Four Additional Light Namespace Documents For IEC 61850 Series Are Available For Free Access

 Please note that the following four namespace documents have been published the other day:

Click HERE to access these four and the other 22 name space documents.

1. IEC 61850-90-9: Object models for electrical energy storage
2. IEC 61850-90-4: Network engineering guidelines for substations
3. IEC 61850-90-11: Methodologies for modelling of logics for IEC 61850 based applications
4. IEC 61850-7-420: Communications systems for distributed energy resources (DER) - Logical nodes

Enjoy!

How Many and Which Information Models are defined in IEC 61850?

I guess you have heard that IEC 61850 defines a lot of Information Models. Yes, You are right.

The models are managed exclusively by the corresponding working groups with the Enterprise Architect UML Tool (the UML data base is for internal use only). The model version:

UML model of 61850 (wg10built6-wg18built3-wg17built5-jwg25built2-tc17built1-tc38built1.eap)

comprises the following number of Logical Node Classes, Data Objects (Attributes), Enumerations and Abbreviations:



An excerpt from the UML modes looks like this:



The UML Model is the single source data base that is used for the extensions and maintenance of the model, as well as the generation of Word or PDF documents ... The PDF documents are sold by IEC and other organizations.

You may complain that the standards are not for free ... hmm ... BUT look: You can download the various Code Components for free.

Click HERE for the Code Component for IEC_61850-7-4.NSD.2007A2.light.zip (IEC 61850-7-4 2007A2 NSD light, see the IEC 61850-7-4:2010 for full legal notices). The full version has additionally the semantic descriptions of the models.

Example of Enumeration:


Example of excerpt of LN Class MMU:



Click HERE to see the list of all Code Components as per today ... more to come soon.

To my understanding you can model many required information generated and consumed by a huge number of applications in almost all application domains of automation in the electrical system and beyond.

As the above example of MMXU shows, you can use this LN Class wherever you have 3 phase AC system!! In a building heating system for the electrical values of a compressor or a fan or a pump or ... the blue sky is the limit for the applications.

Click HERE to learn about crucial details discussing the LN Class MMXU and how it can be applied ... you may have never expected this comprehensiveness of the MMXU.

Note that the 3 phase system was first (more than 100 years ago) - then we have put a facade in front of the measurement function which exposes the measurements as data objects of the class MMXU. The application has driven the class - not vice versa.

The current edition 2.1 models defined in IEC 61850-7-3 and 7-3 are listed in the contents tables of the preview documents. The following Preview documents (free access) for models of the edition 2.1 consolidated versions are available:

Preview IEC 61850-7-3 Edition 2.1
Preview IEC 61850-7-4 Edition 2.1

Example of 7-4 from the preview:



In case you find any error in the standards, please visit the Tissue Database:
https://iec61850.tissue-db.com/parts.mspx

The History Of The IEC 61850 Modelling

The standardization of IEC 61850 started in 1995 when the IEC TC 57 Working Groups 10, 11, and 12 had been setup. Later all projects have been moved to the Working Group 10 - that is still (very!) active today.
Prior to the new project proposal for IEC 61850 the EPRI UCA project developed core models for many signals and communication services. UCA used a simple table notation for defining "models".
The experts involved have discussed several options how to model the signals. In December 1998 the editors of the core documents (including myself) met in Ann Arbor (MI, USA).


We discussed modelling with ASN.1 or our own notation:



we were not quite happy ... then we discussed trying UML … walked across the street to the University bookshop to purchase some 10 Books about UML Modelling. I purchased several books, too:





… a senior development manager of protection relays was strictly against UML … he said, it will never be used for protection and automation. Some weeks later I met his engineers in their office … and saw that they used UML for developments …

Later I tried OWL with some success:



Experts involved in CIM (Common Information Models) used UML - with the SPARX tool Enterprise Architect (EA). It took several years before UML (and EA) was used to define all models of IEC 61850. Today (end of 2019) almost all models and other definitions are managed with the EA - it is a big success! The latest version comprises the following parts:


There are tools available to export parts of the model from EA as Word documents, html pages, pdf ...

Example of a model:



With the application of the SPARX EA we have a single source of all crucial definitions.

Note: The EA package "IEC61850Domain" is only available for the experts writing, publishing and maintaining the various standard parts.

Some exported documents (the so-called code components) are available for free access:
Click HERE for accessing these documents.

Thanks to the experts that have continuously pushed for using UML and EA. It took several years ... and it was not easy for engineers to use a formal language and tool to get where we are today.

These days the EA is used also for many other tasks: use cases, design state machines like for IEC 61850-90-16 (System management), ... IEC TC 57 has done a good job in using UML for CIM and IEC 61850. But another generation of engineers is needed to understand the full benefit of using UML.

IEC 61850 Series is Growing to a Total of 45 Parts

IEC 61850 (Communication networks and systems for power utility automation) is a unique standards series providing a consistent set of standards, draft standards and other IEC publications.

A total of 45 parts cover many application domains in the Power Delivery System. An additional five (5) parts are published under the number IEC 61400-25 (extensions of IEC 61850 for Wind Power).

Document types of IEC:
IS = Standard
TR = Technical Report
TS = Technical Specification

21 Parts are already officially published. 24 draft parts are under preparation. Several drafts will be officially published in 2015.

The list of all documents:

  

In order to keep the crucial contents (mainly models and services) of these parts consistent, IEC TC 57 WG 10, 17, and 18 have done a tremendous work in converting the crucial contents into UML documents. This allows to extend and maintain the models with support of tools. In future we will see standard documents automatically derived from the UML Models.

Congratulation to all people contributing to this great standard series IEC 61850!

Some 20 years after the IEC TC 57 has decided (in 1995) to write a new standard for substation protection and automation, we see a lot of interest in many different application domains.

In case you need help to understand the many different parts and how they could contribute to solve needs you are faced with today and tomorrow – let me know please.

Even IEC 61850 is a huge Standard Series – it must be accompanied by REAL APPLICATIONS and underlying network infrastructure. The 7 ISO/OSI layers are just a foundation for IEC 61850 – both together are used by applications:

The applications of IEC 61850 can range from a simple polling of a temperature measurement up to comprehensive Schedules to manage distributed energy resources.

By the way: Te cake was very tasty!

IEC 61850 Edition 1, 2, or 3 and UML modeling?

Several parts of IEC 61850 have been improved through a maintenance process for the recent years. New features have been added the recent years. But what are the differences?

NettedAutomation has analyzed the differences between Edition 1 and 2 of various parts in detail. Many experts all over have asked for a detailed analysis, presentation and discussion of the differences. The result is a new comprehensive module of the seminars (covers one or two days – depending on the needs). A few slides from the new module are shown below.

One of the crucial issues is that a specific part Edition 1 has been improved from day 1 of its publication by the tissue process. Additional features have been added.

http://tissue.iec61850.com

As of today we have parts with the old title and tag “Edition" 1”, with the new title and tag “Edition 1” and several parts with the new title and tag “Edition 2”:

A list of all published IEC 61850 parts can be found here.

As the slide exposes: There will never be an Edition 2 of the standard series IEC 61850 … some time down the road we will have parts tagged Ed1, Ed2, Ed3, Edx, …

In addition to the maintenance process, WG 10 has (after some 14 years) converted the models in IEC 61850 to UML. The UML is intended to serve as a development and maintenance tool in the future standardization process. The following picture exposes the two notations: table (left) and UML (right).

During the Editors’ meeting in Ann Arbor (December 1998) we discussed the use of UML before we published any information model !! It was a long way from first “ideas” and today’s UML model – as you can see.

 

The various parts tagged Edition 2 and the new UML models are presented and discussed during special training courses. The basics are also covered in the public seminars.

IEC 61850-7-2 Edition 2 approved

IEC 61850-7-2 Edition 2: "Communication networks and systems for power utility automation - Part 7-2: Basic information and communication structure - Abstract communication service interface (ACSI)" has been approved  for publication as International Standard Edition 2 on July 02, 2010.

This edition 2 adds some minor new definitions, corrects errors of the first edition and aligns the content with other parts, e.g., 8-1. Here is a list of the most crucial issues:

• class diagrams have been updated (the modeling method is quite close to an UML model)
• data types not required have been removed, new types have been added,
• errors and typos haven been corrected (see tissue database),
• substitution model has been moved to IEC 61850-7-3,
• service tracking for control blocks have been added; in edition 1 it was possible to treat control block instances in the same way as Data Objects. This has been changed - from a modeling point of view only. T
• the view concept (access restriction) will be implemented with the new work on role bases access (RBA) as part of IEC 62351-8,
• security issues are solved by the IEC 62351 series, and
• several terms have been harmonized with those defined in other parts

Part 7-2 contains the basic definitions of the models and the services:

UML model of IEC 61850

As you know, IEC 61850-7-x uses mainly a table notation for the many models. Using UML as an optional notation for the content of IEC 61850 and the harmonization of IEC 61850 and CIM has been discussed since the late nineties. ABB has recently provided a UML based model notation for IEC 61850.

The initial version of this model has been developed by ABB, Switzerland, Corporate Research for further discussion and maintenance in IEC TC 57 WG 10.

Click HERE to access the UML model.

IEC 61850 modeled with UML

The standard IE 61850 uses simple table notations and text description of the information models and information exchange services.

The working group 10 of IEC TC 57 discussed the use higher level modeling languages many times, e.g., UML (Unified Modeling Language) or ASN.1. The discussion will continue in a new project group within IEC TC 57:

"Web-based and structured access to the IEC 61850 information models"

The web based access to the IEC Component Data Dictionary (IEC 61360) is a good example of the benefit of web technologies for IEC standards.

A public available model for IEC 61850 using UML 2.0 is provided and maintained by Electricité De France R&D (Clamart/France). The current version accessible at the web is dated December 2006, Release 1.1

The scope of this model is the IEC 61850 part 7-2, 7-3 and 7-4 (First Edition) and its HTML format. Enjoy.

Excerpt of model: