Will Information Networks become the “Backbone” of the Power System?

Information sharing between any kind of intelligent devices is a crucial need for today’s an the future Power Delivery Systems. It requires a huge infrastructure to send information back and forth.

Who do you think will put a lot of efforts into the infrastructure to get control over the information to be shared? Will protection engineers or mechanical engineers (e.g., of wind turbines) gain control over the information infrastructure? I guess that it will work the other way around: The specialists of network infrastructure will have a big impact on how the information will be shared in future.

One of the many activities is supported by a special group within the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force): Energy Management (EMAN)

Excerpt from the current Applicability Statement

“Abstract

The objective of Energy Management (EMAN) is to provide an energy management framework for networked devices. This document presents the applicability of the EMAN information model in a variety of scenarios with cases and target devices. These use cases are useful for identifying requirements for the framework and MIBs.

…

1. Introduction

The focus of the Energy Management (EMAN) framework is energy monitoring and management of energy objects [RFC7326]. The scope of devices considered are network equipment and their components, and devices connected directly or indirectly to the network. The EMAN framework enables monitoring of heterogeneous devices to report their energy consumption and, if permissible, control. There are multiple scenarios where this is desirable, particularly considering the increased importance of limiting consumption of finite energy resources and reducing operational expenses.”

Click HERE for the current “Energy Management (EMAN) Applicability Statement, draft-ietf-eman-applicability-statement-10”

From an information sharing point of view there is no difference between information of a router or Ethernet Switch and a protection, monitoring or control IED (Intelligent Electronic Device) in the sense of a Fieldbus, DNP3, IEC 60870-5-104 and IEC 61850.

Finally IETF could play a major role in the world of networked devices – including everything that is believed today as somehow special: Field devices on one of the hundreds of fieldbusses, IEDs in the Power delivery systems, etc.

If you are looking for a unique (single standard) that is accepted and used all over the globe: It is IEC 61850. Use the ORIGINAL. A mapping of the IEC 61850 objects (IEC 61850 Logical Nodes and DataObjects) onto a MIB and SNMP could make sense – especially when the structures are used unchanged. The same is true for a mapping of specific MIBs for Ethernet Switches and Routers. This is already happening in IEC 61850-7-4 Ed2 for some network related information, e.g., in:

LN LCCH: Physical communication channel supervision:

More to come.

The motto of NettedAutomation GmbH since 2000 is: “The Net is The Automation”.

Objectives of IETF EMAN – Energy Management Working Group

The IETF Energy Management (EMAN) defines an Energy Management Framework for Networked Devices. Networked Devices could comprise many different devices: Router, Switch, Battery, Printer, … by the way: the variety of monitoring, control, protection and automation devices in power systems could be understood a “Networked Devices”. So: the scope of IETF EMAN could be quite wide. Yes!

A new document provides the “Applicability Statement” from the IETF viewpoint.

It lists several use-cases for identifying requirements for the framework and MIBs. Further, it describes the relationship of the EMAN framework to relevant other energy monitoring standards and architectures.

One thing is sure: Electrical Power is one of the crucial issues to be dealt with in 2015 and beyond!

Click HERE for the “Applicability Statement”.

On my radar screen I see a lot more IEC 61850 applications that hid the street in 2015! Wherever there is a need to unify the information exchange of crucial information about the electrical system and related information IEC 61850 has them (almost) all standardized.

Please note: The many international standards setting organizations are more or less all independent – this means, every group can define a standard for energy management … There is one big difference between the various standards available today: IEC 61850 has been defined internationally by experienced senior Electrical Engineers.

Monitoring the Battery of the Boeing Dreamliner 787 would have helped to prevent damages

I guess you remember the trouble Boeing was faced with when the huge battery packs in the Dreamliner 787 some two years ago. The Auxiliary Power Unit Battery Fire was likely caused by several severe “cell internal short circuiting and the potential for thermal runaway of one or more battery cells, fire, explosion, and flammable electrolyte release”.

More precise Condition Monitoring would have helped to prevent such incidents – and would have shown very early that the design of the battery system was quite fragile.

One of the findings (page 91 of the released incident report) is:

“More accurate cell temperature measurements and enhanced temperature and voltage monitoring and recording could help ensure that excessive cell temperatures resulting from localized or other sources of heating could be detected and addressed in a timely manner to minimize cell damage.”

Click HERE for the complete official NTSB report.

Monitoring batteries is very crucial the more our life depends on these systems – in airplanes, in substations, power stations, mobile systems, communication infrastructure … It is not sufficient to have a battery – the batteries must be maintained, tested from time to time, and monitored continuously.

Two groups (I am aware of) have defined Battery Monitoring information models:

1. IEC 61850-90-9 (Use of IEC 61850 for Electrical Storage Systems)

Excerpt of the battery system (without further discussion):

2. IETF EMAN (Energy Management)

Definition of Managed Objects for Battery Monitoring / draft-ietf-eman-battery-mib-13

Click HERE for the EMAN draft for Battery Monitoring.

Battery monitoring could safe life!

IETF RFC 7326: Energy Management Framework

The RFC 7326 (just published) defines a framework for Energy Management (EMAN) for devices and device components within, or connected to, communication networks. The framework presents a physical reference model and information model. The information model consists of an Energy Management Domain as a set of Energy Objects. Each Energy Object can be attributed with identity, classification, and context. Energy Objects can be monitored and controlled with respect to power, Power State, energy, demand, Power Attributes, and battery. Additionally, the framework models relationships and capabilities between Energy Objects.

Click HERE for accessing the RFC 7326.

The document refers to several parts of IEC 61850. Many of the IEC 61850 objects related to electric measurements like 3-phase voltage and current are modeled in corresponding MIBs.

Click HERE for the list of related documents of the working group EMAN.

The availability of the communication infrastructure (ICT – Information and communication technology) is very crucial for power delivery systems.

Be aware that:

No ICT –> No Power
No Power –> No ICT
No Power and no ICT –> No Life

The two infrastructures are very closely interwoven. We need ICT systems that have reasonable UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) in order to help restore power systems after a blackout.

ERDF (French DSO) has taken measures to coordinate with ICT companies in order to get the needed support for fast restoration of power:

“On the strength of its experience in crisis management, in June 2012 ERDF signed a partnership agreement with the three leading telephone operators, Bouygues, Orange and SFT, to consolidate information exchange in the event of a major event or crisis situation. The four companies were keen to pool information which is vital to the mobilisation and implementation of emergency procedures during crisis situations in order to restore their networks as rapidly as possible.”

Click HERE for an ERDF Press kit on the issue.

Close inter-dependencies between these infrastructures should be understood an should be avoided that use of electricity is blocked because my mobile service is still down. So if I have electricity in my home, I wouldn't want to wait for ICT to come by so that I can begin washing or cooking.

IETF Energy Management WG (EMAN) inspired by IEC 61850 and CIM

IETF EMAN, Energy Management, is an active WG that is modeling (in the MIB) a lot of power related real world objects “connected” one way or the other to a network.  SNMP is used to access this information. The objective of Energy Management (EMAN) is to provide an energy management framework for networked devices.

Networked devices could be Ethernet switches, routers, battery controller, other storages,  gateways, … more or less anything that is connected to a network!

http://tools.ietf.org/wg/eman/

The WG sees IEC 61850 as the most applicable standard to EMAN. Concepts from IEC 61850 and CIM have been reused (somehow) by the EMAN WG. A closer cooperation of the models would be appreciated by the next generation of engineers and programmers …

There is ONE real world – many models could be thought of to describe that single real world. I hope that for energy applications we will prevent to get too many models. IEC 61850 models should be used as default solution in all devices closely connected to the physical level of energy systems … different notations and protocols may be used BUT the content/semantic should be identical!

A MMXU should model the 3-phase electrical system – all over and in all models.