Seven IEC 61850 Model Documents Published for Public CDV Comments

Please note that seven IEC 61850-7-xxx model documents have been published for CDV comments on 2026-02-13. The following documents are available for public comments until 2026-04-10:

IEC 61850-7-4 ED3
Communication networks and systems for power utility
automation - Part 7-4: Basic communication structure -
Compatible logical node classes and data object classes -
Core

IEC 61850-7-40 ED1
... Common part

IEC 61850-7-43 ED1
... Primary equipment

IEC 61850-7-44 ED1
... Instrument transformers

IEC 61850-7-400 ED1
.... Substation automation

IEC 61850-7-401 ED1
... Protection

IEC 61850-7-440 ED1
... Power quality metering

Enjoy!

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 ... 

„Lumpensammler“ in der Stationsautomatisierung mit IEC 61850 - Störmelder

EES (Backnang) bietet eine "super-einfache" Lösung zur Alarmierung von Störungen in IEC 61850 basierten Systemen:

"Neben den Informationen von Feld- und Schutzgeräten, fallen in Schaltanlagen zusätzliche Meldungen an, die an die Leittechnik übermittelt werden sollen. Diese Informationen sollen über die vorhandene Infrastruktur mit dem Protokoll IEC 61850 übertragen werden. ... 

1. Einbindung von Einzelmeldungen in die Stationsautomatisierung über IEC 61850
2. Integrierte Relaisausgänge zur Befehlsausgabe
3. Einfache Parametrierung über integrierten Web-Server
4. Zuverlässiger Betrieb durch störfestes Design und angepasste Signalverarbeitung
5. Hohe Funktionalität und Skalierbarkeit von 8 bis zu 192 Meldungen ..."

HIER kommen Sie zu weiteren Informationen.

Dieses Beispiel zeigt, dass IEC 61850 auch für einfache Aufgaben angewendet werden kann!

„Rag-man“ in Substations Applying IEC 61850 - Fault Annunciators

EES (Backnang, Germany) offers a nice solution for simple and easy alarming in IEC 61850 based systems:

"In addition to the information provided by the field and protection devices over IEC 61850, different single alarms incurr in switchgear stations, e.g. from the station supply switchboard section or general alarms like temperature monitoring or door contacts. ... 

1. Simple integration of fault annunciators into IEC 61850 structures – through copper or optical fibre connection
2. Integrated relay outputs for issue of commands
3. Easy parameterisation through integrated web-server
4. Reliable operation through immune design and adapted signal processing
5. High functionality and scalability from 8 up to 192 alarms ..."

Click HERE for additional information.

This product shows that IEC 61850 is applicable for simple and easy to use applications.

International Conference on Substation Equipment in Lyon (F); 22.-24. Nov 2023

Please note that the 7th European Conference on Substation Equipment (Matpost 2023) with the focus on 

Major infrastructure projects for a carbon-free world and their impact on Substation equipment 

will welcome you in Lyon (France) next week: 22.-24. November 2023.

Click HERE for the program.

There is also a paper presentation on IEC 61850 ... check the program.

IEC TC 57 Just Published Draft IEC 61850-90-20 On Redundancy

IEC TC 57 just published the first Draft IEC 61850-90-20 on System Redundancy:

57/2080A/DC
IEC TR 61850-90-20 ED1
Communication networks and systems for power utility automation –
Part 90-20: Guideline to redundancy systems

Excerpt from the Introduction:

"The paper “CIGRE B5-109: Redundancy challenges on IEC 61850 systems and Migration
Paths for IEC 61850 Substation Communication Networks” introduce redundancy concepts as
follows
“Device redundancy of substation control units may be required in order to increase the availability of the substation automation system at the station level. System level redundancy is achieved by hot-hot or hot-standby configuration of duplicated station units that need to exchange information to ensure data consistency as well as coordinated and safe operation.
IEC 61850 communications in redundant configuration of duplicated clients faces challenges how to ensure that database in both central station control units are synchronized and that no events are lost during the switchover from the primary to secondary IEC 61850 client.”
A proposed redundancy system consists of two IED entities forming a logic IED. One or more lower level IEDs, e.g. merging units or circuit breaker, delivering the input data for the IED entities and getting results from the IED entities. One or more higher level clients receives output data from the IED entities for supervision or HMI.
Additionally, a higher level IED might exist, which supervises the state of the redundant system. In this context this concerns especially the state of the IED entities, so that a failed IED can be detected and repaired before the second IED fails.
The communication between the redundant system application and the lower level IEDs takes place with IEC 61850, mainly based on IEC 61850-8-1(MMS) reporting and commands, for time critical functions with IEC 61850-8-1(GOOSE) and IEC 61850-9-2(SV).
The communication to station level clients based on IEC 61850 is typically MMS based for supervision, commands and settings configuration changes. Since MMS is acknowledged service, server and client are aware of each other and the client supervises the servers. If both redundant system IEDs are hot, the client might select which of them it takes for executing a service request."

The TC57 P-members are invited to submit comments to this draft by 2019-03-29 at the latest.

Please note:
The application domains that need redundant systems may be crucial (for some high voltage systems) but may not be applicable for most systems in the energy delivery domain. This document is really of interest for a small, special group of experts ... not everybody interested in using IEC 61850 for exchanging some signals may need to check that draft document.
One challenge with IEC 61850 is: Which subset out of a big standard series do I need to understand for my application - that means: YOU HAVE TO KNOW YOUR APPLICATION !!

IEC TC 57 Has Published New Work Proposal For IEC 61850-6-3

IEC TC 57 has just published a new work proposal for IEC 61850-6-3 proposed by the Chinese National Committee:

57/2075/NP
Communication networks and systems for power utility automation –
Part 6-3: Configuration description language for physical resource related to IEDs in substation network systems

CLOSING DATE FOR VOTING:
2019-05-03

Scope:
"The international standard defines the emerging requirements from physical resource description side to facilitate the design, system integration, test, fault analysis and commission, etc. during different stages when IEC 61850 is applied. It described how the physical resource information, such as IED’s dimension, communication port and optical connection, is to be modelled using the System Configuration Language (SCL) which is incorporated under IEC 61850. The application scenarios include but are not limited these mentioned stages.

Furthermore, IEC 61850-6-X helps to fill a gap and establish a relationship between logic function and physical resource information according to the existing IEC 61850 communication structure and configuration description language. The initial focus on application within substations, includes following cases:

• Physical information related to infrastructure in electrical substations, including cubicle, trench, optical, wire, etc.
• Physical information related to devices in electrical substations, including device dimension, amount model, physical port, etc.

The proposed international standard specifies a file format for describing dimension, communication connection port, optical wire, cubicle, trench related to IEDs within substations, and the relations between them and logical functions."

The NP notes that "In China, by the end of 2016, nearly 3,000 substations of 110 kV or above based on IEC 61850 had been under operation."

The standard series IEC 61850 is really growing in 2019, see extra post.

IEC 61850 Applications in Germany - DKE Documents Online for Free Download

The German National Committee of IEC TC 57 (DKE K 952) has many members of various Working Groups (in the national as well as in the international groups) that discussed the IEC 61850 standard series in general and particularly how the standards could be applied to substation automation and protection. One of the key issues is the modelling and configuration using SCL.

Several documents in German and in English are available:



Click HERE for the link to the above page.

Enjoy the documents.

ABB Presents the Benefits of Substation Digitalization with IEC 61850

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

Click HERE for the video.

LIMA/Peru: 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.

DTR IEC 61850-7-500: How to use IEC 61850 for SAS

IEC TC 57 has published a Draft Technical Report (57/1817/DTR; 84 pages) with guidelines on how to apply IEC 61850 for substation automation:

Communication networks and systems for power utility automation –
Part 7-500: Basic information and communication structure – Use of logical nodes for modeling application functions and related concepts and guidelines for substations

Voting closes 2017-02-17

This is a document that you MUST read when you are involved in substation automation.

This Technical Report of IEC 61850 describes the use of the information model for devices and functions of IEC 61850 in applications in substation automation systems but it may be used as informative input also for the modeling of any other application domain. In particular, it describes the use of compatible logical node names and data objects names for communication between Intelligent Electronic Devices (IED) for use cases. This includes the relationship between Logical Nodes and Data Objects for the given use cases. ...
Part 7-5 describes in examples the use of logical nodes for modeling application functions and related concepts and guidelines in general independently from any application domain respectively valid for all application domains in the electric power system (substation automation, distributed energy resources, hydro power, wind power, etc.). This part 7-500 describes in examples the use of logical nodes for application functions in substation automation including also line protection between substations. It implies also some tutorial material where helpful. But it is recommended to read parts IEC 61850-5 and IEC 61850-7-1 in conjunction with IEC 61850-7-3 and IEC 61850-7-2 first.

Training in Montreal (Canada): Mastering the complexity of IEC 61850

OPAL-RT TECHNOLOGIES invites you to the very crucial Training:

Mastering the complexity of IEC 61850

Adoption of the IEC 61850 standard in North America is slowly emerging for Transmission and Distribution markets, but an increasing number of implementations is expected, either through new installations or following cost-benefit assessments in modernization projects. Now is a good time to get in touch with the state-of-the-art technologies and standard that will guide present and future SAS design.

During this seminar, truly experienced, vendor independent engineers will help you see and understand how to use the core parts of the IEC 61850 standard applied in substation design, monitoring, protection and control applications. You will learn from senior protection engineers, how the protection system will improve and understand the crucial lessons learned since the first projects with IEC 61850 in 2004, all through interactive training, live demos and hands-on exercises.

Monday, 25 April 2016 at 9:00 AM - Friday, 29 April 2016 at 5:00 PM (EDT)

Le Nordelec - 1751 rue Richardson, Suite 4312 Montréal, QC H3K 1G6 CA

Click HERE for more details and registration information.

See you there.

Training offers by FMTP and NettedAutomation in 2016

Upcoming Open Seminars in English for SMART GRID, IEC 61850, PAC, Protection Automation Control:

Dammam, KSA Feb 2016

Stockholm, SE Mar 14-17 2016

Hong Kong, Mar 22-24 2016

Karlsruhe, DE Apr 5-8 2016

Stockholm, SE Sept 19-22 2016

Karlsruhe, DE Oct 10-13 2016

Click HERE for more details and registration information.

The seminars are a must for protection and substation engineers. We train you with real market devices - not just theory.

IEC 61850: THE crucial standard for Power Delivery System at EDF

PennWell Corporation reported earlier this year:
French utility giant EDF uses IEC 61850 for more than the standard's usual communication applications. Working with Schneider Electric, EDF has embraced a new approach for application modeling with IEC 61850 at its core.

For designing wind farms and photovoltaic (PV) systems, EDF employs this approach as early as the requirements-gathering level. The approach echoes one encouraged by Schneider Electric for using IEC 61850, an ambition the company translated into software engineering tools.

With its new approach to engineering smart substation automation systems, EDF places information flow at the center of project engineering. …

Any person or machine at EDF can read and understand that common language. The language enables information exchange among devices, people, departments, organizations, generations of stakeholders and the components and people involved in projects and systems.

… EDF's approach, based completely on the IEC 61850 standard, allows the capture of unambiguous requirements in a formal way.

Click HERE to read the full article.

More to come.

Security – Hacking a Car is round the corner

I guess you have read or heard the news about the Hackers that took remote control of a car on the highway. Two researchers exploited a zero-day vulnerability in a Jeep Cherokee’s Uconnect infotainment system to gain wireless control of the car.

Click HERE for the report.

You may be happy to drive a car manufactured “before Internet” hit the road. Now, you can see that the Internet can seriously “hit the road” !

Fortunately there are people that have expected this to happen. Some of them in the USA have already become active: The world’s first automotive cyber-security law may force automakers to deliver software updates and stop vehicle tracking as part of new IT security standards regarding connected cars in the US.

Click HERE to read more background information on the new US Senate Bill.

Click HERE for the Senate Bill.

The number of cars is much bigger than the number of substations – in the USA and in Europe … and all over. It is very likely (from my point of view) that the automobile industry will develop very soon international standards for the Security and Privacy in Cars. I expect that such a development will impact also the discussion on security for power delivery systems. The damage that could be caused by hacking a electrical delivery system could be much higher than turn-on the air-condition in a car.

I have experienced more than 30 years ago that the automakers are strong in introducing standards: The GM led the project MAP (Manufacturing Automation Protocols). Unfortunately manufacturers of automation equipment decided not to follow GM’s vision.

With regard to security, I hope that the automakers will help to bring more security to any kind of smart devices: in cars, in homes, in factories, in substations and …

In case of somebody taking over a car, it may be very dangerous to securely bring a (or even many) cars to a hold. But bringing a part of a power system to a hold means: BLACKOUT!! The “SECURE” state: “STOPPED” means: no power!

In case of a stopped car, you may take the next bus or just walk. A stopped power delivery system must be brought back to operation using again thousands of smart devices. Have you ever asked yourself how many smart network-connected computers are involved in power delivery systems? The number goes into the many millions …

Discuss security issues with your colleagues and your management. And maybe contract with experts …

Learn How Three Big U.S. Utilities Gained Experience With IEC 61850

The three well known U.S. utilities New York Power Authority (NYPA), Kansas City Power and Light (KCP&L), and Southern California Edison (SCE) have recently gained experience with IEC 61850 applications through various projects. Don Von Dollen (EPRI) and Erich Gunther (EnerNex) have given various answers on a very crucial question: “Why is IEC 61850 used all over the world – but not that much in the U.S.?”

The main outcome of their investigation is:

• Need extensive training to the workforce.
• Take advantage of help from other utilities and entities (consultants, …).
• Cross-vendor configuration is burdensome.
• Case studies and implementation profiles needed.
• Participate more in the UCAIug 61850 User Group
• Build a strong test-lab.

I fully agree with Erich!

The main reason for the slow progress in the U.S. is (from my point of view) related to the misinterpretation what IEC 61850 really is. Most people still believe that it is something like DNP4.0 – DNP3.0 plus … Which is totally wrong!

My experience – after some 4.000 – experts educated in IEC 61850 is this: Teamwork (of smart engineers) makes the Dream work!

Erich Gunther has presented a one hour webinar on the subject on July 14, 2015.

Click HERE to listen to Erich’s one hour presentation.
Click HERE for a copy of his slides [pdf].
Click HERE for a paper written by Erich on the subject [pdf]

The need of smart and well educated engineers is required independent of the approach:

1. Build turn-key substations (most big vendors support this) or
2. Utility-driven design, configuration, commissioning and test … and operation.

After last weeks 4 day training for a big South-American utility that applies the second approach, I see an increasing need for more vendor-independent training for protection and SCADA applications in substations.

We are here to help you in this regard:

NEW Training Opportunities for IEC 61850, IEC 61400-25, IEC 60870-5-104, and IEC 62351

Are You Looking for IEC 61850 Related Publications?

Here is a very interesting link to a database (GetInfo - The Portal for Science and Technology) that lists some 830 publications related to IEC 61850. You can search for authors and contributors.

Click HERE for a search on “IEC 61850”.

Can Power Outages impact the application of IEC 61850?

Yes – it can. Why? More often we receive reports on power outages caused by aging components of the grid. Upgrading many aged insulators, transformers, lines, … costs a lot of money! This money is not available for new technologies! Yes!

Yesterday it was an insulator that broke. The 220 kV line dropped to the ground and caused a blackout in the Washington (DC) and other areas. They were surprised that they “did not know why the outage rippled to far from the Ryceville switching station.”

Click HERE for a news message on yesterdays event at Ryceville switching station.

A similar incident happened back to 2009 in Auckland, New Zealand, which had a direct impact on IEC 61850 applications. Excerpt from a report on February 13, 2009:

“A power lines company is getting flak from the government after one of its conductors collapsed on to houses, trapping people in south Auckland. Amazingly, no-one was hurt when Transpower's monster 220,000 volt line came crashing down late on Friday morning.

The incident comes just 10 days after a Transpower transformer failed and plunged 75,000 Auckland residents and businesses into darkness for two hours.
"It's just totally unacceptable," says John Key, Prime Minister. "So look, there is going to be a massive expenditure on the upgrading of Transpower's grid and I'm making sure that that network is not only more reliable, but safer," he says.
Transpower is investigating the latest incident and feeling the political heat. "It's fallen into a residential area that's been built under the lines since the line was constructed in the fifties and sixties. But no, it's not good enough," says Kieran Devine, Transpower operations manager.”

Click HERE for the (old) news on the Transpower incident.

The Transpower incident had a direct influence on a project to get experience with IEC 61850 in substations. The project was stopped and my consultancy contract with Transpower was canceled soon after the incident happened.

The aging infrastructure is about to “eat” a good part of the funding for new technologies … including implementation of cyber-security measures. So it is no surprise that in some cases in the U.S we see routable protocols being replaced by serial links! This saves a lot of dollars.

Excerpt from a GarretCom paper on non-routable protocols:

“… When only non-routable protocols are used, substations with critical assets are networked
without requiring the use of Critical Cyber Assets (CCAs) at remote substations, as defined in CIPstandard CIP-002. Avoidance of “CCAs” means that the other CIP-002 to CIP-009 requirements do not
apply at these substations, which will likely defer significant implementation costs and ongoing
administrative overhead associated with CIP compliance.”

Click HERE for the complete report. See also HERE or HERE for more details on the NERC CIP on non-routable protocols.

How to get prepared using IEC 61850?

How to get prepared using IEC 61850? This is one of the crucial questions these days. Fortunately there is an increasing number of organizations that understand the challenge with the IEC 61859 technology – and get training and education.

The A.C. electric power system is a very dynamic physical system. Could you remember the exam on Electro Dynamics when you were a student? Oh, don’t remind you … it was (is) a horror for many electrical engineers – also for me. Even some 40 years later, we have the same challenge with the dynamics of the electrical system. It is more complex these days because of the integration of thousands and millions of “power stations” into the system. The need for a good base knowledge of the electric system COMBINED with the need to get familiar of using an increasing information exchange to monitor and control the electrical system will be the prerequisites for the future electrical engineers.

I  have seen several utilities, vendors, and institutes that are very serious when it comes to the use of IEC 61850 based IEDs in substation designs. A lot of money has been invested in building network simulation systems that can be used in a lab to test IEC 61850 based protection, control and remote monitoring schemas. This is the only way to prove the concepts for a particular application domain. The financial situation of many utilities does not allow to invest into a comprehensive lab.

The education of students is very crucial. I was quite happy to read about a new lab at the Victoria University (VU) in Melbourne. They are “about to become a cornerstone for integrating smart grid technology into Australia’s electricity supply market, with the development of one of the world’s only (if not first) Zone Substation Simulator Centre (VZSSC).

The Centre will simulate 66 to 22 KV substation environments (specifically a two-transformer zone substation with dual MV buses), control and protection schemes using the IEC 61850 technology standard for the automation and control designs.
Whilst a breaker and a half configuration will define the sub-transmission side, the protection and control setup will encompass a specific X & Y protection scheme.”

Congratulation to Dr Akhtar Kalam and Graeme McClure that succeeded in convincing enough people to spend money to make this happen!

There is another group of people that need education in IEC 61850: Senior and junior protection and electrical engineers that have long term experience in substation automation, protection, and remote access.

Many of these engineers may have heard some stories about the use of IEC 61850 for power systems – but may have only a chance to read the many parts of the IEC 61850 standards … good luck. Reading the standards? It is more efficient to get a training conducted by senior engineers that could help you to speed up.

Click HERE to see what two senior engineers provide: Protection engineer Andrea Bonetti (FMTP) and communication engineer Karlheinz Schwarz.

Click HERE for a full description of the lab at the Victoria University (VU) in Melbourne.

Additional information of using IEC 61850 and IEC 61499 in Distributed Power Systems .. zone substations …:

Distributed Power System Automation With IEC 61850, IEC 61499, and Intelligent Control (Neil Higgins, Member, IEEE, Valeriy Vyatkin, Senior Member, IEEE, Nirmal-Kumar C. Nair, Senior Member, IEEE, and Karlheinz Schwarz, Member, IEEE; IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SYSTEMS, MAN, AND CYBERNETICS, 2010)

Multi-agent Smart Grid Automation Architecture based on IEC 61850/61499 Intelligent Logical Nodes (G. Zhabelova, V. Vyatkin, Senior Member IEEE; IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 2011)

NettedAutomation’s regular IEC 61850 Courses extended to 2 + 2 Days

NettedAutomation GmbH has updated the course agenda early 2014. For 2015 the training will be upgraded: using real devices and solutions (including protection relays and testing equipment) to work with during the public 2+2 days general training course.

Reorganized, extended and improved program for the 2 +2 days course:

• 1 1/2 days Introduction and Basics
• 1/2 day Hands-on training on SCL

Hands-on training group 1 (SCADA):

• 1 day Configuring and using Server devices for monitoring and control
• 1 day Configuring and using Client devices for IEC 61850 and gateways

Hands-on training group 2 (Protection; parallel to group 1) - by Andrea Bonetti (FMTP):

• 2 days Impact of IEC 61850 on Protection (using real protection relays, ...

The next courses are scheduled for

05.-08. May 2015 Frankfurt (Germany)
13.-16. October 2014 Frankfurt (Germany)

Click HERE for details, program and registration information.