News on IEC 61850 and related Standards

IEC 61850 in the U.S. – A Personal View of IEC 61850

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 20:13:00 +0000

Scott Olson (POWER Engineers) investigated recently to figure out the situation of the application of IEC 61850 in the U.S.: He found IEC 61850 on the radar screen!

In his report (A personal view of IEC 61850) he wrote early January 2012 that IEC 61850 is “More Than a Protocol”. Yes – it is much more than a protocol. It is not something like “DNP4” or “IEC 60870-5-105”. The standard series IEC 61850 provides a bunch of definitions applicable in many different subsets – there will never be an implementation that implements the whole standard series! Never ever.

Some explanation on basic concepts of the standard series IEC 61850 follow (before we have a closer look into Scott Olson’s report):

IEC 61850 provides models of real world information (status, measurements, and control points, settings, …) for many different application domains. The following slide shows an example of a model: XCBR – circuit breaker of a real substation.

Another area is the system configuration language (SCL) that describes many aspects of devices and the whole system. Third, there is the communication shown in the top left corner. The communication defines services. These services are realized by protocols. The protocols are comprising TCP/IP based client-server communication and Ethernet based real-time communication (GOOSE and sampled measured values – sensor-data).

Protocols are needed – the crucial issues are models and configuration language.

Some of the services that communicate the state-changes of the circuit breaker are as follows:

Is it worth to compare the protocols of various standards? Check the following table to figure out what the left side has to offer … and what the standards on the right have:

IEC 61850 is mainly focusing on crucial aspects of the many applications and on the system – system means: what to communicate, from where to where, how to communicate, when, … how to configure systems and devices, how to document requirements and systems, …

A remaining question is: What is most important to look at or to implement or to apply? It depends. From a device point of view it is absolute important to have the communication services and protocol – and application program interface (API) – implemented. This is required in TWO devices – the server, that provides the models, and the client that reads values or receives spontaneous reports:

From a application point of view it is crucial to look at the models!! ;-)

The models should be discussed independent of ANY protocol!!! Many people have understood that the models, services and protocols of IEC 61850 are all independent of each other – that is one of the crucial benefits! That is the reason why IEC 61400-25-4 (Wind Power application of IEC 61850) defines the mapping of process values (the signal lists) and simple services to DNP3 and IEC 60870-5-101/104. Because the models, services and configuration language are independent of the protocols.

And also note that the use of IEC 61850 is first of all intended for the substation automation and power generation … finally it may be used (in the long term) in the communication with control centers.

Back to the crucial lessons Mr Olson and others have learnt:

He writes: “We received a great email from one of our readers, who reminded us that there was a difference between a standard and a protocol—the latter being a component of the former—and that it was possible to implement IEC 61850 protocols without going all out to implement the standard.

"For example," our reader offered, "61850 GOOSE messaging may be used between IEDs to eliminate physical wiring and increase speed of interaction between IEDs while continuing to use DNP to communicate upwards to SCADA and higher-level systems where slower communications updates are acceptable.

It was such a great point to make: The migration to the IEC 61850 standard does not force the absolute replacement of protocols that are already in place. Solutions can be implemented that allow parts of 61850 to be added to the network while the legacy protocols continue to be used over the same network. For example, station bus protocol (IEC 61850-8-1) could be used to simplify the
interface between IEDs, human-machine interfaces (HMIs), etc. within the substation network while continuing to use DNP interface to SCADA. As process bus (IEC 61850-9-2) devices become readily available, the opportunity to eliminate copper wiring between current transformers (CTs) and IEDs could provide tremendous …”

The lesson that everybody should learn soon (or should have learnt): IEC 61850 could be implemented in many different subsets for even more simple to complex applications. I hope that at the end of 2012 the universe has understood that the standard series IEC 61850 is more than just a protocol – it goes far beyond DNP3, IEC 60870-5-101/104, even beyond OPC and OPC UA! It’s a system-supporting solution.

By the way, this blog is visited by many experts from North America. It is likely that Mr Olson’s lesson will be read by many U.S. people.

Click HERE for the full “personal view”.

How to secure Millions of devices in a Smart(er) Grid?

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:42:00 +0000

There are may R&D projects underway to find appropriate ways how to secure millions of devices that need to communicate – all over.

A nice paper discusses this issues in the light of the question: what is a workable solution for a some hundred devices may not scale for millions of devices.

The report concludes: “The cryptographic infrastructure underlying the smart
grid the community envisions will likely require PKI, for scalability – but this is the beginning, not the end, of the solution.”

The good message we hear more often these days is: The path to smart(er) Hybrid Grids (power, gas, heat, …) will be long and steep. A challenge for a people involved – one way or the other.

Click HERE for the 3 page paper.

There is some progress in making power system automation more secure. Siemens writes in the SIPROTEC 5 - System Overview, Protection, Automation and Monitoring · Siemens SIP 5.01 · V1.0 (not yet available for download):

Long-lasting, rugged hardware with outstanding EMC immunity and resistance to weather and mechanical loads
Sophisticated self-monitoring routines identify and report device malfunctions immediately and reliably
Conformance with the stringent Cyber Security requirements defined in the BDEW Whitepaper and NERC CIP
Encryption along the entire communication segment between DIGS I 5 and the device
Automatic recording of access attempts and security critical operations on the devices and systems

Click HERE for the DBEW Whitepaper “Requirements for Secure Control and Telecommunication Systems” [Dual Language: EN/DE]

Click HERE for further information in German (only).

Garderos (Munich, Germany) offers industrial-grade (ruggedized) routers which are self-managing and cyber-secure … secure against cyber-attacks … applicable for power grid applications.

How to define New Data Objects in IEC 61850?

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 21:08:00 +0000

The need to define new data objects is likely to have various reasons. One reason is that experts do not know which logical nodes and data objects are already defined. Let’s assume there is really a need for a new data object – there is not any data object that may fit.

Example (I found on the Web):

The LN SIML (Insulation Medium Supervision) provides the data object H2ppm (Measurement of Hydrogen (H2 in parts Per Million)).

How to model related semantic, e.g., “Hydrogen ppm Rate of Change” or “Hydrogen ppm Rate of Change Goodness of Fit”

These two semantic models are not defined in the standard. What is the best way to model these two?

Defining values in GGIO? – maybe not,
Defining new data objects in SIML? – may be the best solution (could be standardized later), or
Defining something like H2ppm1 (measured value), H2ppm2 (rate of change”, and H2ppm3 (roc Godness of Fit)? – That is definitely wrong!

Why are the following data objects in conflict with the standard modeling method?

I found this definition for LN: SIML Name: Insulation Medium Supervision (Product Specification):

The standard IEC 61850-7-4 Edition 2 defines the LN as follows:

LN: SIML Name: Insulation Medium Supervision (Standard IEC 61850-7-4 Edition 2):

These data objects are not allowed to instantiate multiple times!

Excerpt of IEC 61850-7-1 Edition 2 that defines the extension rule for data objects:

14.6 Specialisation of data by use of number extensions

Standardised data names in logical nodes provide a unique identification. If the same data (i.e. data with the same semantics) are needed several times as defined, additional data with number extensions shall be used. The rules for number extensions shall follow the naming conventions defined in IEC 61850-7-2 and be as follows:

the number extension usage shall only be defined by the owner of the data namespace. This shall be done by adding the number extension 1 to a data object name (e.g. data1),
data with no number extension shall not be extended by third parties,
data with the number extension 1 can be extended. Number extensions may be ordered or not (1,2,3,4, or, 1,2,19,25),
if only one instance of an extendable data is present in an LN, it shall have the number extension “1”.

14.8 Example for new Data

New Data “Colour of Transformer Oil”

The above figure shows also that a data Namespace Attribute “datNs” has to be specified for each new data object.

For the above semantic it would work with the following (standard conformant) definition:

H2ppm1 (measured value) –> H2ppm
H2ppm2 (rate of change) –> H2ppmRoc datNs=Vendor so and so
H2ppm3 (roc Godness of Fit) –> H2ppmRocGdns datNs=Vendor so and so

Hope that helps …

Siemens SIPROTEC 5 – More flexible IEC 61850 System Engineering and IED Configuration

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 06:37:00 +0000

According to the “SIPROTEC 5 - System Overview, Protection, Automation and Monitoring ·Siemens SIP 5.01 · V1.0” the new SIPROTEC 5 line supports several more flexible ways to configure IEC 61850 IEDs and Models.

See page 58: “The name of the logical device (ldName) is freely editable. For example, the standard-conforming name CTRL can be changed to CONTROL. Structural changes can also be made by changing the logical device (LD), so that the interface structure can be flexibly adapted to the user's own requirements. Rigid manufacturer specifications are a thing of the past. Prefix and instance of the logical node (LN) can also be edited. … Flexible engineering is the key to bringing the system view into harmony with the IEC 61850 structure of the device.”

IEC 61850 seems to have totally influenced the new series. They put a headline over the communication description: “IEC 61850 - Simply Usable … The internal structure of SIPROTEC 5 devices conforms to IEC 61850.”

Compared to the products offered in the past (since 2004 when the first systems with IEC 61850 communication where commissioned) this increase in flexibility provided by SIPROTEC 5 will be appreciated by system integrators and users.

New Parts in IEC 61850 Tissue Database

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 07:36:00 +0000

The following new parts have been added to the tissue database:

Click HERE for Part 4 (2011; Edition 2)
Click HERE for Part 7-1 (2011; Edition 2)
Click HERE for Part 9-2 (2011; Edition 2)

Description of IEC 61850 Application Examples

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 07:11:00 +0000

A couple of application examples using IEC 61850 for substation protection and automation can be found in a 48 page brochure from Siemens (English and German).

The following topics are covered:

Switchgear Interlocking with IEC 61850-GOOSE
Reverse Interlocking Using the GOOSE of IEC 61850
Beneficial Engineering of IEC 61850 Substation Automation Systems
Innovative Solutions for Substation Control with IEC 61850
Seamless Migration
Ethernet Topologies with IEC 61850
IEC Interoperability,Conformance and Engineering Experiences
IEC Browser – A Powerful Test Tool for IEC 61850

The description is to a large extent vendor-neutral.

Click HERE for the English version [pdf, 1.4 MB]
Click HERE for the German version [pdf, 1.4 MB]

Path to future Power System – Sprint or Marathon?

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 16:09:00 +0000

Many people have assumed that the conversion of today's power system into a smarter system could be done in a few years – comparable with a Sprint.

After eight years of extensive training on IEC 61850 and other power related topics I conducted for more than 2,750 experts, from more than 700 companies and more than 70 countries I have learned that the conversion is more like a Marathon!

Many people believe that smart meters would convert the system in a few years to become a Smart Grid. The German Network Regulator has stated that a roll-out of huge number of smart meters is not required for the stable network operation. The report states also that the development of a Smart(er) Grid is more like an evolution – not a revolution.

Click HERE for the Report (pdf, German only)

At the Hanover Fair in April 2010 I took the following photo of a hybrid PEV vehicle and a charging station. The battery was charged with a regular extension cord connected to a conventional outlet – in the morning before visitors walked around!!

Photo: Karlheinz Schwarz

The car is already a Sprinter – but the Plug into the future could be expected after a “Marathon” – it just takes some more time!

The International Energy Agency (IEA) states in their “Technology Roadmap on Smart Grids” that “The “smartening” of the electricity system is an evolutionary process, not a one-time event.”

Click HERE for the IEA roadmap [pdf, 50 pages].

Click HERE for a discussion of the results of the stimulus funding of the U.S. government by end of 2011. According to that report “18 million [installed] smart meters only covers 13 percent of the 142 million customers in the U.S., for example, and automating 671 substations leaves another 11,795 more to go, or 95 percent of those remaining in the United States. As befits its title, this stimulus funding was meant to stimulate a new wave of smart grid investment across U.S. utilities, not merely to serve as a one-time jobs-and-spending jolt.

My students are told all the time: Do not hurray! Take your time. To win in a Marathon you need sustainable training. Only Smart (i.e., well trained) People will be able to implement the needed systems to measure, monitor, control, protect, optimize, … the electrical power system.

Belden seeks to acquire networking specialist RuggedCom ‎

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 07:34:00 +0000

Ruggedized network infrastructure compliant to IEC 61850-3 is crucial for the implementation of Smart(er) Grids. RuggedCom – one of the well known brands in the substation domain – is one of the companies that offers network components to build the needed communication infrastructure.

One of RuggedCom competitors, Belden (Hirschmann is a brand of Belden), wants to take RuggedCom over.

Click HERE for the press news.

This shows that the Power Industry is following the native Ethernet solutions. IEC 61850 is based on the native Ethernet solution in contrast to the industrial automation domain where a lot of even standardized solutions like EtherCat, ProfiNet, PowerLink, … compete with each other Ethernet-based and traditional Fieldbuses, e.g., Profibus, CAN, Interbus, …

The Electric Power System has a highly standardized process: the 3 phase A.C. system (50 or 60 Hz). This single process requires a single communication solution: IEC 61850 based on native Ethernet.

Status of the parts of the IEC 61850 series, January 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:13:00 +0000

The standard series comprises 18 officially published parts; another 12 are in preparation. Most published parts are Standards; some are Technical Reports (TR) and Technical Specifications (TS):

1	IEC/TR 61850-1	Part 1: Introduction and overview
2	IEC/TS 61850-2	Part 2: Glossary
3	IEC 61850-3	Part 3: General requirements
4	IEC 61850-4	Part 4: System and project management
5	IEC 61850-5	Part 5: Communication requirements for functions and device models
6	IEC 61850-6	Part 6: Configuration description language for communication in electrical substations related to IEDs
7	IEC 61850-7-1	Part 7-1: Basic communication structure - Principles and models
8	IEC 61850-7-2	Part 7-2: Basic information and communication structure - Abstract communication service interface (ACSI)
9	IEC 61850-7-3	Part 7-3: Basic communication structure - Common data classes
10	IEC 61850-7-4	Part 7-4: Basic communication structure - Compatible logical node classes and data object classes
11	IEC 61850-7-410	Part 7-410: Hydroelectric power plants - Communication for monitoring and control
12	IEC 61850-7-420	Part 7-420: Basic communication structure - Distributed energy resources logical nodes
13	IEC 61850-8-1	Part 8-1: Specific communication service mapping (SCSM) - Mappings to MMS (ISO 9506-1 and ISO 9506-2) and to ISO/IEC 8802-3
14	IEC 61850-9-1	Part 9-1: Specific Communication Service Mapping (SCSM) - Sampled values over serial unidirectional multidrop point to point link
15	IEC 61850-9-2	Part 9-2: Specific communication service mapping (SCSM) - Sampled values over ISO/IEC 8802-3
16	IEC 61850-10	Part 10: Conformance testing
17	IEC/TS 61850-80-1	Part 80-1: Guideline to exchanging information from a CDC-based data model using IEC 60870-5-101 or IEC 60870-5-104
18	IEC/TR 61850-90-1	Part 90-1: Use of IEC 61850 for the communication between substations

Another 12 Parts are under development. Some of these are almost ready for publication in 2012.

Several of the above listed documents have the tag “Edition 2”, some have still the tag “Edition 1” and are in the maintenance process.

A complete list comprises all 30 parts: Title, publication, stability date, … see excerpt in the table below (the complete table can be downloaded – see below):

The table indicates as well how many tissues have been posted at the tissue database for most parts tagged edition 1 and tagged edition 2.

Please note that there is NO “IEC 61850 Edition 2” !! There are only Editions of the PARTS!!

If you want to know the current status of the standard series IEC 61850 (January 2012) you have to check the status of ALL documents at early January 2012 (red vertical line in the figure below):

Some of the documents are still Edition 1 (yellow) others are Edition 2 (green). 10 of the 18 parts are still EDITION 1 !! 8 parts are EDITION 2. The other 12 parts under development will be published as EDITION 1.

The 6 parts that are usually understood as “IEC 61850 Edition 2” are:

-6 Ed2
-7-1 Ed2
-7-2 Ed2
-7-3 Ed2
-7-4 Ed2
-8-1 Ed2

This is NOT an official name!

Most parts published by January 2013 are still marked EDITION 1 !!

Click HERE to download the complete table [pdf, 2 pages]

ABB review – Special Report IEC 61850

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 14:48:00 +0000

ABB has published already in August 2010 a very comprehensive and nice report on various aspects of IEC 61850. The report comprises 64 pages! Most visitors of this blog may not know the report.

The report starts with a very true statement: “Communication is more than exchanging data; it means globally understandable information based on syntax and semantic. This is behind IEC 61850, the topic of this issue of ABB Review Special Report.” It continues: “Electric energy is the backbone of our global society. Its reliable supply from conventional and renewable sources via complex networks requires seamless control that is only possible with the help of a standard providing a high-level and comprehensive description of the information exchanged.”

Most people are like to say that the Internet is the backbone of our global society – What would the Internet be without electric energy? How would your home look like without electric power? You would not be able to read this post without electric power. Many people see electric power like sunshine and rain – it is just here.

Click HERE for the report [pdf, edition August 2010]

Register of tested IEC 61850 devices

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:48:00 +0000

KEMA has recently published an updated Test Register (version 2011-11-28) for

IEC 61850 Client Systems [8 clients successfully test]
IEC 61850 Server Devices [total: 212 – 2011:42 / 2010:21 / 2009:34 /before:115]
IEC 61850 Ethernet Switches [23]
IEC 61850 Sampled Value Publishers (Merging Units) [2]

Click HERE for the complete list [pdf]

Click HERE for the IEC 61850 certificates; if you don’t have an UCAIUG login account you can apply for a free guest account.

How can you feed back your experience with IEC 61850?

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 10:22:00 +0000

The many parts of the standards series IEC 61850 published require some kind of maintenance. In order to collect, discuss, solve, and document the feedback from the market, IEC TC 57 WG 10 has set-up a database: The Technical Issues database or just: the Tissues database.

More and more experts from utilities feed their experience back to the standardization groups. An example is the latest post of today:

Click HERE for the Tissue #810 on the Logical node RFLO.

In case you find any tissue in the published standards search the Tissue database first and post a new tissue if your tissue has not yet been posted.

TUEV-SUED announces IEC 61850 Test Lab and Smart Grid Forum

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 10:08:00 +0000

TÜV-SÜD in Munich accelerates the support of the standard series IEC 61850 in 2012:

Test Services
Smart Grid Forum (20.-21. März 2012)

TÜV-SÜD will provide a wide range of services to reach a high level of interoperability of IEDs:

Click HERE for more details of the services [English, PDF]
Click HERE for more details of the services [German, PDF]

The Smart Grid Forum (Munich, 20.-21. März 2012) will be conducted in German). Topics are:

Normen und Standards für Smart Grids
IEC 61850 in der Anwendung
Smarte Daten: Normen und Richtlinien für den sicheren Datenaustausch
Verteilnetzautomatisierung durch intelligente Netzkomponenten: aktuelle Projektbeispiele von Netzbetreibern und Industriekunden
IT-Sicherheit und Datenschutz im intelligenten Netzsystem

Click HERE for more information.

MMS (ISO 9506) Introduction – Why to focus on the API?

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 14:37:00 +0000

Jan Tore Sørensen and Martin Gilje Jaatun (SINTEF ICT, Trondheim, Norway) have published a nice introduction to the basic architecture and definitions of MMS in a 46 page document – easy to read and understand.

This documents demonstrates that MMS is not complex. IEC 61850-8-1 (and IEC 61850-9-2) use MMS for specifying the message exchange between IEC 61850 servers (publishers) and clients (subscribers).

Implementing IEC 61850 compliant systems comprising SCL tools, servers, clients, publishers, and subscribers means to implement:

Upper layers on top of TCP/IP (or on Ethertype for publisher/subscriber)
Protocol machine (MMS, GOOSE and SV)
Encoding/Decoding ASN.1 BER messages
ACSI services (LD, LN, Control Blocks (reporting, Logging, service tracking, GOOSE, and SV), DataSets, Control, LOG –> mapped to protocols, mainly MMS)
Object model (dictionary in IED and behavior according to IEC 61850-7-4)
API (application program interface) for server, client, publisher, and subscriber
IED configuration using SCL file
SCL tool for system engineering and IED configuration

A ballpark estimate of the efforts needed to implement a reasonable subset of IEC 61850 (if one develops the software from scratch) is in the range of some 10 man-years. Only a small part of efforts (likely less than 10 per cent) deals with MMS and the underlying protocols required by MMS.

A different solution for the client-server messaging, e.g., by using a webservice, would have a minor impact on the total efforts. From a application point of view an efficient API should be in the focus when implementing of using IEC 61850!

Click HERE for the complete paper on MMS [pdf, 446 KB]

Note that IEC 61850 is much more than a protocol – and much more than MMS. MMS is just an international standard like Ethernet or TCP/IP.

Siemens and IEC 61850: More than 200,000 IEC 61850 IEDs installed

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:32:00 +0000

According to Siemens they are “the world market leader in digital protection technology … from the experience out of an installed base of more than 1 million
devices and 200,000 with IEC 61850”.

Often people ask, why are the many fieldbus users groups (for CAN, PROFINET, POWERLINK, EtherNet/IP, EtherCAT, SERCOS III, Foundation Fieldbus, ControlNet, DeviceNet, …) more active than the UCA International Usersgroup (representing IEC 61850)? One reason seems to be this: most of the 50+ fieldbus solutions are competing with each other. It is no surprise that each users group tries to promote the benefits and the success of their solution.

IEC 61850 does not seem to have (serious) competitors – so it is not required to do a lot of marketing by a users group.

Click HERE for a brochure from Siemens on their relays (Relay Selection Guide, pdf).

Example of a new part of IEC 61850 – Edition 1 or Edition 2?

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:11:00 +0000

The Technical Report IEC/TR 61850-90-1 (Substation to Substation Communication) has been published in March 2010 – quite new part of IEC 61850:

Is this document part of IEC 61850 Edition 1 or IEC 61850 Edition 2? Neither nor!

It just is IEC/TR 61850-90-1 Edition1 – Edition 1 of part 90-1; NOT a part of IEC 61850 Edition 1. There was never an official Edition 1 of the SERIES IEC 61850 nor will there be an Edition 2 of the whole SERIES.

Vendors are often making statements like “Full compatibility between IEC 61850 Editions 1 and 2” or “Efficient operating concepts by flexible engineering of
IEC 61850 Edition 2” … What does that mean? Hm, it seems to be a marketing expression, or?

NEW: Embedded Linux Gateway supporting IEC 61850 and IEC 61400-25

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 07:24:00 +0000

SSV Embedded Systems (Hannover, Germany) offers the embedded Linux gateway module DIL/NetPC DNP/9265 now with a preinstalled IEC 61850 (IEC 61400-25)protocol stack. An easy to configure and use IEC 61850 API (application program interface) allows for a very short time-to-market development – within days and weeks. Program your application, model the IEC 61850 logical nodes and data object that expose your application data, bind them together, configure the communication services like data sets and control blocks (reporting and GOOSE) – and you can connect with other IEC 61850 devices. The model, the binding, and the communication services are described in a standard SCL file (System Configuration Language, IEC 61850-6) and uploaded to the module. Restart the module and you are done. It’s that easy.

The ARM9-based DNP/9265 is equipped with 32MB of SDRAM, as well as 32MB of NOR flash for holding the boot-loader and Linux O/S, says the company. I/O is passed through a 40-pin DIL socket, and includes three UARTs for COM functions, as well as 20-bit GPIO.

The module supplies one interface each for USB 2.0 Host, SD card, I2C, SPI, and CAN (ISO/11898A 2.0B), says the company. A 10/100Mbps Ethernet port is also supported. Additional features include a watchdog timer, power supervisor for VCC control, and in-system programming features.

Measuring 2.17 x 0.91 inches (55 x 23mm), the module runs on a 3.3 Volt power supply, with supply current at typically 300mA, with a maximum of 500mA. The module is said to support temperatures ranging from 32 to 158 deg. F (0 to 70 deg. C).

SSV also offers other DIL/NetPC-based gateway box products for smart grid and virtual power plant applications. These gateways allow to connect distributed generation installations (such as CHPs, wind-turbines, small hydro, back-up gensets etc.) directly via IEC 61850 with any other application like power grid monitoring or control centers.

In addition to Linux and the integrated IEC 61850 the SSV gateway solutions comes with drivers and protocol stacks for SSL- or IPsec-based VPNs (virtual private networks). This allows secure data communication with powerful encryption technologies over the public telecommunication infrastructure, such as the Internet.

Click HERE for the news [in German]
Click HERE for a description of the product [in English]
Click HERE to check the IEC 61850 (IEC 61400-25) API online [in English]

Reminder – Introduction to IEC 61850 and IEC 61400-25 on ARM and LINUX on December 14

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 11:33:00 +0000

The introduction to the standard series and the new Embedded Modules developed by TQ with IEC 61850 und IEC 61400-25 (using ARM Architectures, Linux and the very simple and powerful SystemCorp IEC61850 API) is less than three weeks ahead (in Wessling/Munich, 2011-12-14).

Click HERE for the event and information on the embedded controllers (in German).

Easy Smart Metering and IEC 61850 MUC (Multi Utility Communication)

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 13:11:00 +0000

Solvimus (Ilmenau, Germany) offers an Easy Smart Metering and IEC 61850 MUC (Multi Utility Communication) device – combining metering and IEC 61850.

The MUC.easy(TM) supports:

M-Bus, wM-Bus, RS-232, RS-485, S0, or CL to connect to meters
Integrated Webserver
GSM/GPRS
Ethernet
DSL
Powerline Communciation (PLC), and
a powerful embedded IEC 61850 solution

Click HERE for the News in German.
Click HERE for some overview of the MUC with IEC 61850

Details of NEW Hirschmann RSP and Embedded Switches With IEC-Standard Redundancy and IEEE 1588 disclosed

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 08:48:00 +0000

The recently announced new Ethernet Switches from Hirschmann that support redundancy protocols are now officially disclosed.

With Hirschmann™ RSP Switches, Which Support the New IEC-Standard Redundancy Protocols (PRP, HSR), Networks Can Now be Built for the First Time With Genuinely Uninterrupted Data Communication.

The Advantages at a Glance

Extensive range of redundancy methods: PRP, HSR, PRP/HSR Red Box, MRP, Fast MRP, RSTP
Precise synchronization compliant with IEEE 1588v2
Enhanced security mechanisms: authentication, radius, role based access, port security, SSHv2, HTTPS and SFTP, plus others currently in preparation.
Fast device replacement, comprehensive logging and storage of all configuration data, plus operating software updates via SD card
High level of vibration resistance
Broad immunity to electrostatic discharges and magnetic fields
Temperature range from -40°C to +70°C
Power supply 24/36/48 V DC or 60/120/250 V DC and 110/230 V AC
Strong and compact metal housing

Click HERE for the technical Brochure [pdf, English]
Click HERE for the technical Brochure [pdf, Deutsch]

The New Embedded Ethernet EES20 and EES25 Switches from Hirschmann™ Combine the Functional Scope of a Powerful Managed Switch With Interruption-free Redundancy Protocols and Precise Synchronization.

This module allows automation equipment to be extended to include state-of-the-art switch technology with very little effort
The additional network functionality gives the equipment sustained competitive
advantages
Development process and time-to-market are significantly shortened thanks to
Embedded Ethernet

Click HERE for the technical Brochure [pdf, Englich]
Click HERE for the technical Bochure [pdf, Deutsch]

The Aging Workforce in the Electric Power domain

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 21:49:00 +0000

The Electric Power Utility domain is looking for many electrical power engineers all over. One example can be found by searching the simplyhired.com:

Click HERE for a search on power system engineer

The search results in 38,329 hits for the U.S. allone !!
Some 6.000 hits are related to protection, 800 to SCADA, and 55 to IEC 61850, 12 to DNP3.

Click HERE for a search on electrical engineer

The search results in 86,596 hits for the U.S.
72 are related to IEC 61850 and 20 to DNP3.

Power systems require skilled and experienced engineers. How to become an experiences and skilled engineer? By education, training, learning-by-doing, …

During the year 2011 a lot more electric power engineers and IT experts have received one or the other education and training with regard to IEC 61850.

I see a lot more of interest on the radar screen for 2012.

Have you ever thought about to get a training that build up your skills in the application of IEC 61850 and related standards? Note that in many of the open positions you can read something like: experience in relevant protocols and interfaces (IEC 61850, IEC 60870-x, DNP, etc.).

Many people still expect that IEC 61850 is a protocol. It is definitely much more than a protocol.

Click HERE to see some differences.

IEC 61850 soon for Steam and Gas turbines

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 13:26:00 +0000

A New Work Item has been proposed by Sweden to use IEC 61850 for Steam and Gas Turbines (Document 57/1193/NP). IEC 61850-7-410 defines already extensions of the Information models for applications in Hydro Power Plants.

The draft second edition of IEC 61850-7-410 has been extended to cover power system stabilizer (PSS) functions, as well as complex excitation systems. In order to use the IEC 61850 communication system for thermal power plants, additional data models for e.g. steam turbines with ancillary equipment is required. In a further future work, additional models for boilers, burner management, flue gas cleaning could be added.

The ballot of the NP closes 2012-02-17.

If you are interested in getting involved contact your IEC TC 57 National Committee.

Click HERE for the list of countries involved in IEC TC 57.

Integration of Renewables in the Grid – A Huge Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 13:01:00 +0000

Sometimes some experts expect that IT is one of the most crucial aspects of the future power delivery system – yes it is important … to some extent.

The Power System is STILL (and forever) an ELECTRICAL SYSTEM! Mark O’Malley writes in the 2011-11/12 issue of the IEEE Power & Energy magazine that the “Grid integration is, in his view, the most interesting and exciting area of research in the world today.” … and tomorrow and for the next decade at least.

After many years of low investments in the power industry (material, equipment, systems, human resources, …) it is expected that it will grow now. Some companies have already increased their budgets for education in Energy and IT related issues.

Click HERE for the complete opinion of Mark O’Malley.

IEC 61850 Editions – Help to Prevent Confusions

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 06:57:00 +0000

After my recent Newsletter on IEC 61850 many experts visited the blog post of the first discussion on Editions which summarizes:

BUT there will be not an EDITION 2 of the standard SERIES IEC 61850 per se!! Various parts (of the first 16 parts) will be revised and extended and then published tagged as EDITION 2.

New parts will be published with the tag EDITION 1, e.g., IEC 61850-80-1 (Guideline to exchanging information from a CDC-based data model using IEC 60870-5-101 or IEC 60870-5-104) - IEC/TS 61850-80-1, Edition 1.0, 2008-12

Click HERE for the complete post.

There are a lot of confusions when people talk about Editions of IEC 61850.

In a new paper it is reported: “Edition 2.0 of IEC 61850 Standard has been released considering valid technical issues and future aspects of protocol usage. … compares the IEC 61850 Edition 2.0 specification to its predecessor Edition 1.0.”

Click HERE for that paper.

There is hope that experts will use more precise language when it comes to editions of the many parts of IEC 61850 and related documents.

In addition to the question of the Edition of the standard there is another question, when it comes to the Devices that implement IEC 61850: Does this or that Device conform to IEC 61850 Edition 1 or Edition 2?

Since there is NO EDITION 2 of the STANDARD, a Device could NOT be characterized as an IEC 61850 Edition 2 Device!!

We have to differentiate the various aspects of the Standard: Which Logical Nodes, Common Data Classes, Services, which subset of the Configuration Language Edition 2, et cetera are implemented.

Edition 2 of any part of IEC 61850 can mean the following:

(Usually: Most) Definitions of parts tagged Edition 1 have been taken over in the same parts tagged Edition 2 without any change.
(Some) Definitions of parts tagged Edition 1 have been taken over in parts tagged Edition 2 with fixes or minor changes. During the tissue process the parts tagged Edition 1 have already been “fixed” to some extend.
(Less or more) New Definitions have been added in parts tagged Edition 2. [Service tracking in IEC 61850-7-2, many new LNs in IEC 61850-7-4, …]
(Some) Definitions of parts tagged Edition 1 have been moved to parts tagged Edition 2 without changes. [e.g., LN STMP from IEC 61850-7-410 Ed1 to IEC 61850-7-4 Ed2; Substitution has been moved from IEC 61850-7-2 Ed1 to IEC 61850-7-3 Ed2, …]

A Device A that implements those definitions from several parts tagged Edition 1 that have not changed in Edition 2 of these parts is compliant to edition 2 of these parts without any modifications! If a Device B implements some new features of one or more parts tagged Edition 2, then these new features have to be listed in some detail to understand the situation. Some detail means that the implemented features per part tagged Edition 1 and/or Edition 2 have to be listed.

Examples:

A Device may just implement a new LN from Edition 2 of part IEC 61850-7-2; the other definitions are used as defined in Edition 1 of the other parts like IEC 61850-7-3, 7-2, 8-1, … So, is this an Edition 1 or Edition 2 Device? Both! But we better do NOT TAG a Device being Edition 1 or Edition 2. It’s a Device implementing the services according to the PICS of part IEC 61850-7-2 Edition 1 (the subset used may be unchanged in Edition 2), IEC 61850-8-1 Edition 1, … and the STMP LN of IEC 61850-7-4 Edition 2.).
The same Device could be understood as implementing the STMP LN according to a part that is tagged Edition1: The STMP LN is still officially published in IEC 61850-7-410 Edition 1. Edition 2 of 7-410 will not have the STMP LN any more – it is already moved to 7-4 Edition 2.

Users should not wait until a Device or the Communication Stack is compliant to Edition 2 of the Standard IEC 61850!! You will never get such a Device because there is NO Edition 2 of IEC 61850. You may want to use one or the other new service of IEC 61850-7-2 Edition 2 (like Service tracking of control block services) or a new LN from IEC 61850-7-2 Edition 2 or from IEC 61850-7-420 Edition 1 or IEC 61850-90-7 Edition 1 …

Always list some details what has been implemented from the various parts tagged Edition 1 or Edition 2 – if you want to prevent confusion.

Additional discussions on this topic will follow – time permitted.

Stay tuned.

Seminário e Treinamento NORMA IEC 61850 - Instituto Instronic

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 22:30:00 +0000

Dear expert in Brazil and other countries, please note the final call for the IEC 61850 course in Sao Paulo (Brazil):

NOTE the course will be simultaneously translated into Portuguese.

Maria Rita do Amaral
Instituto -Instronic
Instronic Instrumentos de Testes Ltda
Tel.: (11) 3383.3700 - Ramal 159
instituto@instronic.com.br
www.instronic.com.br