IEC61850

IEC 61850 [ [http://www.61850.com IEC 61850 overview] .] is a standard for the design of electrical substation automation. IEC61850 is a part of the International Electrotechnical Commission’s (IEC) Technical Committee 57 (TC57) [ [http://tc57.iec.ch Technical Committee 57 (TC57)] ] reference architecture for electric power systems. The abstract data models defined in IEC61850 can be mapped to a number of protocols. Current mappings in the standard are to MMS (Manufacturing Message Specification), GOOSE, SMV, and soon to Web Services. These protocols can run over TCP/IP networks and/or substation LANs using high speed switched Ethernet to obtain the necessary response times of < 4ms for protective relaying.

Other mappings have been proposed but are not yet standardized as is the case of the ACSI-CORBA mapping.

Standard Documents

IEC 61850 consists of the following parts detailed in separate IEC 61850 standard documents
* IEC61850-1: Introduction and overview
* IEC61850-2: Glossary
* IEC61850-3: General requirements
* IEC61850-4: System and project management
* IEC61850-5: Communication requirements for functions and device models
* IEC61850-6: Configuration description language for communication in electrical substations related to IEDs
* IEC61850-7: Basic communication structure for substation and feeder equipment
** IEC61850-7-1: Principles and models
** IEC61850-7-2: Abstract communication service interface (ACSI)
** IEC61850-7-3: Common Data Classes
** IEC61850-7-4: Compatible logical node classes and data classes
* IEC61850-8: Specific communication service mapping (SCSM)
** IEC61850-8-1: Mappings to MMS (ISO/IEC9506-1 and ISO/IEC 9506-2)
* IEC61850-9: Specific communication service mapping (SCSM)
** IEC61850-9-1: Sampled values over serial unidirectional multidrop point to point link
** IEC61850-9-2: Sampled values over ISO/IEC 8802-3
* IEC61850-10: Conformance testing

History

Multiple protocols exist for substation automation, which include many proprietary protocols with custom communication links. Interoperation of devices from different vendors would be an advantage to users of substation automation devices. An IEC project group of about 60 members from different countries worked in three IEC working groups from 1995. They responded to all the concerns and objectives and created IEC 61850. The objectives set for the standard were:

#A single protocol for complete substation considering modeling of different data required for substation.
#Definition of basic services required to transfer data so that the entire mapping to communication protocol can be made future proof.
#Promotion of high interoperability between systems from different vendors.
#A common method/format for storing complete data.
#Define complete testing required for the equipments which confirms to the standard.

IEC 61850 Features

IEC 61850 features include:
# "Data Modeling" -- Complete functionality of the substation is modelled into different standard logical nodes which can be grouped under different logical devices. There are logical nodes for data/functions related to the logical device ("LLN0") and physical device ("LPHD").
# "Reporting Schemes" -- There are various reporting schemes ("BRCB & URCB") for reporting data from server through a server-client relationship which can be triggered based on pre-defined trigger conditions.
# "Fast Transfer of events" -- Generic Substation Event ("GSE") are defined for fast transfer of event data for a peer-to-peer communication mode. This is again subdivided into "GOOSE" & "GSSE".
# "Setting Groups" -- The setting group control Blocks ("SGCB") are defined to handle the setting groups so that user can switch to any active group according to the requirement.
# "Sampled Data Transfer" -- Schemes are also defined to handle transfer of sampled values using Sampled Value Control blocks ("SVCB")
# "Commands" -- Various command types are also supported by IEC 61850 which include direct & SBO commands with normal and enhanced securities.
# "Data Storage"-- SCL(Substation Configuration Language) is defined for complete storage of configured data of the substation in a specific format.

IEC 61850 - Related Developments

* IEC 61850-7-410 -- IEC 61850-7-410 Ed.1 Communication networks and systems for power utility automation - Part 7-410: Hydroelectric Power Plants - Communication for monitoring and control. [Published]
* IEC 61850-7-420 -- Communications systems for Distributed Energy Resources (DER) - Logical nodes [Draft]
* IEC 62445
** IEC 62445-1 -- Use of IEC 61850 for the communication between substations [Approved New Work]
** IEC 62445-2 -- Use of IEC 61850 for the communication between control centers and substations [Approved New Work]
** IEC 62445-3 -- Mapping of IEC 61850 based Common Data Classes (CDC's), information addressing, services onto IEC 60870-5-104/101 [Approved New Work]
* IEC 61400-25 -- IEC61850 Adaptation for Wind Turbines
** IEC 61400-25-1 -- Wind turbines - Part 25-1: Communications for monitoring and control of wind power plants - Overall description of principles and models [Published]
** IEC 61400-25-2 -- Wind turbines - Part 25-2: Communications for monitoring and control of wind power plants - Information models [Published]
** IEC 61400-25-3 -- Wind turbines - Part 25-3: Communications for monitoring and control of wind power plants - Information exchange models [Published]
** IEC 61400-25-4 -- Wind turbines - Part 25-4: Communications for monitoring and control of wind power plants - Mapping to communication profile
*** Mapping to Web services [Work under progress]
*** Mapping to MMS [Refer to IEC 61850-8-1 (published)]
*** Mapping to OPC XML DA [Work under progress]
*** Mapping to IEC 60870-5-104 [Refer to IEC 62445-3 (Work under progress)]
*** Mapping to DNP3 [Work under progress]
** IEC 61400-25-5 -- Wind turbines - Part 25-5: Communications for monitoring and control of wind power plants - Conformance testing [Published]
** IEC 61400-25-6 -- Wind Turbines - Part 25-6: Communications for monitoring and control of wind power plants - Logical node classes and data classes for condition monitoring [Work under progress]
* IEC 62271-3 -- Communications for monitoring and control of high-voltage switchgear (published)

See also

* GSE (Generic Substation Events)
* SCL - Substation Configuration Language
* IEC 60870-5
* IEC 60870-5-101
* IEC 60870-5-103
* IEC 60870-5-104
* DNP3

References

Further reading

* PRAXIS PROFILINE Special edition: IEC 61850 - Generating Tomorrow’s Electricity [http://www.praxis-profiline.de/bestellung-e.htm#anker2]
* Protection, Automation & Control World Magazine provides the protection, automation and control community a forum to discuss issues in implementation of IEC 61850, security issues in TCP/IP communications as well as latest technology and project news in this space. [http://www.pacw.org]

External links

;General Information
* [https://www.energy.siemens.com/cms/00000013/aune/Documents/IEC61850.pdf Siemens IEC61850 Presentation]
* [http://seclab.uiuc.edu/docs/iec61850-intro.pdf Detailed Introduction to IEC61850]
* [http://www.nettedautomation.com/news/n_44.html Comparison of IEC 60870-5-101/-103/-104 and IEC 60870-6-TASE.2 with IEC 61850]
* [http://www.sisconet.com/downloads/IEC61850_Overview_and_Benefits_Paper_General.pdf Benefits of IEC 61850]
* [http://www.iec.ch IEC Website for IEC 61850 standards]
* [http://tissues.iec61850.com/parts.mspx IEC 61850 Technical Issues Website]
* [http://www.zivpmasc.com/descargas/catalogos/ingles/FIECI0806A.pdf ZIV IEC61850 Presentation]
* [http://www.ucausersgroup.org UCA International Users Group] ;Magazines on IEC 61850
* [http://www.pacw.org PAC World Magazine]