New Draft IEC TR 61850-7-500 Just Published - Typical Use Cases

IEC TC 57 has just published a very interesting document (75+ page Draft Report) - 57/1701/DC:
IEC TR 61850-7-500 – Use of logical nodes for modelling applications and related concepts and guidelines for substations

The draft provides examples and hints on how to use IEC 61850 for substation automation, protection and SCADA. Sample excerpt of content:

This document is crucial to understand use cases of the standard for substation applications.
Note that the examples given are showing just some possible applications. In practice there will be other use cases - depending on the philosophy of a specific utility. The use cases are not standardized!
In case a utility is looking for exchangeability of IEDs from different vendors, it has to specify the SCD file to a very high degree!
Recently I had a meeting with experts from a big transmission utility: They have reached a level of system specification in order to allow interoperability AND exchangeability of IEDs from multiple vendors! To get there: You need to request something more than just "IEC 61850".

IEC 61850: Is Interchangeability possible?

Yes – If you are seriously requiring it, it is likely that you will get it. Sure: You have to pay for it. You may need to spend some time to find the right vendor … system integrator, consultant to help you getting there. The key issue is education and training.

A very interesting question is currently discussed at LinkedIn:

“Dear all, How far are we from living the of plug & play age of SAS devices (real and full interoperability under IEC 61850 platform)?”

Click HERE for the complete (public) discussion.

One of my contributions is this:

“I guess it would be so easy to reach the goal of "exchangeability": IF (only IF !!) substation owners would specify which parts of their future SAS SHALL BE based on the standard and specify the SCD in sufficient details, in order to simplify, e.g., adding a new Bay Controller coming from a thirty part IED vendor.
That may work fine within one owner (utility) - but not between different owners.
I have seen such an SCD document (6+ MB) ... written by a big TSO ...
I am quite sure that this TSO will reach that goal in the near future - I am not sure if all vendors will like the approach.”

You could easily contribute to the discussion on LinkedIn … or comment on this blog post directly.

Wireless Sensor Networks: Users Want ONE and ONLY ONE Standard

Some 20 (!) years after the publication of the first field bus standards, the acceptance of field busses in the process industry is still behind expectations! The current IEC Field Bus Standards comprise about 100 (!) parts - specifying some 50 solutions under one Standard number: IEC 61158. No wonder that the users are still looking for a convergent solution.

The German Association NAMUR (representing some 120 users and vendors involved in process automation) has published a very strong requirement document on the convergence of wireless sensor networks: NE 133 "Wireless Sensor Networks - Requirements for the convergence of existing standards" ("Wireless Sensor Netzwerke: Anforderungen an die Konvergenz der verfügbaren Standards")

NAMUR requires to get coexistence, interoperability and Interchangeability for wireless based technologies.

The press release states that NAMUR is expecting to get ONE International Wireless Standard for the process automation domain. ("Die NAMUR erwartet, dass diese klare Meinungsäußerung und die formulierten Anforderungen alle am Standardisierungsprozess Beteiligten zu einer konstruktiven Zusammenarbeit mit dem Ziel eines konvergierten Standards bringt." / "NAMUR expects that this clear statement and the requirements formulated will enable all those involved in the standardisation process to work together constructively with a view to achieving a converged standard.")

Click HERE for some details listed in the press release of the annual conference of NAMUR (Nov 2010) [pdf, German].

Click HERE for the abstract (Zusammenfassung) of NE 133. [Word, de/en]

Click HERE for the order form to order a free of charge copy of the requirements document NE 133 [order form, de/en] ... you will get a free copy sent to your email address.

Click HERE for a list of IEC 61158 standards (Edition 2).

The far too many IEC standardized protocol stacks of the Field Busses (comprising some 12.000 pages) are causing still a lot of headaches and pain.

IEC 61850 provides JUST ONE Client/Server and two Publisher/Subscriber protocol stack solutions - This is what the Utility domain appreciates very much all over! Many vendors of industrial automation systems have already or will soon implement IEC 61850 - especially for their need to communicate over TCP/IP.

The Protocol stack defined in IEC 61850-8-1 using ISO 9506 (MMS) is not the crucial focus of IEC 61850 at all - BUT when it comes to interoperability at device level, then this is very crucial! IEC 61850 has more than protocols: information models and a configuration language ...