UCA International Users Group at DistribuTECH 2010

The UCA International Users Group (UCAiug) will be present at the DistribuTECH 2010: Booth 1932; March 23-25, 2010 - Tampa Convention Center - Tampa Florida

Celebrating 20 years as the leading annual T&D event. DistribuTECH covers automation and control systems, energy efficiency, engineering, demand response, renewables integration, power delivery equipment and water utility technology. No show provides more educational and networking opportunities than DistribuTECH.

Plan for a stop at Booth 1932 for a chat with Karlheinz Schwarz (NettedAutomation) about the latest developments on "IEC61850-Li" (Lite implementation) and to see how it looks like. You will be surprised!

Click HERE to visit the DistribuTCH website.
Click HERE for an abstract of a paper on IEC 61850 at the DistribuTECH
Click HERE to visit the UCAiug

3 day IEC 61850 Seminar and Hands-on Training in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro

STRI and Nettedautomation GmbH have posted the program and registration information for the 3 day Seminar/Hands-on Training with real protection and control IEDs and test sets:

Buenos Aires (Argentina), 26.-28. April 2010
Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), 28.-30. April 2010

Click HERE for the program and registration information [pdf] ... see you there.

IEC 61850 for Smart Grid in High Voltage Valley

STRI (Ludvika/Sweden) will build a Smart Grid using IEC 61850 interoperable solutions for Substation Automation, Wind Power, Hydro Power and Process bus.

The project totals 3 million EUR including 4 PhD students at 3 Swedish Universities and is funded by The Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems together with ABB, High Voltage Valley association consortium and STRI.

Click HERE for more details.

IEC 61850-3 compliant Gigabit Ethernet Switch from Hirschmann

Hirschmann goes Gigabit for substation and other applications. The new Ethernet Switch offers 16 Gigabit Ethernet combination ports (1000 BASE-TX) that will also connect SFP fiber optical transceivers (100/1000 BASE-FX/SX/LX/LH). All ports support version 2 of the Precision Time Protocol (IEEE 1588 V2) as well as optionally Power over Ethernet (IEEE 802.3af).

Further characteristics include an operating temperature range of -40 to +70 °C, high resistance to jarring, and extensive insusceptibility to electrical discharge and magnetic fields. Passive cooling (no fans) and a redundant power supply add to ensure high operational safety. Furthermore, the new Hirschmann™ Gigabit Ethernet switch meets the standards and approval requirement of IEC 61850, IEEE 1613, EN 50121-4, EN 50155, cUL 508, cUL 1604 C1 Div2 and GL.

EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute) tested 10 Megabit Shared Ethernet for UCA 2.0 (Utility Communication Architecture) in the mid nineties. I remember when we had some 25 PCs connected to test UCA communication services. EPRI called me during these days to come to Los Angeles to give a presentation on the performance of Ethernet compared to Profibus DP. At that time many experts already believed that Ethernet is a serious option for Substation automation. Nowadays almost all experts are supporting Ethernet - some people that just know the old Shared Ethernet of the eighties don't believe that this is the right solution. After some explanation they change their mind - usually.

Click HERE for product information.
Click HERE for a paper published in 1991-11 on the use of Ethernet instead of Token passing [PDF, 720 KB] - at that time the author did not know about Gigabit Ethernet.
Click HERE for a paper published in 1991-03 on the use of Ethernet as a fieldbus [PDF, 720 KB].

10th Anniversary of NettedAutomation GmbH

NettedAutomation GmbH was established on 2000-01-01. All in a sudden we celebrate the 10th Anniversary. Stay tuned with this blog and the NettedAutomation Website - a source of free information.

After 25 years active participation in the international Standardization of Karlheinz Schwarz, the vision of NettedAutomation GmbH (as posted on our website in 2000) becomes really true - step by step:

The Vision of NettedAutomation GmbH:

The Net is the Automation

Current trend: Very soon we will see Ethernet Switches that can provide some kind of a remote I/O functionality and (distributed) automation functions ... and more to come!

IEC 61850-7-4 approved as International Standard

The FDIS on IEC 61850-7-4 Edition 2 has been approved as International Standard (100 % approval)!

Click HERE for the voting result.

283 Logical Nodes defined in IEC 61850 and IEC 61400-25

Click HERE to get a list of all 283 Logical Nodes [PDF, 75 KB] defined in:

• IEC 61850-7-4 Ed2 FDIS
• IEC 61850-7-410 Ed1 IS
• IEC 61850-7-420 Ed1 IS
• IEC 61400-25-2 Ed1 IS

The list contains all LN Class names for your convenience.

New PAP16 to deal with Wind Plant Communications according to IEC 61400-25

The NIST Smart Grid Priority Action Plan (PAP) has been extended by the PAP 16 "Wind Plant Communications".

Motivation for the new PAP:

"While an international standard for wind power plant communications interoperability exists, few if any developers or utilities have implemented it in the US. Given that 1.5 billion dollars in ARRA funds have been awarded to wind plant projects, it is critical to accelerate the adoption of this standard to ensure those funds do not end up going to systems that are not interoperable which eventually results in stranded assets and less market competition. Most of the existing command and control infrastructure for wind power plants and site monitoring is based on proprietary technologies and products or at best old protocols that are not capable of being managed or secured. The Director of the Utility Wind Integration Group (UWIG) – one of the two major wind industry associations – has brought this situation to the attention of the SGIP Administrator and has requested that a new PAP be formed to address this immediate need. "

Schedule:

• February 11: Presentation to UWIG membership in Albuquerque – solicit participation
• March 1: Begin weekly teleconferences
• May: Completed set of use cases and requirements
• July: Completed analysis of gaps in 61400-25 standard
• September: Completed best practices
• October: Completed recommendations to IEC TC 88

Objectives:

• Gather and develop use cases and requirements related to wind power plant communications
• Map these requirements to the existing 61400-25 standard and identify gaps and issues that are hindering its use in the US
• Develop best practices on the application of 61400-25
• Provide specific recommendations to the IEC TC 88 working group responsible for maintaining the 61400-25 standard to address the gaps identified.

Click HERE for the PAP16
Click HERE for the list of all PAPs
Click HERE to visit the Users Group for IEC 61400-25 USE61400-25

Deutsche Normungsroadmap Smart Grid

Am 02. Februar 2010 wurde beim BMWi in Berlin der erste Entwurf der deutschen Roadmap für Smart Grids (E-Energy) vorgestellt und diskutiert.

"Dieses Dokuments ist der Entwurf für eine strategische und dennoch technisch orientierte Roadmap, welche die Anforderungen an Normen und Standards für die deutsche Vision des 94 Smart Grids unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der BMWi- und BMU-Fördermaßnahme E-Energy [BMWi] darstellt. Zudem bietet sie eine Übersicht über Normen und Standards in diesem Umfeld, aktuelle Aktivitäten, notwendige Handlungsfelder, internationale Kooperationen und strategische Empfehlungen."

Der Entwurf steht jetzt zur öffentlichen Kommentierung bis zum 05.März 2010 zur Verfügung!

Klicken Sie HIER, um den Entwurf herunterzuladen [pdf].
Klicken Sie HIER für weitere Informationen bezüglich der Kommentierung.

Machen Sie unbedingt Gebrauch von der Kommentierung!

Die DKE hat das Kompetenzzentrum E-Energy als Ansprechpartner zu allen Normungs- und Standardisierungsfragen mit Bezug zur Optimierung, Vernetzung und Steuerung von intelligenten Erzeugern, Speichern, Verbrauchern und Netzbetriebsmitteln in der Energieversorgung mit der Hilfe von Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien (E-Energy/Smart Grid) gegründet. Damit wird die Bedeutung der Normen für die Energieversorgung nicht nur anerkannt, sondern auch mit Rat und Tat unterstützt!!

Klicken Sie HIER, um auf die Webseite des Kompetenzzentrums zu gelangen!

Comprehensive IEC 61850 Training - New Opportunities

NettedAutomation GmbH offers new hands-on training and seminar opportunities in 2010:

Public Courses:

02.-05. March 2010	Moscow (Russia)
26.-28. April 2010	Buenos Aires (Argentina)
28.-30. April 2010	Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
05.-07. May 2010	Frankfurt (Germany)
18.-20. August 2010	Paris (France)
22.-24. September 2010	Frankfurt (Germany)
19.-20. October 2010	Dallas (TX, USA)
November 2010	Stockholm (Sweden)

Training Modules: Click HERE for a list of seminar/training modules.
In-House Courses: Click HERE for an example program for a 5 day training conducted in January 2010.

Status of all parts of IEC 61850

The first part of IEC 61850 Edition 2 has ben published as standard: part 6. Several other parts are in the final preparation for publication. Other new parts are under preparation.

Click HERE to download a table of the latest update of the parts (2010-02-01).

Smart Grid Devices with IEC 61850 and IEC 61499 at IEEE T&D Conference in New Orleans - 21 April 2010

The 2010 IEEE Transmission and Distribution Conference and Exposition (New Orleans, 19-22 April 2010) has the title: Smart Solutions for a Changing World.

What makes the Grid smart? Smart people that develop smart solutions! One of these smart solutions will be presented (by smart people) on

Wednesday, 21 April, 2010 8:00 AM-10:00 AM
IG01Wd1
Intelligent Grid Coordinating Committee Poster Session

2010TD0592: Towards Intelligent Smart Grid Devices with IEC 61850 Interoperability and IEC 61499 Open Control Architecture

The Smart Grid vision, outlined in EPRI’s “Report to NIST on the Smart Grid Interoperability Standards Roadmap”, incorporates into the grid “the benefits of distributed computing and communications to deliver real-time information and enable the near-instantaneous balance of supply and demand at the device level”. This vision implies a multilayer information and control system architecture, with power transmission and distribution layer playing a crucial role in achieving the “smartness” of the grid.

The complexity of this task requires reconsidering grid control architectures, possibly changing them from the traditional hierarchical topology with distributed data acquisitions but central decision making, to decentralized decision making. For that, basic automation devices would need to become “intelligent”. Most advanced version of such devices are currently based on microcomputers with communication capabilities, but the data flow is purely bottom up, from devices to the control center, and control flow is opposite: from the control centre to instruments. In Smart Grids this may need to change to horizontal communication, negotiation and collaborative decision making by the instruments.

There has been considerable amount of research on the corresponding computing architectures capable of implementing such distributed intelligence. For example, multi-agent system architectures for grid automation have been proposed. Unfortunately these ideas cannot be implemented on current grid devices based on proprietary and closed hardware/software platforms. Besides, multi-agent implementations require high computation performance and still cannot deliver sufficient real-time performance and determinism. While multi-agent systems need powerful workstations to run, practitioners in the field are very conservative and insist on high reliability, determinism and performance of the microprocessor-based instruments. Reliable communication is crucial, and interoperability amongst IEDs (Intelligent Electronic Devices) is of paramount importance.

Thus, practical deployment of intelligent multi-agent solution at the transmission and distribution layer of Smart Grid can happen if a new generation of IEDs appears that have open architecture based on industrially accepted standards in the areas of information, configuration, communication and distributed automation.

The paper presented proposes an approach to pave the way to multi-agent intelligent control of grid is using two standards: IEC 61850 and IEC 61499.

IEC 61499 (Function Blocks) promises a framework for gluing those functions together in patterns of increasing capability and complexity.

Abstract-- The paper reports on developments and experiments conducted to prove the feasibility of using decentralized multi-agent control logic in the automation of power distribution networks. The utility network is modelled as communicating logical nodes following IEC 61850 standard’s architecture, implemented by means of IEC 61499 distributed automation architecture. The system is simulated in an IEC 61499 execution environment combined with Matlab and proven to achieve simple fault location and power restoration goals through collaborative behaviour and interoperable devices.

Index Terms-- Smart Grid, IEC 61850, interoperability, distributed intelligent automation, IEC 61499

Automation Standard (IEC 61499) meets Power Standard (IEC 61850)

"The first Conference on Innovative Smart Grid Technologies", sponsored by the IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) and hosted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), was held January 19-21, 2010 in Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA. The Conference was a forum to discuss the state-of-the-art innovations in smart grid technologies.

The paper "Towards the Energy Web via Standards-enabled Smart Grid" presented by Prof. Mihaela Ulieru was a big Blast.

Authors of the paper:
Valeriy Vyatkin, Senior Member, IEEE,
Gulnara Zhabelova, non-member,
Neil Higgins, Member, IEEE,
Mihaela Ulieru, Senior Member, IEEE
Karlheinz Schwarz, Member, IEEE and
Nirmal-Kumar C Nair, Member, IEEE

Abstract -- "In this paper we propose an information and control architecture for Smart Grid based on the combination of upcoming industrial standards and intelligent control methods. We make the case that an incremental approach is required for the transition to the Smart Grid and propose a way of doing that through bringing intelligence down to the level of substation automation devices. The architecture employs two strong international standards, IEC 61850 and IEC 61499, to enrich the applications that can be created using interoperable Smart Grid devices. Interoperability and open configurability - key enablers for efficient application of the revolutionary EnergyWeb ideas – are evident in this architecture.
The utility network is modeled as IEC 61850-compliant logical nodes, embedded in an IEC 61499 distributed automation framework. The system is simulated in an IEC 61499 execution environment combined with Matlab, and is proven to achieve simple fault location and power restoration goals through collaborative behavior."

Some 200 engineers - a forward looking crowd, extremely supportive and especially extremely receptive - were in fact quite enthusiastic of the ideas. The presentation was 'Stellar'! "What a genial idea to merge an automation standard with a power standard" has been the Motto everywhere after the talk.

Click HERE for the presentation.

The topic will also be presented and discussed during the IEEE PES T&D Conference in New Orleans, April 19-22, 2010.

Gigabit Ethernet and IEEE 1588 for Substations

IEC 61850-3 compliant Gigabit Ethernet with IEEE 1588 time synchronization available for substation automation and protection. Korenix offers an IEC61850-3 Modular Managed Ethernet Switch, equipped with 4 on-board Gigabit RJ45 / MINI GBIC combo ports plus 3 modular slots for maximum 24 10/100 Base-TX Ports or 18 100Base-FX Fiber interfaces ports.

Click HERE for more details.

The Wind of Change is blowing in Wind Power Protection using IEC 61850-9-2

When the IEC Technical Committee 88 (Wind Turbines) started the IEC 61850-based project IEC 61400-25 "Communications for monitoring and control of wind power plants" in 2001 only a few experts expected that IEC 61850 would have a crucial impact on the way how wind parks will be equipped with intelligent devices. Most experts believed that the main use of standard information models and information exchange is for control and monitoring purposes only.

A very interesting paper has been written recently that discusses the use of IEC 61850-9-2 "Sampled values over ISO/IEC 8802-3" for protection functions in a whole park. Each Turbine/Tower provides current and voltage samples and other information in a continuous stream of sampled value messages. The IEC 61850-9-2 sampled values are distributed as Ethertype multicast messages (from a publishing device, often called Merging Unit) - and received by many subscribing devices. This allows to distribute and collect the measurements for protection and other use cases (e.g., 80 samples per nominal period - 20 ms in a 50 Hz system). Protection could now be implemented in a centralized location, and a few central protection devices could protect many distributed equipments (generator, transformer, circuit breakers, ...).

Implementation of Merging Units may also be used in the near future to distribute non-electric measurements like vibration measurements from gear boxes and blades.

Click HERE for the very interesting paper.

Why IEC 61850 will succeed

The industrial automation in manufacturing and petrochemical plants has fallen well short of the expectations of the 1980s and 1990s. The MAP project (1983-1990) for example has not been accepted and the many international field-busses have not helped to provide a few real internationally standardized solutions. The many field-busses are now the headaches of many engineers. Why could we expect that IEC 61850 will be a real international standard accepted and applied all over and for many decades?

The key is that the physical power system is easier to model than the collective industrial processes of the world. The basic topology of the current electrical power system is the same since the very first steps. It is likely that the electrical power system will be the same in many years down the street. Since its inception, the power industry has operated with clear demarcations between its generation, transmission, and distribution subsystems. All over we have physical measurements and processed information than can be used in all domains of the electrical system today and in the future, e.g., the electrical measurements like voltage or currents.

The basics of the physical part of the power system will stay the same. The number of energy resources will explode and the locations of the grid connections will be quite distributed. The number of loads in existing grids will more or less be the same. What will change is how to monitor and control the many new and existing connection points of power resources and loads. It is likely that for every connection point there will be a need for a smarter device that communicates with its environment.

IEC 61850 implementations have proven that all basic requirements for the information and communication system are met by the various information models, communication services, networks, and configuration language. Missing elements can and will be added while we go. There is - to my knowledge - no competing standard on the horizon.

The challenges in the future power system are the stability of the electrical system with the many connection points (power engineers) and the management of the sheer unlimited number of smart devices (ITC engineers). There is a crucial need: These people have to team-up with each other - led by power engineers. Power engineers know the difference between a power network and the communication network: in the communication network messages can be stored in queues for seconds or hours - in the power network the power is consumed at the very same moment when it is produced.

Keep the grass green, the sky blue, and the power flowing.

IEC 61850 on a Chip? - Yes!

Beck-IPC GmbH (Pohlheim/Germany) offers IEC 61850 on a Chip.

The Fully Integrated Single Chip Solution IPC-10 enables a cost effective integration of IEC 61850 in IED designs. The IEC 61850 software is also available as portable client/server software, or already integrated in the RTU MRU-10 and WEBCAN RTU and Gateway. The configuration is using/generating IEC 61850-6 conformant Configuration files (SCL).

Click HERE for information in English.
Click HERE for information in German.

IEC 61850-7-4 Edition 2 FDIS open for Ballot

The second edition of IEC 61850-7-4 has been published for final ballot until February 05, 2010:

IEC 61850-7-4 Ed.2:
Communication networks and systems for power utility automation –
Part 7-4: Basic communication structure – Compatible logical node classes and data object classes

The second edition specifies more than 150 Logical Nodes.

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

• corrections and clarifications according to information letter;
• extensions for new logical nodes for the power quality domain;
• extensions for the model for statistical and historical statistical data;
• extensions regarding IEC 61850-90-1 (substation-substation communication);
• extensions for new logical nodes for monitoring functions according to IEC 62271;
• new logical nodes from IEC 61850-7-410 and IEC 61850-7-420 of general interest.

Example of new Logical Nodes in IEC 61850-7-4 Edition 2:

New Logical nodes for functional blocks:

Counter - FCNT
Curve shape - FCSD
Generic filter - FFIL
Control function output limitation - FLIM
PID regulator - FPID
Ramp function - FRMP
Set-point control function - FSPT
Action at over threshold - FXOT
Action at under threshold - FXUT

An example of a PID loop control with an Logical Node FPID representing the attributes (or input and output signals):

Note that IEC 61850 DOES NOT specify the PID loop control algorithm or function. IEC 61850-7-4 Logical Nodes provide the "interface" or the presentation of the signals, the configuration of the object models and the exchange of the values. The Data Object "KP" (Proportional gain) can be set by an ACSI service. Or the Data Object "DAct" (Derivative action) can be read, reported, logged, or GOOSED.

If you are interested to comment on the document, please contact your national committee of the IEC TC 57.