Future Trends of Substation Automation System by Applying IEC 61850

M.Vadiati, M. Abbas Ghorbani Niroo Research Institute (NRI)* mvadiati@nri.ac.ir A. R. Ebrahimi, M. Arshia Tehran Regional Electric Company (TREC) a-ebrahimi@trec.co.ir necessary. For the first time in 2002, IEC committee tried to collect and edit a comprehensive standard for substation automation system according to above requirements. This goal accomplished in 2006. In this paper, substation automation system components performance has been studied based on IEC61850. and functionality improvement of SAS has been compared to conventional SAS. II.
IEC 61850 FEAUTURE AND SPECIFICATION

Abstract- Substation automation systems (SAS) consist of intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) and the communication networks between them, for implementing control, protection and monitoring tasks in power system. Rectitude of this system depends on integrity and interoperability of its components, especially in the case of applying various IEDs from different manufacturer of substation automation system and it is possible by flexible and common protocol in various manufacturers IEDs. For this purpose and in order to interoperability between different manufacturers IEDs, international standard IEC 61850 has been prepared. In this paper the advantages and effects of applying IEC 61850 on SAS performance have been studied and the future modern SAS have been compared to conventional substation automation system. Key words: Substation automation system (SAS), IEC 61850, Intelligent Electronic Device(IED), Control and Protection

I.

INTRODUCTION

In Substation Automation System (SAS), the accurate functionality of system depends on integrity and interoperability of IEDs from different manufacturers. In management arguments, cooperation means to get better results from a team work in comparison with separate individuals. In other words, team efficiency is more than single and separate performances. At high voltage substations, team works flourish when cooperation of control and automation devices from various manufacturers seems to be necessary. But, the equipment that communicate with various protocols and inaccessibility of common protocol avoid coordination. Since introduction of substation automation systems up to recent years, each manufacturer uses his own protocol such as LON, Profibus, EFIP and etc. However, IEC 60870-5-103 is provided to communicate among digital protection devices regardless their manufacturers based on master-slave model. But, accessibility of this standard limited due to advancement of control and protection devices as well as data increment and traffic. Therefore, to achieve high speed data transfer rate, reduce traffic and facilitate communication among various manufacturers IEDs, a flexible-adaptable standard protocol for substations protection, control and monitoring seems to be

IEC61850 provides cooperation among various control and protection equipment. Main features of IEC 61850 are as follows: Interoperability by various manufacturers IEDs as an integrated system High data transfer among IEDs considering peer to peer communication model instead of master-slave communication model in recent protocols. Data definition based on advanced object-oriented model which contains whole data specifications instead of single-oriented model with each data definition by numeric addresses. Supporting functionality of devices to provide better communication. Communication extend ability and data integrity Providing integrated communication system. Providing robust management of substation automation system. III.
VERTICAL COMMUNICATION BASED ON IEC 61850

The SCADA application of the network is performed by a local or remote operator. The data communication for the SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) application, which is related to human operation, is directed vertically, i.e. from a higher hierarchical control level down to a lower one for commands of any kind from the operators place or reverse for binary indications like breakers or isolators position, measurands from instrument transformers and other sensors, events, alarms. This vertical communication between bay level and station level, is implemented based on client-server model. IEDs in

* This research has been supported by Tehran regional electric company (TREC) Deputy managing director for development and project"

the bay level act as servers which send data to station or remote control center. Data are sent due to client request or automatically to the high level by server. Client is usually an operator work station that can send control command to servers for operation of switch gears. In a client-server communication, client control data exchange and clientserver communication is very flexible due to data exchanging. Client-server model can allow the implementation of multiple clients comparing a mater-slave model. Client-server communication is based on seven layer stack, therefore it is very reliable, but transfer rate is very slow. Thus, clientserver communication is not suited for critical times transfer those require fast transmission rate. However, they are suitable for 1 second response time. IV.
HORIZENTAL COMMUNICATION BASED ON IEC 61850

V.

PROCESS CONNECTION BASED ON IEC 61850

Substation automation system must connect to process for data exchange between SAS and high voltage equipments. These data are as follows: Current and voltage waveforms Switchgear status Control commands Data exchange may be performed by copper wiring or serial communication network. According to IEC 61850, for voltage and current waveforms exchange, a service is defined for sampled value transmission. All other data exchanges are using either client-server model for non-critical times transfer data (e.g. SCADA application) or GOOSE message for critical times transfer data such as sending trip signal from protection relays to circuit breaker. VI.
SAS CONFIGURATION BASED ON IEC 61850

Data transmission shall be very fast for several automated functions, which are located within the same bay or in different bays. There are some examples as follows: data transferring between line protection and autorecloser data interchange within bays for breaker failure data transferring between bays for interlocking These functions are independent of human operation and must be very fast (i.e. mS) due to their security level. For this data type, client-server model is very slow due to several perfect layers application. If functions information is located in different IEDs, copper wiring with auxiliary relays and contacts or serial network must be used for fast transferring. The data exchange is performed by horizontal communication network between IEDs. For the exchange of this data type, IEDs are connected as a serial network and based on peer to peer communication model using GOOSE (Generic Object Oriented Substation Event) message with high speed communication. The GOOSE message is sent as a multicast message over the communication network as is shown in Fig 1.

IEC 61850 not only specifies the method of the data transfer, but also defines as well the process data of the servers. For this purpose, IEC 61850 uses object-oriented method and logical node (LN) as core objects. A logical node is a functional grouping of data and represents the smallest function, which may be implemented independently in devices. For example, XCBR contains all data of circuit breaker and PTOC contains all data of timed over current protection. Each logical node contains data and all the data include attributes. VII. SUBSTATION CONFIGURATION LANGUAGE BASED ON
IEC 61850

Fig. 1: IEDs Communication based on GOOSE messages

Substation Configuration description Language must be according to IEC 61850 to configure IED equipments in substations. This language describes data model and communication service based on IEC 61580-7-X. According to specification of this language based on IEC 61850-6, the task is coordinating between different and exchanging between SCL files. SCL files are used to exchange data between different equipments from different manufacturers. SCL files are classified considering their tasks as follows: IED Capability Description (ICD): this file defines data exchange from IED configuration tool to the system configuration tool. This file describes general capabilities of IED and must have IED description component. Moreover, this file should include required data to describe logical node and is required for general system configuration that should be presented by manufacturer. System Specification Description (SSD): this file defines data exchange from a system specification tool to the system configuration tool and describes substation single diagram and the required logical nodes. This file should have substation description part and required data types and logical nodes descriptions. Function assignment is determined by

this file. This file replaced with old signal list and signal list data are placed in logical nodes data. Substation Configuration Description (SCD): this file defines data exchange from system configuration tool to IED configuration tools and contains all IEDs, a communication configuration section and a substation description section. Each system configuration tool requires ICD and SSD files for all system equipments. The outputs of these tools are SCD files that shall be kept as project documentation for future maintenance and modifications. Configured IED Description (CID): this file defines data exchange from the IED configuration tool to the IED. The communication section contains the current address of the IED. The substation section related to this IED may be present and then shall have name values assigned according to the project specific names. It is an SCD file, possibly stripped down to what the concerned IED shall know. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CONVENTIONAL AND
FUTURE SAS STRUCTURE

Fig 2: Typical structure of conventional SAS

VIII.

IEC 61850-8-1

A. Conventional SAS structure A typical conventional SAS structure is shown in Fig. 2 includes as follows: Intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) for all functions Parallel hardwired connection between IEDs and primary equipment Serial communication of the IEDs to the station unit and station HMI with proprietary protocols for control (e.g. LON, SPA, Profibus, etc.), DNP 3 (mainly USA), IEC 60870-5-103 or other protocols for protection equipment. Serial communication between gateway to network control centre (NCC) IEDs include protection units, control units, combined protection and control units. Functions are typically allocated to bay level equipment for protection, bay control, disturbance recording, general data acquisition, and time synchronization. Functions are typically allocated to station level equipment for communication to remote NCC and bay equipment, station level HMI, event and alarm handling, monitoring, data evaluation and archiving, and status supervision. B. Future SAS structure The typical structure of future substation automation system based on IEC 61850 is shown in Fig. 3 and includes the followings: Intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) for all functions Serial communication between IEDs and the primary equipment by sensors and actuators based on IEC 61850-9-1 and IEC 61850-9-2 protocols.

IEC 61850-9-1 and 9-2

Fig 3: Typical structure of future modern SAS

Serial communication between IEDs and the station unit and station HMI based on IEC 61850-8-1 protocol Serial communication between gateway and the network control centre (NCC) Functions are allocated to bay level and station level equipment. Bay level equipment includes: Protection Control Disturbance recorders Data acquisition in general Station level equipment includes: Communication to remote NCC Communication to feeder level Station level HMI Event and alarm handling Monitoring Data evaluation and archiving Status supervision Time synchronization

IX. FUNCTIONAL COMPARISON BETWEEN CONVENTIONAL

AND FUTURE SAS

TABLE I
FUNCTIONAL COMPARISON BETWEEN CONVENTIONAL AND FUTURE SAS

In this research different technologies of SAS in the past and improved performance of SAS by applying IEC 61850 have been studied. This part shows an overview of conventional functionality and the expected functionality in the future with the IEC 61850 bus as specified in Table I where there is : A: Conventional SAS B: Future SAS -: Function not fulfilled (x): Function fulfilled with limitations / manufacturers specific solutions x: Function fulfilled X. CONCLUSION Standard IEC 61850, which all automation manufacturers are forced to perform its rules, enables substation automation system designers to reduce design duration time and errors. If a company desires to work with SAS system to cooperate with various manufacturers IEDs, interoperability of equipment and functions as well as integration is expected. IEC61850 provides these requirements and improves the quality of engineering tools, measured values and management construction. IEC61850 is proper for all the local communications and presents comprehensive method for substation protection and automation by serial communication, Although, this is not guaranteeing the same qualities of the systems. However, commissioning procedure and function quality are chosen freely by the manufacturers. ACKNOWLEDGMENT M. Vadiati thanks to Mr. Farzalizadeh, Mr. Shariati and Mr. Rassaie for their great support and useful comments. REFERENCES
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] K.P.Brand, M.Janssen The specification of IEC 61850 based Substation Automation Systems, Paper presented at the DistribuTECH 2005, San Diego, January 25-27. CIGRE SC B5, WG11, The introduction of IEC 61850 and its impact on protection and automation within substations, work started in 2003, report to be scheduled for 2005/2006 Gwan-Su Kim, Hong-Hee Lee, A Study on IEC 61850 Based Communication for Intelligent Electronic Devices, Informational Technologies IEEE 2005. IEC 61850, "Communication networks and systems in substations" all parts,www.iec.ch, 2002-2005.. F. Crispino, C. A, Villacorta C., P0. R. P. Oliveha, J. A. Jardini,L. C. Magrini, An Experiment Using an Object-Oriented Standard - IEC 61 850 to integrate IEDs Systems in Substations, 2004 IEEWPES Transmission & Distribution Conference II Exposition Latin America. Mesmaeker, I.; Brand, K.; Brunner, Ch, How to use IEC 61850 in protection and automation, Electra, No.222, October 2005. I van De mesmaeker, P.rietmann.k. Brand, P.Reinhardt, Practical consideration in applying IEC 61850 for protection and substation automation systems, GCC power 2005 conference & Exhibition, November 2005.

Function

Functionality Fundamental protection functions Upload disturbance record files from protection units Interoperability control and protection units Enhanced interoperability between protection units Remote configuration Basic control functions Enhanced control functions Station level control functions

A x x x

B x x x

Comment

Protection

For example, multicast state change essages so that all devices know the status of the other devices.

x x x x x x x Permits multivendor interoperability , and allows distributed functionality. Future trend Metering is a completely separate system. x Permits use of single instrument transformer.

Control

Interoperability between control and protection units Interoperability of control units Interchangeability of station units Integration of metering data equipment and data into SAS for billing purposes Connect kWh meter to non- conventional sensors

(x)

Metering

Monitoring protection and control equipment Monitoring switchgear equipment

Basic monitoring functions Enhanced monitoring functions Monitoring of equipment Provide meaningful information of secondary equipment Automatic disturbance record upload and analysis Automatically generate maintenance alarms Automatic switching programs Automatic power restoration programs Integration of nonconventional sensors (e.g., CT, VT) Integration of nonconventional actuators (e.g., for breakers, isolators)

x (x) (x)

x x x

(x)

Analysis and Diagnostics

(x) (x) (x) (x) (x)

x x x x x

[6] [7]

Support for maintenance, operation, and restoration

(x)