Mapping of IEC 61850 Models and Information Exchange Services to JSON, HTTP, and MQTT

After I published two sketch videos on IEC 61850 information exchange services and the mapping to MMS, I discuss simple interface options for the last meters between a device that implements the role of IEC 61850 server, GOOSE publisher, and GOOSE subscriber, and the underlying huge world of a myriad of other controllers.

The standard series IEC 61850 and IEC 61400-25 (Wind Power Plants) provide a comprehensive set of standardized information or device models (Logical Nodes, Data Objects, Data Attributes, ...) for a wide range of use cases in the electric power domain (protection, automation, supervision, monitoring, control, ...) and for general applications beyond the electrical world. By the way, tell me where electricity is not a crucial resource in factories, buildings, petrochemical plants, homes, ... it is all over ... required 24/7. These series also comprise information exchange mechanisms like Reporting, Logging, Control, GOOSE, Sampled Values, ... mapped mainly to MMS in IEC 61850-8-1 ... other mappings like mappings to XML and XMPP in IEC 61850-8-2 or MMS, Web Services, IEC 60870-5-104, DNP3, OPC XML DA, ... in IEC 61400-25-4. The most crucial part of IEC 61850 and IEC 61400-25 is the System Configuration Language (SCL, IEC 61850-6).

Many applications use only a very small set of models (a few measurements, control signals, and status signals), a small set of information exchange services, and a simple subset of SCL. Critic comes from experts of various domains: Why do I need to have a complex and comprehensive IEC 61850 stack to implement a simple subset of these standard series? Is there another solution? The wind power plant people developing and maintaining IEC 61400-25 believing that five (5) mappings would help in this regard - really? So, the discussion is still going on. 

A very simple solution has been implemented in various projects: Notation of a subset of the information models and the payload of the messages in JSON. The exchange services could be mapped to various transport mechanisms like MQTT or HTTP ...

This approach would KEEP the models as they are - NO mapping required, just another notation (JSON instead of MMS named Variables etc.). Even SCL could be used.

Whenever there is a need to communicate from a device that plays the role of an IEC 61850 server, GOOSE publisher, GOOSE subscriber, to an underlying (likely simple) device (for the last meters) the decision usually is to use some other communication stacks from a set of 100+ solutions like CAN, Modbus, many fieldbusses, EEBUS, Sunspec, ... and private digital solutions, or even wires only ...

Any of these need to MAP from one standard to another standard, e.g., map MyIED/myMMXU1.Hz.mag.f (measurement of frequency) to register 2246 in one application and to 9817 in another ... hm, that is feasible BUT means a lot of configuration and documentation ... outside the definitions and tools provided by IEC 61850. 

A more reasonable approach would be to use JSON, e.g., to define a DataSet (semantically equivalent to IEC 61850 and MMS) and the report message payload as shown in the figure below:

Please check a couple of blog posts published a few years ago for more details and discussions:

https://blog.nettedautomation.com/2019/07/iec-61850-8-2-versus-iec-61850-8-1.html

https://blog.nettedautomation.com/search?q=mqtt

https://blog.nettedautomation.com/2019/10/iec-61850-for-monitoring-data-private.html

Unfortunately the Beck IPC com.tom Web PLCs with support of IEC 61850, ... disappeared ...

Please let me know your opinion ...

IEC 62541 (OPC Unified Architecture) - 3 Additional CDVs published for commenting

IEC TC 65E just published 3 additional Committee Drafts for Vote (CDV) for commenting and voting ... also for public comments!

CDVs for circulation on 2024-02-02 also available in Public Commenting application: (https://www.iec.ch/how-get-involved/public-commenting)

Here are the CDV documents published (official voting period closes April 26, 2024):

IEC 62541-3 ED4: OPC Unified Architecture - Part 3: Address Space Model

IEC 62541-5 ED4: OPC Unified Architecture - Part 5: Information Model

IEC 62541-6 ED4: OPC Unified Architecture - Part 6: Mappings

See also the other 21 CDVs out for comments.

Be aware that these documents are the basis to define domain specific information models like in IEC 61850: MMXU.PhV.phsA for voltage of phase A (L1) in a three phase AC power system or MMXU.Hz for representing the frequency ... 

I guess that a lot of the definitions published in the 24 CDVs will not be implemented in all devices and only a subset of the implemented definitions may be used.

After some 40 years involved in the IEC TC 65 (1982 - 2001), TC 57 (2002 - today), IEC TC 88 (2001 - today), and ISO TC 184 SC5 WG2 (MMS, 1984 - 2000) I am increasingly convinced that IEC 61850 has a lot of advantages compared to other standards ...

IEC 62541 (OPC Unified Architecture) - 21 CDVs published for commenting

Dear All,

IEC TC 65E just published 21 Committee Drafts for Vote (CDV) for commenting and voting ... also for public comments!

CDVs for circulation on 2024-01-26 also available in Public Commenting application: (https://www.iec.ch/how-get-involved/public-commenting)

Here are the CDV documents published (official voting period closes April 19, 2024):

62541-1 ED1: OPC Unified Architecture - Part 1: Overview and Concepts

62541-2 ED1: OPC Unified Architecture - Part 2: Security Model

62541-4 ED4: OPC Unified Architecture - Part 4: Services

62541-7 ED4: OPC Unified Architecture - Part 7: Profiles

62541-8 ED4: OPC Unified Architecture - Part 8: Data Access

62541-9 ED4: OPC Unified Architecture - Part 9: Alarms and Conditions

62541-10 ED4: OPC Unified Architecture - Part 10: Programs

62541-11 ED3: OPC Unified Architecture - Part 11: Historical Access

62541-12 ED2: OPC Unified Architecture - Part 12: Discovery and global services

62541-13 ED3: OPC Unified Architecture - Part 13: Aggregates

62541-14 ED2: OPC Unified Architecture - Part 14: PubSub

62541-16 ED1: OPC Unified Architecture - Part 16: State Machines

62541-17 ED1: OPC Unified Architecture - Part 17: Alias Names

62541-18 ED1: OPC Unified Architecture - Part 18: Role-Based Security

62541-19 ED1: OPC Unified Architecture - Part 19: Dictionary Reference

62541-20 ED1: OPC Unified Architecture - Part 20: File Transfer

62541-21 ED1: OPC Unified Architecture - Part 21: Device Onboarding

62541-22 ED1: OPC Unified Architecture - Part 22: Base Network Model

62541-23 ED1: OPC Unified Architecture - Part 23: Common ReferenceTypes

62541-24 ED1: OPC Unified Architecture - Part 24: Scheduler

62541-100 ED2: OPC Unified Architecture - Part 100: Device Interface

It is a huge list of documents ...

I have looked through the docs and did not find any application domain specific semantic models like in IEC 61850 ... 

Hope you find some time to comment on these documents.

Enjoy!

IEC 61850 For Monitoring Data - Private or Standard?

One of the most crucial issues in the management of energy systems is: HOW TO share or exchange useful information generated by a myriad of sensors and applications needed by hundreds of applications?

Lets assume that lakes of information are generated every second. Usually this information is stored in silos of vendors specific solutions and communicated using one or more vendor specific communication solutions ... as shown in the following sketch drawn by our grandson Jan Oliver:



The expectations to apply IEC 61850 are high! BUT quite often vendors argue, that it is easier to use their private solutions - faster and saves time and costs! This may be true for the first phase of a project - but in the long run and in the view of the life time cost it may be completely opposite.

Three experts from Vattenfall DSO (Sweden; Vincent GLINIEWICZ, David EROL Anders JOHNSSON) have reported at the CIRED conference 2019-06 in Madrid (Spain) from an implementation of a pilot project using IEC 61850 and CIM  with the title:

LEVERAGING INDUSTRY STANDARDS TO BUILD AN ARCHITECTURE FOR ASSET MANAGEMENT AND PREDICTIVE MAINTENANCE

Excerpt from the paper:

"... However the data unfortunately currently often remain unused and unshared outside of the substation or specific silos for various reasons, some technical (e.g. cyber security, system incompatibility), some and organizational (e.g. vendor lock-in, siloed applications and organizations).
Additionally, with an increasing number of use cases requiring access to information, there is a growing number of information flows needed not only between data sources and central level applications but also between these central level applications. Without an IT architecture that allows reuse of information flows, there are legitimate concerns that the opportunities that digitalization promises might be delayed and costly or even worse, not be achievable.
As a result, Vattenfall Eldistribution sees a standard based integration approach as a cost-effective approach that seems to offer in the long run low integration costs and more importantly a greater flexibility, going from supplier specific integrations to a more generic approach. ...

We would also like to highlight some of the deviations from the standards that were observed during this pilot:

The pilot made use of a REST API towards the real time data historian (RTDH in fig. 2), although there was no mention of REST in the 61968-100 standard. One could however expect, given the increasing popularity and use of RESTful services in most industries, that the standard will soon follow and that the mention will be added in a further edition on the standard.
The gateway used in the pilot was a prototype base on a technical report (IEC TR 61850-90-2) [Using IEC 61850 for communication between substations and control centres] which is not yet a standard. This might explain why there doesn’t seem yet to be a complete and robust 61850-90-2 compliant product on offer in the market. Another alternative considered for the pilot gateway was the use of IEC 61850/MMS towards the substation and the use of web services (either RESTful+ JSON or SOAP) to communicate northbound instead of the IEC 61850/MMS used in the pilot. SOA has indeed a robust and well developed architecture for distributed computing, and this should be leveraged. There however did not seem to be any products available on the market. This alternative will be explored in a coming pilot. ..."

The paper concludes:

"Although the pilot was made for a primary substation, the widespread use of the IEC 61850 standards series make the results of this pilot not only applicable for primary substations, but potentially also secondary substations and microgrid.
Following the successful pilot, the next step is to look at how to fully implement and verify the concepts in a real substation and to secure production grade components where prototypes have been used as well as test the architecture through other smart grid use cases."

Click HERE for the full paper.

I have run an UCA/IEC 61850 pilot project with Anders Johnsson some 20 years (!) ago:

Two reports out of this pilot project and other discussions have been published in 2002:

Wind Power Communication
Verification report and recommendation

Click HERE for the Report.

Wind Power Communication - Design & Implementation 
of Test Environment for IEC61850/UCA2

Click HERE for the Report.

Enjoy the reports.

By the way: It took some 20 years to understand that the mapping of IEC 61850 models and communication protocols to MMS (ISO 9506) should be extended by a much easier and simpler mapping to JSON and, e.g., MQTT or http ...

It is not too late for such an additional standardized mapping ... e.g., as IEC 61850-8-3.

It may take another 10 years before this becomes true! Hope it will happen a bit earlier!

Further reading on the subject see discussion of IEC 61850-8-1 versus 8-2 (by 2024-02-25: 4074 visits of the post since July 2019).

Other people have similar ideas and published the following paper:

International Electronical Committee (IEC) 61850
Mapping with Constrained Application Protocol
(CoAP) in Smart Grids Based European
Telecommunications Standard Institute
Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Environment

IEC TC 88 Published Edition 2 Documents for the Series IEC 61400-25

IEC TC 88 has published the edition 2 of the following two parts of the series IEC 61400-25:

IEC 61400-25-4: Wind energy generation systems -
Part 25-4: Communications for monitoring and control of wind power plants -
Mapping to communication profile
The mappings specified in this part of IEC 61400-25 comprise:

•  SOAP-based web services,
•  OPC/XML-DA,
•  IEC 61850-8-1 MMS,
•  IEC 60870-5-104,
•  DNP3.

Click HERE for the Preview.

IEC 61400-25-6: Wind power generation systems -
Part 25-6: Communications for monitoring and control of wind power plants -
Logical node classes and data classes for condition monitoring

Click HERE for the Preview

Note that the mapping to MMS according to IEC 61850-8-1 is the most used communication protocol for applications in the Wind Power Industry.
The modeling approach and the models are now in general compatible with those defined in IEC 61850-7-x. This is a major step forward.
General gateway solutions for IEC 61850 could be used for wind energy generation systems to bridge from Profibus, ProfiNet, Modbus, CAN bus, ... to IEC 60870-5-104 or IEC 61850-8-1.

Are Blackouts Knocking at the Doors of Substations?

Dear experts interested in secure power delivery systems,
You may have been informed yesterday about one of the latest developments in destroying the power delivery infrastructure: Industroyer.
What is Industroyer? It is "A new threat for industrial control systems" according to Anton Cherepanov (ESET):
"Win32/Industroyer is a sophisticated piece of malware designed to disrupt
the working processes of industrial control systems (ICS), specifically
industrial control systems used in electrical substations.
Those behind the Win32/Industroyer malware have a deep knowledge
and understanding of industrial control systems and, specifically, the
industrial protocols used in electric power systems. Moreover, it seems very
unlikely anyone could write and test such malware without access to the
specialized equipment used in the specific, targeted industrial environment.
Support for four different industrial control protocols, specified in the
standards listed below, has been implemented by the malware authors:
• IEC 60870-5-101 (aka IEC 101)
• IEC 60870-5-104 (aka IEC 104)
• IEC 61850
• OLE for Process Control Data Access (OPC DA)
In addition to all that, the malware authors also wrote a tool that
implements a denial-of-service (DoS) attack against a particular family of
protection relays, ..."

Click HERE for a comprehensive report [pdf].

The Conclusion of the report closes with this statement:

"The commonly-used industrial control protocols used in this malware
were designed decades ago without taking security into consideration.
Therefore, any intrusion into an industrial network with systems using
these protocols should be considered as “game over”."

The protocols used are not the crucial issue! The protocols like IEC 61850 could be protected by the accompanying standard series IEC 62351 (Power systems management and associated information exchange - Data and communications security).
One crucial show stopper is: "Stingy is cool" mentality!!
Securing the systems could be implemented - with far higher costs during development, engineering, configuration, OPERATION, and maintenance.
As long as we all do not accept that the electric power (and other) infrastructures will require a lot more resources to keep the level of today's availability, quality, and security, we will experience more disrupted infrastructures.
Building an infrastructure, operating, and maintaining it are different aspects. The maintenance of our infrastructures will consume definitely more resources than we believe today.
I was shocked to read, that some "friends" believe that the reports about the "Industroyer" are just fake news.
Whatever you believe, one thing is really true: Many systems and devices in the automation domain (substations, ...) are not protected! Believe me!

Neues Format für viertägiges IEC 61850 Seminar im Dezember 2016 in Karlsruhe

Der Bedarf an guter mehrtägiger Schulung kollidiert oft der notwendigen Anwesenheit am Arbeitsplatz! Die NettedAutomation GmbH hat jetzt eine Antwort für Sie gefunden:

Wir bieten bieten vom

06.-09. Dezember 2016 in Karlsruhe 
drei Seminarblöcke (1 Tag, 2 Tage und 1 Tag) 

an, die einzeln oder in Kombination gebucht werden können. Sie entscheiden selbst, ob Sie nur einen Tag von Ihrem Arbeitsplatz fern bleiben möchten oder zwei, drei oder vier. Je nachdem, welche Zeit und welchen Bedarf Sie haben.

Am ersten Tag wird ein Überblick über das Normungsumfeld und die einzelnen Normen gegeben. Im Mittelpunkt stehen dabei die grundlegenden Eigenschaften und Bedeutung der Normenreihe IEC 61850 für Systemdesign, System- und Geräteengineering, Datenmodellierung, Datenmodelle, Kommunikationsmöglichkeiten (Client/Server, Publisher/Subscriber) und Sicherheitslösungen.

Am zweiten Tag werden die Modellierungsmethode, die vielfältigen Modelle (Logische Knoten), die Kommunikationsdienste und -protokolle und die System-Konfigurations-Sprache (SCL) im Detail vorgestellt.

Am dritten Tag werden anhand vieler praktischer SCL-Beispiele Systembeschreibungen (SSD), Systemkonfigurationen (SCD), Gerätekonfigurationen (ICD und CID für Server/Publisher, Client/Subscriber und Server/Subscriber) diskutiert, erstellt und formal geprüft. Dabei kommt eine Reihe von Werkzeugen und Geräten zum Einsatz.

Am vierten Tag wird das Erlernte in praktischen Übungen mit marktgängigen Geräten und Werkzeugen vertieft.

Sie können den 1. Tag, den 2. und 3. Tag sowie den 4. Tag getrennt oder in jeder Kombination buchen!

Mit unserer Schulung bereiten wir Sie hervorragend auf neue Herausforderungen vor!

Klicken Sie HIER um mehr Details und Anmeldeinformationen herunterzuladen [pdf, 320 KB].

Die mehr als 4.100 Teilnehmer meiner über 230 Seminare seit 2004 würden sicher alle bestätigen, dass das komplexe Thema IEC 61850 unbedingt eine geeignete Schulung verlangt -- und dass wir eine erst-klassische Schulung bieten!

We will offer the same seminar in English from 13-16 Dezember 2016 as well in Karlsruhe (Germany). Details will be available the next days.

IEC 61400-25-41 Project Finally Approved

Document 88/567/RVN
Wind turbines - Part 25-41: Communications for monitoring and control of wind power plants - Mapping to communication profile based on IEC 62541 (OPC UA)

This New Work Proposal was finally accepted due to a late appointment of two additional exerts from two additional countries.
Project title: IEC 61400-25-41 TS Ed.1 (Technical Specification)

The focus is intended to be strictly on IEC 61400-25. It will replace the obsolete OPC-XML-DA mapping. No impact on the work on IEC 61850 web technology (Project IEC 61850-8-2) is intended by this NP.

Click HERE for an overview on the IEC 61400-25 series.

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.

OPC Server using an IEC 61850 Client

OPC (DA and UA) is used quite often for higher level communication between PLCs and SCADA servers. How could you tap IEC 61850 information for communication to an OPC Client?

First of all, you need an IEC 61850 Client that talks to IEC 61850 Servers or receives GOOSE messages. Second, you need an OPC Server that sits on top of the IEC 61850 Client.

Softing (Nuremberg/Munich, Germany) offers such an OPC (DA and UA) Server with an IEC 61850 build-in client. The client automatically detects all logical nodes and data objects and converts them automatically into OPC items:

 

OPC Server (DA and UA, dataFEED OPC Suite) with the build-in IEC 61850 client as well an OPC demo client from Softing is available, contact: http://industrial.softing.com/en

A free of charge copy of the dataFEED OPC Suite and OPC Client is available for interested attendees of NettedAutomations training courses.

Click HERE to check a Video with a brief demo on how to use the dataFEED in conjunction with IEC 61850.

New 3-day Public Seminar and Hands-On Training on IEC 61850 and IEC 60870-5-104

NettedAutomation is entering into a new phase of training: Using real devices and solutions to work with during the public 3 days general training courses. The reorganized and extended program of the 3 days course is as follows:

1 1/2 days	Introduction and Basics on IEC 61850 (and brief comparison with IEC 60870-5-104)
1/2 day	Hands-on training on designing ICD and CID documents, analyzing SCD documents
1/2 day	Configuring and using Server devices for monitoring and control using IEC 61850 and IEC 60870-5-104
1/2 day	Configuring and using Client devices for IEC 61850 and gateways to IEC 60870-5-104 and proxy server to IEC 61850; demonstration of IEC61850 Client to OPC UA Server

The next public courses are scheduled for:

Frankfurt (Germany), 15.-17. October 2014
Frankfurt (Germany), 06.-08. May 2015

Get a Special Price due to the 10th anniversary of the training courses offered by NettedAutomation ... after 3.600+ experts trained:

Click HERE for the new program and registration information.

List of courses conducted in 2013 (with 400+ attendees):

As you can see, the most courses are conducted as in-house events.

Ask for us for an offer for you and your people.

IEC 61400-25 and IEC 61850 for Semantic models in Integrated Operations for Oil & Gas and New Energy

In 2010 Billam Rajashekar Reddy (Norway) analyzed several semantic models for information exchange supporting operations and maintenance :

“Use of Semantic models in Integrated Operations for Oil & Gas and New Energy”

He looked into many solutions like:

• IEC 61400-25 Wind Turbine Communication
• RDS-PP Reference Designation System for Power Plant
• CRM Conceptual Reference Model
• WITSML Well site Information Transfer Standard Mark-up Language
• PRODML Production Markup Language
• RESQML Reservoir Characterization Markup Language
• RDS-PP Reference Designation System for Power Plants
• OPC OLE for process control

The conclusion drawn at the end of the Master’s Thesis says:

“Use of semantic models in integrated operations for oil and gas and new energy includes several methods. We come across all those methods. The IEC 61400-25 series of standards provides the means to get open and easy access to key O&M data. This data is a necessity for making the evaluations and analysis needed to improve operation and maintenance of the wind power plants. The paper has shown how the standard can be implemented and what benefits are associated with its use.
The standard does not restrict nor mandate specific customer-supplier roles, but provides a solution that supports the whole range of business cases where the different actors can cooperate. Both the customer and the supplier can benefit from IEC 61400-25 through decreased costs for data access and system integration. Time and money can instead be put on the development of applications, functions and methods that increase the performance of the wind turbines. ...”

I totally agree with the last sentence in the above quoted conclusion! The information modelling method, huge bunch of information models defined in IEC 61400-25 and IEC 61850, information exchange, communication protocols, system configuration language, … could be used immediately – if you choose a ready-to-go software solution with an easy API.

Spend your time and money in applying the standards! Build interoperable systems that keep the sky blue, the grass green, and the power flowing ;-)

Click HERE to access the master thesis.

Are Standards changing too fast?

There is are many SCADA users that think standards are changing too fast. I guess this is true for the many interface standards for sensors and actuators (the so-called fieldbusses and sensor interfaces). Lets have a look on the most crucial communication standards used in IEC 61850 and IEC 61400-25:

Layer 7	MMS (ISO 9506)	some 20 years; likely to stay unchanged
Layer 5-6	ISO Presentation and Session	some 20 years
Layer 4	TCP	some 30 years; likely to stay for a long time
Layer 3	IP	some 30 years v4; likely that v6 will stay for decades
Layer 2	Ethernet	basics: 30 years

One crucial is that wide area monitoring seems to be build on top of TCP/IP - all over. There is no difference in the many different solutions from the transport layer viewpoint. IEC 61850-8-1 (mapping to MMS) is stable since UCA 2.0 (mid of the 90's). RTU protocols like DNP3 or IEC 60870-5-101 have changed from serial links to TCP/IP - became more convergent to IEC 61850!! Guess these protocols will be extended to become convergent at model and configuration levels.

When it comes to the application layers, there seems to be mainly ONE standard profile stable: The profile shown above - which is QUITE STABLE.

There were (and are still) many people criticizing that the communication protocols in IEC 61850 are not following new developments faster (e.g., in the application of webservices)! Most people like what we have. When discussing webservices, the question is: Which one?? There is not an "old" solution like MMS that is around for 20 years. What is discussed is: use IEC 61400-25-2 dedicated webservices, use OPC UA webservices or use DPWS, or ... Reaching consensus in the selection of webservices may take some time. In the meantime we have the stable stack in IEC 61850-8-1. That is what I call: Sustainable Interoperability.

Special Course on Key Standards for Smart Grids in Dallas (TX): IEC 61850, IEC 61400-25 and DNP3

A two-day special seminar and training on IEC 61850, IEC 61400-25 and DNP3 will be conducted by Karlheinz Schwarz (Editor of IEC 61850, IEC 61400-25, member of NIST PAP16, ...) at:

Remote 2010 Conference & Expo
October 19-20, 2010 - Dallas, Texas

In this comprehensive 2-day workshop students learn the fundamental concepts and vision of the NIST Smart Grid activities and of the IEC 61850 standard series. Students compare well known solutions like DNP3 and the new OPC UA with IEC 61850 (IEC 61400-25, Wind Turbines) and discuss the strength each method offers. All the IEC 61850 standards, their extensions, and many application domains are briefly discussed and the class delves into IEC 61850 real-time and client/server solutions. Each student (that brings his own PC) will do some hands-on training with IEC 61850 client/server communication and GOOSE messaging. We are using freely available evaluation software running under Windows. Two PCs could be connected to see messages on the Ethernet wire.

Click HERE for more details and registration information.

First Release of the NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke today (2009-09-24) unveiled an accelerated plan for developing standards to transform the U.S. power distribution system into a secure, more efficient and environmentally friendly Smart Grid and create clean-energy jobs.

The NIST Draft Publication "NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards Release 1.0 (Draft)" published by the Office of the U.S. National Coordinator for Smart Grid Interoperability" is the result of thousands of working-hours of hundreds of smart people from many states and countries.

Smart Grids will be build on standards. The most crucial standards are required for the following areas:

• Demand Response and Consumer Energy Efficiency
• Wide Area Situational Awareness
• Electric Storage
• Electric Transportation
• Advanced Metering Infrastructure
• Distribution Grid Management
• Cyber Security
• Network Communications

NIST found that the market has reached already consensus on 16 standards. After review of this list, there are now 31 standards understood as crucial for the smart grid. Many crucial IEC standards like standards from IEC TC 57: IEC 60870-6 (TASE.2), IEC 61850, IEC 61969/61970 (CIM), IEC 62351; IEC TC 65: IEC 62541; other committees: ISO/IEC 15045, ISO/IEC 15067, ISO/IEC 18012, ... are members of the list of the 31 standards!

The experts identified some 70 gaps in the list of standards. 14 gaps have been identified as MOST CRUCIAL to be solved:

"For each, an action plan has been developed, specific organizations tasked, and aggressive milestones in 2009 or early 2010 established. One action plan has already been completed. The Priority Action Plans and targets for completion are (in bold = impact from/on standards of IEC TC 57):

1. Smart meter upgradeability standard (completed)
2. Common specification for price and product definition (early 20I0)
3. Common scheduling mechanism for energy transactions (year-end 2009)
4. Common information model for distribution grid management (year-end 20I0)
5. Standard demand response signals (January 2010)
6. Standard for energy use information (January 2010)
7. IEC 61850 Objects / DNP3 Mapping (2010)
8. Time synchronization (mid-2010)
9. Transmission and distribution power systems models mapping (year-end 20I0)
10. Guidelines for use of IP protocol suite in the Smart Grid(mid-year20I0)
11. Guidelines for use of wireless communications in the Smart Grid (mid-year 2010)
12. Electric storage interconnection guidelines (mid-2010)
13. Interoperability standards to support plug-in electric vehicles (December 2010)
14. Standard meter data profiles (year-end 2010)

Click HERE to read the press release of today (2009-09-24).

Click HERE to download the 90 page Draft Release 1.0 of the NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards

With that official Draft it is confirmed that crucial international Standards published by IEC TC 57, TC 65, and TC 88 are key for the sustainable interoperability of smart devices and smart systems in smart grids - developed by smart people.

Click HERE for a discussion on the availability of smart people.

IEC 61131-3 SPS-Programmierung und IEC 61850

Zunehmend findet IEC 61850 Eingang in die Welt der Steuerungen. Neben anderen namhaften deutschen Herstellern hat jetzt auch WAGO (Minden) einen IEC-61850-Server in die Steuerungssoftware integriert.

Aufbauend auf der Codesys Version 3 bietet WAGO eine IEC-61850-Bibliothek an, mit der die Vorteile der Objektorientierung unter Verwendung der Objektmodelle der Normenreihe IEC 61850 und IEC 61400-25 genutzt werden können.

Click HIER für eine einseitige Einführung in IEC 61850 und IEC 61400-25 [pdf]

Click HIER für einen weiterführenden Artikel zur WAGO-Lösung im Heft 8-2009 der Zeitschrift Computer & Automation.

Im Artikel wird noch davon ausgegangen, dass IEC 61850 nur eine Abbildung der Objekte und Kommunikation unterstützt: MMS (Manufacturing Message Specification, ISO 9506). Seit einem Jahr gibt es eine internationale Norm mit weiteren Abbildungen: IEC 61400-25-4:

IEC 61400-25 umfasst die folgenden fünf Abbildungen:

• SOAP-based web services,
• a mapping to OPC/XML-DA,
• a mapping to MMS (IEC 61850-8-1),
• a mapping to IEC 60870-5-104,
• a mapping to DNP3.

Click HIER für weitere Details zu den Mappings (Abbildungen).

Unter dem Titel "IEC 61850 - Die universale Norm für die Informations-Integration" wird am Dienstag, 24.11.2009, 14:00 - 17:00 Uhr, während der SPS/IPC/Drives in Nürnberg ein Tutorial durchgeführt; Vortragssprache ist Deutsch.

Two day seminar on IEC 61850, IEC 61400-25, DNP3; October 29-30, San Antonio (TX)

A Two-Day Special Course on IEC 61850, IEC 61400-25, DNP3 will be held during the "Remote 2009 Conference and Expo", October 29th & 30th, 2009 in San Antonio, Texas (USA).

The reality of the world-wide retiring process of the most valuable assets (the senior engineers in the utilities) the aging systems, the companies tightening budgets and lowering sales expectations could bring some great opportunities for everyone involved in information management of local and remote devices and processes. Less people means less proprietary solutions could be supported. This is the time for a single, internationally standardized and accepted solution: IEC 61850.

In this comprehensive 2-day workshop students learn the fundamental concepts and vision of the IEC 61850 standard series. Students compare traditional solutions like DNP3 and the new OPC UA to IEC 61850 and discuss the strength each method offers. All the IEC 61850 standards, their extensions, and many application domains are briefly discussed and the class delves into IEC 61850 real-time and client/server solutions.

Click HERE for full details and registration information.

IEC 61850 OPC Device Driver

ReLab Software LLC (based in Concord, California) offers an OPC Device Driver for IEC 61850 to enable communication with all devices supporting the international standard IEC-61850.

Product information [pdf, 190 KB]

Experience of the ReLab programmers with the IEC 61850 stack implementation:

"The difficulties of IEC-61850 stack implementation described in this article do not diminish the value oft he protocol itself. The protocol is a significant step in communication unification and has a great future."

RWE Innogy sucht Ingenieur mit Erfahrung in IEC 61850 und 61400-25

RWE Innogy sucht SCADA-Ingenieur mit Kenntnissen in IEC 61850, IEC 61400-25, DNP3, ... Einsatzort Hamburg. Weitere Details ...

IEC 61850 OPC Server

ReLab IEC-61850 OPC device driver extends ReLab OPC Server capabilities and allows it to communicate with any IED that support IEC-61850 protocol.

ReLab’s OPC server provides along awaited bridge between IEC-61850 devices and OPC world.

More details ...