Several new CDVs (related to power systems) available for public commenting

IEC TC 118 has just published the following two CDV documents:

118/55/CDVIEC 62746-10-1 Ed.1: Systems interface between customer energy management system and the power management system -
Part 10-1: Open automated demand response

118/56/CDVIEC 62939-3 Ed.1: Smart grid user interface -
Part 3: Energy interoperation services

The system committee Smart Energy has published:

SyCSmartEnergy/28/CDV
IEC 62559-3/Ed1: Use case methodology -
Part 3: Definition of use case template artefacts into an XML serialized format

These CDVs are available for public comments according to IEC.

The published documents are really very interesting - I hope that especially the users community will study these documents in due time and provide comments through the public commenting process or through their national committees.

Please take some time to dig into the documents to some degree!

Training in Montreal (Canada): Mastering the complexity of IEC 61850

OPAL-RT TECHNOLOGIES invites you to the very crucial Training:

Mastering the complexity of IEC 61850

Adoption of the IEC 61850 standard in North America is slowly emerging for Transmission and Distribution markets, but an increasing number of implementations is expected, either through new installations or following cost-benefit assessments in modernization projects. Now is a good time to get in touch with the state-of-the-art technologies and standard that will guide present and future SAS design.

During this seminar, truly experienced, vendor independent engineers will help you see and understand how to use the core parts of the IEC 61850 standard applied in substation design, monitoring, protection and control applications. You will learn from senior protection engineers, how the protection system will improve and understand the crucial lessons learned since the first projects with IEC 61850 in 2004, all through interactive training, live demos and hands-on exercises.

Monday, 25 April 2016 at 9:00 AM - Friday, 29 April 2016 at 5:00 PM (EDT)

Le Nordelec - 1751 rue Richardson, Suite 4312 Montréal, QC H3K 1G6 CA

Click HERE for more details and registration information.

See you there.

Draft IEC 62351-13 TR - Guidelines on what security topics should be covered in standards and specifications

IEC TC 57 just published a very interesting draft technical report (57/1678/DTR):
IEC 62351-13 TR: Power systems management and associated information exchange -
Data and communications security -
Part 13: Guidelines on what security topics should be covered in standards and specifications
Voting terminates on 2016-04-15

The draft covers the following topics:


Excerpt from the document:
"1.2 Purpose of this Document
The security requirements for human users and software applications are different from the purely
technical security requirements found in many communication and device standards. For user security standards, more emphasis must be on “policy and procedures” and “roles and authorization” rather than “bits and bytes” cryptographic technologies that should be included in Information and Communications Technology (ICT). In addition, engineering practices and system configurations must be taken into account, since no cryptography can compensate for poor design."

As an excerpt not this single bullet: "Validation of information input for format and reasonability, including that the input is in the correct format, that values are within limits, that the values are not beyond the capabilities of the automation system."

There is always something to better understand!

NEW: 80 Page Report on Centralized Substation Protection And Control

Centralized Substation Protection and Control is quite new compared to the age of the a.c. power system. A couple of experts have published recently a very comprehensive IEEE report on the subject. They are going back into the history and provide an outlook into the advantages that come, e.g., with IEC 61850. IEC 61850 is mentioned almost 50 times ...
Many details are discussed - recommended to be read by non-protection engineers.
Click HERE for downloading the report [pdf].

Click HERE for other related papers for free access at IEEE..

SystemCorp Provides New Release of their famous IEC 61850 DLL

SystemCorp has published a New Release of their famous IEC 61850 DLL (Stack version V2.06.28).
Click HERE for the webpage.
Click HERE for the direct download.

Click HERE for the full release notes.

New Features of the Release V2.06.28

• Added new API IEC61850_ControlTerminateCommand() to manually trigger command termination for the active control the server
• Added support for Integer Controls with Enhanced Security, NOTE: Command Termination for INC controls is the responsibility of the user using the IEC61850_ControlTerminateCommand() API
• Added new API IEC61850_SetOriginator() to set the originator orCat and orIdent for controls on the client
• Added VLAN Tag to the Ethernet Headers for GOOSE and SV on Linux
• Client and servers with GOOSE Subscription can now be recreated without restarting an executable
• Edition 2 mode supports Domain names of length 64 bytes
• Added Support for SCL Type ObjRef 

The new DLL could be used with the current C# client and server demo and evaluation applications:

Click HERE for the demo and evaluation.

Just published: Draft Technical Report IEC 61850-90-17 (Using IEC 61850 to transmit power quality data)

IEC TC 57 just publsihed the Draft Technical report (57/1676/DTR):
IEC 61850-90-17 TR: Communication networks and systems for power utility automation –
Part 90-17: Using IEC 61850 to transmit power quality data
Voting terminates on 2016-04-08

This document provides
• Guidelines for using of IEC 61850 in the power quality application domain,
• Name space extensions required for power quality function assessment,
• Profile for using IEC 61850 in the specific context of IEC 61000-4-30.
Specific Power Quality requirements that are not 100 % covered by existing Logical
Nodes (LN) or Common Data Classes (CDC) (e.g. LN for continuous power quality recorders,
LN for RVC…) are defined here.
The document defines a lot of configuration values for specific applications. This document helps to increase the interoperability to a high degree.

This document will serve as a very helpful Guideline in the Power Quality Domain.
Power Quality devices produce huge amounts of values .. these must be communicated with a variety of services: Read, Report, Log, or Files like COMTRADE, PQDIF, or COMFEDE. This TR discusses these for the various applications.

New Version of IED Model Designer: IDCDesigner from SystemCorp

Please note that SystemCorp has released Version 2.0.24 of their ICDDesigner.
The version that can be downloaded runs for six (6) month.

Installer / update:

http://licenses.systemcorp.com.au/downloads/ICDDesignerSetupV2.00.024.exe

Standalone version:

http://licenses.systemcorp.com.au/downloads/ICDDesignerStandaloneV2.00.024.zip

Enjoy.

Communication Network Interdependencies in Smart Grids: A comprehensive Study

Communication network interdependencies in smart grids is a crucial issue to be discussed in the context of the European Market.The European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA) has just published a comprehensive report on the above issue.

The main concerns that were expressed by the 20+ experts involved can be sorted into two main categories, technical recommendations (1./2.) and organizational recommendations (3.):

1. Regarding smart grid devices, these devices are now exposed to different networks, and therefore their periodic update becomes essential in order to ensure that they are protected against the latest threats that appear. Furthermore, these devices should also implement by default security measures to protect them (such as authentication, encryption or frame counters), as implementing such measures in the deployment phase is much more costly and does not reach the same level of security.
2. Regarding the communications interdependencies, the main concern is with the protocols used on the smart grids. There is an urgent need to harmonize the current situation by establishing common interconnection protocols to be used by all devices, and ensure that these protocols implement by default enough security measures to protect the data whilst it is in transit (such as encryption or mutual authentication).
3. Finally there is the need to align policies, standards and regulations across EU Member States to ensure the overall security of smart grids. This is now even more important due to the risk that cascading failures can cause; as smart grid communication networks are no longer limited by physical or geographical barriers, and an attack on one country could translate into another.

Recommendation 2 states: Manufacturers and vendors should foster intercommunication protocol compatibility between devices from different manufacturers and vendors. Currently, many manufacturers and vendors, due to the lack of standards, make use of their own proprietary protocols and communication systems for the intercommunication between their devices. 

The experts state: There are several common technologies and protocols that are used for the intercommunication between these devices and the rest of the transmission grid network. One of the most relevant ones is the IEC 61850 protocol family, which is applicable to this grid section. 

Ok! I fully agree with these statements!

Click HERE for the full report [pdf, 50+ pages].

XML Documents and Pretty Print with Notepad++

Dear All,

I guess you have seen this kind of XML documents quite often in conjunction with SCL Documents:

One way is to use the online tool "Pretty Print".

There is a more convenient way: Use the "Pretty Print" Plugin tool that comes with Notepad++ (you have to install it with the Plugin Manager):

This will result in a Pretty Clean XML Document:

Wow!

Enjoy the plugin!

Mapping of IEC 61850-7-x to XMPP: Nice Paper in PACWorld Magazine

The XMPP technology (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol) has been selected as the communication solution to address the Smart Grid specific challenges and use cases, which deviate from a typical substation automation use case.

The additional mapping will be published as IEC 61850-8-2.

A nice overview can be found in a paper published recently in the PACWorld magazine:

Click HERE for the full paper.

Note that from a message encoding point of view the MMS-ASN.1-BER messages are mapped directly to ASN.1-XER coded messages. The ASN.1 Tag numbers are mapped to XML Element names. The whole message schema is the same in both mappings.

HMS Updated their Web Pages for IEC 61850, IEC 60870-5-104, ... Anybus SG-gateways

The Anybus® SG-gateway™ family is designed to specifically target Demand Response (networking of industrial electric loads) and Virtual Power Plants (networking of energy resources like biogas plants or combined heat and power units) applications.

Remote Terminal Unit
The SG-gateways support the communication protocols used in the energy sector, e.g. IEC 60870-5-104, DNP3 and IEC 61850; as well as protocols supported by the electric equipment in the field, e.g. Modbus or M-Bus. In addition, thanks to the built-in Anybus CompactCom interface, they can also communicate with fieldbus or industrial Ethernet networks such as Profibus, Profinet, EtherNet/IP or any other industrial network.

The new Web pages provide all information needed to build a information infrastructure for Smart Grid for a smarter power network for the future.

Click HERE to visit the Anybus Web site.
Click HERE for a great news post at the Anybus Web site.

HMS will demonstrate VHPready products during the E-World Exhibition.
Click HERE for more information.

Discrepancy in GPS Timing of 13 Microseconds

Power Delivery systems rely to some degree on Time Synchronization based on global positioning system (GPS).

A time spike in the global positioning system which rippled through the world on January 28, 2016 was caused by a satellite launched in 1990 failing and triggering a software bug!

Although the timing anomaly measured just microseconds, it could have caused significant navigation errors, Richard Easther, head of the University of Auckland's physics department said.
"The rule of thumb is that for every nanosecond of error, you could be out by as much as a foot," Easther said.

"An error of 13 microseconds or 13,000 nanoseconds works out as just under four kilometres."

What would that error mean for Sampled Values? The 13 microseconds are equivalent  to a difference in the angle of 0.234 degrees in a 50 Hz AC system. This seems not to be very critical. But who knows what happens next.

Be aware that our future power system will rely more and more on GPS or other central time sources. So, the power infrastructure does rely on the GPS (or other means) - which by nature does on the power infrastructure. Everything seems to be highly interconnected.

IEC Committee Draft (CD) 61850-7-420 Ed. 2.0 just published

IEC TC 57 has just published the 57/1655/CD:

IEC CD 61850-7-420 Ed. 2.0: Communication networks and systems for power utility automation -
Part 7-420: Basic communication structure - Distributed energy resources logical nodes

Commenting closes 2016-04-08.

Attention is drawn to document 57/1658/DC which is circulated in parallel and which reflects a draft IEC TR 61850-7-520 and which contains the main guidelines on how to use the data models contained in the present CD.
.
Since both documents are closely linked IEC national committees are invited to develop their comments in parallel on the present CD and on 57/1658/DC.

The major technical changes with regard to the previous edition are as follows:

• Corrections and clarifications according to information letter "IEC 61850-technical issues by the IEC TC 57” (see document 57/963/INF, 2008-07-18);
• Extensions regarding IEC 61850-90-7 (object models for converters in distributed energy resources (DER) systems);
• Some logical nodes in IEC 61850-7-420:2009 that were not specific to distributed energy resources have been transferred to IEC 61850-7-4 Ed. 2.1 and have been removed from this edition of IEC 61850-7-420 (see also Annex A);
• The definitions of logical nodes in this edition of IEC 61850-7-420 have been updated using the table format introduced in IEC 61850-7-4 Ed. 2.1;
• Most of the modelling examples and background information that was included in IEC 61850-7-420:2009 has been transferred to IEC 61850-7-520

This CD is not available publicly as a CDV. The CDV may be available later this year. 

Stay tuned to this blog.

IEC CDV 61850-7-4 Ed.2.0 Amendment 1 just pulished

IEC TC 57 has just published a 269 page CDV that reflects the first amendment to IEC 61850-7-4 Ed.2.0:

IEC 61850-7-4 Ed.2.0 Amd.1: Communication networks and systems for power utility automation –
Part 7-4: Basic communication structure – Compatible logical node classes and data object classes

Everybody can read the CDV and comment online (see details below).

The commenting period closes 2016-04-15.

Compared to the second edition, this first revision of the second edition:

• Provides clarifications and corrections to the second edition of IEC 61850-7-4, based on the tissues = { 650, 671, 672, 674, 675, 676, 677, 679, 680, 682, 683, 685, 686, 689, 693, 694, 695, 696, 712, 713, 714, 715, 716, 722, 724, 725, 726, 727, 732, 734, 735, 736, 742, 743, 744, 748, 749, 772, 773, 774, 775, 776, 800, 802, 808, 819, 830, 831, 835, 838, 842, 843, 844, 849, 871, 877, 878, 879, 881, 882, 902, 908, 909, 910, 911, 912, 913, 920, 928, 932, 933, 937, 939, 940, 952, 967, 991, 1007, 1029, 1044, 1046, 1071, 1075, 1076, 1077, 1081, 1086, 1117, 1119, 1128, 1137, 1139, 1176, 1177, 1190, 1191, 1203, 1205, 1229, 1235, 1236, 1244, 1250, 1256, 1258, 1259, ... }
• Adds to each functional LN group a parent abstract Logical node where the functional nodes are children from (full object oriented model). Since all abstract LNs are in together in a common clause, the relative position of the functional LNs is not changed within their clause
• Adds new abbreviated terms
• Has extension of the list of abbreviate terms to be used for object names
• Has more precise combination rules for abbreviated terms to object names
• Has extensions by new logical nodes mainly from power quality domains and others
• Has corrections of editorial errors.

Please note that this CDV is available to the public for comments (yes: everybody can sign in and get access for personal comments!!):

Click HERE to register for public access and comments.

This allows everybody to ready the content and comment online.

Click HERE to visit the Tissue Database.

This CDV is the result of several years of key editors to reach a very high level of completeness and consistency of the information models throughout the various domains.

Note that the final result will be a new edition of 7-4: Edition 2.1 !! (not 3.0).

Congratulation to the editors for this great work!!

Training offers by FMTP and NettedAutomation in 2016

Upcoming Open Seminars in English for SMART GRID, IEC 61850, PAC, Protection Automation Control:

Dammam, KSA Feb 2016

Stockholm, SE Mar 14-17 2016

Hong Kong, Mar 22-24 2016

Karlsruhe, DE Apr 5-8 2016

Stockholm, SE Sept 19-22 2016

Karlsruhe, DE Oct 10-13 2016

Click HERE for more details and registration information.

The seminars are a must for protection and substation engineers. We train you with real market devices - not just theory.

Take five minutes for a Survey on "Smart Grid IEC 61850 Maintenance and Training"

FMTP (Sweden) asks you to take a few minutes for a Survey on "Power 2016 Smart Grid IEC 61850 Maintenance and Training Study".

The Survey is intended to serve our valuable customers even better than today.

Click HERE to get to the survey.

Please note that FMTP and NettedAutomation cooperate in Trainings.

IEC Opens Access to and Commenting of CDVs to the Public

Access to the publication of IEC CDVs (Committee Draft for Vote) was restricted to a very limited number of experts usually active in the standardization work.

IEC has opened this process to be used by the public - allowing you to register free of charge, access the document and provide comments online.

Click HERE to the corresponding website to register or login.

Example:

This is a major step forward! Many people interested in IEC 61850, IEC 61400-25, IEC 62351, IEC 61158, ... have complained that they have no chance to review the draft documents.

Enjoy the new possibility!

Want to Understand one of the Largest Machines - The Interconnected European Electric Power Grid?

The Interconnected European Electric Power Grid is one of the biggest machines built by humans. It has been developed over a period of about some 130 years. It is a miracle that it is still working very stable and more or less uninterrupted form many years.

The challenge for the future is this: How to keep the power flowing, the grass green and the sky blue. I met with a retired - but still very active - power engineer yesterday. We discussed how more information technologies can be used to support a very reliable automation system to provide 24x7 power flow all over in Europe. We have figured out that one of the key challenges in the discussions is to find the correct language in our discussions. I mean: When I talk about preventing any "remote control command", what does the recipient of that term understand? We figured out that we have discussed this term for years - but did have a different understanding in mind!

Fortunately we solved our disconnect and were happy that we have the same understanding. We will use a new (or just another) terms to make sure that other people will understand what we want to say.

A "remote control command" an mean:

1. Switch on the electric heater of heat storage system  or
2. Allow the local controller of the heat storage system to draw electric power when the local controller sees a need to heat the storage.

In the first case the electric power will immediately flow. In the second, it may or may not - depending on the local situation. Not all heater will start immediately at the same time to heat.

In case we use the term "remote control command" for the first application only, we will not be understood by many people. Because - I guess - most people would say: In both use cases we send a "remote control command" to the remote system.

What is the real underlying difference of the two use cases? The first one has a direct impact on the power flow, while in the second there is a local control system involved to decide what to do. Let´s assume we have 1000 heaters of a total power of 10 MW. In the first use case we have an immediate power flow rate of 10 MW per a few seconds. In the second case it is a stochastic situation where some may immediately draw the power others may draw power one hour later ...

Finally: If we would have smart systems, then the local controller would be situationell aware of the condition of the power system: if the frequency or voltage would be below specific set-points, then they would not draw power at all ...

If you would like to learn more about the huge machine "Interconnected Electric Power Delivery System":

Click HERE to watch a video [with English translation] which discusses some basics of the complexity ... enjoy.
Click HERE for the version in German.
Click HERE for more options.