6th Power Systems Protection Summit (PS2) coming soon

Dissemination of information about IEC 61850 is crucial. One opportunity to listen to an online (virtual) conference is the Middle East 

6th Power Systems Protection Summit (PS2)
September 15–16, 2025

Click HERE for program information.

On day 2 I will give a keynote speech:

Keynote session - IEC 61850 is the Corner Stone of manageable Secure Power Systems
11:00AM - 11:20AM

IEC 61850 has come a long way since mid-1990.  A wide range of applications built with IEC 61850 will act as a game changer for traditional protection, automation, and SCADA products and systems. It aims to provide all parties involved with as much standardized information as possible for power systems. 

I look forward to meeting you virtually.

Object Modeling in the late 1980s - Too Early!

One of the crucial aspects of the standard series IEC 61850 is about object modeling ... first versions have been published in the year 2004 ... guess you agree!

Did you know that object modeling for process automation was already defined to some degree in the late 1980s for the standard ISO/IEC 9506-6 (MMS Companion Standard for Process Control) - published in the year 1994? Maybe you are surprised ... you may even have been born after that time ... 

The other day I have documented the following example of supervision of rate change of a process measurement:

On the bottom the MMS Named Variable C_PVRCPAP is shown. The semantic (setting for a specific event) is equivalent to the "Temperature rate alarm trigger level setting" of the LN class STMP in IEC 61850-7-4 Ed2.1. The definition in MMS part 6 is generic and applies to any measurement.

I would say that the MMS companion standard ISO/IEC 9506-6 was some 30 years too early published ... mainly due to the fact that many engineers did not understand abstract object modeling. 

History repeats itself, which is good because most people don't pay attention the first time anyway.

And today? Hope you have a better understanding! In case you need help ... let me know.

The semantic of the huge amount of signals in IEC 61850 or the few in the old ISO/IEC 9506-6 make the difference compared to most protocols like IEC 60870-5-104 and ... 

IEC 61850-7-410 ED3 CDC - Hydroelectric Power Plants Available for Public Commenting

Please note that last Friday IEC TC 57 has published the following Committee Draft for Vote (CDV) (57/2750/CDV) for comments by National Committees AND for public commenting by anybody before April 04, 2025:

IEC 61850-7-410 ED3: Communication networks and systems for power utility automation - Part 7-410: Basic communication structure - Hydroelectric power plants - Communication for monitoring and control 

To comment on the CDV please click HERE. If you have not yet an account you can register ... if you have an account, go on. (IEC reports: Please use Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge).

IEC Public Commenting is a chance to let your voice be heard before the final vote.

This draft is a major step forward to get an international standard for hydroelectric power plants, steam and gas turbines.

Default Passwords May Cause Some Issues - Change Them As Soon As Possible

 A friend of mine reported the following in a SCADA and cyber-security related group:

"The recent cyber-attack on that small water facility outside of Pittsburg is getting increased attention (certainly on this list) . The model and manufacturer of the device in question are known.  The manufacturer's web site has some  documentation on the device, but I do not think they provide the  device's default password.

No need to look hard, it is listed in plain site on CISA's bulletin (below)."

Exploitation of Unitronics PLCs used in Water and Wastewater Systems Release Date November 28, 2023 

Oops.

PhD Student Working On Cyber Security In Critical Infrastructures

Fredrik Heiding (PhD Student) wrote the other day:

Fredrik Heiding, PhD StudentNetwork and Systems Engineering
KTH, Royal Institute of Technology

I am doing a PhD on cyber security in critical infrastructure. Currently I study the security trends for critical infrastructures in Europe, analyzing where it is heading and how it is developing. To strengthen the study I have identified seven general questions, they are general in nature so they can be answered by people in critical positions without revealing sensitive information.

Here are the Questions from Fredrik and Answers from a very senior expert:

Vytautas Butrimas

Cybersecurity consulting

See also: http://blog.nettedautomation.com/2020/06/scada-security-matters-should-matter.html
Vytautas Butrimas wrote in the introduction to his answers:

This a particularly interesting time in CIP. I come from and IT background and have focused mostly on the cybersecurity of industrial control systems in the past 10 years. This has been a long learning curve for I found that my IT knowledge did not provide enough to understand the engineering and laws of physics that are dominant in the monitor and control of physical processes found in the pumps and compressors on fuel pipelines, treatment of drinking water, routing of trains, and the generation and distribution of electricity. One needs to know the implications and peculiarities between working IT office time and real time to work in this field.
I looked at your questions and will give brief answers.  If you wish to further discuss them with me then we can do so offline.

---------------------------------

Question 1:

What concerns for the future do you have regarding cyber security in critical infrastructure?

Answer 1:

How the introduction of increased complexity of systems (systems of systems, adding more sensors, increased connectivity) will be managed without taking away from safety, reliability and performance.

Question 2:

Over the past decade, digital attacks have become more central to the security of critical infrastructure. Do you think the trend will continue to increase or culminate?

Answer 2:

There are some signs that things will get better but at the same time they will get more complicated.  Security practitioners need to realize that much more attention is needed where the physical process is taking place and the devices closest to it that are monitoring and controlling it, not where they are being monitored by humans in a remote location or control room.  ** One more thing we should not just be focused  on „ATTACKS“.  We also have to consider unintended actions or accidents. As the complexity of systems and connectivity of devices increases so will the unintended or „why did that happen?“ incidents.***

Question 3:

What relevant research or technological advances do you find most interesting for the future?

Answer 3:

Have to think about this one.  It feels we are all trying to keep afloat in a tsunami of technological advances.  The ones that worry me the most are the new features which also come with vulnerabilities that need to be addressed before a malicious group decides to exploit them.

Question 4:

Do you see IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) as an opportunity or a concern, if both, which part is greatest (positive or negative)?

Answer 4:

I see it mostly as a concern (see my earlier answers). I suggest watching a video available on youtube called "Brave New Internet 4.0 " by one of your famous countrymen, Ralph Langner.  The questions and concerns he raised in that lecture IMHO have not been addressed.

Question 5:

Do you have plans to, or do you think that you will expand the cyber security department in the coming years?

Answer 5:

I am currently working my out of "mandatory retirement" and am not in position in expand anything (perhaps later this year I will change my answer).  If I was in a position of influence at an operator of CI (energy sector for example) I would do my best to set up some support for the senior engineer of the plant.  When he sees something unusual going in the operation he should be able assign this problem to an security operation center. Could be at least one person or a small team that understands cyber threats and how they could be applied to the engineering side of the operation.  The senior plant engineer has to keep things running and does not have time to stop and investigate something.  He needs someone to help him and a ICS SOC could be a good solution is management is willing to spend the money for the positions and training.

Question 6:

Can you share anything about past attacks/intrusion attempts, both successful and unsuccessful attempts are interesting?

Answer 6:

Look at the freely available information on line. Look up Ralph Langer to learn about STUXNET. It happened 10 years ago and this is probably the most analyzed and documented incident we have today that is publicaly  available.  Much can still be learned for the methods continued to be applied today. In 2014 in Germany your government (BSI) published its yearly report on cyber incidents.  There is a section devoted to a cyber attack on a steel mill that had an uncontrolled shutdown and resulted in damage. Look at Triton/Trisis/Hatman incident of 2017 where the safety systems of a petrochemical plant tripped not one but twice. Look for video lectures on this from Dale Pedersons S4 conferences in 2018/2019 (see lecture by Julian Gustmanis and by Schneider Electric)

Question 7:

Has the attitude towards cyber security changed in the last 5 years, why and in which way/

Answer 7:

The attitude is changing and for the better. Much better in the engineering community who have  understood how threats from cyberspace can get into their operations. On the other hand as far as government policy makers go they still have a long way to go. Much technical expertise has left government for the private sector leaving some governments blind to some issues. The 3 Little Pigs problem is evident where one thinks one has taken the appropriate measures and build a house of straw or of sticks to protect from the wind and the rain but the possibility of their being a wolf is somehow missed.  You would be surprise at how many government policy makers do not know what scada is and yet think they are doing a great job at protecting critical infrastructure.

--------------------------------

SCADA Security Matters Should Matter

The SCADA Security and Cybersecurity of critical infrastructure challenges are growing very fast. In order to follow a great source of information provided by a gray hair senior expert please visit the following pages:

http://linkedin.com/in/vytautas-vytas-butrimas-01116a18

http://scadamag.infracritical.com/index.php/author/vytautas/

Learn what the expert Mr. Vytautas (Vytas) Butrimas has to say.

Wish us all power systems that are hardened to withstand any attack from inside and outside!

Stay safe!

Is Industry 4.0 Really a Revolution? And IEC 61850?

There are so many discussions, concerns, arguments ... Pros and Cons regarding Industry 4.0 or the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4.0, IoT, IIoT, Cloud, Edge, data lake, ...).

The most remarkable statements I have heard are from Mr. Ralph Langner who does not believe that it is a revolution at all ...

"Is Industrie 4.0 actually the 4th Industrial Revolution as touted by it's many proponents. Ralph Langner tackles that question in this 20 minute video from S4xEurope."

Click HERE for the youtube video of his presentation (20 min)

Please find some personal opinions:

Please find a paper discussing the "sprint" versus "marathon" in automation of electric power systems I wrote in 2012 through the following post:

http://blog.nettedautomation.com/2012/03/smart-grids-19th-century-invention.html

Here is part of my experience:

I was (as a 21 year old skilled worker in 1973 ... just married) responsible for maintaining a fire alarm system with 6,000 alarm buttons (from a famous vendor ... full of TTL chips ...). The system stopped almost every night ... I had to drive downhill 60 km ... to switch it off and on and go back home ... I was not skilled enough to do anything serious about it ... just wrote reports to my boss ... he ignored everything ... I quit my job in 1974 and went back to high school in January 1995 and university in 1977 ... 7 1/2 years later I finished university with four kids in 1982 ... went back to that same company ... quit again in 1992 partly, in 1997 completely ...

The most crucial reason to quit in 1992/1997 was: The standardization of industrial communication systems in IEC TC 65 released a myriad of non-interoperable Fieldbusses ... good for selling standards ... very BAD for maintenance people and many others ... can you imagine to be an expert in tens of fieldbusses?!

Check out this post:
http://blog.nettedautomation.com/2017/04/iec-sc-65c-published-5000-pages-of-new.html

Oh my dear ...

I just checked my personal records from the 70s and found the weekly reports of my daily maintenance activities ... spent many days to switch off/on the Fire Alarm System ...

This may happen every hour these days where maintenance people just switch IEDs off and on ... in the hope that it will work after restart.

We need more well educated and skilled experts!!! ... grey hair seniors ...

What's about IEC 61850? Is the introduction of this standard series different compared to the fieldbus standard series IE 61158? Sure ... there is a crucial difference:

MANY Fieldbus standards for ONE application (real-time data exchange) ...

ONE IEC 61850 for MANY applications (real-time, protection, asset data, configuration, engineering, ...SCADA, ...).

IEC 61850 series is quite comprehensive and complex ... Yes. But: it seems to be easier to learn and experience ONE complex standard than to do this for 50+ solutions!! IEC 61850 is not a revolution - it could be used to extend existing solutions ... it provides a new approach that could prevent the proliferation of hundreds of vendor-specific solutions ...

And when it comes to security, there is ONE standard series (IEC 62351) for IEC 61850, IEC 60870-6 (TASE.2), IEC 60870-5-104, DNP3, ... 

Draft IEC TR 61850-90-18 on Alarm Handling Published

IEC TC 57 just published a new 50 page draft part of IEC 61850 (57/2157/DC):

IEC Draft TR 61850-90-18
Communication networks and systems for power utility automation –
Part 90-18: Alarm handling in IEC 61850 based systems

Comments are expected by Nov 29, 2019.

Work is done by TC 57/WG 10 together with TC 88/JWG 25 (Wind Turbines).

This part defines a methodology to handle alarms. The crucial concept is defining an “Alarm Server”.

Use-cases considered are related to:
WG 10: IED communications & associated data models in power systems
WG 17: Distributed Energy Resources
WG 18: Hydroelectric power plants
JWG 25: Wind Power

Sample Use case: Wind power system
"Several clients connected either to an alarm concentrator handling alarms from a system of
identical distributed IED’s or directly to one specific IED. Some of the alarms are defined as
latched and all alarms are defined either with or without acknowledgement.
If a wind turbine is maintained and thus in service state, all alarms must still be captured and
exposed, but marked with an “in-service” flag for filtering (and not to be annunciated).
The IED’s may either be proprietary devices or comply with IEC 61850.
Domain: Common in wind-power domains."

Dangerous Situation in the European Electric Power System Caused by "frozen" Measurements

Measurements of power flow (Watts in export or import) are very crucial for Load Frequency Controller … wrong (i.e., “frozen”!) measurements have caused almost a big blackout in Europe in January 2019.
What happened: the measurement of power of the lines between two transmission systems (Germany – Austria) were frozen when the export value of 723 MW from Germany to Austria was measured (which was a result of 34 GW wind power generation in Germany). Later the wind power generation decreased to 4 GW … and the measurement (as input to the controller) many hours later still used the input value of 723 MW !!! In such a meshed power network it is unlikely that such a value is constant …

Oops … something went absolutely wrong!

Report by exception (on a value change as used for the above measurement) is great … as long as there are changes figured out and reported. A frozen value does not cause a change and thus no new value will be reported … No receiver should expect that the export power is constant (723 MW) for days!! The sensors may have worked fine … but the software and communication failed … on both sides (sender and receiver). A receiver should not trust that the software and communication is working fine all time.
Here are some measures to monitor the communication (by the receiver) to figure out if the communication is OK:

1. Ping (in case of TCP/IP) (if no response after some time: raise flag)
2. TCP Keep-alive (if no keep-alive message in t bigger keep-alive: raise flag)
3. Polling by receiver (if no response after some time: raise flag)
4. Periodic reporting (if no report in t greater period: raise flag)
5. In case of no message received in a configured time period (in case of using IEC 61850 Reporting) the receiver should check if the report control block is enabled and is using the correct configuration values like trigger option, …
6. Check if the sequence of received values are plausible
7. Use redundant systems (comm, …)
8. …

Check out the official Entso-E report (with links to more details):

https://www.entsoe.eu/news/2019/05/28/entso-e-technical-report-on-the-january-2019-significant-frequency-deviations-in-continental-europe/

This reminds me on the Boeing 737 MAX disaster … maybe a programmer left the vendor of the load frequency controller and hired with Boeing … I am kidding.

How many programmer or people that configure power control systems and communication systems that lack experience with complex systems like a plane or a power system. Where are the “grey-hair” experts that would tell you in minutes how to … ? They may enjoy the beach with warm water and sun shine – relax and spend the pension for ...

It is not sufficient to have no ideas – one should also be unable to implement them.

I expect that more of these problems will hit the street once we have far more control, monitoring and communication in the smart(er) grids of medium and low voltage. Note that the problem in January 2019 occurred at transmission level!! … where more resources (higher budgets) are available (in the past).

Have a great weekend – with power.

Omicron offers new ways for IEC 61850 Substation Automation System testing

Testing the automation, control, and SCADA communication in IEC 61850 Substation Automation System (SAS) is as time consuming as testing the protection – or often even more.

StationScout simplifies the testing and reduces the required effort significantly.

With its powerful functions, StationScout is a specialist for the whole lifecycle of a SAS – from engineering to continuous maintenance. The clear status overview provides ideal support for commissioning and maintenance engineers during the different tasks in Substation Automation Systems utilizing IEC 61850.

Key features:

Status overview: StationScout provides a clear overview of the substation, visualizing the communication according to IEC 61850 in SCL files, values and states in the substation.

Signal tracing: The communication diagram of StationScout allows for signal tracing, from the overview down to the detailed communication message attributes.

Automated testing: StationScout is able to re-use predefined test plans for an automated testing procedure.

Cyber security: The dedicated hardware of StationScout ensures cyber secure operation within the substation communication network.

Simulation: The powerful simulation features of StationScout simplify testing and commissioning. Missing IEDs and IOs can also be simulated.

Defining own names: IEC 61850 abbreviations are quite cryptic. Defining of own names in StationScout allows for comfortable asset handling.

Click HERE for detailed information about the StationScout (English)
Click HERE for detailed information about the StationScout (German)

CEWE Instruments Exhibits a new Meter with IEC 61850 Interface

CEWE Instruments exhibits at the Hanover Fair the Prometer 100 family of high-precision four-quadrant energy meters with advanced measuring, logging, power quality monitoring and data storage capabilities.
Prometer 100 supports flexible and modular communications options enabling integration with existing AMR/AMI/SCADA systems, and provides an upgrade path to future substation automation systems (SAS).

Logical Nodes supported: LLNO, LPHD, MMXU, MMTR, MHAI, MABT

Please note that the meter has been certified by the UCAIUG for IEC 61850 compliance.

Visit CEWE at Booth (B09, Hall 12) at the Hannover Messe (23.-27. April 2018)

Click HERE for more information.
Cliock HERE if you need a ticket for the fair in Hanover.

FMTP, NettedAutomation and other Experts Offer New Training Courses for Power System Automation, Protection, Smart Grid, and Security

FMTP Power AB (Uppsala, Sweden), KTH (Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm), Håvard Storås (Security expert), and NettedAutomation GmbH (Karlsruhe, Germany) have each long-term experience in the application of standards for protection and control as well in secure communication and SCADA applications.
FMTP and NettedAutomation in coopration with other senior experts offer the most comprehensive and vendor-independent education and practical training courses – they combine their knowledge and practical experience in the following areas:

1. Substation control and protection, system design, engineering, and testing
   (Mr Andrea Bonetti who worked for ABB, Megger, and STRI),
2. Smart Grid (Mr Lars Nordström, Director and Professor at KTH – Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm), 
3. IT, OT & Cyber Security
   (Expert Mr Håvard Storås) and 
4. Communication technology and SCADA ... market penetration and solutions(Mr Karlheinz Schwarz who worked for Siemens in the 80s and 90s):

We offer the following comprehensive training options:

Stockholm/Sweden
(English: Andrea Bonetti, Prof. Lars Nordström, Håvard Storås, and Karlheinz Schwarz): 

12-16 March 2018 (book 3, 4 or 5 days)

Click HERE for details

Karlsruhe/Germany
(English: Andrea Bonetti, Håvard Storås, and Karlheinz Schwarz):

23-27 April 2018 (book 3, 4 or 5 days)

Click HERE for details

Karlsruhe
(Deutsch: Karlheinz Schwarz):

14-17 Mai 2018
04-07 Dezember 2018

HIER für Details in Deutsch klicken.

LIMA/Peru: PROTECCION, CONTROL Y AUTOMATIZACION CON LA NORMA IEC-61850

Orientado a la proteccion, control y automatizacion de subestaciones electricas, haciendo uso de: GOOSE Sampled Values, SCADA y el lenguaje de configuracion SCL.

EI estandar IEC 61850 es aplicado desde hace varios anos en el diseno de nuevas subestaciones alrededor del mundo. Durante el seminario, los mäs experimentados y reconocidos ingenieros especialistas a nivel global le ensenarän como utilizar y aplicar la norma IEC 61850 en el diseno, supervision y control de subestaciones digitales para el sector electrico. Se harän aplicaciones präcticas utilizando herramientas de prueba, software e IEDs de diferentes fabricantes.

Lima/Peru
NM Lima Hotel
Av. Pardo y Aliaga N° 330
San lsidro 15073
Dei 27 al 30 de Noviembre del 2017.
Horarlo: De 09:00 a 17:30 horas.

Organized by: Nakama Solutions, FMTP, and NettedAutomation

Click HERE for the brochure.
Click HERE for the program.

IEC 61850: Training for Protection, Control, and SCADA experts

FMTP and NettedAutomation offer one of the most wanted

Training for Protection, Control, and SCADA based on systems according to IEC 61850:

10.-13. October 2017
Karlsruhe/Germany (just one hour south of Frankfurt International Airport)

We have a few seats available - one for you and maybe one for your colleague.

Click HERE for details and registration information.
Click HERE for further training opportunities.

The Cassandra Coefficient and ICS Cyper - Some Thoughts

Do you have a idea what "The Cassandra Coefficient" is all about and how it relates to ICS cyber security? Joe Weiss discusses the issues in a recent publication:

Cassandra coefficient and ICS cyber – is this why the system is broken

Brief extract from the publication:
Joe Weiss writes: " ... What I have found is that each time another IT cyber event occurs more attention goes to the IT at the expense of ICS cyber security. The other common theme is “wait until something big happens or something happens to me, then we can take action”. Because there are minimal ICS cyber forensics and appropriate training at the control system layer (not just the network), there are very few publicly documented ICS cyber cases. However, I have been able to document more than 950 actual cases resulting in more than 1,000 deaths and more than $50 Billion in direct damages. I was recently at a major end-user where I was to give a seminar. The evening before I had dinner with their OT cyber security expert who mentioned he had been involved in an actual malicious ICS cyber security event that affected their facilities. For various reasons the event was not documented. Consequently, everyone from the end-user, other that the OT cyber expert involved, were unaware of a major ICS cyber event that occurred in their own company. So much for information sharing."

My personal experience in this and in many other areas is: People tend to hide information instead of sharing information. I found many times that SCADA experts do not really talk to RTU people, substation automation or protection engineers ... and not at all to the people that are responsible for the communication infrastructure. Most engineers likely tend to focus on their (restricted) tasks and not looking at the SYSTEM and its lifetime. Am I contributing to solve the challenges to build a quite secure system - or am I part of the problem?

I repeat what I have said many times: Teamwork makes the dream work! Become a team player!

Click HERE for the publication.

This publication is worth to read ... some definition of what Cassandra Coefficient is could be found HERE.

Analysis Of The Malware Reportedly Used in the December 2016 Ukrainian Power System Attack

Senior experts of SANS ICS and E-ISAC have released a very good report:

ICS Defense Use Case No. 6:
Modular ICS Malware
August 2, 2017

This document contains a summary of information compiled from multiple publicly available sources, as well as analysis performed by the SANS Industrial Control Systems (ICS) team in relation to this event. Elements of the event provide an important learning opportunity for ICS defenders.

The sharing of this report is very much appreciated. It is very rare to get such a professional publicly available analysis about a significant and terrifying event in the control system world.

The report closes with this very important statement:

Defenders must take this opportunity to conduct operational and engineering discussions as suggested in this DUC and enhance their capabilities to gain visibility in to their ICS networks and hosts. The community must learn as much as it can from real world incidents and not delay; we expect adversaries to mature their tools and enhance them with additional capabilities.

I recommend you to study this document and get trained by the real experts - for the good of your country! Don't accept the decision of your HR ... not providing you the budget for training. Quite often HR managers believe that our systems are secure - no need for training on security, communication standards, etc.

Click HERE for the full report.

By the way, the SCADASEC blog (as a crucial platform for ICS defenders and other people) is a nice place to visit, discuss and learn issues related to the topics discussed in the paper.

IEC 61850, Sensors, and Cyber Threats

Sensors all over will be more important in the future: First to automate processes and second to monitor the automation systems.
The other day I found a very serious report on compromising automation systems under the title:

ICS cyber threats are morphing into compromise of plant functionality – do we have the right tools? 

The report by Joe Weiss is worth to read.

Click HERE for reading the complete report.

The discussion is about compromising an actuator (Valve, ...)  and let the physics do the damage!

Joe resumes: "Without sensor monitoring, it is NOT possible to see the precursor to these kinds of conditions until it is too late."

I have discussed the reported issues with an expert of valves in industrial process control applications. He confirmed that the cavitation (bubble or Wasserblasen) effect is known for long. But there are only a relatively few applications of (vibration) sensors installed to measure the noise produced by cavitation (see video at Youtube) to figure out that something is going wrong.

IEC 61850 has a bunch of models and services to support sensors:



and event reporting:



The quality attributes that come with all values could be used to flag that the value is valid or not. Additionally the sensor may have a health problem (figured out by a diagnosis routine) that can be reported using the TTMP.EEHealth.stVal attribute (EE - external equipment).

All models and services have to rely on good hardware and software! Or we get: Garbage in - Garbage out!

In our seminars and hands-on training courses we discuss these and many other topics in detail.

IEC 61850 Europe 2017 Conference and Exhibition in September 2017

The largest conference and exhibition on IEC 61850 and related topics invites you:

Multi-Vendor Multi-Edition IEC 61850
Implementation & Operation
3-Day Conference, Exhibition & Networking Forum
26-28 September 2017 
Novotel Amsterdam City
The Netherlands

Now firmly established as the European end-user forum for IEC 61850 experts and implementation leaders, this dedicated 3-day conference, exhibition and networking forum provides the information, inspiration, and connections you need to propel your IEC 61850 deployments further faster!

This year’s end-user driven programme explores the opportunities and challenges presented by sophisticated multi-vendor multi-edition IEC 61850 implementation, operation and maintenance. Utility experiences of advanced functionalities such as Process Bus, GOOSE Messaging, PRP & HSR, and Time Synchronisation are evaluated in the context of digital substations, as well as inter-substation, substation to SCADA systems, substation to metering infrastructure, and substation to DER.

Click HERE for the details of the event.

Attending this conference will give you a flavor of the market for IEC 61850 based systems.

After the conference you may have a lot of questions and my look for some senior experts that will guide you vendor-independently into the magic of the standard series.

Please have a look what kind of training FMTP and NettedAutomation offer you in October and December 2017 in Karlsruhe (Germany).

IEC 61850-90-9 Models for Electrical Energy Storage Systems

IEC 61850 Part 90-9: Use of IEC 61850 for Electrical Energy Storage Systems is progressing these days. The latest draft describes the basic functions of Electric Energy Storage System (EESS) and the information model of the interface to integrate EESS in intelligent grids and establish the necessary communication with standardised data objects. The next official draft is expected to be published soon.
This draft  is  connected  with  IEC 61850-7-420,  as  well  as  IEC 61850-7-4:2010, explaining how the control system and other functions in a battery based electric energy storage unit utilizes logical nodes and information  exchange services  within the IEC 61850 framework to specify the information exchanged between functions as well as information that individual functions need and generate. The first Edition of IEC 61850-7-420 provides an information model for batteries which was derived from the proposed data objects of part 7-4. Those data objects follow the requirements of batteries that are supposed to be used in substations as an auxiliary power system and as backup power supplies. For this purpose it was sufficient to only model the discharge function. Therefore it is necessary to prepare new logical nodes to be applicable for grid connected electrical energy storage systems.
This draft provides necessary information within 61850 based object model in order to model functions of a battery based electrical energy storage system as a DER unit. For intelligently operated and/or automated grids, storing energy for optimising the grid operation is a core function. Therefore shorter periods of storing energy with charging and discharging capability is also an indispensable function. Charging and discharging operations need to be modelled thoroughly and are in the focus of this technical report.

The draft lists several use-cases found in the real world:

UC1 Retrieve current status and capabilities of EESS
UC2 Set charging power to EESS
UC3 Set discharging power to EESS
UC4 Set Operating mode/ schedule  to EESS
UC5 EESS Alarm / Asset Monitoring

UC1 current capability /status information as an example:

1-2-1 EESS Generic Status Reporting
•  ES-DER on or off
•  Storage available or not available
•  Inverter/converter active power output
•  Inverter/converter reactive output
•  Storage remaining capacity (% and/or kW）
•  Storage Free capacity (% and/or kW）

1-2-2 EESS inverter /converter status
•  Current connect mode:  connected or disconnected at its ECP
•  Inverter on, off, and/or in stand-by status: inverter is switched on (operating), off
(not able to operate), or in stand-by
•  mode, e.g. capable of operating but currently not operating
•  DC current level available for operation:　there is sufficient current to operate
•  Value of the output power setpoint
•  Value of the output reactive power setpoint
•  Value of the power factor setpoint as angle (optional)
•  Value of the frequency setpoint (optional)

1-2-3 EESS (battery) internal status
 •  Amp-hour capacity rating
•  Nominal voltage of battery
•  Maximum battery discharge current
•  Maximum battery charge voltage
•  High and　Low battery voltage alarm level
•  Rate of output battery voltage change
•  Internal battery voltage
•  Internal battery current
•  State of charge (energy % of maximum charge level)
•  Reserve (Minimum energy charge level allowed, % of maximum charge level)
•  Available Energy (State of charge – Reserve)
•  Type of battery

1-2-4 Power measurements
•  Total Active Power (Total P): Value, High and Low Limits
•  Total Reactive Power (Total Q): Value, High and Low Limits
•  Average Power factor (Total PF): Value, High and Low Limits, and averaging time
•  Phase to ground voltages (VL1ER, …): Value, High and Low Limits

More to come ...

Update on OPC UA IEC 61850 Companion Specification

The OPC UA IEC 61850 Companion Specification of the OPC Foundation is focusing on gateways that are intended to be used to transfer information fully and accurately through gateways between devices that implement IEC 61850 or OPC UA respectively.

While IEC 61850 is focusing on electricity generation, transmission, distribution, distributed energy resources (DER), and consumption, OPC UA is dealing with non-electrical industrial process activities. It is clear that users require integration of the electrical aspects of a plant with non-electrical aspects.

The information models defined in IEC 61850 were focused during the late 90s on protection and automation of electric power systems. In the meantime the models provide a huge number logical nodes (e.g., STMP = Supervision of temperature with measurement, alarms and trips, or FPID = PID loop control) applicable in most non-electrical applications domains. The communication services (Reporting, Logging, GOOSE, Control, Setting Group Control, ...) are generic for any application domain.

OPC UA’s modelling capabilities is understood to make it possible to transfer data between different systems without losing the semantics of data. Thus the drafted companion specification document describes how IEC 61850 data can exchanged using OPC UA data modelling and services.

Click HERE for more information.

IEC TC 88 PT 25 is currently working on a technical specification: 

Wind turbines - IEC 61400-25-41: Communications for monitoring and control of wind power plants - Mapping to communication profile based on IEC 62541 (OPC UA)

Microsoft has provided an Open-Source OPC UA stack to OPC Foundation! 

The new OPC Foundation .NET reference stack, based on the new .NET Standard Library technology, was developed and optimized by Microsoft to serve as the complete platform-independent infrastructure, from the embedded world to the cloud. This new version is enabled on the following supported platforms: Various Linux distributions, iOS, Android, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows Phone, HoloLens and the Azure cloud.

Click HERE for the press news from the OPC Foundation.

Click HERE for accessing the open source reference stack at Gidhub.

Brief comparison of IEC 61850 and OPC UA:
Standard? Yes for both in IEC.
Available since? IEC 61850 for some 15 years; OPC UA for a few years.
SCADA support? Yes for both.
Real-time support? Yes in IEC 61850; OPC UA is intended to run on TSN (IEEE 802).
Security? Yes for both (IEC 61850 refers to IEC 62351).
Semantic? IEC 61850 has huge, still growing list of models; OPC UA has not yet semantics.
Configuration Language? IEC 61850 has SCL (System Configuration Language); OPC UA has no.
Conformance testing? Yes for both.
Support: By many big and small companies.
Open Source Stack? Yes for IEC 61850 (http://libiec61850.com); yes for OPC UA (from Microsoft, see above).