Siemens PCS7 (TIA) PowerControl Station Gateway connects PLCs with IEC 61850 IEDs

In a post earlier today I wrote: "It does not make sense to decouple power systems from big(ger) applications." ... this reminded me to discuss another use case ... factory automation to substation ...

Siemens offers PLCs with the PCS7 family. They have developed gateways that bring the substation closer to the power user ... 

PCS 7 PowerControl Station Gateway connection of a SIPROTEC 5 protection device (speaking IEC 61850!)

The brochure states at the beginning: "In addition to the demanding process automation requirements in many industrial plants, it is also necessary to integrate the medium-voltage power supply switchgear into a complete automation system.

Components of such plants are electrical consumers with high energy requirements (factories, chemocal plants, ...). Individual consumers are monitored and controlled via protection devices, also known as IEDs (intelligent electronic devices)."

So, my statement on the post earlier today has been confirmed! 

The same is available for the integration of a substation into a Siemens TIA (Totally Integrated Automation) ... TIA Station Gateway: excerpt of that page:

"With the new IEC 61850 server functionality, you can extend your station gateway integration allowing you to reliably publish process data directly to IEC 61850 clients via GOOSE Publisher or MMS polling and reporting with a high degree of performance. Whether protection systems, instrumentation and control or automation environments: The publisher ensures that events are quickly transferred and facilitates fixed data models and the highest degree of interoperability."

WOW.

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.