The Energy Lab 2.0 in Karlsruhe (Germany)

Karlsruhe (Germany, the hometown of Karlheinz Schwarz) is known (among others) for supporting the German Energiewende: The KIT and NettedAutomation GmbH

NettedAutomation is deeply involved in the dissemination of IEC 61850 all over the world. Now I see big investments in Energy related R&D projects in Germany. One of the most crucial activities is the new “Energy Lab 2.0” in Karlsruhe.

Energy Lab 2.0 – The Smart Energiewende Platform
New Research Facility Links Producers with Storage Systems and Consumers –
Investment Totaling EUR 22 Million

“ … The project is embedded in the overall energy strategy of the Helmholtz Association. For the Energy Lab 2.0, the partners plan to build a simulation and control center and a network of energy technology facilities on KIT Campus North, an electrolysis test center at Forschungszentrum Jülich, and a facility for testing power-to-heat concepts at the German Aerospace Center, Stuttgart, by 2018.
The energy platform will link characteristic components for power, heat, and synthesis gas production with various energy storage technologies and consumers. For this purpose, large facilities existing at KIT will be integrated into the Energy Lab 2.0: The solar power storage park, the bioliq pilot facility, and selected energy consumers on KIT Campus North. Electrical, electrochemical, and chemical storage systems as well as a load- and fuel-flexible gas turbine with
current generator will be newly constructed and are planned to complement the network. A simulation and control center at KIT will integrate all network components of KIT and the partners in a smart energy system using information and communication technologies.
This infrastructure facility is the first of its type in Europe. …”

More to come. Stay tuned.

Click HERE for a more comprehensive description [pdf].

IEC 61400-25 Part 2 and Part 3 CDV approved

The following two documents (CDV – Committee Drafts for Vote) have been accepted by 100 per cent of the Members of IEC TC 88 (in August resp. in September 2014):

Wind turbines – Part 25-2 (Edition 2): Communications for monitoring and control of wind power plants – Information models

Wind turbines - Part 25-3 (Edition 2): Communications for monitoring and control of wind power plants -Information exchange models

Both parts will be published as FDIS soon.

The Information Models are revised to make them consistent with the many other models defined in IEC 61850-7-x. For example in LN WTUR several names of DataObjects change:

SptDmdW to DmdWSpt
SptDmdVAr to DmdVArSpt
SptDmdPF to DmdPFSpt

The Edition 2 of the models is a major step towards harmonization of the information models. The wind power plant objects are now very stable – they are also incorporated into the UML master maintained by IEC TC 57 WG10, WG 17, WG 18, and JWG25 (TC57/TC88):

The changes proposed in conjunction of the CDV comments on part 25-2 have already been used for the UML model. Now we have a very stable and harmonized set of information models that can be used for the whole power delivery system – all over.

Additional models are under way, e.g., for condition monitoring (90-3).

Thanks to the UML team!

Is IEC 61850 still there?

A very interesting discussion was started by a retired substation protection and automation engineer from one of the big German transmission operators. The engineer stopped at the boot 45/1 (hall 13) at the Hannover Messe last week. He saw the letters “IEC 61850” (see photo) and asked me: “Is IEC 61850 still around?”

He thought that IEC 61850 was just a hype some 10 years ago. His expectation was that IEC61850 is far to complex and expensive … and disappeared before it really hit the market. One of his babies was a very well know IEC 60870-5-101 profile for substation automation. In this profile you will find a nice “information model” of substations:

Ok, that is what many (not only retired) engineers guess. I helped him to understand the current situation of the big success of IEC 61850 all over.

Then I showed him an embedded Controller IED (Beck com.tom) that integrates IEC 61850 AND IEC 610870-5-104 (running separate or both at the same time):

This small box runs both … and it’s really affordable.

Then I showed him the requirement specification of Vattenfall’s VHP Ready that specifies both: IEC 60870-5-104 and IEC 61850:

There is almost no difference between the implementation of the information and services in both worlds. The difference is just, that IEC 61850 has standard models, a configuration language, GOOSE, SMV, and self-description. The price of a com.tom with 104 or 61850 is (I guess) the same.

Finally he said: “I am a consultant to a manufacturer of substation automation and protection systems; I have to tell them this story! They will like it – because they have already enquiries for IEC 61850 conformant IEDs.”

There is a need to educate more engineers to understand the situation!

Some more Details on the September 8 Power Outage in San Diego

Some more details on the causes that let to the big Power Outage in California, Arizona and Mexico on September 8, 2011 have been published.

The SignOnSanDiego reports on Sept 16: “ … the Cal-ISO chief said, investigators so far have identified 23 separate events that occurred during the 11-minute span, each of which played a role in denying electricity to San Diego County and beyond.” 23 is a lot!

Click HERE for the complete report.

Whatever caused the power outage: There will be something to learn and to change … and I guess there will be a growing need to exchange more real-time or near real-time information between humans, systems and devices. Standards will help to implement new measures.

Please let me know as soon as you have more details.