IEC 61850 covers applications inside substations AND beyond substations

IEC 61850 is applicable for general automation applications as well as for electric power delivery systems. The following lists give an impression of what kind of domains are taken into account so far ... more to come:

Information models and exchange for

• real-time and near real-time applications  (pub/sub: GOOSE, Sampled Values)
• protection
• monitoring, supervision, and control (client/server TCP/IP and WebSocket)
• substation and feeder equipment
• substation-to-substation
• substation-to-control centre
• power plant-to-control centre
• distributed generation
• distributed energy resources
• micro grids
• metering
• power quality
• condition monitoring
• hydro, steam, gas power plants
• wind generation plants
• data centers
• …

System Configuration and engineering

• System Configuration Language (SCL)
• Basic Application Profiles
• top-down-engineering (model-based engineering)
• - …

These lists demonstrate that the standard series IEC 61850 covers applications inside substations AND beyond substations. One crucial question remains: What are the logical nodes and data objects ... from which parts of the standard series IEC 61850 are required for a specific application domain?
The answer is here: ask me.

HERE you can find a sample model for an IEC 61850 Profile for Distributed Energy Resources Supporting IEEE 1547 [pdf] ... quite interesting ...

You may search the web for MICS (IEC 61850 model implementation conformance Statement) ... 

Note that substations are very crucial components of the interconnected electric energy systems.

Let me know if you need some help.

How are IEC 61850 Information Models related to Functions?

The common understanding of information is crucial for the understanding of the related functions that produce, consume, and exchange the information. Information is always "bound" to functions ... no function - no information.

Let's have a look at this function: 

Supervision of a temperature value ... report an alarm to a well known entity when the temperature change rate reaches a value of xyz ... this is the FUNCTION. Now we model it with IEC 61850:

The temperature supervision is modeled in the logical node MySTMP1. We use the data objects Tmp (reported every x minutes), RteAlm (reported when the value of the RteAlmSet is reached, e.g., 0.5 K/s).

This "function" is described in an SCL document ... here the MySTMP1 is bound to a topology (SSD), e.g., room temperature in building so-and-so, the reports are sent to the SCADA system mySCADA-client, ... the factory acceptance test can more or less be automated based on the SCL document.

The IEC 61850 STMP logical node model follows the temperature supervision function!! 

The function was there well before IEC 61850 was born!

IEC 61850 standardizes the information shared with a real function.

The following diagram shows the basic modelling approach in IEC 61850:

• IEC 61850-7-2 defines the foundation
• IEC 61850-7-3 defines the common data classes: MV for measurements, SPS for single point status, and ASG for analogue sessings.
• IEC 61850-7-4 defines the logical node and data object classes.

More details will follow ... stay tuned.

The real challenge with IEC 61850 is: You likely get the feeling when you start reading hundreds of pages: unable to see the wood for the trees.

Let me know if you need help ... after 30 years I can support you.

IEC Just Published IEC TR 61850-7-5 ED1 - Modelling Concepts

IEC TC 57 just Published Draft IEC TR 61850-7-5 ED1 - IEC 61850 Modelling Concepts

(57/2253/DTR - 33 pages) - voting closes 2020-09-11

Excerpt from the introduction:

"The standard IEC 61850 provides a very broad range of data models covering as much as possible all application functions in the range of power utility automation. The modelling both in the domains and between the domains show differences which may impact the interoperability. Therefore, some informative guideline is helpful to reach a common approach in application function modelling. A lot of basic functionality is based on the concept of IEC 61850 and, therefore, the same for all application domains. As result, a basic cross-domain part as Technical Report is useful. Domain specific issues are addressed in the Technical Reports 7-5xx (e.g. IEC TR 61850-7-500 for substation automation)."