested you may watch the event today.

NERC - Supports IEC 61850 to keep the Transmission and Distribution Grid reliable

NERC (North American Reliability Corporation) has just published an interesting comprehensive analysis of the impact of Smart Grids on the reliability of the transmission grids:

Reliability Considerations from Integration of Smart Grid
December 2010

The report recommends that the interoperability of devices and systems is one of the crucial issues in future electric power systems - including industrial sites and buildings. There is obviously one standard that supports the interoperability to a high extend on all voltage levels: IEC 61850.

On page 82 the report states: "An important example of why smart grid standards need to recognize the interoperability between equipments used in transmission and distribution, is the requirement of mapping of Distributed Network Protocol 3 (DNP3) with IEC 61850. DNP3 is the legacy communication protocol that is followed for large volume data exchanges between equipment. However, IEC 61850 is recognized to be a better standard suited for smart grid communications. To bridge the gap between the legacy DNP3 protocols and the newer IEC 61850, a mapping is required when exchanging certain data types. The goal is to ensure that data are seamlessly transported between devices regardless of their adopted communication standards. DNP3 has recently been adopted in IEEE Standard 1815. An IEEE standard and an SGIP PAP working group are currently supporting the mapping effort between IEC 61850 and the IEEE 1815/DNP3 standards."

Click HERE to download the full NERC report.

Customers talk Much to Vendors - Less to Standardization Groups

The IEEE PES Power & Energy Magazine stated recently "in my view" that "At a recent stakeholder workshop on smart grid interoperability standards sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NISIST), the electric utility industry accounted for less than 15% of the total attendance. If the industry continues to be severely underrepresented as the process moves to the various standards development organizations, the utility industry will have little say over the final standards as they are developed without its significant input. ... For all of these reasons, it is critical that electric utility knowledge and vision
are a part of the standard setting process."

On the other hand Dr. Lemmer (Siemens Power Automation) stated at the CIGRE in Paris event end of August 2010 with regard to innovation that "our customers tell us where we are going" (see video at 05:35 minutes).

I hope that more utility domain experts will get involved - one was or the other - in the future standardization work. Especially in IEC TC 58 and related groups. As well as in the various "users groups" - that are in fact "vendors groups". Dear Utility Domain expert, you are welcome to join one or the other group ... which also brings you around to see many airports ... and meet a lot of Smart People!

Click HERE for the full text of the "time to speak up! get involved in developing smart grid standards".

Final Call: IEC 61850 Hands-on Training with Protection Relays and other IEDs in Stockholm, 2-5 November 2010

NIST has recommended to FERC that IEC 61850 is among the first set of six crucial International Standards for Smart Grids. The upcoming IEC 61850 Hands-on Training in Stockholm, 2-5 November 2010 conducted by STRI and NettedAutomation is THE opportunity to learn more about this Standard and how vendors have implemented the various parts of the standard. The course is also applicable for those people that are interested in IEC 61400-25 (Wind Power Extensions of IEC 61850). The lessons presented are also applicable for any other application domain like factory or process automation or building automation.

We will intensively use the FREE IEC 61850 DLL Evaluation Kit. You will get copies of the Evaluation Kit for the training - if you do not yet have them.

There are still seats available - Get two seats for the price of one seat!

Click HERE to check the program etc.

Panel Session on IEC 61850/61400-25 at first European IEEE PES Smart Grid Conference in Gothenburg (Sweden)

Panels are technical sessions to exchange experience and to discuss around an actual topic. Prominent speakers have been invited to speak at the panel sessions. The presentations are followed by a panel discussion involving, comments and discussion from the audience.

The first Panel Session of the conference in Gothenburg (Sweden) on 2010-10-11 was titled "Standards for Smart Grid" chaired by Lars Nordström, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden

Session summary:
ICT is a core component in the smart electricity networks of the future. Implementing the Smart Grids requires integration of distributed control systems at different levels across the power industry. This requires that information from different domains such as markets, control, automation and load management can be shared seamlessly. For this cause, standardized interfaces and information models is a very important building block for the Smart grid. In the panel session, a broad overview of existing standardization efforts, including IEC, IEEE and NIST initiatives as well as their area of application are described. In addition more in-depth studies of specific implementations using the main standards, specifically the IEC 61850, are presented.

Invited speeches were:

• “Standards for interoperability make the grids smart”, Lars Nordström, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
• “IEC 61850 Lite Implementation - Low cost micro controller chip with IEC 61850 (IEC 61400-25) and IEC 61131-3”, Karlheinz Schwarz, Netted Automation, Germany
• “Results from Surveys on Smart Grid Standardization Initiatives”, Mathias Uslar, OFFiS, Germany
• “A case study on Multi-agent Interoperability in IEC 61850 Environments”, Arshad Saleem, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark

Click HERE to download the presentation “IEC 61850 Lite Implementation" [pdf, 700 KB]

NIST recommends IEC 61850 and other IEC TC 57 Standards for Regulation

The US Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has recommended the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that five "foundational" sets of IEC TC 57 standards for smart grid interoperability and cyber security should be considered by federal and state energy regulators.

• IEC 61970 and IEC 61968: Provide a Common Information Model (CIM) necessary for exchanges of data between devices and networks, primarily in the transmission (IEC 61970) and distribution (IEC 61968) domains.
• IEC 61850: Facilitates substation automation and communication as well as interoperability through a common data format.
• IEC 60870-6: Facilitates exchanges of information between control centers.
• IEC 62351: Addresses the cyber security of the communication protocols defined by the preceding IEC standards.

These standards are identified because they are essential to uniform and interoperable communication systems throughout the grid and will accommodate the evolution of the grid and the integration of new technologies. They focus on the information models and protocols important to efficient and reliable grid operations.

This is a big step forward in the use of these standard series! More to come.

The power utility domain all over has decided to use these standards. In 2010 I have seen a lot of interest in the general automation domain (factory and process automation) to check if IEC 61850 could be used to replace the myriads of field busses. IEC 61850 could be used instead of the 30+ Ethernet based field busses - and IEC 61850 has to offer much more than any of these field busses. IEC 60870-6 and IEC 61850 rely on MMS (Manufacturing Message Specification) as the messaging standard developed in the late 80s during the MAP 3.0 project (Manufacturing Automation Protocols). Field busses haven been understood since the 90s to be used instead of MAP 3.0. With IEC 60870-6 and IEC 61850 we see that the basic concepts and solutions of MAP 3.0 are back in operation - first in the power utility domain and soon in factories and other domains.

Click HERE to download the letter from NIST to FERC [pdf]

NIST SGIP Provides Useful Information About IEC 61850

The latest information on IEC 61850 provided by SGIP (Smart Grid Interoperability Panel) is a summary of the background of IEC 61850 - quite interesting information.

The contents provided:

• Identification and Affiliation
• Level of Standardization
• Areas of Use
• Relationship to Other Standards or Specifications
• Dept of Energy Smart Grid Characteristics
• Priority Areas Previously Mentioned by FERC and NIST
• Openness
• Support, Conformance, Certification and Testing
• Functional Description of the Standard
• Architectural Principles

Click HERE to download the 12 page document.

NIST Smart Grid - Cyber Security Guidelines Released

The three volumes of the "Guidelines for Smart Grid Cyber Security (NISTIR 7628)" have been published by NIST end of August 2010.

The report presents an analytical framework that organizations can use to develop effective cyber security strategies tailored to their particular combinations of Smart Grid-related characteristics, risks, and vulnerabilities. Organizations in the diverse community of Smart Grid stakeholders—from utilities to providers of energy management services to manufacturers of electric vehicles and charging stations—can use the methods and supporting information presented in this report as guidance for assessing risk and identifying and applying appropriate security requirements.

This document is a companion document to the NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards, Release 1.0 (NIST SP 1108), which NIST issued on January 19, 2010.

Click HERE to download Volume 1
Click HERE to download Volume 2
Click HERE to download Volume 3
Click HERE to download the NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards, R1.0

Does IEC 61850 provide Security Measures? - Yes

Update: NIST SGIP - Special Cross-PAP Session on Information Models for Generators and Storage

Please find the agenda for the upcoming meeting of the special group in St. Louis (MS):

Special Cross-PAP Session:
Coordinated Object Modeling for Generators and Storage
SGIP Fall Meeting
September 15, 2010, St. Louis, Missouri
12:30 to 3:00 PM

This Cross-PAP issues session is your chance to participate in discussions on coordinating consistent object models and information exchange requirements for different generator types (e.g., wind turbines, hydro power plants, PV systems, and storage) across multiple domains (consumer, distribution, and transmission). This session is expected to aid in producing consistent object model requirements (where possible) being developed for example by PAPs 7 and 16 for IEC 61850-7-420 (DER), IEC 61850-7-410 (hydro) and IEC 61400-25 (wind). The consistent generator control, monitoring and protection requirements are to be coordinated and combined with requirements of other PAPs including 3, 4, 9, and 10. There are several areas in which the various application domains highly benefit from consistent information models, consistent information exchange and security steps. The interface between power generation and the control center and between aggregators and distributed generators are obvious examples. This session is intended to provide overviews of and to initiate coordination of activities required to develop consistent object models for different generator/storage types across different Smart Grid domains.

Topics presented and discussed include:

• Status of object models for wind turbines, hydro power plants, PV systems, other distributed energy resources – (Karlheinz Schwarz, editor of IEC 61850 and IEC 61400-25) – 30 minutes
• IEC 61400-25-2 transmission level wind generator standard with first two logical nodes that define active power control and reactive power control (Bill Moncrief) – 20 minutes
• Key ES-DER Use Cases - The necessity of establishing a set of core functions as a foundation for standard protocols and device interoperability. Results from a collaborative industry activity. (Brian Seal) – 20 minutes
• IEC 61850-7-420 for ES-DER functions, focusing on pricing signals, volt/var schedules, direct control, and broadcast control, as well as cyber security (Frances Cleveland, editor of IEC 61850-7-420 and IEC 62351) – 20 minutes
• Common modeling concepts, key services like "report-by-exception" and configuration language – Mapping of 61850 to Webservices (IEC 61400-25-4), to DNP3 and to SEP 2.0 (Frances) – 30 min
• IEC 61850-on-a-chip (Karlheinz Schwarz) – 15 minutes

Related standards and PAPs:

• IEC 61850-7-420, IEC 61400-25, IEC 62351
• IEEE P 1547.8, IEEE P174
• DNP3, SEP 2.0, MultiSpeak, CIM
• PAPs: Developed by 7 and 16; used by 3, 4, 9, 10, 8 and 14

NIST SGIP - Special Cross-PAP Session on Coordinated Information Modeling for Generators and Storage

The fall face-to-face meeting of the NIST SGIP (Smart Grid Interoperability Panel) will take place in St. Louis (MS) from September 14-16, 2010.

A Special Cross-PAP Session on Coordinated Information Modeling for Generators and Storage is intended to provide overviews of and to initiate coordination of activities required to develop consistent information models for different generator/storage types across different Smart Grid domains. This Cross-PAP issues session is your chance to participate in discussions on coordinating consistent information models and information exchange requirements for different generator types (e.g., wind turbines [IEC 61400-25-2], hydro power plants [IEC 61850-7-410], PV systems, and storage [IEC 61850-7-420], ...) across multiple domains (consumer, distribution, and transmission).
Session is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 15^th (12:30-15:00)

Click HERE for the full program and other details of the meeting.

Please note that Mr. Karlheinz Schwarz (member of PAP16, editor IEC 61850, IEC 61400-25) will be in St. Louis on Sept. 15 and 16 ... to meet you ...