The General Observations
We asked our author Igor Mets to share the most interesting moments of the event.
Firts of all, IEC61850 standard package is growing and becoming more efficient.
- Specification and implementation of own IEC 61850 profile for exact needs of utility are being done (actually ENTSO-E is monitoring and active on EU TSO unified profile for IEC 61850 since 2012).
- More IEC 61850 projects under realization are based on specified requirements for IEC 61850.
- Simulation and modelling are more actively used.
- Benefits from implementation are clearly visible, but they need to be well defined by e.g. tender requirements.
- IEC 61850 is also covering other areas such as street lights, energy storage, revenue metering, STATCOM, FSC, SVC, etc. So, it is applicable to smart grids and micro grids as well.
- SCL is suitable for describing almost everything, but the redundancy of LAN.
The Presentations of the First Day
You can download a presentation (pdf) by clicking its title.
- Determining utility requirements of multi-vendor multi-edition IEC 61850 systems in transmission and distribution environments.
- Evaluating the suitability of Edition 2 products on the market and how well they are meeting utility requirements.
- Effectively working with suppliers to ensure long term availability and support for Edition 2 products.
- Optimising the engineering and testing procedures to ensure the robust set up of new, refurbished and expanded IEC 61850 infrastructures
- Fine tuning the operations and maintenance of multi-vendor multi-edition systems.
- Implementing effective cyber-security strategies and solutions for next generation IEC 61850 systems within the substation and beyond
- Enforcing a high-impact training programme to rapidly upskill existing and new maintenance staff.
* * *
- Updating on the Edition 2 implementation landscape and understanding how utilities and suppliers are working together to drive the deployment of next generation systems Evaluating the latest working group developments with:
- Engineering process;
- HMI configuration;
- Modbus mapping;
- IED Redundancy;
- Alarm handling;
- Logic modelling.
- Reviewing progress being made with cyber-security and NERC-CIP; to what extent can this be leveraged in Europe?
- Reviewing global implementations of IEC 61850 and identifying lessons for European utilities.
* * *
- Examining how work on the ENTSO-E profile is progressing and the implications for end-users and suppliers of IEC 61850 systems.
- Determining how the protection function is being more fully addressed.
- Evaluating the latest developments in the engineering process, IED modelling, and deploying IEC 61850 cross the wider smart grid.
* * *
- Identifying the most critical design criteria for next generation transmission and distribution substations.
- Creating a high functionality, low complexity, future proofed design concept that replicates with ease in the drive for speedy deployment.
- Working around multi-vendor multi-edition constraints for new, refurbished, and expanded substations.
- Building in cyber-security at the outset and ensuring effective upgrading as systems are expanded.
- Developing a design that ensures ease of engineering, testing, operations and maintenance.
- Leveraging 3rd party tools to maximise design effectiveness.
* * *
- Identifying current blocks to effective specification writing for large and small utilities, in single and multiple territories.
- Developing a specification framework that provides the right level of utility detail and direction whilst allowing room for supplier expertise to be leveraged.
- Specification in top down versus bottom up engineering.
- Specifying the right level of system functionality for multi-vendor, multi-edition systems.
- Effectively specifying cyber-security, redundancy and interlocking requirements and ensuring its long-term effectiveness.
* * *
- Determining the challenges impeding the effective engineering of multi-vendor, multi-edition systems within the substation, inter-substation, and to the control room.
- Comparing the specific engineering requirements of offshore wind farms.
- Understanding the pros and cons of a top-down engineering process compared with a bottom-up approach and identifying the optimal ways to leverage these.
- Managing special requirements such as GOOSE application and operational tripping schemes.
- Evaluating how the latest standardisation activity is boosting engineering process effectiveness.
- Reducing the time and cost of engineering complex multi-vendor, multi-edition systems.
- Ensuring the seamless integration of the engineering process with the operations and maintenance procedures.
- Leveraging the latest 3rd party tools on the market to optimise the engineering of multi-vendor, multi-edition systems.
* * *
- Overcoming the challenges of achieving convergence of IEC 61850 systems with legacy control systems.
- Establishing a framework to support seamless interoperability of IEC 61850 devices from multiple vendors.
- Creating a standardised configuration tool to support:
- Transformation of old databases into new IEC 61850 one;
- Incorporating field force feedback into system development;
- Robust back up of primary substation configuration.
- Establishing a road map for the long-term development of the configuration tool to support multi-edition IEC 61850 systems.
* * *
- Examining the increased complexity of multi-vendor multi-edition systems and their implication for the configuration and documentation process.
- Determining the optimal application of unified configuration and documentation tools.
- Utilising state-of-the-art configuration and documentation tools to speed up the implementation process.
- Assessing how standardisation can further support the engineering and documentation processes to ensure seamless operation and maintenance.
- Describing how configuration management is a natural extension of remote engineering access and password management.
- Integrating legacy device configurations with IEC 61850 SCL.
- Enhancing substation device situational awareness and configuration management with device active monitoring.
* * *
- Determining the operations and maintenance challenges associated with multi-vendor multi-edition IEC 61850 systems.
- Ensuring effective fault location, isolation and restoration in increasingly complex systems.
- Making the business case for migrating from scheduled maintenance to condition based and predictive maintenance of IEC 61850 systems.
- Up-skilling maintenance staff to effectively handle multi-vendor multi-edition systems.
- Ensuring that cyber-security is effectively factored into maintenance procedures.
* * *
Device Management — enabling remote patch, update and configuration management of IEC 61850 systems.
- Determining the drivers for remote device management of IEC 61850 systems as the number of devices increases in line with EV deployment and low voltage monitoring.
- Leveraging device management to ensure effective:
- Configuration of operational data for grid topology, protection and PLC parameters;
- Software management of automation equipment.
- Supervising the smooth running of the system.
- Maintaining the system through predictive analysis and maintenance actions.
- Asset management and maintenance.
- Understanding how standardisation is developing to support the effective multi-vendor device management.
* * *
- Examining the drivers for extending IEC 61850 to the control centre and determining the cost and technical performance benefits:
- The need of gateways;
- Configuration;
- Increasing amount of data;
- Saving data semantics.
- Comparing the suitability of IEC 61850 for the control centre environment with other protocols such as IEC 60870-5-104.
- Evaluating the implications of IEC 61850 for existing SCADA infrastructure and how these would need to be adapted to fully support IEC 61850.
- Determining the optimal implementation of IPv6 to support substation to control room communication.
* * *
- Evaluating the latest progress with GOOSE Messaging for time-critical communication in complex multi-vendor multi-edition systems.
- Multi-vendor end-to-end test environment: client — server and GOOSE communication.
- Effectively configuring, documenting and testing GOOSE Messages.
- Overcoming the challenges of ensuring GOOSE Messaging effectiveness during maintenance.
* * *
Microgrids — applying IEC 61850 in the control of street lights and microgrids.
The Presentations of the Second Day
The process bus needs a definition. For example, during a panel the group with leader Alex Apostolov set up the extended definition for process bus which is “the combination of all interfaces between the process and the SPACS communicating data and information that can be shared between the PIU and the SPACS functions”.
There were discussions of different issues about MU functionality, the simultaneous publishing of many SV streams, the embedded MU, the DSO and TSO relations, as well as the standard IEC 61869-9, sampling rate (frames/sec) that is dependent on different grid frequencies in different countries, the centralized relay protection, the virtual MU, the redundancy of MMXU in case of one MU malfunction, the saving of space, the monitoring and testing, etc.
* * *
- Examining the business benefits and drivers for adopting the process bus.
- Optimising the design and architecture to ensure long term viability.
- Evaluating experiences with the implementation of the process bus in new and refurbished HV substations and the implications for MV substations.
- Overcoming the technical challenges when implementing the process bus:
- Reliability;
- Time synchronisation between devices;
- Cyber-security;
- Measurement accuracy.
- Establishing testing procedures to support process bus implementation.
The Vendor-Independent Testing Tools Panel
Keynotes of the panel:- Benchmarking the performance of the top 3rd party tools for the design, engineering, testing and operation of multi-vendor, multi-edition IEC 61850 systems.
- Identifying existing glitches in tool performance and determining how these can be overcome in practice.
- Evaluating how standardisation activity is guiding the development of higher performance next generation vendor-independent tools.
- Leveraging tools that effectively manage the end-to-end design, installation, operation and maintenance procedures.
The Cyber-Security Panel
Keynotes of the panel:- Establishing the key points of vulnerability in IEC 61850 enabled substations and associated infrastructures.
- Understanding how Edition 2 more comprehensively protects substation assets.
- Determining the risks and solutions associated with IP/Ethernet communications infrastructure.
- Evaluating the impact of cyber-security on engineering tools and procedures.
- Striking the balance between security and functionality in the large-scale deployment of IEC 61850 enabled substations.
Operations Representatives’ Presentations
- Identifying the challenges associated with upskilling existing substation maintenance staff.
- Establishing a framework for the in-depth yet speedy transfer of IEC 61850 to maintenance staff.
- Leveraging impactful external training programmes and re-enforcing with ongoing internal training.
- Simplifying the IEC 61850 standard to ensure ease of understanding for maintenance staff.
- Enabling advanced and autonomous problem solving by maintenance staff.
- Performance managing to ensure ongoing maintenance efficiency and safety.
* * *
- Evaluating lessons learnt from a practical implementation of time synchronisation in an IEC 61850 system.
- Understanding the Precision Time Protocol (PTP) standard and its nuances.
- Examining the IEC 61850 system vulnerabilities created by dependency on time synchronisation.
- Understanding the time synchronisation challenges of mixing old and new devices in IEC 61850 enabled substations.
- Determining the most functional and cost-effective way of driving time synchronisation in next generation IEC 61850 enabled systems.
- Overcoming the maintenance challenges for advanced time synchronisation.
- The overview of largest brown filed IEC 61850 project in US.
- The redundancy concept is implemented, but without process bus.
* * *
- Examining the pitfalls of Factory Acceptance Tests for completely new IEC 61850 systems and understanding how these are being addressed.
- Compensating for limited information on network setup, design, administration and implementation.
- Identifying and prioritising the most effectives tests to include in an FAT to ensure a technically robust and cost-effective implementation and operation.
* * *
Priyanka Mohapatra didn’t manage to visit the event, but she transferred her presentation to the conference team.
- Clarifying the similarities and differences between PRP & HSR and determining their optimal implementation into a variety of network topologies.
- Quantifying the benefits of implementing PRP & HSR and identifying their introduction into multi-vendor multi-edition systems.
- Overcoming the challenges of maintaining a PRP & HSR enabled system in the long term.
The DER Panel
Keynotes of the panel:- Identifying the challenges associated with integrating large volumes of DER into the power system.
- Determining how IEC 61850 can ease full integration of a variety of DER and ensure cost-efficiency for all parties.
- Lessons learnt from DER integration using IEC 61850 for communication with DSOs, TSOs and European level aggregators with Virtual Power Plants.
- Evaluating IEC 61850 and IEC 61400-25 industrial applications for DER integrations.
