What is the Scope of the IEC 61850 Series?

The seven IEC 61850 CDVs published the other day (7-4, 7-4n and 7-4nn) use all the same Scope which starts:

Excerpt from:

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

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

1.1 General

This part of IEC 61850 specifies the information model of devices and functions generally related to common use regarding applications in systems for power utility automation. In particular, it specifies the compatible logical node names and data object names for communication between intelligent electronic devices (IED). This includes the relationship between logical nodes and data objects.

...

This standard and its direct counterparts (7-4, 7-4n and 7-4nn) are applicable to describe device

models and functions for:

• substation and feeder equipment,
• substation-to-substation information exchange,
• substation-to-control centre information exchange,
• power plant-to-control centre information exchange,
• information exchange for distributed generation,
• information exchange for distributed energy resources,
• information exchange for metering,
• information exchanged for hydro power plants, or
• information exchange for wind generation plants.

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

The main title of all parts of the series IEC 61850 is: 

Communication networks and systems for power utility automation 

This title is some how an indication of the scope.

IEC 61850 can be used everywhere as follows:

Communication networks and systems for power utility automation

The narrow scope to power utilities is sometimes used by people that do not like the IEC 61850 series ... or do not want to let people outside the power utilities to apply it ... 

But the crucial content of the many different parts is applicable in most automation domains ... where ever electric power is found - buildings, factories, ... 

A lot of Logical Nodes, e.g., STMP (Supervision of Temperatures) are useful for transformers, bearings, tanks, ... 

Lessons learned:

1. The various parts of IEC 61850 are applicable far beyond of the written scope - if you like it or not.
2. Often the discussion related to the scope is aimed to tell you, that IEC 61850 is not applicable outside power utilities (or substations) - trust me: it is applicable far beyond.

By the way, the discussion of scopes could be ridiculous: IEC 60870-5-104  defines:

"This part of IEC 60870 applies to telecontrol equipment and systems with coded bit serial data transmission for monitoring and controlling geographically widespread processes. It defines a telecontrol companion standard that enables interoperability among compatible telecontrol equipment"

IEC 60870-5-104 does not have substation automation (usually not a widespread area) in its scope - BUT, you know 104 is used as the communication inside many substations! Ok ... why not. But then also IEC 61850 can be used for telecontrol ... see IEC 61850-80-1, ...
In the wind power industry it was discussed some 20 years ago: IEC 61850 is not applicable for wind turbines, because wind turbines are not substations ... hahaha

Enjoy IEC 61850!

Substation to Control Center Communication: IEC 61850-90-2 TR Approved

The draft Technical Report for Substation to Control Center Communication has been approved by 100 %:

IEC 61850-90-2 TR:
Communication networks and systems for power utility automation - Part 90-2: Using IEC 61850 for the communication between substations and control centres

The final Technical Report will be published in December 2015. It provides a comprehensive overview of the different aspects that need to be considered while using IEC 61850 for information exchange between substations and control or maintenance centres or other system level applications. In particular, this technical report:

• defines use cases and communication requirements that require an information exchange between substations and control or maintenance centres
• describes the usage of the configuration language of IEC 61850‑6
• gives guidelines for the selection of communication services and architectures compatible with IEC 61850
• describes the engineering workflow
• introduces the use of a Proxy/Gateway concept
• describes the links regarding the Specific Communication Service Mapping (SCSM)

The wait for the application of IEC 61850 for information exchange between substations and control centers is over – starting in 2016, there is no excuse any more.

The scope of the TR is quite limited: Substation (only!) to control centers. The future energy delivery system (in which power is one aspect only) will build a hierarchy of aggregated information systems. There will be several layers of information management systems. This is required because of the use of IEC 61850 from power distribution all the way up to the transmission system operator. Information needs to be aggregated because of the sheer unlimited amount of information generated and consumed in the system.

It is likely that the TR 90-2 will be used for other vertical information flows between aggregation points and higher level systems. A subset of the TR 90-2 may be used for information exchange between a control center and a wind power plant.

The restricted scope in the TR 61850-90-2 is just toner on paper – like in almost all IEC 61850 parts. A server in the sense of IEC 61850 can expose any data from any application. IEC 61850 relies on ISO 9506 (MMS – Manufacturing Message Specification). As the name says: MMS (and IEC 61850) can be used for manufacturing and many other domains.

The main scope of IEC 61850 is constrained by the title: “… for power utility automation”. From a technical point of view we could leave only “… automation”:

“Communication networks and systems for automation” – BUT this would never be accepted by the IEC officials. Automation as such is not the scope of IEC TC 57.

MMS is not restricted to “Manufacturing” and IEC 61850 is not restricted to “power utility automation”.

Draft IEC 61850-90-2 for Substation to Control Center Communication published

The substation (or power plant or …) to control center communication is historically based on hundreds of protocols. Among those you will find also protocols like IEC 60870-5-101, IEC 60870-5-104 or DNP3. The original scope of IEC 61850 was (politically) restricted to substations. From a technical point of view it was expected from the very beginning of the work on IEC 61850 that it could be used also for this and many other use-cases.

After several years of work on the official document it is now available for final vote:

57/1578/DTR (164 pages):
IEC 61850-90-2 TR Ed.1
Communication networks and systems for power utility automation –
Part 90-2: Using IEC 61850 for the communication between substations and control centres

The voting ends on 2015-07-24

This document is very important for the communication with control centers. It covers crucial aspects:

1. Information modeling (proxy/gateway),
2. Information models (use of existing models and extensions)
3. Configuration language and engineering,
4. Information exchange services (redundancy, …)
5. Security aspects

for the following use-cases:

1. Telecontrol
2. Synchrophasor
3. Disturbance
4. Counting
5. Power Quality
6. Asset
7. Parameter configuration

The document contains many examples that help to understand the different use-cases.

This document closes one crucial gap in the information exchange of many different systems, e.g., substations, power plants, hierarchical control centers, with control centers.

The most crucial aspect is the application and extension of SCL (System Configuration Language – IEC 61850-6).

Several useful extensions are defined, e.g., the link between a proxy/gateway model and the original model. To support end to end testing through the Proxy/Gateway functional links between the data objects in the Proxy/Gateway server and the original source of information in a substation IED can be expressed as the following example shows:

<LN lnClass="MMXU" lnType="MMXU" inst="1">
   <Private type="eTr-IEC61850-90-2">
      <eTr-IEC61850-90-2:ProxyOf externalScl="Substation" iedName="IED2" ldInst="MEAS"
      lnClass="MMXU" lnInst="1"/>
   </Private>
</LN>

Links can be created on each level of the data model using the element:

eTr-IEC61850-90-2:ProxyOf

This new part contributes to the vision of a SINGLE seamless information exchange solution for the whole domain of power delivery (generation, transmission, distribution, use).

Draft TR IEC 61850-90-2 Substation to Control Center Communication published

The Draft IEC Technical Report: IEC TR 61850-90-2 – Use of IEC 61850 for the communication between substations and control centres

has been published under 57/1507/DC dated 2014-09-26

This technical report provides a comprehensive overview of the matters that need to be
considered in order to use IEC 61850 for information exchange between substations and control or maintenance systems.

Why does Security often have a low priority?

During a conversation with a manager of a vendor of Energy Management Systems (EMS) today, I was surprised hearing that they offered a training course on Security measures in 2013 – but had to cancel the course because of too less registrations! Could that be true in 2013?

Here is some information on security measures easy to read and understand – maybe hard to implement:

Whitepaper
Anforderungen an sichere Steuerungs- und Telekommunikationssysteme

White Paper
Requirements for Secure Control and Telecommunication Systems

Click HERE for the bilingual document [pdf]

There is also a companion document (in German) available that gives further guidelines on how to apply the requirements for control center level systems, for communication infrastructure level, and for substations and RTUs:

“Anforderungen an sichere Steuerungs- und Telekommunkationssysteme
Ausführungshinweise zur Anwendung des BDEW Whitepaper”

These requirements are mandatory for vendors!!

Click HERE for the document [pdf, DE].

Every expert in the energy automation business should read, understand, and apply these requirements.

On page 58 you can read (in German):

“Entsprechend den technischen Möglichkeiten sollten in allen Bereichen standardisierte IEC-Protokolle angewendet werden. Der private Bereich dieser Kommunikationsprotokolle sollte nach Möglichkeit nicht verwendet werden.
Eine Verschlüsselung der Protokolle nach IEC 62351 sollte durch den Betreiber geprüft werden, wobei ggf. auftretende Einschränkungen bei der Fehlerdiagnose sowie die notwendige Infrastruktur und Prozesse zur Schlüsselverwaltung berücksichtigt werden sollten.
Dort, wo aktuelle Systeme und Geräte noch nicht die Möglichkeit der Verschlüsselung nach IEC 62351 bieten, sollte die Fernwirkübertragung daher auf den unterlagerten Netzwerkebenen geschützt werden, z.B. durch Nutzung von VPN-Technologie oder SSL/TLS-Tunnelung.
Insbesondere für IP-basierte Protokolle sollten entsprechend sichere Netzwerkstrukturen vorgesehen werden (siehe 2.3).”

By the way, the whitepaper can be used by English speaking experts to learn German – and vice versa ;-)

Deutsche Gasversorgung nutzt Profil für IEC 60870-6 TASE.2

20 Jahre nach der Veröffentlichung der Normenreihe IEC 60870-6 TASE.2 (ICCP) ist das Thema TASE.2 bei der deutschen Gasversorgung immer noch hochaktuell! Das wird sicher auch für die nächsten 20 und mehr Jahre so sein!

IEC 60870-6 TASE.2 basiert auf derselben Basistechnologie wie IEC 61850 und IEC 61400-25: MMS (Manufacturing Message Specification, ISO 9506). MMS ist aus dem MAP-Projekt Mitte der 80er Jahre hervorgegangen.

Der DVGW-Arbeitskreis „Standardisierung des Informationsaustausches zwischen Dispatchingzentralen“ empfiehlt für den Austausch von Prozessdaten den Einsatz des „Telecontrol Application Service Element Two“ (kurz TASE.2).

Die Spezifikation des TASE.2-Standards zum Einsatz zum Prozessdatenaustausch zwischen Leitzentralen der Gaswirtschaft sowie einen Leitfaden zur Anwendung finden Sie in der DVGW Gas-Information Nr. 18 "Prozessdatenaustausch zwischen Leitzentralen der Gaswirtschaft auf Basis von TASE.2" , Ausgabe Februar 2012.

Der Leitfaden gibt einen Überblick über die wichtigsten Merkmale und Funktionalitäten von TASE.2 und die konkrete Anwendung von TASE.2 im Extranet der Gaswirtschaft. Der Leitfaden kann auch als Profil verstanden werden. Von der Vielzahl der Möglichkeiten der TASE.2 werden die Definitionen ausgewählt, die für den Anwendungsbereich zu verwenden sind – um einen hohen Grad an Interoperabilität zu erreichen.

Hier klicken, um die DVGW Gas-Information Nr 18 herunterzuladen [pdf, nur lesbar]. Eine druckbare Pdf-Version kann erworben werden.

Vor 15 Jahren haben die an der Normung beteiligten Experten den folgenden Report veröffentlicht:

etz-Report 32
Open communication plattforms for telecontrol applications:
benefits from the new standard IEC 60870-6 TASE.2 (ICCP)

Einige Exemplare des etz-Reports 32 stehen noch zur Verfügung und werden kostenlos abgegeben.

Die hier beschriebene Profil-Bildung sollte auch für IEC 61850 in anderen Anwendungsbereichen zum Vorbild dienen! Dafür werde ich mich verstärkt einsetzen.

IEC 61850-90-2 for the Communication With Control Centers

The Communication With Control Centers (from substations, power generation stations, and other sites) is usually based on IEC 60870-5-101/-104 or DNP3. The new part IEC 61850-90-2 will describe how IEC 61850 can be used for the above needs.

Experts from ERDF, Siemens, Solvay and RTE have published a paper that describes requirements, concepts and practical experiences related to the communication with control centers:

“Substation to control centre communication based on IEC 61850: requirements, concepts and practical experiences” (Cigre 2012)

SUMMARY
”Featuring object-oriented data models and a standardized configuration language, IEC 61850 represents the state-of-the-art communication standard for substation automation systems. On the other hand, the control centres increasingly promote object-oriented data models and standardized interfaces for data exchange based on IEC 61968 / IEC 61970 (CIM – Common Information Model). For the interconnection of substations and control centres the use of generic signal-oriented communication protocols i.e. IEC 60870-5-101/-104 or DNP3 is still current practice. In order to overcome the limitations of those legacy protocols in terms of data conversions, elaborated data exchanges and proprietary configurations and to foster the use of a seamless object-oriented communication, IEC TC57 is extending the current IEC 61850 specification to close the gap between substations and control centres. The paper gives an introduction into the topic, presents the relevant use cases and derived
requirements. Furthermore it discusses communication and modeling aspects in regards of the use case specific requirements. These concepts are evaluated against industrial power system operator needs. Foreseen consequences for standardization and practical realization of projects are identified.”

The report concludes:

“The experience from projects and systems in operation have proven the benefits of IEC 61850 substation to control centre communication.”

Click HERE for the full paper [pdf]

Progress in publishing IEC 61850-90-2 Substation to Control Center Communication

The IEC TC 57 WG 19 is working on the final draft Technical Report for the communication between Control Centers and underlying systems like Substations, Power Plants, and other applications:

IEC Draft TR 61850-90-2:

COMMUNICATION NETWORK AND SYSTEM FOR POWER UTILITY AUTOMATION –
Part 90-2: USING IEC 61850 FOR THE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN SUBSTATIONS AND CONTROL CENTRES

Big utilities are waiting for the publication of this part. They are looking for a seamless communication at various levels.

This technical report provides a comprehensive overview of the different aspects that need to be considered while using IEC 61850 for information exchange between substations and control or maintenance centres or other system level applications. In particular, this technical report:

• Defines use cases and communication requirements that require an information exchange between substations and control or maintenance centres
• Describes the usage of the configuration language of IEC 61850‑6
• Gives guidelines for the selection of communication services and architectures compatible with IEC 61850
• Describes the engineering workflow
• Describes the links regarding the Specific Communication Service Mapping (SCSM)

The utility industry is waiting for the final version. Today, an expert of a big utility stated the following: “From my view, having the alternative to IEC 60870-5-104 and IEC 61850-90-2 for the communication between the substation and the control center my recommendation will be in favour of the 90-2 which allows you to use all 61850 services available comparing with 104 which is more restricted.”

I fully agree with that statement.

By the way, an easy to implement com.tom WEB-PLC based gateway from IEC 61850 (for the down-ling from a gateway) to IEC 61850 (for the up-link to a control center) will be shown during the Hannover Messe next week (07-11 April, hall 13 booth C35/7):

The gateway/proxy server provides all crucial features of IEC 61850.

I look forward to showing you the gateway – meet you there.

The Most Concrete Control Room Flooding

Have you ever seen a control room flooded by concrete stuff: wet concrete!

Three rows of relay equipment were submerged in the concrete click HERE for a
Report and HERE for number of pictures. Where: The other day in London’s Underground.

This concrete could extend the life time of the relay control room by decades … ;-)

It just could happen.

Keep all doors and back-doors closed – not only the firewall.

IEC 61850 ready for VHP-Ready (Virtual Heat and Power Ready)

Vattenfall Europe New Energy GmbH and Vattenfall Europe Wärme AG seem to be ahead of many other utilities in implementing “virtual Power Plants”. They have set a standard on how to use renewable energy in a virtual power plant. The information exchange is realized with two IEC TC 57 standards: IEC 60870-5-104 (Fernwirktechnik) and IEC 61850-7-420 (DER).

Vattenfall is one of the leaders of the implementation of virtual power plants. The concept is called: VHP READY – Virtual Heat & Power Ready.

Their objective is by end of 2012 to provide their services to 150.000 housing units (with some 500 CHP or heat pumps) communicating with a Vattenfall control center. By 2013 they expect some 1,000 CHP or heat pumps providing heat and electric power to some 200.000 housing with an electric capacity of 200 MW.

The requirements document lists a total number of signals of 40:

• 8 binary status signals,
• 17 measurements and calculated values,
• 5 metered values, and
• 10 control points.

Requirements document referring to IEC 60870-5-104 and IEC 61850 can be downloaded [German, pdf, 23 pages, 360 KB]

VHP READY – Virtual Heat & Power Ready

Vattenfall virtuelles Kraftwerk

Several other projects are under way in Germany to implement a similar approach. In one project there is already a plan to define (and possibly standardize) a specific profile (subset) of IEC 61850-7-420. Such a profile would represent the above some 40 signals – a very simple set of models that could easily be implemented in an IEC 61850 IED like the Beck IPC IEC 61850 com.tom:

More information on Beck IPC IEC 61850 com.tom.

Basic component for IEC 61850: the IPC@CIP

Download the discussion about benefits using Beck’s ready-to-go solutions with IEC 61850 [pdf, 2.3 MB, 18 pages]

IEC 61850 in the U.S. – A Personal View of IEC 61850

Scott Olson (POWER Engineers) investigated recently to figure out the situation of the application of IEC 61850 in the U.S.: He found IEC 61850 on the radar screen!

In his report (A personal view of IEC 61850) he wrote early January 2012 that IEC 61850 is “More Than a Protocol”. Yes – it is much more than a protocol. It is not something like “DNP4” or “IEC 60870-5-105”. The standard series IEC 61850 provides a bunch of definitions applicable in many different subsets – there will never be an implementation that implements the whole standard series! Never ever.

Some explanation on basic concepts of the standard series IEC 61850 follow (before we have a closer look into Scott Olson’s report):

IEC 61850 provides models of real world information (status, measurements, and control points, settings, …) for many different application domains. The following slide shows an example of a model: XCBR – circuit breaker of a real substation.

Another area is the system configuration language (SCL) that describes many aspects of devices and the whole system. Third, there is the communication shown in the top left corner. The communication defines services. These services are realized by protocols. The protocols are comprising TCP/IP based client-server communication and Ethernet based real-time communication (GOOSE and sampled measured values – sensor-data).

Protocols are needed – the crucial issues are models and configuration language.

Some of the services that communicate the state-changes of the circuit breaker are as follows:

Is it worth to compare the protocols of various standards? Check the following table to figure out what the left side has to offer … and what the standards on the right have:

IEC 61850 is mainly focusing on crucial aspects of the many applications and on the system – system means: what to communicate, from where to where, how to communicate, when, … how to configure systems and devices, how to document requirements and systems, …

A remaining question is: What is most important to look at or to implement or to apply? It depends. From a device point of view it is absolute important to have the communication services and protocol – and application program interface (API) – implemented. This is required in TWO devices – the server, that provides the models, and the client that reads values or receives spontaneous reports:

From a application point of view it is crucial to look at the models!! ;-)

The models should be discussed independent of ANY protocol!!! Many people have understood that the models, services and protocols of IEC 61850 are all independent of each other – that is one of the crucial benefits! That is the reason why IEC 61400-25-4 (Wind Power application of IEC 61850) defines the mapping of process values (the signal lists) and simple services to DNP3 and IEC 60870-5-101/104. Because the models, services and configuration language are independent of the protocols.

And also note that the use of IEC 61850 is first of all intended for the substation automation and power generation … finally it may be used (in the long term) in the communication with control centers.

Back to the crucial lessons Mr Olson and others have learnt:

He writes: “We received a great email from one of our readers, who reminded us that there was a difference between a standard and a protocol—the latter being a component of the former—and that it was possible to implement IEC 61850 protocols without going all out to implement the standard.

"For example," our reader offered, "61850 GOOSE messaging may be used between IEDs to eliminate physical wiring and increase speed of interaction between IEDs while continuing to use DNP to communicate upwards to SCADA and higher-level systems where slower communications updates are acceptable.

It was such a great point to make: The migration to the IEC 61850 standard does not force the absolute replacement of protocols that are already in place. Solutions can be implemented that allow parts of 61850 to be added to the network while the legacy protocols continue to be used over the same network. For example, station bus protocol (IEC 61850-8-1) could be used to simplify the
interface between IEDs, human-machine interfaces (HMIs), etc. within the substation network while continuing to use DNP interface to SCADA. As process bus (IEC 61850-9-2) devices become readily available, the opportunity to eliminate copper wiring between current transformers (CTs) and IEDs could provide tremendous …”

The lesson that everybody should learn soon (or should have learnt): IEC 61850 could be implemented in many different subsets for even more simple to complex applications. I hope that at the end of 2012 the universe has understood that the standard series IEC 61850 is more than just a protocol – it goes far beyond DNP3, IEC 60870-5-101/104, even beyond OPC and OPC UA! It’s a system-supporting solution.

By the way, this blog is visited by many experts from North America. It is likely that Mr Olson’s lesson will be read by many U.S. people.

Click HERE for the full “personal view”.

In a open job description for an Automation Engineer in Rochester (New York) I just read today (2012-01-28) the following:

Requirements:
MUST HAVE
…
Knowledge of digital projection
Knowledge of IEC 61850
Knowledge of communication protocols- DNP
Know SCADA systems manufacturers and equipment
…

IEC 61850 and protocols are two things!

“Visit” a U.S. Power Grid Control Center

The New York Times provides some information about the work in Control Centers of the U.S. Power Grid … quite interesting information.

Click HERE for the article.

If you want to apply for a job managing the North American power grid, you have to answer communication related questions like this (from NERC):

6. Standard COM-001-1, encourages “redundant and diversely routed” telecommunications facilities. Why "would “diversely routed” facilities be encouraged?

1. So communications can be simultaneously sent and received over the redundant paths.
2. So as not to create a monopoly for one particular telecommunication service.
3. So more neighboring systems can tie into the telecommunications network
4. So one specific problem could not eliminate redundant facilities

If you would answer with 2. … you may … hmmm … ;-)

Click HERE for this and more questions.

Sensors in Smart(er) Grids Not Only For Electrical Measurement

Smart Grid (condition monitoring) Sensors may detect faulting fuses, insulators, conductors, transformers, as well as fires, ice, water level, floods, oil spills & air pollution conditions and and …

Myriads of sensors will be installed in the context of Smart(er) Grids the years to come.

Click HERE for a 10 minute video on various use cases.
Click HERE for a roll-out of sensors in a distribution network. 
Click HERE on a discussion “How many protocol interfaces can we afford?"
Click HERE for a project where IEC 61850 is used for exchanging sensor data.

With IEC 61850 – one ne or the other – it is possible to let all sensors speak a SINGLE LANGUAGE. Intelligent sensors may speak IEC 61850 integrated in the sensor itself, or the sensors may communicate to an aggregation device (like an RTU) that provides IEC 61850 connectivity to the next level of monitoring and so on.

Click HERE for the IEC 61850-7-4 Ed2 Logical Node STMP (Temperature Supervision).

Major German RTU Vendor implements IEC 61850 instead of phased-out model IEC 60870-5-101 and 104

The IDS company based in Ettlingen (Germany) offers a gateway to collect data from many underlying protocols and converts them into IEC 61850 Models for the communication with control centers. They wrote in a recent publication that the classical RTU protocols IEC 60870-5-101 and –104 are phase-out solutions for the communication with control centers. One crucial issue they highlight is the semantic information models and self-description services defined in IEC 61850.

The same company was a very strong supporter for using IEC 60870-5-101 and –104 for the communication with control centers – and partly within substations. What I see these days: More and more people are changing their mind!

The protocol gateway (which is a server) uses for the uplink to the control center IEC 61850 information objects and web services according to IEC 61400-25-4 Annex A for the protocol. This combination (IEC 61850 models and IEC 61400-25-4 mappings) is technically feasible. Formally it is not defined in any standard!

That is why the gateway (server) cannot interoperate with any IEC 61850 client. It is a product that can communicate with a client according to IEC 61400-25-4 Annex A only.

The first reason they provided why they did not use MMS is as follows: MMS would require to have permanent TCP and MMS connections maintained! That is true for substation automation, where short reaction times for crucial spontaneous event reports are required. If the required reaction is in the seconds, there is no reason why a permanent connection should be required! MMS does not require permanent connections! A MMS client can close the connection as soon as a service is completed.

Click HERE for the paper published in the etz magazine [German only].

It is also important to know that (to my knowledge) most vendors implementing IEC 61400-25 are using the mapping according to IEC 61400-25-4 Annex C (MMS, IEC 61850-8-1): Bachmann, Beckhoff, Ingeteam, Siemens, …

Finally: a new work item has been proposed to IEC TC 57 (home of IEC 61850) to standardize a web service mapping as IEC 61850-8-2. The question is now: Which solution should be chosen or developed? Three candidates are already discussed and proposed for further investigation:

1. DPWS (Device Profile Web Services)
2. OPC UA WS
3. IEC 61400-25-4 Annex A (as a starting point)

Nobody knows which solution will finally be standardized for IEC 61850 and how long it will take. There may be additional candidates proposed during the official ballot on the new work item once it is out for ballot … may be by end of 2011. Hopefully we will see a single solution being published in 8-2. Nobody knows.

Having multiple standards for the mappings means: split the market in non-interoperability domains!

Click HERE for a further a discussion on web services.

Process and Factory Automation – And Electric Power Automation?

The Process and Factory/Manufacturing Automation domain is quite well developed since the nineties. Many communication solutions and standards have been developed since the MAP days in the eighties. The Automation of Electric Power Systems has been progressed independently of most other domain – maybe because of the fear of the danger of the high voltage!?

Usually there is very little exchange of information between the domain of Electric Power Automation and other areas. Also in the standardization world there is very little cooperation between these domains … with a few exceptions: IEC 60870-6 TASE.2 and IEC 61850 (standards for Power Systems) are using a Manufacturing specific communication solution: Manufacturing Message Specification (MMS, ISO 9506). On the other side IEC 61850 is referring to the Redundancy standard developed for Factor Automation (IEC 62439 – developed in cooperation between experts from IEC TC 65 and TC 57).

More and more experts are understanding the need to exchange information between all three domains. In the future it will be quite crucial for the Process and Factory/Manufacturing Automation domain to get information from the Power Automation systems – in order to use the electric power more efficiently!

Fortunately there is an easy way to retrieve the information from the Power Automation to an other domain that uses power: IEC 61850.

At the ABB Power and Automation Conference in Orlando, “ARC analyst Barry Young said industry is the number one U.S. consumer of energy by end use sector, followed by transportation, residential and commercial entities.
Process heating (fired heaters) and machine drives are the two biggest energy consumers in the manufacturing sector, and represent the best areas for energy savings opportunity.
Savings as high as 10 percent can be realized with no major investment, said Young, but a major roadblock exists. “Automation and electrification are separate islands, and operators have no view into the power side. They cannot identify or take advantage of energy savings,” he said. …

For 49 percent of companies, energy is not part of active process control. “IEC 61850 is an Ethernet-based solution that provides tight integration between automation and power systems,” said Young. “It is the fieldbus for electrical [systems]. Adoption, however, has been slow due to the learning curve.”” … Hm, it is much more than a fieldbus!!

Click HERE for the report from the ABB conference.

It is easier to look into the Power Automation System (with a single solution: IEC 61850) than into the other systems (with the many many field busses in IEC 61158 …).

Want to look into the Power Automation System? Just use a simple IEC 61850 DLL (Dynamic Link Library) and a very simple client software that uses the DLL … and talk to an IEC 61850 compliant power protection or control device:

Click HERE to let YOUR Application speak IEC 61850 in hours.

SCADA Systems Benefit from IEC 61850 - Test it on your own

Survalent Technology (MISSISSAUGA, ON), reported the completion of the Princes' Islands IEC 61850 based SCADA system project for Ayedas Energy Distribution Company that serves more than 1.8 million customers on the Asian side of Istanbul (one of Turkey's largest utilities).

"The project was implemented using IEC 61850 protocol for electrical substation automation, and communicates with 47 SEL protection relays."

""Being able to run our SmartHMI software on the SEL 3354 platform allows customers to take advantage of the features of IEC 61850," states Bijana Dimitrievska, General Manager, Survalent Europe. "IEC 61850 allows protection and control functionality in the substation to be modeled into different logical nodes, and grouped under different logical devices. This saves considerable time in implementing new protection devices because you do not have to map device points to SCADA points as in the case of DNP protocol.""

Click HERE for the complete news release.

Click HERE for an example of a typical logical node (MMXU) for electrical characteristics (current, voltages, frequency, active power, ...).

Following you find a brief tutorial explaining why you could save "considerable time in implementing new devcies".

You can specify a typical LN MMXU type for your project and re-use this type in any protection or control device. A new protection device added in the future will provide the same model!! There is no need for new points mappings. The LN type could formally specified in an SCL DataTypeTemplate (IEC 61850-6).

Here is a special DataTypeTemplate (I just designed for this post) with phase voltages (PhV) and frequency (Hz) only: lnType="MyMMXU-Type_0" (see below):

The logical device "Measurements" uses one or more instances of this lnType:

<LN lnClass="MMXU" inst="1" prefix="" lnType="MyMMXU-Type_0"/>

representing MMXU1 (the first instance). The hierarchical model looks like this:

The same LnType can be used for devices from any vendor ... from a SCADA point of view all measurements (Hz and PhV) of all devices have the same structure and names. The values have to be mapped internally in the devices to the real data values of the devices' applications (encapsulated/hidden).

A SCADA system would need mainly to know the IP address. The LD names and LN instances could figured out by retrieving the self-description from the device. In our example the device would respond: I am a device that contains one LD "Measurements" with a LN "Measurements"; the LN has a DataObject "Hz" and a DataObject "PhV" with "phsA", "phsB" and "phsC".

Or the SACDA system just reads the SCL file to get the model. The SCL document of the model of the IED can be used to simulate this device ...

The IEC 61850 Evaluation Kit provided by SystemCorp could be used to easily implement this (or any other) model, create a server and a client running under Windows. And use the services: GetDaaObjecValues, Reporting, GOOSE ... It is just that easy.

If you want to expose emulated or real voltage values through IEC 61850 you have just to emulate them in your server application or bind them to real values you have on your PC. The application software of the kit comes in exe and source code ... you can start right away to get your data exposed in IEC 61850. For six months FREE evaluation. The kit has two clients (C and C#) and a server (C).

Click HERE for a link to download the evaluation kit. Enjoy!

Click HERE for a comprehensive set of slides on the IEC 61850 Evaluation Kit with step by step explanation on how to use the various tools [pdf, 2 MB]

New PAP16 to deal with Wind Plant Communications according to IEC 61400-25

The NIST Smart Grid Priority Action Plan (PAP) has been extended by the PAP 16 "Wind Plant Communications".

Motivation for the new PAP:

"While an international standard for wind power plant communications interoperability exists, few if any developers or utilities have implemented it in the US. Given that 1.5 billion dollars in ARRA funds have been awarded to wind plant projects, it is critical to accelerate the adoption of this standard to ensure those funds do not end up going to systems that are not interoperable which eventually results in stranded assets and less market competition. Most of the existing command and control infrastructure for wind power plants and site monitoring is based on proprietary technologies and products or at best old protocols that are not capable of being managed or secured. The Director of the Utility Wind Integration Group (UWIG) – one of the two major wind industry associations – has brought this situation to the attention of the SGIP Administrator and has requested that a new PAP be formed to address this immediate need. "

Schedule:

• February 11: Presentation to UWIG membership in Albuquerque – solicit participation
• March 1: Begin weekly teleconferences
• May: Completed set of use cases and requirements
• July: Completed analysis of gaps in 61400-25 standard
• September: Completed best practices
• October: Completed recommendations to IEC TC 88

Objectives:

• Gather and develop use cases and requirements related to wind power plant communications
• Map these requirements to the existing 61400-25 standard and identify gaps and issues that are hindering its use in the US
• Develop best practices on the application of 61400-25
• Provide specific recommendations to the IEC TC 88 working group responsible for maintaining the 61400-25 standard to address the gaps identified.

Click HERE for the PAP16
Click HERE for the list of all PAPs
Click HERE to visit the Users Group for IEC 61400-25 USE61400-25

DNP3 to become an IEEE Standard

IEEE has announced yesterday (2010-01-11) that a new project (P1815 - Standard for Electric Power Systems Communications - Distributed Network Protocol (DNP3)) has been set up to publish the DNP3 specification as an IEEE Standard in mid 2010.

The "purpose of this standard is to document and make available the specifications for the DNP3 protocol. ... The intent of this DNP3 standard is to meet the goal established by NIST for a Smart Grid protocol:

• Provides a protocol standard from a recognized standard institution
• Provides interoperability with 100s of operational systems and 1000s of devices
• Provides cyber security based on IEC 62351-5 (Preview)
• Provides Devise data profiles in a format that can be mapped to IEC 61850 Object Models"

Click HERE to access the official IEEE press release.

This is what I have expected for some time. The mapping of IEC 61850 and IEC 61400-25-2 Object Models and (some) Services to DNP3 and IEC 60870-5-101/104 has already been standardized in IEC 61400-25-4 (some 2 years ago). DNP3 and IEC 60870-5-101/104 are used as SCADA protocols between substations and control centers all over.

Click HERE for some additional information on the mapping of IEC 61850/61400-25-2 objects and services to DNP3 and other protocols.

The following comparison shows that the objective of IEC 61850 goes far beyond the use as a SCADA protocol:

The Configuration Language (IEC 61850-6 - Preview of Edition2) is the most crucial part of the standard series IEC 61850 and IEC 61400-25!!

Active and Reactive Power Control with IEC 61400-25-2

The focus of the IEC 61400-25 series is on the communications between wind power plant components such as wind turbines and actors such as SCADA systems. IEC 61400-25-2 specifies the information model of devices and functions related to wind power plant applications. These models extend IEC 61850-7-x models. Almost all definitions, hardware and software solutions available for IEC 61850 can be used for IEC 61400-25-2. In particular, IEC 61400-25-2 specifies the compatible logical node names, and data names for communication between wind power plant components.

The standard IEC 61400-25-2 defines a comprehensive list of information models (Logical Nodes) for wind turbines, e.g.:

• WTUR - Wind turbine general information
• WROT - Wind turbine rotor information
• WTRM - Wind turbine transmission information
• WGEN - Wind turbine generator information
• WCNV - Wind turbine converter information
• WTRF - Wind turbine transformer information
• WNAC - Wind turbine nacelle information
• WYAW - Wind turbine yawing information
• WTOW - Wind turbine tower information

The most crucial Logical Nodes are likely the

• WAPC - Wind power plant active power control information
• WRPC - Wind power plant reactive power control information

These models describe the "interface" between a complete park and the grid operator for control purposes. These Logical Nodes can be used for other power resources like CHP, PV, ... The German EEG (Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz) accelerates the application of IEC 61400-25 tremendously, because the Grid Operator needs more information about the park and he needs to control the whole power system in cases of faults and critical conditions - wind power plants and other resources are an integrated part of the whole system. These resources cannot be treated just as negative loads.

The WAPC (active power control) comprises the following Data Objects:

Status information

• Actual number of wind turbines in operation
• Active Power Limitation Mode Enabled
• Active Power Control Mode Enabled controlling apparent power
• Gradient Function Enabled
• Delta Function Enabled

Measurements

• Wind Power Plant active power output capability
• Wind Power Plant active power output
• Wind Power Plant apparent power
• Wind Power Plant Gradient
• Wind Power Plant active power reserve utilizing the Delta function –
  the difference between active power generation capability and active
  power generated

Control information

• Activate active power control function
• Activate apparent power control function
• Activate gradient control function
• Activate delta control function
• Set reference value for the wind power plant active power output
• Set reference value for the wind power plant apparent power output
• Set reference value for gradient ramping up the wind power plant active power output
• Set reference value for gradient ramping down the wind power plant
  active power output
• Set reference value for the wind power plant active power reserve –
  also named as “spinning reserve”

The information provided by these models is crucial for a future stable power delivery system.

Seats for IEC 61850 Tutorial at the SPS/IPC/DRIVES available

The Tutorial "IEC 61850 - Die universale Norm für die Informations-Integration" during the SPS/IPC/DRIVES on Tuesday, 24.11.2009, 14:00 - 17:00 is approaching quite fast ... just 7 days left to register! The presentation is in German - presentation material is in English.

Please note that a real live demo will show crucial benefits of the new standard - for power automation and industrial automation. What is industrial automation without POWER (automation)?

Several manufacturers will show IEC 61850 connectivity ... one is Beckhoff.

Click HERE for the program and other details.
Click HERE for information on Beckhoff's support of IEC 61850/61400-25.