News on IEC 61850 and related Standards

Easy, Affordable and Fast Integration of IEC 61850 in Small Devices

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 20:29:00 +0000

High financial and time expenditures for the implementation of IEC 61850 in control systems and other devices prevented so far a broad market penetration of the standard in the lower voltage levels and in distributed power generation. A reasonable and cost effective solution is now available with the Beck IPC@CHIP. The development of IEC 61850 conformant interfaces in power delivery systems – particularly renewable and decentralized power producers and consumers – can now be realized within very short time to market.

The stack and API used on many platforms has been developed by SystemCorp (Bentley, Western Australia), e.g., on the Beck IPC Chip.

A new paper has been written about the benefits of using ready-to-go solutions. The paper discusses embedded controller with IEC 61850 stack and API, DLL and other libraries with IEC 61850 stack and API, … You will find also a brief discussion of the information models for PV inverters (IEC 61850-90-7).

Download the discussion about benefits using ready-to-go solutions with IEC 61850 and PV Inverter models [pdf, 2.3 MB, 18 pages]

Video on the Use of IEC 61850-6 SCL to configure a server and a client

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 13:46:00 +0000

This presentation explains the use of two IED specific SCL files to configure IEDs. One is used to configure a server and the second (with the same model - but different bindings between the model and the real data) is used to configure a client. The API "Write call " at the client and the "Write callback" at the server are briefly explained. The API is provided by SystemCorp (Bentley, Western Australia). The API is available at the Beck IPC Chip and other embedded controllers, or for Windows (DLL) and Linux.

Click HERE for an evaluation kit running on a PC (with DLL and applications). The evaluation package runs for six months. It uses two SCL files for configuring the server and the client (as shown in the video).

I hope you will enjoy this video!
Your feedback to Karlheinz Schwarz would be appreciated.

Video with brief Introduction to IEC 61850 and IEC 61400-25

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:44:00 +0000

IEC 61850 and IEC 61400-25 comprise some 25 documents. Part IEC 61850-7-1 contains some basic modeling concepts that may help to get a few ideas what IEC 61850 is about. I guess that just a few people have read that part. In my training courses with almost 3.000 attendees I have gained a lot of experience on how to explain the basic concepts. In 2011 I have conducted more than 30 training sessions (from one to 12 days). Today I am starting a new service to the industry: providing videos that explain basics with animated up-to-date slides.

The first video is a brief presentation of the key concepts of IEC 61850 (one slide): modeling methods, models, configuration language, communication, and mappings. The demonstration shows how these concepts are used to compose a system. Of course, this slide is just showing the basics of a “small system”. This slide is part of the introduction of my commercial training curses.

Please click on the start button to see the video – in order to see it in the full screen, click again on the video and select the full screen button.

I hope you will enjoy this video!
Your feedback to Karlheinz Schwarz would be appreciated.

Siemens Industry offers PRP Ethernet Redundancy Products

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 12:56:00 +0000

Ethernet is obviously to become the number ONE solution for almost all automation domains – just a few experts expected this success some 20 years ago. Even one of the serious supporters of Fieldbusses (Siemens) is supporting this trend by offering new Ethernet products.

High Availability Seamless Redundancy (HSR) and Parallel Redundancy Protocol (PRP) are the latest additions to the IEC 62439 Standard for High Availability Industrial Ethernet Networks. Designed for mission critical and time sensitive applications such as those found in Electric Utility protection and control applications (referenced by IEC 61850-8-1). Below is an excerpt of the TCP/IP Profile (PRP1 and HSR are also contained in the GOOSE and SV profiles):

Siemens offers IEC 62439-3 PRP compliant Ethernet products (SCALANCE X204RNA).

Click HERE for information on SCALANCE X204RNA in English
Click HERE for information on SCALANCE X204RNA in German
Click HERE for Manuals and further information

Click HERE for further information on the concepts [ppt presentation]
Click HERE for other IEC 62439 products [Hirschmann]

Excerpt of IEC 61850 etz Report online

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

A excerpt of the etz Report 34 (in German only) is available online:

2004 / 184 Seiten

Themen: IEC 61850 - Datenmodelle und Kommunikation für die Schutztechnik, Stationsleittechnik, Netzleittechnik, Leitsysteme, Schaltanlage, Energieversorgung, u.v.a.m.

Click HERE for an excerpt of the book.
Click HERE for order information.

Update on: How to define New Data Objects in IEC 61850?

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 09:58:00 +0000

The post dated January 15, 2012, on “How to define New Data Objects in IEC 61850?” has been updated and enhanced to help you to understand the model extensions. It contains also to older links …

Click HERE for the updated post.

Download IEC 61850 Blog Content as PDF Document

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:37:00 +0000

For those readers of the blog that want to get the complete content as
a single pdf document, it is one click away … it contains the 585
posts from 2008 until 2012-02-13.

Click HERE to download all posts in one pdf [12.5 MB, 420+ pages DIN A4]

Enjoy!

Smart Grid Last Mile Infrastructure

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:31:00 +0000

20 experts from 15 companies have drafted an architecture for “A Standardized and Flexible IPv6 Architecture for Field Area Networks”.

The “paper is intended to provide a synthetic and holistic view of open standards Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) based architecture for Smart Grid Last Mile Infrastructures in support of a number of advanced Smart Grid
applications (meter readout, demand-response, telemetry, and grid monitoring and automation) and its benefit as a true Multi-Services platform. … provide an efficient, flexible, secure, and multi-service network based on open standards.”

IEC TC 57 standards like CIM, IEC 61850, and IEC 610870, as well as DNP3, IEEE 1888, and Modbus are understood as crucial application standards.

Click HERE for the above architecture.

What is IEEE 1888? A new IEEE project …

Standard for Ubiquitous Green Community Control Network Protocol

Click HERE for some background information
Click HERE for the PAR
Click HERE to visit the project website.

I hope that the experts involved in the project IEEE 1888 will rely on standards like CIM, IEC 61850, and IEC 610870, … Hope that the energy automation market is smarter than the industrial automation market: keeping the number of protocol solutions very low!! The industrial automation domain has a lot of headaches with the proliferation of the many many protocols (100+)!!

IEC 61850 on every Pole?

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 08:15:00 +0000

Pole mounted power distribution equipment and communication could be found all over in big cities like the one shown in the following picture I took in Seoul:

In the future you may see many pole mounted boxes that function as routers supporting the hybrid grids (power, gas, heat, …), traffic control, … and may other applications.

Several companies are offering the needed communication infrastructure that connects many of the millions of devices.

One of these comprehensive solutions is the “Cisco Connected Grid – Deliver More Value from Your Operations Over a Single, Intelligent, Secure Platform”. A key element in this platform is IEC 61850.

Click HERE for a presentation on “Cisco Connected Grid” [pdf, 25 pages]

Ethernet for Real-Time Applications – IEEE Symposium in Munich

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 07:09:00 +0000

On January 17, 2012 TUEV SUED (Munich, Germany) held a symposium on real-time Ethernet. Ethernet is not fit for real-time – that is what has been said from the very beginning. But: time and technology has changed. “Deterministic Ethernet & Unified Networking - Never bet against Ethernet …”, this is the opening statement of one of the 11 presentations of the symposium. Ethernet seems to be THE backbone of all automation systems in the near future.

The 11 presentations can be downloaded:

1. Opening by TÜV SÜD
2. IEEE 802.1 AVB standards status (audio video bridging, Broadcom)
3. Real-time networks and preemption (Cisco)
4. Latency Scenarios of Bridged Networks (Deggendorf University)
5. Real-time Ethernet Requirements for Automation Applications (iniT)
6. Ultra Low Latency Traffic Class @ Industry (Siemens)
7. Adaptive Scheduling of Streams in RT (Czech TU Prague)
8. AVB and Fault Tolerant Networking (Belden/Hirschmann) – Ethernet everywhere!
9. Robustness Requirement in Industry and Energy (ZHAW, CH)
10. Deterministic Ethernet & Unified Networking (TTTech)
11. IEEE 1588v2 Time Synchronization in Energy Automation Applications – Case Studies from China (RuggedCom) – Huge substation with more than 160 Ethernet Switches!

When I was about to do my diploma thesis at Siemens in Karlsruhe in 1981, my topic was to do some practical analysis of Ethernet. Due to the high cost of two (2) Ethernet MAUs (40.000 DM / 20.000 Euro) it was decided not to purchase the hardware – people did not believe that Ethernet would be an option at all … and forever. Many experts believed in Token Passing.

I did not agree (I was still a student). So, I decided to look for an answer of making shared Ethernet deterministic … it ended up in a patent Siemens got.

More to come … in China and all over. Ethernet and IEC 61850 (based on Ethernet) are providing real standard solutions.

IEC 60870-6 TASE.2 (ICCP) - New Editions

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 07:50:00 +0000

IEC TC 57 has published three Committee Drafts (CD) that are intended to provide new editions of the popular standards for control center to control center communication.

IEC 60870 defines a mechanism for exchanging time-critical data between control centres. It defines a standardized method of using the ISO 9506 Manufacturing Message Specification (MMS) services to implement the exchange of data.

Closing date for comments: 2012-05-04

57/1213/CD
IEC 60870-6-503 Ed.3: Telecontrol equipment and systems - Part 6-503: Telecontrol protocols compatible with ISO standards and ITU-T recommendations - TASE.2 Services and protocol

57/1214/CD
IEC 60870-6-702 Ed.2: Telecontrol equipment and systems - Part 6-702: Telecontrol protocols compatible with ISO standards and ITU-T recommendations - Functional profile for providing the TASE.2 application service in end systems

57/1215/CD
IEC 60870-6-802 Ed.3: Telecontrol equipment and systems - Part 6-802: Telecontrol protocols compatible with ISO standards and ITU-T recommendations - TASE.2 Object models

Contact your National Committee for a copy.

Load-Shedding by Police and SMS

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 07:30:00 +0000

The German TV channel ZDF showed yesterday how businesses in Nice (France) shed loads: by policeman coming by … and by SMS messages.

Click HERE for a video [in German only, at ZDF.de]

Italian Norm about to Require IEC 61850 for almost all PV Inverters

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:11:00 +0000

The CEI (Comitato Elettrotecnico Italiano) has published in December 2011 a norm that strongly proposes to use IEC 61850 to connect PV inverters (>1kV and >6 kW) to external systems (grid operator, …):

CEI 0-21 “Regola tecnica di riferimento per la connessione di Utenti attivi e passivi alle reti BT delle imprese distributrici di energia elettrica”.

“Reference technical rules for the connection of active and passive users to
the LV electrical Utilities”

Click HERE for the press release and link to the norm provided by CEI [pdf, Italian].

Click HERE for a up-to-date presentation presenting the background and needs for … and for standard communications in low voltage (LV) power systems.

The document IEC 61850-90-7 “IEC 61850 object models for inverters in distributed energy resources (DER) systems” is about to published in a few months. This document is a perfect fit for the needs of PV inverters.

IEC TC 57 WG 17 has met in San Diego (CA) last week. The final draft paper is expected to be available in a few weeks.

IEC 61850 Training Courses in Frankfurt and Denver (CO)

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:51:00 +0000

Are you looking to tap the experience of training almost 3.000 experts all over? Here are a few public events in Germany and U.S. that provide a wide range of experience and knowledge presented by Karlheinz Schwarz.

Understanding the basics of standard series IEC 61850 and IEC 61400-25 will help you to get smoothly to systems that are based on interoperable devices.

Frankfurt (Germany), 09.-11. May 2012
Frankfurt (Germany), 17.-19. October 2012
3 day IEC 61850/61400-25 Seminar/Hands-on Training (NettedAutomation) with with several embedded Controller Development Kits (Linux, RTOS, ...), Starter Kit (Windows DDL), and several other demo software

Denver, CO, (USA), Remote Conference, 18.-19. September 2012
Remote Conference Denver (CO, USA):
Communication and Security for smarter Energy systems Conference Workshop -
Two-Day Training on Key Standards for Smart Grids and SCADA
Application Domains: IEC 61850, IEC 61400-25, DNP3, and Energy Protection
Day 1: IEC 61850, IEC 61400-25, DNP3 (Karlheinz Schwarz, NettedAutomation)
Day 2: Energy Protection, Security, … (Dan Nordell, requested)

NettedAutomation is planning to have a booth at the Remote Exhibition.

Modeling Circuit Breakers for Single and Three Phases

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:01:00 +0000

Models for switchgear are defined in IEC 61850-7-4 Edition 2. The model defines several aspects like controlling and monitoring of real circuit breaker switchgear:

XCBR excerpt of model:

XCBR represents usually one (1 phase) circuit breaker. In some special cases it may represent all three (3 phase) circuit breaker. If you want to trip all three CBs of a 3-phase system, you have to define an instance 1 for that purpose: e.g., All_XCBR1.

In case you want to model the case to trip a single phase CB, you have to model 3 instances of XCBR, e.g., A_XCBR1, B_XCBR2, C-XCBR3.

The data object XCBR.SumSwARs represents the “Sum of switched amperes, resettable”. What to do when you want to model the SumSwARs of all three phases?

I saw this model the other day: extended data objects:SumSwARs1, SumSwARs2, SumSwARs3 … for Phase A, B, and C in a single XCBR instance:

From a general modeling point of view this could be done (it is not wrong!) – But it is highly recommended not to do! Since a XCBR is usually representing a single CB then we need 1 instance per phase. A_XCBR1 would represent the sum of switched amperes of Phase A. The All-XCBR1 (see above) could represent the sum of switched amperes of all 3 CBs.

Long-Term Solutions for The Transition of Energy System Needed

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 08:14:00 +0000

Energy supply systems have a long lifetime (30 … 40 … 50+ years). Electric energy is flowing trough generators, wires, transformer, switchgears, motors, and other loads; gas and heat is flowing through tubes … The energy is usually flowing top-down today. In the future we will have to manage energy flow top-down, bottom-up, back and forth, converted between …

The transition of the energy system as planned today, will take decades to happen. According to Eberhard Umbach, the president of the KIT (Karlsruher Instituts für Technologie) it would be a great success, if we could get started within the next 10 years (Read in the News [German]).

“Der Präsident des Karlsruher Instituts für Technologie (KIT) hat Zweifel am Gelingen der Energiewende und dem Ausbau der Windenergie im Südwesten. "Das größte Problem ist, dass wir künftig dezentrale Netze brauchen, die separat geregelt werden und miteinander verknüpft sind", sagte Eberhard Umbach der "Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung" (Montag).

Ein Aspekt werde von den Politikern derzeit weitgehend ignoriert, sagte Umbach: "Zur Steuerung der dezentralen Netze fehlt uns heute die entsprechende Informationstechnologie einschließlich entsprechender Sicherheitsmaßnahmen, da reicht es nicht, ein paar neue Programme zu schreiben." Wenn innerhalb der nächsten zehn Jahre erste Schritte gelängen, so Umbach, dann "wären wir sehr gut".

That means for the information and information exchange infrastructure that it has to stay (standardized one way or the other) for some 30 … 50 years. It is unlikely to replace a comprehensive infrastructure, that is required for the future hybrid energy system, every 10 years or so. In the manufacturing domain (car production, …) it is likely that a factory will be upgraded to a new “standard” every 7 to 10 years.

So, we have some years left to do large scale deployments of the basic information and information exchange infrastructure for the hybrid energy system of the future.

The basic definitions that can be used today, in 10 or even in 30 years are the IEC 61968/70 (CIM) and IEC 61850. The crucial parts of these standard series are independent of implementation technologies: models of a generators, measurements of the electrical 3-phase system or power quality information are semantic models that could be used forever. A “phase A current” is a “phase A current” today and in 40 years.

There is one issue here: How could I figure out which models exist? Good question!

Click HERE for the list of 280+ Logical nodes (2010).

Wind and Solar Gas – A Challenging Storage Option

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:13:00 +0000

As you know, there is a crucial challenge with renewable power generation – wind and solar power are often generated during times when it could not be transported to the load centers! Usually generation has to stop – even the wind is blowing and the sun is shining. So, how to work around?

In November 2011 there was a big conference in Berlin to discuss a new way of storing energy: the existing natural gas network may become a cornerstone for a renewable energy system that provides huge storage, transport and distribution capacities that are hundred times larger than the electric power grid.

Electrons and gas? Yes!

The “SolarFuel” power-to-gas method could convert renewable electricity into CO2 neutral, renewable natural gas.

What does it all mean:

More renewable electricity could be generated.
Renewable natural gas stores the energy for days, weeks and months due to huge capacities in the tubes used for transportation and distribution
Energy is accessible everywhere and at any time.

I remember that our gas utility here in Karlsruhe buried huge tubes (some 100 cm in diameter) in the 90s – this allows to transport and store more gas (volume increases to the second of the diameter). Copper wires can transport more electric power with bigger cables – but the wires do not store more electric power ;-)

The gas storage in Germany could (if full) be tapped for some 6 month!!

The new discussion is about Hybrid Grids: Electric Power, Gas and Heat. More to come soon.

One thing is for sure: We will be challenged by a steep growing demand of Information Models to be added to IEC 61850 for the many aspects of hybrid grids. UCA (the forerunner of IEC 61850) was adapted by the GRI (Gas research institute, USA) for use by gas utilities. This effort culminated in an evaluation of UCA in a gas utility environment at Pacific Gas and Electric Company, San Francisco, in the 90s.

Excerpt of logical nodes (called Bricks in UCA) from the document: Integrated UCA(TM) for Gas Industry / Volume 2: Gas Industry Device Object Models.

Pressure monitors for inlet, intermediate and outlet gas (PMON0, 1, 2 respectively)
First stage pressure regulating valves (PRVL0, PRVM0 and PRVH0 for low, mid and high range valves respectively
Gate station flow monitors for low, medium and high flow rates (GSFL0, GSFM0, and GSFH0 respectively)
Gas quality monitor (QMON0):

Click HERE for the list of 6 reports from GTI (former GRI) [2000]
Click HERE to get some more information on wind and solar gas.
Click HERE for a comparison of IEC 61850 and UCA [2004].

IEC 61850 logical nodes for the gas and heat application domain could easily be defined and (if needed) standardized.

IEEE Standards for free download

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:57:00 +0000

Did you know that many IEEE 802 and other standards are available for free of charge download? IEEE provides these documents for free six months after their publication.

Click HERE for the list of free standards.

U.S. System Integrator opened Test Facility for IEC 61850

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 06:55:00 +0000

Burns & McDonnell (Kansas City, MO) has invested in a new lab for technologies like IEC 61850 to offer a “work bench” for their employees and their clients. The lab supports GOOSE, MMS, and Sampled Values messaging.

The lab helps “tying IEC-61850 to the power line carrier and integrating advanced protection and control systems with legacy equipment using RS-232 and DNP interfaces.”

This way they will gain crucial experience with the new standard series IEC 61850 –this is what you see in the factory automation domain where a lot of “filedbus X” competence centers are offering services for specific fieldbus technologies.

Click HERE for the press release (2012-01-27).

Burns & McDonnell is involved in an upgrade project with 19 substations using IEC 61850 technology, 2010 – 2016:

“Burns & McDonnell is responsible for detailed design including Northeast Utilities’ new Next Generation Substation Protection & Controls. The new P&C system integrates relays, SCADA equipment and yard equipment using IEC 61850 protocol, significantly reducing costly wiring.”

Click HERE for the project description.

Power Quality Information modeled in IEC 61850

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:50:00 +0000

IEC 61850 is a powerful standard – also for describing the exchange of Power Quality Information.

IEC 61850 has been extended to support many advanced power quality applications like those defined in IEC 61000-4-30 and EN 50160. IEC 61850-7-4 Edition 2 defines logical nodes, that support modeling and configuring event sequencing with additional quality reporting and waveform recording.

Excerpt of logical nodes for power quality:

Harmonics (MHAI)
Flicker (MFLK)
Imbalanced power calculations (MADV)
Frequency variation (QFVR)
Current transient (QITR)
Current unbalance variation (QUIB)
Voltage transient (QVTR)
Voltage unbalance variation (QVUB) and
Voltage variation (QVVR).

Click HERE for a nice summary published by Schneider Electric.
Click HERE for a draft list of Logical Nodes for Power Quality (this content was used as input to the development of IEC 61850-5 Edition 2 and IEC 61850-7-4 Edition 2).

FINSENY – European Consortium of 35 Organizations supports IEC 61850 and IEC 61400-25

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:32:00 +0000

Have you heard about FINSENY before? I didn’t know about these activities. What is it? Another European project – yes, but one that seems to build on existing standards like IEC 61850, IEC 61968/70, IEC 61400-25, IEC 62351, … IEC 60870-5.

FINSENY – Future Internet for Smart Energy (2011 – 2015)

FINSENY project: 35 organizations from the ICT and energy sectors team-up to identify the ICT requirements of Smart Energy Systems. This will lead to the definition of new solutions and standards, verified in a large scale pan-European Smart Energy trial … As part of the FI-PPP programme, FINSENY will analyse energy-specific requirements, develop solutions to address these requirements, and prepare for a Smart Energy trial in phase two of the programme.

Click HERE for the list of the 35 organizations.

Fortunately the work done so far refers to IEC TC 57 and TC 88 standards!

“ … existing standards which are worldwide considered and recognized like the IEC TC57 standards for Communication networks and systems for power utility automation (IEC 61850) and System interfaces for distribution management (IEC 61968) will be taken into account when defining the architecture, data models and communication relationships as well as existing telecommunication standards supporting the Future …”

Click HERE for a statement on standards.

A first list of consolidated ICT Requirements recommends: “To ensure interoperability the communication should rely on well-known and frequently used standards like IEC 61850, IEC 61968/61970 (CIM), or IEC 60870-5-101/104 (Telecontrol) and others. Also to be respected are specialized communication standards like - IEC 61400-25-4 for wind turbines …”

Click HERE for the requirements document [pdf, 262 pages]

A very detailed description of typical use-cases in power distribution has been written: “Distribution Network Building Block”: “ … Advanced ICT solutions that could provide Future Internet and the economies of scale that could be reached are essential for the development of the Smart Distribution Network. This deliverable presents a Reference Model for the Distributed Network Scenario and selects and describes a set of building blocks (UC) that should be representative enough for a further analysis of ICT requirements of smart DN solutions.”.

Click HERE for the Distribution Network Building Block [pdf, 98 pages]

I was a bit surprised when I read in that document about the communication with SCADA systems:

“SCADA System updates real time information from the RTU by means of continuous polling. The RTU is monitoring continuously Power Equipment through its Analog and Digital Inputs. When a change occurs is some of the inputs, the RTU takes note of it in order to send it in the next request from the SCADA System SCADA System requests every 2 seconds for any change of state or measurements detected in the RTU. When a request of state or measurement change is received, RTU sends all these changes to the SCADA System …”

Hm, this seems a bit … ok, smart people will develop smart(er) devices – the IEDs (Intelligent Electronic Devices) – that will help to reduce the sheer unlimited amount of data to be exchanged continuously every 2 seconds. The project expects millions of devices to communicate with. Suppose 100 signals to be exchanged every 2 seconds from 100.000 devices: 5.000.000 signals per second … IEDs (RTUs, Data Managers, Data Aggregators, Gateways, …) with IEC 61850 will send information only if it is needed!! – on an event like a state change or limit violation.

Exchanging millions of signals per second means we need a high bandwidth – good for vendors that sell “bandwidth”! That is the question, how can more active power flow through the copper cable? Same may accomplish it the smart way with the reactive power compensation that can be done smart by inverters – smart electricians may solve this by just putting a bigger cable into the ground.

Click HERE for some discussion of polling versus spontaneous reporting.

The document lists also Monitoring and Control of Inverter Functions (Connect / Disconnect to/from grid, Adjust Maximum Generation Level, Adjust Power Factor, ... Scheduled Actions based on time, temperature, power pricing … VAr modes for VAr support from PV/Storage inverters (Modes PV1…PV5) … Advanced functions (Watt/Frequency or Watt/Voltage mode, advanced schedules, low voltage
fault ride through (FRT), separate Watt and VAr management, harmonic cancellation) …

The FINSENY papers are worth to read and study.

Siemens Industry to take over RuggedCom

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:25:00 +0000

The Siemens division Industry (not Energy!) announced yesterday (2012-01-30) that they agreed with RuggedCom to acquire Canadian network supplier RuggedCom Inc. The other day it was reported that Belden was trying to take over RuggedCom.

Click HERE for the Siemens press release from 2012-01-30.

It is quite interesting to see how long it took to make Ethernet an enjoyable solution:

Excerpt from the press release: “Siemens’ portfolio of industrial Ethernet networking components is enjoying above-average growth rates compared to the competition. Until now, the main emphasis of Siemens’ installed base in this segment has been in Europe. “RuggedCom’s portfolio would be an ideal addition to our range of industrial Ethernet communication products, improving our industrial-quality router and switch offering. In addition, the acquisition would improve our footprint in the North America and the Asia-Pacific region,” said Anton S. Huber, CEO of the Siemens Industry Automation Division. Huber also indicated that all of RuggedCom’s and Siemens’ product lines would be developed further in the next few years.”

What is meant by “competition” in the statement “industrial Ethernet networking components is enjoying above-average growth rates compared to the competition”? Is Ethernet competing with the “Profi”- and many other Fieldbusses … Profibus and ProfiNet … FF fieldbus …?

For me this deal indicates that the native Ethernet solution as provided by RuggedCom and used in IEC 61850 is the most “enjoyable” and successful network solution in the next 20 years or so! RuggedCom is (as Belden/Hirschmann) quite active in the IEC 61850 standardization.

When I worked for Siemens Industry in the early 90s, I recommended to use native Ethernet instead of fieldbusses … now we write 2012 – 20 years later.

Click HERE for the paper “Bridging MAP to Ethernet” [PDF, 720 KB, 1991]

Click HERE for the paper “Fieldbus standardization: Another way to go” [PDF, 720 KB, 1991].

IEC President Wucherer talks about the Electric Future

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 09:56:00 +0000

The new IEC President, Dr Klaus Wucherer talked to the IEC Council recently.

According to the IEC e-tech website (2012-01-28): “Wucherer underlined that as an engineer and industrialist he has been in contact with the IEC in one way or another throughout most of his working life. He contributed to IEC work through his company and the National Committee and was an industry customer for IEC products and services. … Wherever there is electricity, the IEC needs to be involved.” I my opinion: IEC is already deeply involved – many experts have to learn this.

Dr Wucherer was my boss at Siemens Automation and Drives when I started my consultancy business 20 years ago – he was in Nuremberg and I was in Karlsruhe. The reason I became a consultant was this: Dr Wucherer asked me three times to move from Karlsruhe to Nuremberg – I decided to stay in Karlsruhe and work in the standardization as a consultant. Dr Wucherer, colleagues of mine and I were deeply involved in the national, European and international standardization of Fieldbusses and MAP. Dr Wucherer supported the standardization work in the 80s and 90s. We agreed that the future would require true international standards for information exchange.

As a Siemens employee under Dr Wucherer I wrote two remarkable papers on the standardization: one about the future of Fieldbusses and one about MAP in 1991:

Click HERE for the paper “Bridging MAP to Ethernet” [PDF, 720 KB]

Click HERE for the paper “Fieldbus standardization: Another way to go” [PDF, 720 KB].

I would extend his statement “Wherever there is electricity, the IEC needs to be involved” to

Wherever there is electricity, the IEC 61850 needs to be involved!

Click HERE for some crucial information models for the electricity defined in IEC 61850-7-4 that demonstrate the importance of the above extended statement.

The “electricity world” is likely to prevent the proliferation found in the industrial automation domain’s fieldbusses. If the many fieldbus consortia define their fieldbus specific profiles for the electric world then we will get as many information models as fieldbusses! Or?

Click HERE to see bunch of 60+ fieldbusses in ONE IEC standard in 2008: The IEC 61158.

Download IEC 61850 Blog Content as PDF Document

noreply@blogger.com (Karlheinz Schwarz) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 09:05:00 +0000

For those readers of the blog that want to get the complete content as a pdf document, you can just get it with one click … it contains the posts from 2008 until 2012-01-27.

Click HERE to download all posts in one pdf [12 MB, 410+ pages DIN A4]

Enjoy!

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”.

In a open job description for an Automation Engineer in Rochester (New York) I just read today (2012-01-28) the following:

Requirements:
MUST HAVE
…
Knowledge of digital projection
Knowledge of IEC 61850
Knowledge of communication protocols- DNP
Know SCADA systems manufacturers and equipment
…

IEC 61850 and protocols are two things!