Part 7-420 - Distributed energy resources and distribution automation logical nodes

After tremendous work on the revision and extension of the IEC 61850-7-420 Edition 1, IEC TC 57 just published the 366 page committee draft IEC 61850-7-420 ED2:

57/1997/CD

Communication networks and systems for power utility automation – Part 7-420: Basic communication structure – Distributed energy resources and distribution automation logical nodes

Commenting period closes 2018-08-17

Excerpt from the introduction:

"Increasing numbers of DER (distributed energy resources) systems are being interconnected to electric power systems throughout the world. As DER technology evolves and as the impact of dispersed generation on distribution power systems becomes a growing challenge – and opportunity – nations worldwide are recognizing the economic, social, and environmental benefits of integrating DER technology within their electric infrastructure.
The manufacturers of DER devices are facing the age-old issues of what communication standards and protocols to provide to their customers for monitoring and controlling DER devices, in particular when they are interconnected with the electric power system. In the past, DER manufacturers developed their own proprietary ...

This document addresses the IEC 61850 information modelling for DER, although some types and aspects of DER information models have been developed or are being developed separately through technical reports before they are added to this international standard DER model. These consist of the following:
• IEC 61850-90-6: Use of IEC 61850 for Distribution Automation Systems
• IEC 61850-90-8: Object model for electric mobility
• IEC 61850-90-9: Use of IEC 61850 for Electrical Storage Systems
• IEC 61850-90-15: DER Grid Integration using IEC 61850 "

This document is one of the crucial parts for the application of IEC 61850 in distributed power systems.

IEC 61850: THE crucial standard for Power Delivery System at EDF

PennWell Corporation reported earlier this year:
French utility giant EDF uses IEC 61850 for more than the standard's usual communication applications. Working with Schneider Electric, EDF has embraced a new approach for application modeling with IEC 61850 at its core.

For designing wind farms and photovoltaic (PV) systems, EDF employs this approach as early as the requirements-gathering level. The approach echoes one encouraged by Schneider Electric for using IEC 61850, an ambition the company translated into software engineering tools.

With its new approach to engineering smart substation automation systems, EDF places information flow at the center of project engineering. …

Any person or machine at EDF can read and understand that common language. The language enables information exchange among devices, people, departments, organizations, generations of stakeholders and the components and people involved in projects and systems.

… EDF's approach, based completely on the IEC 61850 standard, allows the capture of unambiguous requirements in a formal way.

Click HERE to read the full article.

More to come.

Renewable Energies and Energy efficiency in your Neighborhood

I just came about the following interesting website showing a map of thousands of renewable resources in Europe:

http://www.repowermap.org/index.php?ln=en

You may search for Frankfurt or other cities:

The map shows some 60,000 examples. You can add your own PV system or …

Enjoy!

Just published: Draft 61850-90-17 – Using IEC 61850 to transmit power quality data

IEC TC 57 has just published the 52 page Draft IEC Technical Report 61850-90-17 – Using IEC 61850 to transmit power quality data (57/1488/DC).

The document is available for comments until 2014-10-10.

Contact your TC 57 National Committee for a copy.

Phenomena considered in the draft are related to:

• Power frequency
• Magnitude of the supply voltage
• Flicker
• Supply voltage dips and swells.
• Voltage interruptions
• Transient voltages
• Supply voltage unbalance
• Voltage harmonics
• Voltage interharmonics
• Mains signalling voltage on the supply voltage
• Rapid Voltage Changes (RVC)
• Underdeviation and overdeviation
• Magnitude of current
• Current recording
• Harmonic currents
• Interharmonic currents
• Current unbalance
• Frequency deviation
• Supply voltage variations
• Voltage unbalance
• Harmonic voltage
• Interharmonic voltage
• Voltage fluctuation and flicker
• Mains signalling and voltages

This draft is intended to increase the interoperability between power quality monitoring systems and any application that needs the corresponding information for operation or post mortem analysis.

Current and forcasted Solar and Wind Power in the TransnetBW Network

The TransnetBW is the fourth largest German Power Transmission operator (TSO) – in the southwest of Germany where my hometown (Karlsruhe) is.

The day started very sunny. In case you want to see how much solar and wind power is fed into the grid, you can visit the following websites:

Solar Power in TransnetBW (historical, currrent and forcasted values): Click HERE.
Wind Power in TransnetBW (historical, currrent and forcasted values): Click HERE.
Solar Power in Germany (historical and currrent values): Click HERE.

Currently we have 3.6 GW PV power production in Germany … some 10 per cent of the installed capacity of 34 GW.

This all requires a lot of measurements and management … and communication like IEC 60870-5-104, IEC 61850, IEC 61400-25, and DNP3.

Where is the sun shining?

If you want to figure out where in Germany the sun is shining, you have several possibilities: check with a weather related website or check the PV power production.

Today (2012-12-06 10:28) the PV Power was 1.1 GW … the sun was shining in the south-western part – where Karlsruhe (my home town) is:

Up-to-date  and historical PV power performance provided by SMA.

Performances of Photo Voltaic Systems (PV) in Germany

Did you know that on May 25, 2012, 179 GWh electric power have been provided by PV systems?

You can view at any time the total output of all PV plants in Germany installed up to the specified cutoff date. The animated graphics demonstrate the role already played by photo voltaic systems in generating electricity in Germany today, and show that PV systems also contribute to reducing the high cost of midday peak demand.

Link to current and historical performance of Photo Voltaic Systems (PV) in Germany provided by SMA

Note that SMA is supporting the application of IEC 61850 for managing PV systems.

Successful IEC 61850 Training in Seoul (South Korea)

The two day training on IEC 61850 in Seoul (South Korea) was attended by some 60 experts from South Korea and the Philippines – a big success:

Entrance at the KTL building:

 

Auditorium:

Discussing (very good) questions:

The training was well received. The questions and discussions indicate that the industry is now in the process of implementing and using the new technology IEC 61850 and IEC 61400-25.

TÜV SÜD (one of the organizing companies) focused on the interoperability tests and functional tests of devices like PV inverter. TÜV SÜD offers services to test IEC 61850 conformity, PV inverter functions defined in part IEC 61850-90-7, security, and EMC/EMI requirements. One Test Lab – for many requirements.

Italian Norm about to Require IEC 61850 for almost all PV Inverters

The CEI (Comitato Elettrotecnico Italiano) has published in December 2011 a norm that strongly proposes to use IEC 61850 to connect PV inverters (>1kV and >6 kW) to external systems (grid operator, …):

CEI 0-21 “Regola tecnica di riferimento per la connessione di Utenti attivi e passivi alle reti BT delle imprese distributrici di energia elettrica”.

“Reference technical rules for the connection of active and passive users to
the LV electrical Utilities”

Click HERE for the press release and link to the norm provided by CEI [pdf, Italian].

Click HERE for a up-to-date presentation presenting the background and needs for … and for standard communications in low voltage (LV) power systems.

The document IEC 61850-90-7 “IEC 61850 object models for inverters in distributed energy resources (DER) systems” is about to published in a few months. This document is a perfect fit for the needs of PV inverters.

IEC TC 57 WG 17 has met in San Diego (CA) last week. The final draft paper is expected to be available in a few weeks.

PV Power to (de)stabilize the European Power Delivery System?

One swallow does not make a summer – But 100.000 do. One PV system on a roof in the nineties did not make a smart grid based on renewable resources. But due to the growth of renewable resources like PV the power delivery system changes a lot. Usually today the PV inverters do automatically frequency disconnection.

ENTSO-E the “European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity” noted in a letter to Commissioner Oettinger of the European Commission that too many “swallows” are flying somehow “uncontrolled” – flying alone … not being aware what’s going on around them … not seeing the system (!):

“This letter is to brief you on a security of supply issue arising from the automatic frequency disconnection settings of installed photovoltaic (PV) panels in some European countries and to request your support in encouraging the national Regulatory authorities in impacted countries to facilitate the timely implementation of remedial actions.

Due to the interconnected nature of the transmission system until such remedial actions are implemented the synchronous Central European power system is at increased risk to significant frequency deviations of a magnitude that would generate a widespread loss of supply.

In several European countries, connection standards applicable to photovoltaic panels and other distributed generation have been or are still specifying that the panels automatically disconnect from the grid whenever the system frequency reaches 0.2 or 0.3 Hz deviations from the required normal value of 50.0 Hz.

Current information from our Member TSOs, including for example Germany and Italy, indicate that the significant growth in photovoltaics in recent years has resulted in a PV installed capacity (with such settings) approaching 25 000 MW. At these levels there is clearly a risk of an instantaneous generation loss far in excess of the 3000MW generation loss „ride-through‟ design limit for the Continental European system. …”

Click HERE for the letter from ENTSO-E [English, pdf]

Ok, what to do now? Act! There are many actions needed to get CONTROL over the system in the future system based on many distributed resources! One aspect is to change limits … but more important is the control of the power resources.

A group of IEC TC 57 WG 17 is working on a very crucial part of IEC 61850: Draft IEC 61850-90-7 TR – “Communication networks and systems for power utility automation – Part 90-7: IEC 61850 object models for photovoltaic, storage, and other DER inverters” (57/1155/DC).

Major PV inverter manufacturers and other experts have drafted the above document.

Crucial aspects covered by 90-7 (in addition to IEC 61850-7-420 – DER) are:

7. DER management functions for inverters.

7.1 Immediate control functions for inverters
7.1.1 Function INV1: connect / disconnect from grid
7.1.2 Function INV2: adjust maximum generation level up/down
7.1.3 Function INV3: adjust power factor.
7.1.4 Function INV4: request real power (charge or discharge storage)
7.1.5 Function INV5: pricing signal for charge/discharge action

7.2 Modes for volt-VAr management
7.2.1 Var management modes using volt/VAr arrays
7.2.2 Volt-VAr mode VV11: normal energy conservation mode
7.2.3 Volt-VAr mode VV12: maximum VAr support mode
7.2.4 Volt-VAr mode VV13: static inverter mode
7.2.5 Volt-VAr mode VV14: passive mode.

7.3 Modes for frequency-related behaviours
7.3.1 Frequency management modes
7.3.2 Frequency-watt mode FW21: high frequency reduces active power.
7.3.3 Frequency-watt mode FW22: constraining generating/charging by frequency (see diagram below)

7.4 Dynamic grid support during abnormally high or low voltage levels
7.4.1 Dynamic grid support mode TV31: dynamic grid support during abnormally high or low voltage levels
7.4.2 Example of dynamic grid support capabilities.

7.5 Functions for “must disconnect” and “must stay connected” zones
7.5.1 “Must disconnect” MD curve
7.5.2 “Must stay connected” MSC curve

7.6 Modes for watt-triggered behaviours
7.6.1 Watt-power factor mode WP41: feeding power controls power factor

7.7 Modes for voltage-watt management.
7.7.1 Voltage-watt mode VW51: voltage-watt management: generating by voltage
7.7.2 Voltage-watt mode VW52: voltage-watt management: charging by voltage

7.8 Modes for behaviours triggered by non-power parameters
7.8.1 Temperature mode TMP
7.8.2 Pricing signal mode PS

7.9 Setting and reporting functions
7.9.1 Establishing settings DS91: modify inverter-based DER settings
7.9.2 Event logging DS92: log alarms and events, retrieve logs
7.9.3 Reporting status DS93: selecting status points, establishing reporting mechanisms
7.9.4 Time synchronization DS94: time synchronization requirements

Example (without further explanations):

7.3.3 Frequency-watt mode FW22: constraining generating/charging by frequency:

It is expected that this part IEC 61850-90-7 is one of the crucial parts of IEC 61850 for the stability of the future power delivery systems all over.

It’s “PV summer time” – there are millions of PV inverter installed (most of them are not controlled … just “flying” around.

Please contact your national IEC TC 57 committee to get a copy of the document.

Click HERE for an interesting ENTSO-E Draft “Requirements for Grid Connection Applicable to all Generators” dated 22 March 2011

The Power Systems are quite comprehensive … and complex!

Solar Integration System with IEC 61850 Connectivity

Sunverge optimizes the value of solar power by leveraging the practical advantages of distributed generation and energy storage. Their cost-effective energy management system captures solar energy and stores it for use when it’s needed most, thereby shifting electrical loads, flattening peak electricity demand and maximizing return on renewable energy investments. With an innovative grid-tied model that fully integrates the latest in lithium-ion energy storage, an open standards data processing gateway leveraging IEC 61850 and NIST-SGIP interoperability protocols and a unique hybrid inverter/converter, Sunverge aligns the goals of residential consumers, commercial and industrial customers and electricity utilities to help solve the energy problems of today and tomorrow.

Click HERE for more information [pdf]