Be Smart – See IEC 60870-5-104 and IEC 61850 in Action at the Hannover Messe 2014

The Hannover Messe 2014 will continue to offer mature solutions for many needs in the power delivery system – generation, transmission, distribution, usage, … in the public grids as well as in production facilities, ships, harbors, transportation, … Energy is all over! Without energy I could not write this post … nobody would receive the crucial message for a meeting in Hannover.

What you could see there, is described by Günther H. Oettinger, EU Commissioner for Energy in his welcome message of the brochure for the “Smart Grids Forum” :

“ … The critical importance of smart grids is reflected in the Smart Grids display area [Hall 13, stand C35] stand at HANNOVER MESSE’s Energy show. The display area presents technologies that can intelligently integrate and … The Smart Grids display area at HANNOVER MESSE facilitates this dialogue and knowledge-sharing with key input from noted experts from industry, the energy sector, science, research and government. It is my pleasure as EU Commissioner for Energy to take over the patronage of the Smart Grids 2014 and I wish all partners stimulating and profitable discussions at this important exhibition area of the HANNOVER MESSE.”

Some 50 speeches will open your eyes for the needs and solutions. Well known experts from all over will present and discuss the Smart Grid from different perspectives.

Click HERE for the Brochure on the Smart Grid Exclusive themed presentations.

There is also an integrated exhibition of companies that present the latest solutions for smart(er) grids. One of them is Beck IPC at booth C35/7 – just next to the Forum.

Beck IPC and NettedAutomation show the latest developments in using cloud computing, portal for energy applications, smart controller devices supporting Logic, Modbus, M-Bus, IEC 60870-5-104/101, DNP3, IEC61850, IEC 61400-25, … to build highly integrated and distributed applications including gateways between all solutions:

The easiest solution is to use a WEB-PLC and manage the signals to be communicated by the various appropriate communication protocols:

Click HERE for an introduction to the use of the WEB-PLC for the above protocols [pdf] with the title:

"The Beautiful Simplicity of the Integration of Modbus, DNP3, IEC 60870-5-104, and IEC 61850 into a powerful WEB-PLC operating on an Embedded Controller"

Click HERE for an overview on IEC 61850 supporting solutions.

I look forward to meeting you at the Hannover Messe Hall 13, Booth C35/7.

The Beautiful Simplicity of the Integration of IEC 60870-5-104 and IEC 61850

The experience has shown that manufacturers are still shying away from the high costs and long time required for the development of new products based on standards like IEC 61850, IEC 60870-5-104, and IEC 61400-25 (Wind Turbines) because the implementations and applications are quite complex.

For these reasons, a team at NettedAutomation developed a web-based integration tool based on Beck IPC’s com.tom WEB-PLC that significantly streamlines the application of these and other standards and the implementation of simple logic functions that consume and generate data communicated with a variety of protocols. The solution can be used to build various kinds of IEDs for monitoring, control, data concentrators, data aggregators, and gateways.

An 18 page paper describes „The Beautiful Simplicity of the Integration of Modbus, DNP3, IEC 60870-5-104, and IEC 61850 into a powerful WEB-PLC operating on an Embedded Controller“

Click HERE to download the paper [pdf, 2.2 MB]

The com.tom with IEC 60870-5-104 and IEC 61850 are available – see the following website:

http://www.com-tom.de/products.php

These standards are available on most com.tom … DNP3 is available soon. The programming with CoDeSys (IEC 61131-3) and C/C++ is also available.

Bandwidth Usage – IEC 61850 Object References versus Indexes in Messages

Beck IPC and NettedAutomation conducted two workshops on the latest development of IEC 61850 and IEC 60870-5-104 monitoring and automation IEDs and gateways. Experts from 12 companies (users and vendors) attended the workshops. The attendees appreciated the inside view into the standards and how easy it is to implement standard conformant IEDs.

One attendee responded the day after:

“Dear Mr Schwarz, I had a safe return fortunately. Thanks again for your documents and your very interesting presentations yesterday. It is very likely that I contact you in the near future for some questions/help.”

During the first workshop there was a very crucial question on the long names that are used as references to signals (data attributes) like: “MyLogicalDevice/QE1XSWI5.Pos”: How do these long names impact bandwidth needs and consumption? It seems to be quite in-efficient to use IEC 61850 for low bandwidth communication channels! Or?

Here is the solution for Reporting (Meldungen) in IEC 61850: The Report Message uses DataSets to describe the semantic content of the message and the syntactical position of each member of the DataSet. The example below shows five members. The order of the members in the DataSet is important!

A single change in a one of the signals represented by a hierarchical reference, e.g., “MyLogicalDevice/QE1XSWI5.Pos” causes a spontaneous report message with the value of exactly this member (Boolean=True in our example). The POSITION of the member within the DataSet is marked in an inclusion bitstring (or Index) in the message. For the five members we need one octet for the bitstring. The message also carries the name of the DataSet “SwitchPositions”.

The Client can interpret the semantic of the single Boolean (=True) by just looking into the DataSet configuration. The member number 5 means: “MyLogicalDevice/QE1XSWI5.Pos” (of the server). The client needs to understand the syntax (position of the member in the DataSet) and the semantic of the received value(s). The client uses the Configured IED Description (.cid) to understand the shipped package (report).

Any question. Please keep in touch.

For GOOSE and Sampled Value messages it is even more efficient: by just sending the values of all members of a DataSet (in the order of the DataSet) there is no need to provide any identifier (name or index) in the messages. The semantic is determined by the order of the corresponding DataSet. So, subscribers need to receive in the GOOSE or SV the reference of the DataSet used. The efficiency much better than what many people expect – people that know the efficient encoding of IEC 60870-5-104 or DNP3.

That’s it. You want to learn more about IEC 61850 and related standards – and how to implement them, please check the program for the next hands-on training on 07-09 May 2014 in Frankfurt/Germany.

The number of the day: 110

The international fieldbus standard series IEC 61158 (Industrial communication networks –Fieldbus specifications ) and IEC 61784 (Industrial communication networks – Profiles) comprise 110 parts – as listed in the FDIS of part IEC 61158-1 (Fieldbus specifications – Part 1: Overview and guidance for the IEC 61158 and IEC 61784 series). IEC 61158 comprises 82 parts and IEC 61784 has 28 parts.

The part 1 of IEC 61158 states that “The IEC 61158-6 (application layer) series defines a number of distinct and non-interoperable fieldbus application protocols.” This is true for most of the specified solutions: they are not interoperable.

The fieldbus standard series defines 50 different (usually non-interoperable) profiles …

In contrast IEC 61850 defines:

• ONE set of interoperable information models independent of protocols,
• ONE configuration language mostly independent of protocols,
• ONE set of abstract services,
• THREE sets of protocols for three different applications – ONE for client/server, ONE for GOOSE, and ONE for Sampled Values.

Devices that implement IEC 61850 are usually interoperable – there are exceptions, of course. The standard is intended to reach a very high level of interoperability. Lesson learned from the Industrial communication networks: prevent the proliferation of standardized solutions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_standard describes the purpose of international standards:

“ … Technical barriers arise when different groups come together, each with a large user base, doing some well established thing that between them is mutually incompatible. Establishing international standards is one way of preventing or overcoming this problem. …”

This is exactly what the experts that define IEC 61850 are doing for almost 20 years – to the benefit of the global energy delivery market! This objective is well received and appreciated all over.

IEC 61850 at the Hannover Messe 2014

The Hannover Messe will be open from 7-11 April 2014. You are invited to visit the Beck IPC Booth in Hall 13 Stand C35/7. One crucial display will be the wide range of small and efficient multi purpose devices (com.tom) with embedded controllers.

You will see IEC 60870-5-104, IEC 61860, Modbus, … with integrated security (openVPN, …) in action. The com.tom with a WEB-PLC will be presented by NettedAutomation to show the beautiful integration of standards-based automation and monitoring devices as well as gateways.

A comprehensive video clip with an Introduction to IEC 61850, Models, Configuration, Application of a real power quality monitoring with a Janitza PQ Monitor connected with Modbus, WEB-PLC, and Remote access to a com.tom has been posted yesterday. This video helps to get a clue what the standard is all about and how easy it is to get a “non-IEC 61850 device “wrapped” in a nice sugary coating of IEC 61850”.

You will see this and many other applications in action at the Hannover Fair.

Format: mp4 with a resolution of 1180 x 884

- Complete Video (110 MB and 37 Minutes)

I have split this long video into three parts with the same content:

- Part 1 (of 3) Start, IEC 61850 Information Models, and Demo setup (40 MB and 10 Minutes)

- Part 2 (of 3) How to use the Configuration Language SCL (33 MB and 11 Minutes)

- Part 3 (of 3) Implementation with com.tom WEB-PLC (47 MB and 17 Minutes)

A video on building a gateway from IEC 61850 to IEC 60870-5-104 will be presented soon.

Brief EPRI Report on Standards of DistribuTech 2014

EPRI has published a Brief Report of DistribuTECH 2014.

It seems that a hot topic was “DATA” … data from everywhere of everything! Sure there is a need to share the pool of “Big Data”. I have heard about a SCADA project that receives Terra Bytes of “big Data” from a huge wind power park trough IEC 61400-25. This seems to be “Big Data” and “little information” … good for hardware manufacturers.

The EPRI Brief reports from the DistribuTech 2014:

“This was also another good year for standards. The vendor community has heard loud and clear that standards are a preference of electric utilities and the vendors have done a good job of promoting where they are using standards including DNP3, IEC 61850, IEC 61968/61970 (the CIM), MultiSpeak, and more. One relatively new standard that had a strong presence was OpenADR (Open Automatic Demand Response).”

Click HERE for the complete report.

I hope that they are looking at useful information rather than bunches of Data – that just may tell the receiver: nothing has changed, nothing has changed, nothing has changed, … stop here and make it smarter:

This is one aspect of the philosophy of IEC 61850 – which needs to be understood by more people … it will take some time to understand this.

Have you heard about Fuzz Testing of Protocols?

We have to learn new terms every day. One new term is now used quite often: Fuzz testing.

What is it? In Wikipedia you can read:

“Fuzz testing” or fuzzing is a software testing technique, often automated or semi-automated, that involves providing invalid, unexpected, or random data to the inputs of a computer program. The program is then monitored for exceptions such as crashes, or failing built-in code assertions or for finding potential memory leaks. Fuzzing is commonly used to test for security problems in software or computer systems.”

So, it is no surprise to read about fuzz testing and protocols used in the power industry. One discussion is about the fuzz testing and DNP3.

Click HERE to read what experts discuss [Post on Digitalbond website on DNP3].

I have discussed quite often the issue of security and improving the quality of protocol implementations and applications, e.g.,

Is Security really a big Issue in the Power Industry?
Security Measures in Power Grids – often ignored

There is another (related issue): Who is in charge to define the detailed test-cases for conformance testing IEDs?

• Is it a users group? Maybe.
• Is it a test lab accredited by a users group? Hopefully not!
• Is it the vendor of IEDs? This would cause some issues in the future.

The organization that has published a specification and that is responsible for the maintenance MUST define the details of test cases and decide what should be tested.

In the case of DNP3 it is IEEE, because DNP3 is now published as IEEE standard 1815. In case of IEC 61850 it is the IEC TC 57 and especially the working groups 10, 15, 17, 18, and 19.

This means: Users have to get more involved in the standardization work and in the testing activities to make sure that the testing follows the standards – and not vice versa. Sure: issues found during testing have to be fed back to the standardization groups.

What does Self-Description in IEC 61850 and IEC 61400-25 mean?

The other day I was asked to explain the self-description to a larger group of SCADA and Asset management experts. The requirement was, to do it in some 3 minutes. I have many ways to explain it: slides, live presentation, or just a white-board.

I decided to produce a short video clip – because I have the right equipment on my desk and convenient tools to produce a video.

The result is now online and can be viewed.

Click HERE to view the 4 minutes clip.

I have planned to provide more video clips showing benefits of IEC 61850 and IEC 61400-25 and IEC 6070-5-104, …

What are the Benefits of IEC 61850?

The question “What are the benefits of IEC 61850” has different flavors and multiple answers – it depends on what are you looking for. If you are looking just at the communication protocol, there are answers like:

1. The client/server protocol (MMS) is a unified solution standardized some 25 years ago. It is a stable standard – unlikely to change in the future and accepted all over for many years.
2. The GOOSE messaging is very unique and provides real-time information exchange in the msec range – accepted all over
3. The Sampled Values messaging provides a unique solution for exchanging samples of currents, voltages, vibration measurements accepted all over.

If you are looking at the information models, there are really many crucial models defined and in use. No other standard (I am aware of) has such a rich set of information models that expose process information in a standardized way – all over accepted.

There is – of course – the crucial issue on the configuration language. In this post we will discuss the benefit of a unified model that allows to hide the different vendor-specific signal lists for Modbus communication in two different power quality meters. In the end, the unification of specific information profiles (or subsets) for, e.g., the electrical measurements makes IEC 61850 different compared to any other solution I know.

The power quality monitors used are: Janitza UMG 604 and Acuvim II. Both meters provide many measurements of the electrical system. The signals can be communicated by Modbus. Usually each vendor has a different approach to define the lists of signals – and especially the indexes used for the vary same signal is quite different and have to be mapped manually to any application – again and again. There is no way to agree on a single unified Modbus signal list that can be applied all over. The next figure shows the two devices, their signal “phase voltage” with different identifiers and indexes.

The unification of the information model is implemented in a simple gateway (com.tom BASIC 5.1). The gateway is based on a WEB-PLC that maps the incoming Modbus signals to IEC 61850 models. The IEC 61850 model uses the same logical node class and type. The type MMXU_0 is the subset of the MMXU class used in this application (of four data objects – as can be seen in the icd file). The instance MMXU1 can easily be “copied” to build a second instance: for the Acuvim II meter. Both instances use a unique MMXU logical node type (contained in the icd file). The model can be used to configure the IEC 61850 server device and an IEC 61850 client (in this case the IEDScout) as shown in the next figure.

The gateway solution is reasonable in case just a limited number of applications need the information communicated by IEC 61850.  The next step could be to integrate the “gateway” into the meter housing, as shown in the next figure:

The “heart” of the gateway (we use) is the Beck IPC@CHIP controller that could be applied as a subsystem in the meter. It manages the complete IEC 61850, IEC 61400-25, IEC 60870-5-104 or DNP3 communication.

The IEC 61850 models are the same as before in the case of using a separate gateway box. From a client point of view there is only one difference: there are two IP addresses and two IED names to take into account.

The configuration of the client could benefit from the unified information model contained in a standardized machine readable format (.icd). When you google for power meters with a Modbus interface (or any other fieldbus-like) interface you will get as many different signal list as solutions. In our case we can easily unify the information that comes from many different meters.

By the way, the unified model can be fed not only by a Modbus communication interface. Any other signal list communicated by the myriad of solutions could easily be unified! It does not matter how many different protocols you have to take into account – the very same IEC 61850 profile could serve them all. Define it once and use it for ever and all over.

The WEB-PLC based solution explained here is available – I have tested the concept with several devices: meters, monitoring devices, control devices. This approach could be applied right away – and you pay while you go. To get started with a extra box is in the range of some hundred Euro plus some time to understand the approach and learn how to get started with the product. The IPC@CHIP including IEC 61850 client and server (GOOSE and SMV), IEC 60870-5-104 server, and Modbus client costs less than 100 Euro – too cheap to ignore.

Let people define new protocols and … IEC 61850 can unify them all! The next days I will post a report on a hierarchical system with a Janitza UMG 604 and fan heater as the process, a com.tom device to monitor and control the process (with an IEC 61850 server), an a com.tom on top that could be used as a (proxy) gateway to the underlying com.tom (providing an IEC 61850 client, IEC 60870-5-104 server and an IEC 61850 server). The gateway interoperates in a plug&play manner with the underlying IEC 61850 IEDs.

I don’t fear the following situation:

nor this …

It is a change for IEC 61850 to unify the proliferation!

More to come shortly – stay tuned to this blog.

I had to wait almost 30 years to have a real simple and easy to use “MAP” solution running on my desk:

The MAP/TOP Demonstration in 1986 was too early! Definitely!

DIN und DKE: Brücken bauen zwischen Forschung und Normung

DIN und DKE führen am 26. Mai 2014 in Berlin einen “Workshop für Forscher und Multiplikatoren zur Relevanz von Normung und Standardisierung für den Forschungstransfer” durch.

“Der Workshop wird das Thema aus verschiedenen Perspektiven beleuchten und die Möglichkeiten der Zusammenarbeit zwischen Forschung, Normung und Standardisierung präsentieren. Projekte aus den Bereichen Risikomanagement, Logistik, Energiewende und Smart Grid werden über ihre Anwendung von Normung und Standardisierung als Verwertungsinstrument berichten.”

Hier für mehr Informationen klicken.

Aus Sicht der Normenreihen IEC 60870-5-104, IEC 61968, IEC 61970, IEC 61850 und IEC 61400-25 kann auch die Forschung als Verwertungsinstrument für Normen eingesetzt werden. Für verfügbare und – vor allem – international anerkannte Normen sollte die Forschung die Ergebnisse verwerten und für Anwendungen einsetzen, die helfen, die Energiewende und Smart(er) Grids voranzubringen.

Doppel- und Dreifachnormung durch die Forschung ist kaum zielführend!

IEC 61400-25-4 Mappings: IEC 610870-5-104 AND/OR IEC 61850-8-1 MMS?

As an engineer I have been involved in many discussions on protocols – for the last 30 years. Sometimes it seems to be better to just ignore the arguments pro and contra a specific solution. The mapping in IEC 61850 uses ISO 9506 (MMS) as the “transport layer” of the messages required for IEC 61850 client-server applications.

In IEC 61400-25-4 (WIND TURBINES – Part 25-4: Communications for monitoring and control of wind power plants – Mapping to communication profile) there are the following five options defined:

• Web-services
• OPC XML DA
• IEC 61850-8-1 (MMS)
• IEC 60870-5-101/104
• DNP3

Depending on the company you will find one or the other solution. Most applications use MMS – not all.

Yesterday I attended a presentation of a big (well known wind turbine manufacturer). The presentation showed the use of IEC 60870-5-104 to communicate information defined in IEC 61400-25-2 (Information Models). The fourth option expressively allows to use 104. So, does this mean the market will split in five parts? Why should this happen?

The following application running on the WEB-PLC of the Beck IPC com.tom shows that it is quite easy to support one or the other solution or BOTH – at the same time.

The com.tom 5.1 provides two servers: IEC 60870-5-104 AND IEC 61850. The decision which signal to communicate by which protocol is engineered by drawing a line (on a standard web browser!) from the source information (coming from the Janitza UMG 604 power quality analyzer) to the corresponding output signal: IEC 60870-5-104 and/or IEC 61850:

The two clients on top (left QTester104, right IEDScout) can tap the same information. It is no question anymore: either ONE or the OTHER. The communication of the signals can be decided by drawing a simple line – without programming a single line in C/C++ or IEC 61131-3. Sure, the applications to be run on the com.tom family of products can also be programmed in IEC 61131-3 (CoDeSys) and C/C++ … which means: it is more work.

The WEB-PLC Object at the bottom right in the above figure can be an IEC 61400-25-2 object like: WGEN1.PhV.cVal.mag. For the platform these are all just names. I will provide more examples soon.

This solution shows that there is no need to fight for one or the other solution: just use whatever fits with your needs. DNP3 will be available soon … Modbus RTU is already used (see above).

Workshop of USE61400-25 Users Group in Hamburg was a very big Success

The workshop on IEC 61400-25 (IEC 61850 extensions for wind turbines) at Senvion (former RePower, Hamburg) was a very big success! The 40 attendees appreciated the high level of presentations on several aspects of the standard: Information Models, Modeling, Information exchange services, Mappings, Applications, solutions, testing, and certification.

The USE61400-25 Users Group was very active in promoting the standard and how to reach a high level of interoperability and – of course – conformity!

It is very likely that this workshop has inspired several people present that are not yet members of the Users Group.

Membership in this Users Group provides an excellent platform to exchange experiences, educate experts, to support the standardization process, and the testing of devices.

Check the Users Groups website for news – you will find also news about the wind power applications on this blog. Several people thanked me for the great content they find on this blog! You are welcome!

Stay tuned.

New VHPReady Industrieforum to push IEC 60870-5-104 and IEC 61850

The specification “Virtual Heat and Power” (VHPReady) has been developed by Vattenfall and published as Version 3. The specification is a profile for a specific application. It has gained crucial industry support. The specification is the major input for the newly established “Industrieforum VHPReady”  this week Wednesday during the E-World conference in Essen.

The Virtual Power Plant combines block-type combined heat and power (BCHP) plants and heat pumps to create an interconnected, flexible system with centralized control. It is the first power plant which is capable of generating power during heat generation using the connected BCHP plants while making good use of excess wind and solar electricity by way of heat pumps.

The two communication options are: IEC 60870-5-104 and IEC 61850.

Founding members of the Industrieforum are well known organizations and companies:
- Fraunhofer FOKUS
- 2G Energy AG
- 50Hertz Transmission GmbH
- Beck IPC GmbH
- Bosch Software Innovations GmbH
- Energy2market GmbH
- E.ON Connecting Energies GmbH
- IT&I GmbH
- LichtBlick SE
- Optimax Energy GmbH
- PHOENIX CONTACT Electronics GmbH
- SSV Software Systems GmbH
- Vattenfall Europe Wärme AG
- WAGO Kontakttechnik GmbH & Co. KG
- Younicos AG

Download the VHPReady 3.0 specification in English [PDF, 650 KB] and in German [PDF, 650 KB].

Some discussions can be found here:

• English Version of Vattenfall’s “VHP READY – Virtual
  Heat & Power Ready” available
• Is IEC 61850 still there?
• IEC 61850 ready for VHP-Ready (Virtual Heat and
  Power Ready)

Siemens reported using IEC 60870-5-104 for DEMS

Siemens DEMS 3.0 stands for third version of their “Decentralized Energy Management System”. It uses IEC 60870-5-104 for communication with power generators, storage devices or loads. The use of open communication and other solutions built-in reduce the engineering cost for virtual power plants by 60 percent – according to Siemens.

What could you do to apply the same cost reduction – or more – if you have to integrate IEDs that provide IEC 61850 information, information exchange and configuration language? Or how to connect a DEMS 3.0 system to IEC 61850?

Here is – I guess – the easiest and shortest time-to-market solution … without writing a single line of program code: The gateway using a so-called com.tom (communication to machine). The topology of an example is shown in the following figure. The gateway is implemented in the upper box.

All WEB PLC objects (inputs and outputs) related to IEC 61850 models are automatically generated from the corresponding SCL files. There is no need to do any manual configuration as long as you have the ICD files of the devices. The object names of the WEB PLC are derived from the object references of the IED/LD/LN.DO.DOA and so on. You see the path names in the I/O list.

All WEB PLC objects can be used to build applications like linking any input with any output (applying the same type – of course): single point input to single point output. The following diagram shows a simple gateway functionality to receive a command via IEC 60870-5-104, route it through an IEC 61850 client to an underlying IEC 61850 server that switches a fan on or off. The status of the FAN LN (using an extended Data Object OpSt) reports the status of the fan. This status is received from the underlying IED via an IEC 61850 report and routed to an IEC 61850 server and an IEC 60870-5-104 server in the gateway.

After “drawing” this diagram, all you need to do is to store the diagram to the gateway (com.tom Basic 3.1 S) and start the program. That’s it.

You may also have figured out the the com.tom Basic 3.1 S integrates an 5-port Ethernet Switch and another independent Ethernet port. This allows to build secure proxy servers/gateways.

The WEB PLC with IEC 60870-5-104, DNP3, Modbus, IEC 61850, … is a very easy, low cost and fast-to-market product that can be applied for many applications running on these communication solutions and for gateways. The application is freely configurable by drawing lines.

If you need complex functions, you can write them in C/C++ or IEC 61131-3 (CoDeSys) and wrap them for immediate use at the WEB PLC. For more complex applications you can program the application in C/C++ or CoDeSys and use the same communication.

Whatever protocol standard is used for a system (IEC 60870-5-104 for Siemens DEMS 3.0) you can easily integrate other devices that run DNP3, Modbus, IEC 61850, … with the com.tom WEB PLC gateway.

You want to learn more about the gateway, please contact us.

Click HERE for information about the com.tom family. The com.tom Basic 3.1, for example, costs 368 Euro plus some license costs for IEC 60870-5-104 and IEC 61850 – this includes already the 5-port Ethernet Switch!

Seamless e-vehicle to Smart Grid Connectivity through IEC Standard Communication

To prevent e-vehicles from overloading power grids while charging, seamless connectivity is required. To help address this issue, Fraunhofer ESK (Munich, Germany) is developing underlying communication methods for a uniform energy management system. At the Hannover Trade Fair (April 7-11, 2014, booth C10, exhibit hall 13), ESK researchers will be demonstrating how the charging station serves as an interoperable node between the e-vehicle and the network control center using the ISO/IEC 15118 and IEC 61850 standards. Having already implemented both communication interfaces, ESK engineers can now illustrate how the concept works in practice.

With its solution, the institute helps charging station and e-vehicle manufacturers and grid operators to implement the communication standards and test their products for standards compliance.

"Our experience has shown that charging station manufacturers are still shying away from the standard because the implementation is too complex," explains Dr. Erik Oswald from Fraunhofer ESK in Munich. "For this reason, we developed a reference installation that significantly streamlines the implementation."

Yes, I agree … I have seen it. It is that easy.

Click HERE for the full report from nano werk.
Click HERE for a presentation on more details, provided by ESK.
Click HERE for a list of further presentation material.

Congratulation to the experts involved!

ENEL pushes for IEC 61850 MMS and GOOSE in Smart Grids

Several times I have reported about the use of IEC 61850 in DER Management projects in the distribution networks of ENEL in Italy.

Several Pilot projects have shown the benefit of using a standardized solution: IEC 61850 MMS (client/server) and GOOSE messaging.

A brief report can be found in the pacworld magazine issue September 2013. The key applications are: voltage control and

Voltage control

The massive introduction of distributed generators changes the constraints in hosting capacity calculation. In fact the hosting capacity of a MV network, with a high presence of DG, is not usually limited by conductors capability but by voltage increase caused by the distributed generators.
Historically and up to now, the voltage control was done by modulating the On Load Tap Changers (OLTC) of each HV/MV transformer by means of a method called “current compound.” The goal was assuring a good voltage level at both ends of the feeders. This method works until the voltage profile is monotone decreasing, but with the introduction of DG a different approach is required.

Fast Fault Selection

According to the Italian standards regulating the connection of customers to MV networks, (CEI 0-16), in case of a short circuit along a feeder, the circuit breaker at the line departure is opened after a time delay of 170- 250ms.
The scope of this delay is protection coordination between the distributor MV line breakers and also the customer fault-clearing devices.
Taking advantage of this time delay and of the short latency of message exchange of modern telecommunication networks, a new automatic fault clearing system can be implemented.

Conclusions

After the experimentation phase and pilot projects, it is very likely that Enel MV networks will be equipped with the new devices and the new functionalities will become operative.
Also the user power plants will be equipped with the devices and in particular with a control system implementing IRE functions. In fact all the customer devices should not be provided by the distributor but they should become unified interfaces built-in all commercial power plant control and protection systems.

Click HERE for the 3 page report.

Click HERE for a 118 page report from SMA on a communication needs and solutions – including IEC 60870-5-104, DNP3, and IEC 61850 [PDF, German, 17 MB].

ABB: “Smart Planning” by “Consultancy Light”

Many advanced technologies for managing electric power delivery systems are implemented for high voltage transmission systems operated by big utilities. The smaller utilities (mainly distribution system operators) usually just follow the “rules” set by the big utilities. To this end: the power and the technology are “flowing top-down”.

The power is now flowing “top-down” and “bottom-up”. The technology needed in the future power system automation requires more than just “copying” the technologies from the big utilities. May requirements are very unique to the power delivery automation – the tools and approaches to keep the power reliably flowing at distribution level are under high pressure.

ABB has started a new group in Germany to offer a three step “Smart Planning” to meet the new challenges in distribution networks:

1. Classification of a distribution network
2. If the load limits are almost reached, the network monitoring phase starts
3. Voltage control and other technologies (e.g., smart Transformers) are considered

This prevents to start with expensive and detailed network calculations as applied in high voltage transmission systems.

Click HERE for the ABB press release on “Smart Planning” [PDF, German, 12 KB].

This “Smart Planning” requires a huge amount of new process measurements (3 phase voltage and current, temperature, power quality measurements, etc) and calculated values. IEC 61850 has the right “smart” international solution that backs this new planning approach.

Get all your data engineered,configured and communicated with IEC 61850. Start now with the basic information shared between the process and the applications to feed control, protection and optimization software with “smart” information. Prevent exchanging tons of data – look for useful and crucial information and not for data. Prevent flooding your control center with useless data flowing “bottom-up” – distributed control will extend the centralized systems of today. It is a combination of centralized and de-centralized monitoring and control that will keep the system stable.

Cooperate with “smart people” to get “smart”" power distribution systems”.

Click on the following links if you want to learn how to get there:

TÜV SÜD Seminars [DE], NettedAutomation hands-on Training [EN], Beck IPC Workshop [EN, DE]

The future of power distribution networks needs Teamwork – to make the Dream work … the dream of a sustainable power system. This team is more than just the experts of a huge manufacturer. Utility experts and consultants need to work together with the vendors’ experts.

MultiSpeak – CIM Harmonization initiated at International Level

IEC TC 57 has published a new document (57/1437/CD - IEC 61968-14 TS Ed.1) trying to figure out the need for harmonization between the international standard series IEC 61968 (CIM) and MultiSpeak:

IEC 61968-14 TS:
Application integration at electric utilities
- System interfaces for distribution management - Part 14:
MultiSpeak - CIM harmonisation

Commenting period closes 2014-05-02

Please contact your national TC 57 mirror committee for a copy of the document.

I guess that more and more people all over realize the benefit of International Standards – good for utility customers. Here is an excerpt of the Introduction of the new document:

“Multiple standards that cover the same information domain present a problem for the vendor community when developing products, and for the customers that would use these products. The classic challenge becomes one of determining which standards to support or how best to support one or both standards. The problem for the customer is integrating products that follow different standards to work with each other.”

Fortunately the situation for IEC 61850 is quite different: Most of the definitions in the standard series are very unique … with little or no competition. That’s one of the reasons why the standard is liked all over.