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!

IEC 61850 for Substations Only?

The title and scope of IEC 61850 was for many years very restricted:

2001 – 2009: Communication networks and systems in substations

2010 – … : Communication networks and systems for power utility automation

The new title and scope is still too restrictive! The working group wanted to change to “… for automation”. This was not accepted by the IEC Central Office. IEC deals with electro-technical matters. The term “automation” was understood as to broad.

From a content point of view IEC 61850 could be used all over where measurements and status information needs to be communicated – in any application domain. Even if you are just monitoring a process or system (no control need) you can use IEC 61850 models, messages and configuration tools.

The Model “STMP” (temperature supervision logical node) can be used wherever a temperature measurement is taken: Temperature of a transformer, of a room, ambient temperature or your body temperature. When the “STMP.Tmp.mag” value reached the configured limit (Alarm limit or Trip limit) an report or a GOOSE message may be issued.

By the way, IEC 61850 has rules how to define extended logical nodes and data objects. All values can be communicated the Ethernet and TCP/IP based information exchange methods.

Experts pointing to the scope “substations” are not up-to-date. Those arguing that IEC 61850 is for “power utility automation” only may not like to accept that IEC 61850 is very generic or common – applicable in a wide range of applications.

The title and scope are just “toner on paper”.

Progress in Smart Grid Deployment – Too slow?

Many people all over expect that the Electric Power Delivery system will be changed to become smarter over night. A system that has been build over a period of 20, 50, …. 100+ years cannot be changed in short time! The change is likely to occur in steps over several decades – may be for ever.

Peter Fox Penner (US consultant) has summarized what is going on in the process of change. He concludes: “… Taken together, the trends discussed here show that the smart grid is expanding and developing, even if the most successful entities and programs are surprising. More importantly, these trends illustrate the evolutionary nature of smart grid development. Arguments that the smart grid is moving too slowly underestimate the scale and complexity of rebuilding our entire grid. Utilities are tasked with deploying a complex series of infrastructure investments that must work in harmony with their current (already smart) systems, use innovative pricing that customers support, and produce a net benefit. Under these conditions, slow and steady wins the race. We can expect smart grid development to occur in stages over decades, ultimately transforming the power industry into a very different business.”

Click HERE for his report in the IEEE Smart Grid Newsletter.

When we talk about the pace of change in the information technology in industrial automation we should not get nervous when we see the slow progress! How long did it take to get Gigabit/s Ethernet for substation environments developed … and accepted!? New approaches in Automation take often decades before they are accepted and used.

Click HERE for a brief discussion on Ethernet and Tokenbus … written decades ago.

The future for standards is quite bright. When a utility decides to deploy information technology for the next 10 or 20 years it will likely chose a stable standard – so that there is no need to change the solution every 4 or 5 years … when manufacturers have developed a new solution.

MMS (Manufacturing Message Specification, ISO 9506, used in IEC 61850-8-1 to define the message encoding) has been developed in the late eighties (80s !) – some 25 years ago. Web services are understood by some people as an option for messaging – more up-to-date. I have seen a Report message of a simple state change message using IEC 61400-25-2 Web Services the other day. The length of the XML coded Report message was some 850 octets !! A Report message encoded with MMS/ASN.1 BER (as per IEC 61850-8-1) is really shorter: by a factor of about 10 !!

Don’t hurry. Take your time. Rome hasn’t be built over night!

I usually sate in my seminars that the deployment of IEC 61850 happens too fast – users often do not have any clue what they got installed. They got it because it was cheaper than xyz. All in a sudden they have several substations with hundreds of IEDs communicating with IEC 61850 – and many (may be almost all) utility engineers have to struggle with this new way to do protection and automation. Many of them have started to get training in IEC 61850 … and you?

Don’t start slow and slow down fast ;-)

Just start – there is something to learn!

Engineer for IT Security in Industrial Automation Wanted (TÜV SÜD)

Der TÜV SÜD in München sucht einen Ingenieur für IT-Sicherheit (w/m)

Aufgaben:

• Erstellung von Prüf- und Testszenarien nach einschlägigen Standards (z.B. IEC 62351, IEC 15408 etc.)
• IT-Sicherheitsberatung und Audits von Industriesystemen (z.B. Leit- und Steuernetzwerke)
• Analyse/Auswertung von (industriellen) Kommunikationsprotokollen (z.B. TCP/IP, XML, PROFINET)
• Durchführung von IT-Sicherheits- und Risikoanalysen
• Durchführung von IT-Sicherheitstests und Penetrationstests
• Berichterstellung
• Mitwirkung bei Fachveranstaltungen (Schulungen, Seminare, Tagungen)

HIER für weitere Informationen clicken.

Übrigens: die Norm IEC 62351 wird auch für Geräte nach IEC 61850 und IEC 61400-25 eingesetzt.

Test Engineer for IEC 61850 Wanted (TÜV SÜD Munich)

Der TÜV SÜD in München sucht einen Ingenieur für Schaltanlagen (w/m)

Aufgaben:

• Erstellen von Prüf- und Testszenarien zur Prüfung der Konformität und Interoperabilität nach IEC 61850 und IEC 61400-25
• Erstellen, Erweitern und Modifizieren von Test-Skripts für die automatisierte Testdurchführung und -auswertung
• Prüfung von Konfigurationen und technischen Datenmodellen beim Kunden
• Analyse und Auswertung von Kommunikationsprotokollen und Testergebnissen
• Erstellen von Prüfberichten nach vorgegebenen Qualitätsstandards
• Unterstützung des Kunden bei der Umsetzung von Normanforderungen sowie der Bewertung und Behandlung von Testergebnissen
• Mitarbeit bei nationalen und internationalen Standardisierungsgremien, Vertretung bei Konferenzen und Fachveranstaltungen

HIER für weitere Informationen clicken.

Progress in IEC 61850 standardization

The FDIS IEC 61850-9-2 Ed.2:
Communication networks and systems for power utility automation -
Part 9-2: Specific communication service mapping (SCSM) -
Sampled values over ISO/IEC 8802-3

has been accepted as International Standard.

The CDV IEC 61850-10 Ed.2 (57/1162/CDV):
Communication networks and systems for power utility automation -
Part 10: Conformance testing

has been published for comments an ballot by 2012-01-06.

The following has been changed and extended:
- Update of Server device conformance test procedures
- New Client system conformance test procedures
- New Sampled values device conformance test procedures
- New Engineering Tool related conformance test procedures
- New GOOSE performance test procedures

Developers Workshop for IEC 61850 Client/Server and Publisher/Subscriber for Smart Grids in Shanghai

A one-day Developers Workshop for IEC 61850 Client/Server and Publisher/Subscriber Devices and Applications will be conducted by Karlheinz Schwarz at the

State Energy Smart Grid R&D Center (Shanghai) hosted at Shanghai Jiao Tong University

800 Dong Chuan Road

Shanghai, China, 200240

05. September 2011 (Monday)

智能电网标准 · 应用与开发研讨会

由IEC TC 57核心成员Karlheinz Schwarz先生主讲，内容针对：

两种服务类型： 客户/服务器架构，发布/订阅架构

两类应用平台：嵌入式装置，Windows应用系统

国家能源智能电网（上海）研发中心

上海交通大学，上海市东川路800号

2011.9.5 (周一)

Click HERE for the Program in English and Chinese [pdf].
Click HERE for the profile of the instructor [pdf].
Click HERE for the registration and contact information [Word document].

Germany Increases Energy Research by 75 percent to 3.5 Billion Euros

The German government announced the other day that it will spend much more research money into the development of a clean energy delivery system. The government will spend 3.500.000.000 Euros ($4.9 billion) into research for renewable generation, higher energy efficiency, energy storage and grid-technology in the next three years (2011-2014).

Click HERE for the press release [in German only]

It is very likely that a reasonable part of this money will be spend for the IT infrastructure needed for the many applications of future power delivery system. There are at least two stable solutions that have to be taken into account: (1) the electrical system (A.C. and D.C.) and (2) the IP infrastructure. The future power system will be based on these corner stones. The electrical system will be supported by myriads of new intelligent controllers of the power resources (renewable, storage, …) and new controllers of the grid (transmission and distribution) – and many of the controllers need to work (communicate over Ethernet and TCP/IP) together and being supervised by other controllers, which are part of the overall control of the power system …

The international standard series IEC 61850, IEC 61400-25, IEC 61968/70 (CIM), IEC 60870-6 (ICCP), … are here to help that the dream of the German government becomes true. Without these standards, the future power delivery system would be a nightmare with hundreds of proprietary communication solutions.

Many more companies in Germany and Europe are starting to put their hands on the standards IEC 61850 and IEC 61400-25 to be prepared for the future power delivery system in 2011. More than 20 companies will have received an in-house course on IEC 61850 and other IEC standards by Karlheinz Schwarz by end of 2011, and he will have run about an additional 10 public courses this year.

There is a lot to be done – let’s get started or continue dealing with the IT infrastructure using IEC standards.

Of course: The IT infrastructure is just a vehicle for the future power delivery system. There is much more to do than to communicate. By applying already available standards it saves a lot of R&D money that should better be spend on questions like, “What does demand response really mean?”

Click HERE for a nice paper that discusses questions like: “What happens with the electrical system if a huge number of customers start their dishwashers, washing machines, stoves, AC, … at the same time after a real-time price information has been received by the consumers?” Could they behave in a way to cause power outages? May be …

Corrected URLs for IEC 61850 Hands-on Training Course in Sao Paulo (Brazil) on 11.-14. October 2011

The URLs for the STRI/NettedAutomation hands-on training course scheduled for Sao Paulo (Brazil) on 11.-14. October 2011 were damaged … please find the correct links:

Click HERE for the Program and Registration information for attendees from Brazil.
Click HERE for the Program and Registration information for all other attendees.

The course will be conducted at Instronic: http://www.instronic.com.br/

Cisco’s conclusion on FERC’s Non-Ruling on IEC Standards

FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) decided in July 2011 to not (yet) rule on five Smart Grid standard series suggested by the National Institute of Standards Technology (NIST) / Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP). These families of standards defined by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) were nominated by NIST/SGIP for consideration by FERC in rule making in October 2011. These are:

• IEC 61968: Application Integration at Electric Utilities-System Interfaces for Distribution Management
• IEC 61970: Energy management system application program interface
• IEC 61850: Communication Networks and Systems for Power Utility Automation
• IEC 60870-6 series: Telecontrol protocols compatible with ISO standards and ITU-T recommendations
• IEC 62351: Power systems management and associated information exchange - data and communications security

Cisco’s position on this FERC non-ruling (according to their website – see below) is:

• "Are the IEC standards really not ready for prime time? This is unlikely because most of these standards are already in use outside North America.
• Is cyber security a solved problem? Not likely, as long as there are hackers in the world, cyber security will be an on-going challenge.
• Is cyber security an intractable problem? Far from it, the public Internet and private Internets (e.g. DoD) can be highly secure networks. And open-standards, community-based security mechanisms are far superior to "security by obscurity", or the status quo in utility networking which largely consists of hundreds of parallel SCADA networks.
• Is greater awareness and education required? Indeed yes. The utility industry and the regulatory commissions need to hear from the Internet community of vendors, service providers, network operators, system admins, and cyber security experts, how packet networks can be made secure.

The FERC non-action is both a temporary setback and a call-to-action for the Smart Grid community. The concerns expressed by FERC and the regulators are genuine and need to be addressed. Unfortunately, the need for standards in transmission and distribution networks can't be put off. Fortunately, the cyber security questions related to the Smart Grid have good answers available from the long experience of the Internet.

Click HERE for the Cisco Developer Network statement on FERC’s non-ruling.

What is true for the security issues (IEC 62351) is true for the other standard families, too! Many engineers need to become aware of the huge challenges by more education and training!!

Investment in peopleware is one of the needed actions to keep the power flowing.

Click HERE for more discussions on peopleware.

Next opportunity in North America:

Nashville (TN, USA)
20.-21. September 2011
Remote Conference
2 day Seminar (conducted by NettedAutomation) on Power System Communication covering IEC 61850, IEC 61400-25, DNP3, NIST Interoperability Roadmap, Smart Grids, security standards, ...
http://www.remotemagazine.com/rem-conf11/rem11_workshop.php

IEC 61869-6: The IEC 61850 Interface for Instrument Transformers

IEC TC 38 has published the new Committee Draft (CD) for the Digital interface for instrument transformers (38/418/CD):

IEC 61869: Instrument Transformers -
Part 9: Digital interface for instrument transformers

This standard defines a method for digital communications of instrument transformer
measurements. It is based on the IEC 61850 series of standards, IEC 60044-8 and the UCA International User Group document Implementation Guideline for Digital Interface to Instrument Transformers Using IEC 61850-9-2 (known as 9-2LE). It includes additional improvements including IEC 61588 network based time synchronization, and frequency response requirements.

This new standard will be part a product family standard for instrument transformers. It provides an application of the horizontal standard series IEC 61850, which details layered substation communication architecture in the world of instrument transformers.
By providing tutorial material such as examples and explanations, it also gives an access for instrument transformer, protective relay and meter experts to concepts and methods applied in the IEC 61850 series.

An overview about the standard series 61869 is shown in the next picture:

• Part 9 Replaces IEC 60044-8 digital solution.
• Provides a product standard for instrument transformers with a digital interface according to 61850; similar to what IEC 62271-3 is doing for switchgear.
• Includes backward compatibility for the UCA International User Group Implementation Guideline for Digital Interface to Instrument Transformers Using IEC 61850-9-2.
• Uses IEC 61588-Ed2 for time synchronization, with an option for 1PPS.

The CD ballot closes 2011-11-04.

Contact your national IEC TC 38 or TC 57 committee to get a copy of the CD.

Hannover (Germany) Black Out Caused by Aging Infrastructure

Some 600,000 people of the city of Hannover (Northern Germany) were hit by a blackout (up to 81 minutes) on July 13, 2011.

First a power plant was tripped due to some internal problems. Then it was expected that a 220 kV / 110 kV transformer substation would transform more power from the 220 kV network into the 110 kV network – this would have balanced the load in the city and provided power from outside.

The transformer was protected by protection functions that prevent overloading (overheating) the transformer – in order to not damage the transformer windings by too high temperatures … Due to the increase of power flow after the power plant outage in the city, the protection tripped, because it decided that the flow was above the configured limit. The limit was correctly set – but a capacitor (worth a few Euro) was defect and the result was that the protection tripped the circuit breaker even at a current below the configured limit! It would be interesting to know how old the protection relay was.

Due to the aging of the hardware (capacitor) it happened in Hannover recently. What city or region will be next hit by the aging infrastructure of our electrical delivery system?

More to come.

More maintenance (as decided by the utility in Hannover) is not an anti-aging means – refurbishment of aged components of the infrastructures may help … but costs a lot of money.

Click HERE for the press release of the enercity utility of Hannover [German only].
Click HERE for a discussion of aging infrastructures [German only]

What Do You Need to Know to Retrieve Process Values from an IEC 61850 Compliant Device?

The answer is quite simple: Almost nothing! It depends – of course – on the availability of software for IEC 61850. Let’s assume that we have a device that plays the role of an IEC 61850 server (providing a data model and services to access the values referenced by the model).

What you need is a software that plays the IEC 61850 client role. There are several options:

• Purchase source code and build your own client and API (Application Program Interface)
• Purchase source code and build your own client with an API already incorporated
• Purchase a client DLL with a simple and easy to use API
• Purchase a ready to go Browser with a graphical interface

If you want to just retrieve some data values from a IEC 61850 compliant device, you JUST need to know the IP address of the device and a free Browser evaluation software. Download the well known OMICRON IEDScout; the IEDScout runs in Demo mode for free (restricted services!):

Click HERE for more information and download link for the IEDScout.

Install the IEDScout, go to Configure (right), select New Server just by entering the below IP address and assign a server name:

SEL-421: 99.14.76.126

Use default values … click on OK … OK … done. Go to Discover … select the server you just configured … and start communication with the corresponding device. Retrieving the information model may take several minutes! The IEDScout retrieves the model … some thousand messages exchanged … you may trace the messages using the Wireshark analyzer. Start the Wireshark first and then start IEDScout and connect to any IED.

Once you have the model retrieved, open the model tree and read a value in the tree or see DataSets and Control Blocks.

How long did it take to access data values from an IEC conformant device? 30 minutes … may be 45. Maybe it took another 30 minutes to make it run on your Windows system ;-)

How many of the following standards have you read to get access to one of the above IEDs? IEC 61850-7-x, IEC 61850-8-1, ISO 9506-1/-2, ISO 8824, ISO 8825, IEEE 802.1Q, IETF RFC 792, … 1.000, 2.000, or 5.000 pages?

To use a (graphical) interface at a client there was NO NEED to read any of the above standards! What you may need is basic information about IEC 61850.

Of course, this IEDScout is not an API to be used by client applications. You cannot store the retrieved data values … ok, the full version allows to store the model as an SCL document … and store subscribed GOOSE messages.

Another easy to use API is the SystemCorp API used to build a very simple client HMI – a .Net/C# application:

http://blog.iec61850.com/2011/02/updated-c-client-application-for-iec.html

The API (in form of a DLL) can be used to build your own client application in Windows (DLL) or in Linux (library).

Even the use of the DLL for the client and the use of the C# build HMI does not require to understand all details of the protocol.

Lesson 1 learned: To use the comprehensive protocols like IEC 61850, IEC 60870-5-105, IEC 60870-6 TASE.2, or DNP3 … a simple and easy to use API is needed!! Reading thousands of pages of standards is NOT what is required!!

Lesson 2 learned: The efforts to use any of the above protocols is more or less the same! Of course there is a configuration language SCL in IEC 61850 that requires a little bit more information/education …

Implementing the protocols requires a lot of time and efforts … there may be some difference depending on the protocol.

Be happy by just applying simple and easy to use APIs for clients and servers. Get your first data values communicated within hours – not months …

What About Siemens Simatic S7 and IEC 61850?

Siemens Energy has a wide range of IEC 61850 compliant IEDs. This is what the power utility market expects. But: Does Siemens’ Simatic S7 also support IEC 61850? Yes, Siemens Industry offers a wide range IEC 61850 compliant solutions for Simatic S7 and PCS7; there are several solutions available:

• Client and server for SIMATIC PLCs S7-300, S7-400 and S7 meC.
• Client as WinCC Channel
• Client as DLL
• Gateway IEC 60870-5-104 to IEC 61850

Click HERE for more details including pricing and contact information [English]
HIER klicken für mehr Details, Preise und Kontaktinformation [Deutsch]

More to come in various other Siemens Industry products.

Siemens Energy Sold more than 170,000 IEC 61850 IEDs

Siemens Energy reported yesterday that they have sold more than 170,000 Protection and Control IEDs compliant with IEC 61850 applied in substation automation systems.

Click HERE to read the press release.

IEC 61850 Hands-on Training Course in Sao Paulo (Brazil) on 11.-14. October 2011 confirmed

The STRI/NettedAutomation hands-on training course scheduled for Sao Paulo (Brazil) on 11.-14. October 2011 is now confirmed. The registration is now open.

Click HERE for the Program and Registration information for attendees from Brazil.
Click HERE for the Program and Registration information for all other attendees.

The course will be conducted at Instronic: http://www.instronic.com.br/

Another Discussion on IEC 61850 versus DNP3

For more than a decade there are discussions on “IEC 61850 versus DNP3”. I just saw a discussion which seems to be quite new.

These discussions happened in the field bus area for the last 20+ years – and still happen. They do not really help the industry. Hope we will not run into the same situation in the power utility domain as in the field bus war!

Click HERE for the full discussion. There are many aspects discussed in the paper … I just want to discuss one issue raised:

Excerpt: “In addition, IEC 61850’s major advantage—that holistic concept to solutions—is also a major disadvantage for training. It’s different from the old system, requiring “a rather steep learning curve,” Muschlitz said.
“Many people get depressed when the stack of 1,500 pages of IEC 61850 is put in front of them with the directive ‘learn this,’ ” he said.”

Hm? Why should somebody read 1,500 pages of general information and many technical details? Why? Any idea? For what reason?

Have you ever read the technical specification of the many RFCs for TCP and IP and the Ethernet standards? What most people need – in order to use these technologies – is to have a simple API (Application Programmer Interface) for their Application (e.g., Internet Browser).

The real challenge with IEC 61850 is, that – before you can exchange a single bit with a MMS message – you need the MMS server and MMS client AND a specific API (at least at the client side).

Why should you care about MMS and ASN.1? Just use the API and exchange your application data by reading, reporting, GOOSE, Logging, … DON’T read the many parts of the standard!! The price of the standards will definitely be lower than the cost for reading AND understanding them!!

By the way, how many people that successfully use DNP3 have read and understood all parts of the DNP3 specification (xxx pages)?? I guess most do not have read all the docs – I would get depressed to do so as well … and you?

One of the key issues is the availability of reasonable and easy to use APIs. See my discussion on an IEC 61850 API from the other day: Click HERE.

If I would have to read and understand all specifications applied for an Airbus A380 in order to fly on it from Frankfurt to Johannesburg – I would never get there! I would better ride my bike … ;-) … but then there are the many bridges I have to go over … and ferries … to study first their specification and check if they are safe … I better would stay at home.

Anyway, I have run many trainings on IEC 61850 – A one, two or three day training is much cheaper than buying, reading, and understanding all parts of the standard series. Reading and understanding may take several weeks and cause depressions.

Attending seminars prevents you from becoming depressed! Almost all people that attended our seminars were quite happy! Read what an attendee said: Click HERE.

I wish you a stress-less application of IEC 61850 and other standards!! Good luck!!

High Level of Interoperability of Devices in the Power Utility Domain

There are no (almost no) competing solutions in reaching interoperability of monitoring, protection and control devices in the various areas of the power delivery domain. There is no need for a (FERC, EU, …) mandate for interoperability standards ... we have already a high level of interoperability and acceptance of standard families like IEC 60870-6 ICCP, IEC 61968/70, IEC 61850, IEC 61400-25, IEC 62351, ... for the process and for the control center level in transmission, distribution, and generation.

Compare it with the international Field Bus standard IEC 61158 – there are little competing international standards for field busses!! YES!! BUT: There are some 60 solutions competing in ONE SINGLE standard: IEC 61158. See:

http://blog.iec61850.com/2008/10/iec-fieldbus-edition-2008.html

Have you ever seen such a (non) standard? I have seen it when I took the photo of the stack on my desk in my office in 2008! ;-)

We could be very lucky in the power utility world!!

I am happy to read FERC’s encouragement of “…utilities, smart grid product manufacturers, regulators, and other smart grid stakeholders to actively participate in the NIST interoperability framework process to work on the development of interoperability standards and to refer to that process for guidance on smart grid standards.”

Smart(er) grids need to be build on interoperable standards – Because there is one huge interconnected, interoperable application to be monitored, protected, and controlled: The interconnected power delivery system. The largest machine globally is the European interconnected system. So, interoperability (of the electric power system) is a key objective in the power world.

We need standards for IEDs that are as interoperable as a power generator (or inverter) from Alstom and a transformer from Siemens producing 400/230 V and 50 Hz and a hair dryer from GE that consumes 230 V and 50 Hz.

Electrical Engineers should understand the need of interoperability of IEDs. Just require the same for monitoring, protection and control IEDs.