IEC 61850 Tissue Database Has Been Used to Publish The Second Set Of Tissues in Force

The IEC 61850 Tissue Database is an excellent tool helping to support a high level of quality. Tissues that affect interoperability will be put in force as batches, before an amendment of the standard can be done. They will then as well be required to be implemented for conformance testing.

70 Tissues related to 13 parts are listed in the second batch! Only 18 tissues are real interoperability tissues ... 57 are editorial tissues that improve the understanding of the various parts.

Click HERE to find the link to the first and second batch.

It is highly recommended to study the tissues in some detail ... many tissues (even those that have no impact on the interoperability) contain valuable discussions ... why is this and that done ... or not ... e.g., https://iec61850.tissue-db.com/tissues/1731 

New GOOSE and Sampled Values Performance Test Platform

GridClone developed a new GOOSE and Sampled Values Performance Test Platform:

SIMFLEX IEC 61850 PT Platform

It is a solution for testing GOOSE and Sample Values time performance, functional behavior and conformance to the standard.

Applications:

• Inspect GOOSE/SV behavior on microsecond level
• Simulate multiple GOOSE and SV Streams
• Execute (pre)conformance, detail and functional testing

Benefits:

• One solution for GOOSE/SV and MMS testing
• Demystify process bus complex behavior
• Ready to integrate fully automated platform

Values:

• Building trust in Digital Substation by testing it
• Resolve GOOSE/SV issues in system design phase
• Maximize level of details and minimize testing time

Click HERE for more information.

TÜV SÜD closes their IEC 61850 / UCAIUG Test Lab

TÜV SÜD (Munich, Germany) a long time provider of IEC 61850 Interoperability and Conformity Testing Services closes their Test Lab.
They emailed today says: "... Unfortunately, we do not supply Interoperability and Conformity Testing Services according to IEC 61850 any longer, which have been replaced by other focus areas in our portfolio. ...".
There was no specific reason for their decision provided.
You may ask me about my opinion. Here it is first brief statement:

• The standard series IEC 61850 is very comprehensive - applicable in many different application domains. 
• Implementations of the communication software for Client/Server (MMS based), Publisher/Subscriber (GOOSE), general APIs, and appropriate IED specific configuration tools are very comprehensive (and very complex!) as well.
• The IEDs tested and certified will likely operate in applications that need many times more logical nodes (and associated FUNCTIONS) than what was tested to get a certificate.
• MMS is also very complex regarding services and protocol. Unfortunately requires a lot of best skills to implement ... it has been implemented very well by a few companies like SystemCorp.
• The most crucial aspect of IEC 61850 is the huge number of logical nodes (that represent so many functions). This semantic is of great importance to the energy industries.
• One of the key issues in the years to come is this: Use the semantic of IEC 61850 and configuration language and map the needed (usually very simple and restricted) semantic configured in a SCL file automatically to JSON-Objects and communicate the JSON encoded information via http(s) or similar protocols. 
• This will allow to use IEC 61850 in any project that requires to exchange the well defined semantic of IEC 61850. E.g., the semantic of the schedule logical node (FSCH and FSCC) can easily be configured in JSON. The underlying function (the SCHEDULING) needs to be implemented independently of using MMS/ASN.1 or JSON. The benefit of using JSON is here: Everybody that can program in Python or JS or ... can use the JSON encoded messages directly in the application program.
• I am working on such a solution that makes IEC 61850 really applicable for simple applications ... http(s) and JSON are used everywhere and can be applied by everybody.
• More to come!
• Stay tuned.

For those simple applications with a dozen of points or so ... there would be a need for just a very simple and basic interoperability and conformance test.

Megger Offers a Wide Range of IEC 61850 GOOSE Test Tools and Experiences

Megger (Sweden) offers a wide range of test tools and experiences for testing and commissioning of systems based on IEC 61850 GOOSE.

They just published a brochure that shares some light on IEC 61850 interoperability problems and solutions for the horizontal communication (GOOSE):

IEC 61850 - GOOSE Interoperability

Click HERE for the brochure.

This document (written by one of the most experienced senior protection engineers) is really worth to download and to read! Andrea Bonetti will give you a deep inside look into the use of GOOSE messaging and how to reach interoperability.

"Interoperability is one of the most misunderstood of all business terms. It is, however, one of the most important of all predictors of success or failure. In short, interoperability is the ability of diverse systems to work together effectively and efficiently. Interoperability is a property of a product or system, whose interfaces are completely understood, to work with other products or systems, present or future, without any restricted access or implementation.

There is absolutely no doubt that Interoperability facilitates valuable business connections—across
processes, between people and information and among companies. Interoperability yields improved
collaboration and ultimately increased productivity. Providing interoperability helps customers decrease complexity and better manage heterogeneous environments—while enhancing choice and innovation in the market. Importantly, the interoperability requirement of the IEC 61850 standard has beneficially increased the “interoperability among different engineers” working for companies that are formally in competition. This increased communication among different vendors has contributed to the fact that GOOSE messaging can today be considered a working technology, even if problems still arise, like in any other technology.

With more than six years of field experience with IEC 61850 GOOSE communication in protection and control applications, it is possible today to list the main reasons for interoperability problems for multi- and single-vendor systems; however, the list of causes of interoperability failures would be longer than what indicated in this document, especially if considering the cases found during the beginning of the use of GOOSE messages.

In order to commission substations with the new IEC 61850 technology, there is need to use some new tools and methods. The key for these tools and methods is, paradoxically, implicitly available in the IEC 61850 standard itself."

Enjoy!

TÜV SÜD Offers Interoperability Tests - What comes next?

The UCAIUG (UCA International Users Group) has issued 800 Certificates for IEC 61850 devices and tools. Congratulation for the success.

The global market has accepted the new technology standardized since 1995! No question!

In multi vendor projects quite often devices from different manufacturers or from different device firmware versions show interoperability issues. Device A and B may conform to the standard series - but device A may support options that are not supported by device B. This ends up in interoperability problems ... discussions and frustrations.

It is highly recommended that devices used in a multi vendor project are tested for interoperability! Interoperability tests are usually organized by users, e.g., big utilities. The UCAIUG organizes interoperability tests every second yer - far away from being sufficient! The next one is planned for being conducted in New Orleans (USA) in November. It requires a lot of resources to go there ... I guess European utilities may send very few experts only ... and small vendors are likely not travelling across the Atlantic.

So, what to do? I have recommended early to TÜV SÜD to offer interoperability test services.

TÜV SÜD (Munich, Germany) is offering interoperability test ... contact them to figure out how your device can interoperate with other devices.


Interoperable components save time and money during integration into complex systems - and help to reduce frustrations when struggling with implemented or not implemented options, with different interpretations by vendors, ...

And note this: Traveling to Munich (Germany) is easier and cheaper than flying around the globe!

Partners in the industrial automation domain have learned that interoperability (for easier integration) is a crucial means to save a lot of resources ... they are partnering:

Open Integration Partner program for practical testing of multi-vendor automation topologies

Endress + Hauser is proposing the following: “Open Integration validates the interplay of all products in a reference topology by mutual integration tests.” in a permanent lab environment.

I hope that some companies and organizations in the Power Industry will also implement such permanently available “LAT” (Lab Acceptance Tests) that would offer 24x7 support services to the power industry.

Maybe you are interested to discuss this with TÜV SÜD or ... or myself. Please feel free to contact me.

Thanks to TÜV SÜD to offer the interoperability test services. I look forward to see more in the near future - the whole energy market would appreciate it.

IEC 61850 Tissue Database is Crucial for Improving the Quality of IEC 61850

The Tissue (technical issues) Database is one of the most important means to improve the quality of the standard series IEC 61850.
When IEC published the first parts of the series in 2004 the editors used a Word document to keep track of technical issues reported to the key experts and the results of their discussions. NettedAutomation developed the Tissue Database to offer a public tool to support the standardization and quality assurance process.

The following parts have an entry in the Database:



We just added an entry to part 90-2 (Substation to Control Center communication).
Please note that the almost 1,500 entries play a crucial role in the latest parts published and in the UCAIUG testing specification. Excerpt of IEC 61850-6 Amendment 1 to Edition 2:



This list has 50+ entries referring to the Tissue Database.

Products that claim conformance with IEC 61850 have to be accompanied by the so-called "TICS" Technical Issues Conformance Statement. This is a list that describes which Technical Issues have been implemented in a specific product. It is quite important to understand, that a specific Technical Issue that has an impact on client and server (publisher and subscriber) has to be implemented on both sides!!

The test labs for IEC 61850 have to test Technical Issues - when required by the testcase. The UCAIUG maintains a list of all "green" Tissues that are integral part of UCAIUG Testing requirements.

If you have an issue with IEC 61850 I recommend to check the Database and search for the topic you are looking for. Maybe your concern has already been solved ... you find a lot of good discussions in many tissues.

NetteAutomation will continue to offer the Tissue Database for the next parts to be published, e.g., Edition 2.1 of the core documents.

Enjoy the Database.

KEMA (now DNV GL) has Developed a New Suite of Test Tools for IEC 61850

DNV GL (former KEMA, Arnhem/NL) has developed a suite of IEC 61850 test tools, which will be sold under license to both utilities and technology providers.
Under the name UniGrid, DNV GL provides a new and improved test tool. UniGrid enables test and simulation of a complete IEC 61850 substation automation system and it can be used for various types of conformance and interoperability tests.



The product is planned to be available later this year.

Click HERE to request a copy of the new Brochure.

LAT (Lab Acceptance Tests): Open Systems in Automation – Quo Vadis?

Open Systems in Automation are more than a hype. Since the early 80s we have seen a lot of activities to define Open Systems for Automation. The first major project was the MAP project initialized by General Motors: Manufacturing Automation Protocols. One of the crucial standards developed in this context was MMS: Manufacturing Message Specification (ISO 9506).

When people were struggling with the implementation of 7-Layer or 3-Layer solutions including MMS some other groups believed that Fieldbusses would be the better approach. The standardization of fieldbusses come up with tens (or even tons) of different solutions under one IEC standard series: IEC 61158 with 50+ solutions.

How to build Open Systems in Automation based on this many solution? There are too many islands of very specific open systems based on special fieldbus solutions. This was one of the real reasons why people developed OPC to bridge the gap between these many islands. OPC has helped to share information between islands.

There was another issue that causes increasingly headaches: the System Configuration and Engineering. How to solve this challenge? The next wave was to standardize incompatible “integration” support solutions: FDT (Field Device Tool), EDD (Electronic Device Description) or FDI (Field Device Integration). So: What now?

Endress+Hauser has started recently a very interesting approach:

Open Integration Partner program for practical testing of multi-vendor automation topologies

The focus is on Hart, Profibus, Foundation Fieldbus, Ethernet/IP, and Profinet, as well as on FDT, EDD or FDI.

What are they proposing: “Open Integration validates the interplay of all products in a reference topology by mutual integration tests.” in a permanent lab environment.

Click HERE for a brief description in English.
Click HERE for a brief description in German.

That means: To run a comprehensive permanent “LAT” (Lab Acceptance Tests). This is something prior to “FAT” (Factory Acceptance Tests) and “SAT” (Site Acceptance Tests). Vendors involved are: Endress+Hauser, Auma Riester, Hima Paul Hildebrandt, Honeywell Process Solutions, Mitsubishi Electric, Pepperl+Fuchs, Rockwell Automation, R. Stahl und Schneider Electric.

What about “Open Systems” and IEC 61850? The power industry has understood that Interoperation Tests are very crucial to improve the standards and products. Several IOPs (Interoperability tests) – or better “LAT” (Lab Acceptance tests) – have been conducted. The last one in October 2015 in Brussels.

I hope that some companies and organizations in the Power Industry will also implement such permanently available “LAT” (Lab Acceptance Tests) that would offer 24x7 support services to the power industry.

The challenges in the power industry are lower than in the industrial automation: Because we have (luckily) a single standard series that comprises:

1. Device communication (real-time and SCADA protocols)
2. Device Information Models (e.g. MMXU for electrical measurements)
3. System Configuration Language (SCL) for engineering of Systems, Models, Device, Communication … and their Configuration

In case you would be interested to join such an effort related to IEC 61850, IEC 61400-25, and IEC 60870-5-104, let us know:

Contact us if you have something to contribute.

ENTSO-E publishes November 2015 news on IEC 61850

ENTSO-E seems to be quite happy with:

1. the level of interoperability many different vendors’ subsystems to be applied within the TSO system management architecture.
2. the status of the standardization within IEC TC 57 WG 10, WG 17 and WG 18.

ENTSO-E just published a brief report on the

IOP 2015, organized by UCA International User Group (Iug) in Brussels, Hotel Crowne Plaza, 26.9-2.10

IEC TC57 WG10(-17-18) meetings, hosted by and at ENTSO-E premises, Brussels , 5.-9.10.

Click HERE to read the summary on the two events.

IEC 61850 Interoperability Test in Brussels Was a Big Success

The IEC 61850 Interoperability Test in Brussels (Belgium, at ENTSO-E) last week was a big success. The plenary meeting of the IEC TC 57 WG 10, 17 and 18 was informed about the results on Monday, October 05, 2015.

Compared to the previous IOPs in 2011 and 2013 there were more companies attending in 2015: 19/43/49. Total number of vendors that provided products to test was: 14/20/29. The number of people participating grew from 37/93 to 130 !!

Tests covered: SCL, Client/Server, GOOSE, SV, HSR/PRP, and IEEE 1588

For Client/Server 15 issues were found in 2013, in 2015 just 4. No issue was found on GOOSE.

A total of 32 issues need some attention. The issues will be posted to the tissue database if required.

The first tissues have already been posted:

http://tissue.iec61850.com/tissue.mspx?issueid=1445

http://tissue.iec61850.com/tissue.mspx?issueid=1446

http://tissue.iec61850.com/tissue.mspx?issueid=1447

http://tissue.iec61850.com/tissue.mspx?issueid=1448

The IOP at ENTSO-E has shown that IEC 61850 standard parts and products are very stable … there is no need to wait for applying IEC 61850.

UCAIUG Interoperability Report (Munich 2013) available – And Now?

IEC 61850 defines Modeling Methods, Information Models, Abstract Services, Service Mapping to MMS, Configuration Language to specify a whole System composed of several substations et cetera. Some 10 years after the publication of the first edition of the core parts (3, 6, 7-1, 7-2, 7-3, 7-4, 8-1 and 9-2) we expect the edition 2.1 of the core documents early 2014. There is a lot of progress during these 10 years of applications!

The well accepted tissue process has helped to increase the consistency of the various parts of the series and to help to reach a high level of conformity of devices and tools:

www.tissues.iec61850.com

In addition to Conformance tests it is obvious that Interoperability is one of the crucial issues that is expected by the users community. Many organizations are involved to further increase the Interoperability between the products provided by many vendors. One major step towards a higher level of interoperability is the UCAIUG Interoperability Test Session that was conducted at TÜV SÜD (Munich, Germany) the week of 27. October – 01. November 2013.

Click HERE to download the 240 page Report [pdf, 5.8 MB].

One of the crucial lessons I (and many other experts) have learned trough my long-term involvement in the standardization groups and more than 200 training courses is this: In case you are planning to use the new (IEC 61850) Technology in one of your next projects:

1. Get education and training from neutral trainers
2. Purchase or lent the devices and tools you are about to use in the real world: protection & control devices, SCADA systems, RTUs, Network Infrastructure like Switches and Routers, and Tools … and test them as a kind of “Multivendor Interoperability Test”
3. You can speed up this process by cooperating with FMTP Power Systems and NettedAutomation: They could come to you and provide the most well known and used devices and Tools and introduce Theory and Practice!!
   This helps to keep the cost low – you don’t need to figure out what to purchase … and how to use the Technology when you start.
   You would get the right support for a fast start … the most efficient way!

Please check these dates and locations:

Special Protection & Control Hands-On Training: 08.-10. Dec 2014 in Prague (Czech Republic)	Click HERE for the details
Special Protection & Control Hands-On Training: 16.-19. December 2014 in Guayaquil (Ecuador):	Click HERE for the details [pdf]
Common Hands-On Training in German: 24.-26. November 2014 (Karlsruhe) 12.-14. Januar 2015 (Karlsruhe) 23.-25. März 2015 (Karlsruhe)	Click HERE for more details

I look forward to meeting you there.

TÜV SÜD offers tests for IEC 61850 Client, Server, publisher, and subscriber

TÜV SÜD (Munich, Germany) offers a wide range of testing services covering all crucial aspects to help you reaching a high level of interoperability of your device with other devices.

Their services could reduce the risk of non-interoperation on site dramatically! They have experience with edition 1 and edition 2 of the IEC 61850 core parts as well with IEC 61400-25.

Click HERE for a brochure that describes what they offer.

Note that they cover much more than just certification conformance tests. They offer a comprehensive range of support.

IEC 61850 Profiles and associated Interoperability Tests for Hydro Power Plants

Hydro Power Plants require very complex information models and information exchange services. IEDs are usually acting as client and server in order to receive and send comprehensive reports. The suite of hydro power standards in the series IEC 61850 (IEC 61850-7-510, IEC 61850-10-210, …) define therefore many application specific naming elements like logical device names, prefixes and suffixes of logical nodes and complete data sets (additional means, e.g., in addition to IEC 61850-7-4).

These additional definitions reduce the number of options to a good extent! It helps to reach a high level of interoperability.

IEC 61850-10-210 TS:
Communication networks and systems for power utility automation - Part 10-210: IEC 61850 Interoperability tests – Hydro profile

See document 57/1468/CD 
Commenting closes 2014-08-08

The hydro experts in IEC 61850 have understood that Profiles are an absolute MUST if we want to reach interoperability! A simple (but good) example is the Implementation Guideline “9-2LE” of the UCA Usersgroup.

Another good example of profiles can be found at the VHPReady Website:

http://www.vattenfall.de/de/file/VHP-READY-3.0-englisch.pdf_30408907.pdf

This specification contains two profiles:

1. IEC 60870-5-104 (with all signals specified)
2. IEC 61850 (with all signals specified)

Vendors can not just rely on IEC 61850 and define their own instance models of the needed logical nodes. The logical device names, prefixes and suffixes of logical nodes and complete data sets are already defined – to prevent use of options!!

DRAFT Release 3.0 of the “NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards” out for comments

The next release of the famous framework and roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards has been drafted and published for comments on April 15, 2014.

The entire 255 pages draft version of the NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards, Release 3.0 (Draft), is available online here.

"We worked closely with the European Union to harmonize the NIST conceptual model with the one the EU is developing," says NIST's Paul Boynton. "We want both models to reflect each other, which is important so that manufacturers on both sides of the Atlantic will be able to sell devices overseas."

NIST seeks comments on the draft NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards, Release 3.0.  In particular, comments on technical, editorial, or general issues.

Comments must be received on or before 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on May 30, 2014.

Click HERE for further information on the process … how to comment …

One of the core contents deals with standards that support the vendors to build interoperable devices that could be applied in North America, Europe, and all over (!) is Table 4-1 (Identified Standards). The list grew from 34 to 74 standards from Release 2. The list refers to the following standards of primary interest in the context of this blog:

#12 IEC 60870-6-503 TASE.2 Services and protocol
#13 IEC 60870-6-702 Functional profile for providing the TASE.2
#14 IEC 60870-6-802 TASE.2 Object Models
#15 IEC 61850-1
#16 IEC61850-2
#17 IEC61850-3
#18 IEC61850-4
#19 IEC61850-5
#20 IEC61850-6
#21 IEC61850-7-1
#22 IEC61850-7-2
#23 IEC61850-7-3
#24 IEC61850-7-410
#25 IEC61850-7-420
#26 IEC61850-8-1
#27 IEC61850-9-2
#28 IEC61850-10
#29 IEC61850-90-5
#30 IEC 61968/61970 Suites
#31 IEEE 1815 (DNP3)
#64 IEC 62351-1
#65 IEC 62351-2
#66 IEC 62351-3
#67 IEC 62351-4
#68 IEC 62351-5
#69 IEC 62351-6
#70 IEC 62351-7
#?? IEC 61850-7-4 is missing – commented on it already.

15 out of 74 entries are referring to IEC 61850 standards! IEC 61850 conformant products and based systems are playing already a major role in the North American market – in the public utility world and in the power distribution in factories and production plants.

All in a sudden (as it seems to me!) managers in production facilities have figured out that electric power is very crucial for them – to save money or to increase profits.

Best wishes for 2014

As a very busy year comes to an end, I want to THANK YOU ALL for the interest in Standards like IEC 61850, IEC 61400-25, IEC 60870-5-104, … as well as your interest to discuss the many opportunities to use these standards and the challenges in the implementations and conformance tests.

More than 400 experts have been trained during 2013 in more than 20 courses all over. The attendees are really looking for more details and how to reach a higher level of interoperability. My long-term experience is growing quite fast … especially in the area of interoperability issues …

I wish you a healthy and successful year 2014 – especially that you can live in peace with your family, friends and all other people you have to meet in your life.

I look forward to working with you next year … especially when you have any issue regarding IEC 61850, IEC … interoperability.

Please take some time to relax and re-charge your batteries.

We are all doing fine … just cut the lawn this afternoon (Dec. 23, 2013) … it was quite warm here in Karlsruhe: 13 °C … no snow and ice until 2014 !!

Best Regards,
Your Karlheinz Schwarz

Do we need Blackouts to Expose Flaws in the Grid?

From the viewpoint of a engineers: No! There are many engineers or other technicians that are aware of the condition of the whole system – including the aging work force. From the viewpoint of many people in charge to make decisions to invest or not to invest: Yes!

The New York Times published yesterday an article about the biggest power outage in the history of Northern America: the 2003 blackout. Since then a lot has improved – enough to keep the power flowing at mid November 2013. Is it enough for the years to come? We will see if the improvements payoff or not.

The article states: “The improvements were ideas that engineers had always liked, but had trouble persuading utility executives and public service commissions to pay for.”

Click HERE to read the article.

I hope that the voice of the engineers will convince more decision-makers to allocate sufficient resources for keeping the aging power infrastructure running, the power flowing, the grass green, and the sky blue.

Some 10 years after the first substation automation systems have been equipped with IEC 61850 based devices, a lot of smart engineers see the need to invest into defining a second layer on top of the standards and the many options they provide. This second layer could be named: Interoperability Profile Specifications. The standards comprise several hundred of options (in models, services, and extensions) that lead to a proliferation of implementations. A growing number of engineers is struggling to let two or more devices from multiple vendors understand each other.

I look forward to seeing more decision-makers from all stake-holders to provide the needed resources for the development of Interoperability Profile Specifications.

I always say in my courses that IEC 61850 is very scalable – BUT YOU have to SCALE each and every device! Scaling needs to be done in a way that for a given application ALL devices apply THE VERY SAME SCALE!! The scales have to be negotiated and applied by all participants of a system.

When does the users community want to get there? If the answer is: as soon as possible – you should invite experienced people to help you.

Crucial Lessons learned from a MV Substation Project at a Huge Power Plant

Recently I discussed the issue of interoperability of IEDs in the context of a crucial non-interoperability problem of two vendors’ IEDs. Click here for the discussion.

Now, three months later, the utility has decided to replace two protection IEDs in summer 2013 in order to get fully interoperable IEDs for the power plant control system.

The whole process of discussing back and forth over a period of nine (9!) months has frustrated many engineers and other people involved in the project. We had meetings with almost 20 people from several companies involved – could you believe it?

The utility (power plant operator) finally ordered a one day training on IEC 61850 to get a much better understanding what the (relatively small) issue was all about and to get an overview about IEC 61850.

The crucial lessons learned by the utility engineers are:

1. If you want to use IEC 61850 in your plant, specify to some extent what you want to get delivered.
2. When you get the offer from vendors, check in detail what they offer.
3. Once you have almost selected one or more vendors, make sure that all IEDs that have to speak IEC 61850 are interoperability tested one way or the other.
4. Once you have signed the contract with one or more vendors, organize interoperability tests in a lab in due time prior to the commissioning process on site.

Note that conformance testing is required – but not sufficient!!

Utilities must take a firm position in favor of a genuine open international standard in the energy market, leaving behind once and for all the outmoded notion of great champions of vendors with many proprietary bells and whistles.

In case utility management and engineers involved in a project follow these recommendations it is likely that the problems that may occur on site later on will be tremendously minimized.

The utility I was involved with told me, that they will contract with me again, as soon as they have to build another MV substation in a power plant using IEC 61850 IEDs.

Good luck!

IEC 61850 Interoperability Test Session Fall 2013

Interoperability of IEC 61850 IEDs and Tools is one of the crucial challenges the years to come. Good to know that the UCAIUG (Users Group) is planning a conduct the next Interoperability test session during Fall 2013 – likely in the second half of October in Munich (Germany).

I highly recommend vendors of IEDs and Tools to apply for attendance – AND: If your company is not yet a member of the UCAIUG, this is a good reason to apply for membership.

Please contact the UCAIUG if you want to get involved in the IEC 61850 Interoperability testing session in October 2013.

Apply for UCAIUG membership – its so easy.

What do you think about an IEC 61850 Open Source Implementation?

I have been asked off and on, if there is an Open Source Implementation for IEC 61850 or one with a reasonable price. Yes these are available these days. There is a simple subset of IEC 61850 implemented in Java licensed under the LGPL implemented by Fraunhofer Institute ISE (Freiburg, Germany). This solution is a result of the e-Energy eTelligence research project funded by Germany's Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (2009-2012).

There is at least one other affordable solution available that provides a full subset of IEC 61850 even applicable at small embedded controllers – from SystemCorp.

The Open Source IEC 61850 Server supports:

• MMS Associations
• (MMS) GetDirectory and (MMS) GetDataDefinition services
• (MMS) GetDataValues and (MMS) SetDataValues
• (MMS) DATA-SET model services
• Interpretation of ICD-File to build model

IEC 61850 Client supports in addition to Servers:

• Receiving (MMS) Reports

Visit the home page of the openIEC61850 Implementation.

We have tested the open source solution to some extend to see what it provides. The solution is mainly a MMS (ISO 9506) implementation. IEC 61850 contributes to the solution with its information models (logical devices, logical nodes, data objects, data attributes, …). The hierarchical information maps perfectly to MMS NamedVariables (NV)!! The corresponding MMS Services allow to manage retrieving the MMS object model (NVs), writing to the NVs and reading from NVs. Since MMS fits well to the information model of IEC 61850, it is natural that the MMS NV and NV services provide the needed services for IEC 61850 information model management.

IEC 61850-7-2 (ACSI) provides more elaborated services (not supported by the open source solution), e.g., Reporting, Logging, GOOSE, Sampled Value exchange, Control Model, and File transfer. The most comprehensive (complex) model is the buffered Report Control model. This model allows the optimized usage of bandwidth by providing a spontaneous (event) driven mechanism. A specific status information will be transmitted only when its value changes or when – for an analogue value – a configured limit is violated. This reduces the traffic tremendously and meeting a critical timeliness need.

Polling a huge number of devices in a huge distributed system does not scale at all. There is a crucial difference in applying polling or event driven reporting.

Sure, for accessing some values in a remote device once an hour or once a day or so, could be realized with polling.

If your need is focusing on fast (medium and hard real-time) information exchange, then you need high efficient reporting, GOOSE and Sampled Value exchange.

The OpenIEC61850 implementation uses the external access path (the complete path from LD/LN.DO,DA. …) also for the internal access of the real information in the application. The application uses the path at the boundary between communication and application. The application has to analyze the text strings (up to 2 x 64 characters) for each element to be written or read. An API that maps between the external name path and a kind of an internal pointer (maybe just a linear index) is therefore more efficient. One of the crucial objectives of IEC 61850 is to use a standardized model independent of the internal organization of the real data values.

It would be interesting to see a first device that implements the OpenIEC61850 solution to get an IEC 61850 Conformance Certificate. The current solution does not yet support the Control Model, which is required as a mandatory service. MMS does not have a model that is equivalent to the IEC 61850 Control Model. That’s why the IEC 61850 solution has to implement all the needed features of the Control Model according to IEC 61850-7-2 and IEC 61850-8-1. Having MMS does not mean that it is easy to implement the Control Model – I have seen many experts struggling with the Control Model.

The main reason why there was a decision made to implement an openIEC61850 using Java was (from my experience and understanding) simply because there was not a single software solution available that was affordable for R&D projects. Usually the solutions came in source code … meaning to spent a lot of efforts (money and time) to get what people (researchers, students, Phd students, …) were looking for.

This has changed a lot during the recent years. These days you could build on ready-to-go solutions that allow implementing affordable devices interoperable with other devices.

There is a FREE IEC 61850 evaluation software (Client and Server) available that could be used for building compliant clients and server: A DLL plus application software (executable and source code for the application).

http://blog.iec61850.com/2012/08/c-server-and-client-application-source.html

The DLL runs for six months … but could be purchased as well.

TÜV SÜD organizes IEC 61400-25 (IEC 61850) Interoperability Workshop on 18.-19. March 2013

The USE61400-25 user group focuses on minimizing the interoperability risks of communication between devices or/and systems claiming conformance to the IEC 61400-25 standard. In order to fulfill this goal, interoperability workshops are held periodically. The next workshop will be held on 18.-19. March 2013.

This interoperability workshop is free of charge for all current USE61400-25 members. Nonmembers are cordially invited to join the workshop as well. To subscribe for the interoperability workshop please return the signed registration form to the testing team [Word doc].

The interoperability workshop will be held at
TÜV Süd, Ridlerstr. 65, Raum E005
80339 München, Germany

18th and 19th of March 2013.
18th March: 13:00 – 18:00
19th March: 9:00 – 12:00

Download invitation for the IEC 61400-25 Workshop [pdf]

Please note that the standard IEC 61400-25 is based on IEC 61850 in general and on IEC 61850-8-1 (MMS Mapping) in particular. The MMS Mapping is – to my knowledge – the solution that is used in most applications. The interoperability test is thus also a kind of an IEC 61850 interoperability test. as can be seen from the registration form:

One of the supporting turbine manufacturers that offers IEC 61400-25 connectivity is REpower. In a paper Repower published recently they referred to IEC 61850 as the basis for IEC 61400-25. See also blog post on the paper.