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PAC World Conference 2016 –

IEC 61850 A to Z Implementation in a Nutshell

Topics #: 4. Standardization and harmonization of system models 10. IEC 61850, tools, applications and benefits 27. Engineering of protection, automation and control systems

Authors' names: Patrick Ducret, Yannick Thiessoz , Jörg Reuter

Authors' affiliation: Romande Energie SA, Infoteam SA, Helinks LLC

Country: Switzerland

E-mail address: patrick.ducret@romande-energie.ch

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IEC 61850 A to Z Implementation in a Nutshell

Contents

Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 3

1. Motivation ....................................................................................................................................... 3

2. IEC 61850 Data Model and Signal mapping .................................................................................... 4

3. End to End Engineering ................................................................................................................... 6

4. Standardization ............................................................................................................................... 7

5. Process ............................................................................................................................................. 8

6. Tools and Products .......................................................................................................................... 9

7. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 10

8. Outlook .......................................................................................................................................... 11

Figure 1: Aspects of the IEC 61850 adaptation project ........................................................................... 4

Figure 2: Romande Energie Process Signals ............................................................................................ 4

Figure 3 Signal Mapping .......................................................................................................................... 5

Figure 4: End to End Engineering ............................................................................................................ 6

Figure 5: Example of Mapping of Protocols and Network Control Center Data ..................................... 6

Figure 6 Library Element and Content .................................................................................................... 7

Figure 7: Standardization Process and Project Engineering Process ...................................................... 8

Figure 8 Project Engineering Process ...................................................................................................... 9

Figure 9: Tools and Products ................................................................................................................. 10

Figure 10 Illustration of System Configuration Tool.............................................................................. 10

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Abstract Romande Energie SA, DSO in Switzerland, has successfully optimized its engineering process adopting the IEC

61850 top down process. Their solution emphasizes standardization and engineering automation for

System specification

o Single line diagram

o Signal lists

o Address allocation

o HMI and NCC configuration

System Configuration

o Network configuration

o Horizontal/vertical communication configuration (end to end engineering)

Documentation

The purpose of this paper is to show the steps it took to introduce this new way of working, and the resulting

benefits for different project use cases: retrofit, maintenance and extension of existing substations. A concrete

example explains the process from the specification to the implementation and the usage of tools. The paper

will also show the benefits of the standardisation and opportunities for the future.

1. Motivation

Romande Energie Group is the leading electricity distributor in Western Switzerland. It supplies more

than 300,000 end-customers directly in approximately 300 municipalities in the cantons of Vaud,

Valais, Fribourg and Geneva. Its core business lines are the generation, distribution and marketing of

power together with energy services.

Romande Energie recognized in 2008 that intelligent communication and standardized data

modelling as it is provided by IEC 61850 has the potential to decrease wiring, engineering and

maintenance costs by improving at the same time functionality and security of their substations.

Their evaluation of IEC 61850 showed us that the task of adopting IEC 61850 is not an easy one.

Romande Energy identified the key success factors for this endeavor:

IEC 61850 Data Model and Signal mapping: Mastering IEC 61850 and building an IEC 61850 Data

Model for their applications and signals.

End to End Engineering: Extending the technological scope of the project beyond IEC 61850. By

including the signal flow from the primary process up to the Station HMI and Network Control Center

communication, they intended to create a seamless integration of all signal engineering tasks. This is

what Romande Energy calls “End to End Engineering”

Process: The conventional “Electrical Schema Drawing” oriented processes needed to be revised.

This implied changes in the interfaces of departments (Drawing, Protection Control) and put new

requirements on the qualification of the engineering teams. HR related challenges were not to be

underestimated.

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Standardization: Once the process and related data were defined, typical solutions could be

extracted and placed into solution libraries. Using solution libraries was expected to drastically

decrease engineering times and improve the quality of the delivered systems.

Tools: The complexity of the engineering task and the need for standardization could not be

mastered without appropriate tool support. Tool integration needed to happen from the process

level tools up to the HMI configuration tools.

Figure 1: Aspects of the IEC 61850 adaptation project

2. IEC 61850 Data Model and Signal mapping

Romande Energie used to work with signal lists, wiring and protection schemes as well as functional

descriptions, control schemes and IED specifications Figure 2: Romande Energie Process Signals

shows an example of non IEC 61850 signal definitions.

Figure 2: Romande Energie Process Signals

Romande Energie decided to use “IEC 61850 Functional Naming”. This implicated to create an IEC

61850 model of our substations. They had to map and adapt their naming rules and structures to

meet the SCL schema (Substation Section of SCL schema, IEC 61850 Part 6).

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Once the structures in place, they used these structures to create a signal list with unique and IED

independent signal names. Identifying the proper IEC 61850 Data Attributes for existing signals

turned out to be a real challenge. On one side a deep know how of the Logical Nodes and Data

Attribute semantics was needed in order to identify the corresponding IEC 61850 Data Object and

Attribute, on the other side they needed to resolve semantic conflicts between the RE control &

protection philosophy and the semantics of the standard. Overcoming this led us to define a non-

negligible amount of GGIOs.

Things became not easier when it turned out that also among the IED manufacturers and IED

implementations the use of IEC 61850 semantics followed often different principles. Thus they could

not define a device independent RE model and ended up by creating IED specific IEC 61850 signal

mappings. This showed later to be a good decision. Once IED specific IEC61850 mappings were added

to the Templates, configuring the IEC 61850 communication structures (Data Sets and Control Blocks)

was performed by a single mouse click.

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Figure 3 Signal Mapping

The tables in Figure 3 are showing the mapping principle. The left part represents the Romande

Energie Signal as it was used in conventional substations. The middle part shows the IED independent

mapping and the right part gives an example of mapping to a particular IED Type. The type is

identified by String F101 in the IED Name field.

Please observe the differences of the IEC 61850 representation between the middle part and the

right part. The IED independent representation has no IED Name, no Logical Device and no Logical

Node instance number. The IED specific representation uses these values in order to identify a

specific instance inside the IED.

The example is straight forward and simple. As mentioned before, there were manifold mapping

problems to be solved. Digging into these would largely stretch the scope of this paper.

Part of the evaluation activities was a project to prove this concept by implementing an

“interchangeability use case”. Romande Energie showed that it was possible to replace a device of

one manufacturer by a similar device from another. Because all the engineering templates were

using part 1 and 2 of the table above it was just a matter of exchanging part 3 for a new IED, press

the build application button of the IEC 61850 System Tool (see: Tools and Products), upload the new

configuration file and restart the system.

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3. End to End Engineering

IEC 61850 mapping is a crucial element of the SAS engineering process, but it is not everything.

Configuring the communication gateway, defining the IEC104 or 101 communication addresses and

engineering the HMI are also important elements. Romande Energies vision was to include all these

steps in the process and cover them with a set of well integrated tools. This approach is called “End

to End Engineering”.

Figure 4: End to End Engineering

The modelling work was extended to include all aspects of a signal needed to realize the End to End

Engineering. Figure 5 shows how the 104 protocol is included as well as data for the Network Control

Center.

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Figure 5: Example of Mapping of Protocols and Network Control Center Data

Similar mappings exist for the Station HMI. In this paper we are showing the conceptual mapping

using Excel. Substation engineers all over the world are using similar lists for similar engineering

tasks. The difference however is, that we designed the lists very strictly following the IEC 61850 data

model and prepared them in a way that appropriate tools can import these lists and automate the

engineering work.

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4. Standardization

Standardization requires the definition of reusable elements from the model. These reusable

elements can be used as building blocks for projects. It is important to find the right granularity for

the building blocks.

Romande Energie decided to define Function Types and Bay Types. Figure 3 Signal Mapping shows

the set of signals for a typical Disconnector Function.

Figure 6 Library Element and Content

The System Configuration Tool is used to draw the Single Line. The disconnector Q9 in the Single Line

is associated with the library element “Disconnector Function”. (Figure 1) The library element

Disconnector Function contains all the information for the End to End Engineering. The System

Configuration Tool creates and exports with a high degree of automation consistently all

configuration files needed for the project.

The Romande Energie Signal Identification and the Wiring Information is used for documentation

purposes. The Romande Energie Signal Identification also serves as unique identifier for a signal.

The IEC 61850 Mapping information, together with ICD or IID files is used to create the IEC 61850

SCD file including Data Sets and Control Blocks for Client Server and GOOSE communication.

The 104 addresses, routing information and texts are used to create the Gateway configuration files

and finally the NCC related information supports the Network control system setup.

The Function Types are used to assemble the next higher library element, which is the Bay Type.

Typical Bay Types are Feeder -, Transformer -, and Bus Coupler bays. By instantiating a Bay Type the

complete End to End Engineering information can be instantiated. Powerful deep copy operations in

the System Configuration Tool give another boost to engineering efficiency.

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5. Process

We cannot afford inventing the wheel multiple times. That is why Romande Energie continuously

performs the concept and standard development work independently of the ongoing substation

automation projects. (Standard Design). After the initial effort of developing the End to End

templates they are now in the maintenance phase for the engineering standards. This includes two

major activities:

1. Incorporate feedback from projects into the End to End Library

2. Performing IED qualifications to adapt to new products on the market.

Figure 7: Standardization Process and Project Engineering Process

Basically the project engineering process for a new SAS system needs 3 inputs:

Single Line Diagram

End to End Templates

ICD, IID or even SCD files

The Single Line Diagram defines the IEC 61850 structure of the system. These structures are used to allocate

functions and to create hierarchical names for all elements of the projects. (IEDs, signals, variable replacement

for HMI texts…).

The elements of the End to End Templates are applied based on the structure of the Single Line. The IEDs are

brought into the project based on prequalified ICD files. Depending on the IED Type also entire SCD files are

added to the project. In this case the SCD file contains the IED instances, but no communication configuration.

Using the information from the templates the SCD tool now creates the configuration files for the different

devices. Outputs of this process step are:

An SCD file with the IEC 61850 communication configuration. This SCD file is then loaded into the

vendor tools (ICT) in order to setup the IEDs compliant to the system configuration.

A configuration file for the Gateway and HMI configuration tool.

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A Signal list for as build documentation

Figure 8 Project Engineering Process

6. Tools and Products

The concept of End to End Engineering requires a seamless integration of tools and products.

Romande Energy is a member of a consortium of utilities which have developed and currently own

the StreamX platform. StreamX is a modular set of products and tools with the following

components:

Multi-protocol, IT security hardened IEC 61850 software gateway (StreamBridge)

SCADA System specific for power applications (StreamView, StreamBrain)

Centralized data management and integrated engineering tools for all components except

IEDs (StreamTools)

Integrated IEC 61850 System Configuration Tool (StreamDesign).

StreamX has been developed and is maintained by Infoteam SA (Switzerland). IEC 61850 provides a

very important contribution with the System Configuration Language (SCL) which allows the

exchange of (engineering) data between tools and devices from different vendors. By including a

third party IEC 61850 System Configuration Tool StreamX allows a seamless integration of IEC 61850

with the gateway and HMI engineering. The third party System Configuration tool is provided by

HELINKS LLC. (Switzerland).

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Figure 9: Tools and Products

Figure 10 illustrates the work with the System Configuration Tool. In the center we see the Single

Line of a bay template. It is used to create the substation and add the End to End Data to the system.

The lower part shows the IEC 61850 Network and IEDs and the right part indicates the export files. All

related engineering data and files are centrally stored and submitted to version control.

Figure 10 Illustration of System Configuration Tool

7. Conclusion

Tools and processes as described are currently used by Romande Energie. They have realized the

expected cost reduction for new substations based on reduced wiring costs and improved

engineering processes. Key factors for the increased engineering efficiency are:

The use of standardized End to End Engineering Templates.

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Seamless tool integration

Usage of the End to End Templates guaranties a harmonized design. Similar substations result in

similar automation solutions. The central data management and central versioning ensure availability

and correctness of the engineering data. These are key factors to efficient maintenance and easy

extensibility of the substation automation systems.

However, there are open points remaining which still represent challenges:

A better integration of HW design, network design and IED wiring.

IED – Software life cycle management. Load and update status of IED configurations and

firmware. Release management for IED Tools.

Integration of test activities (test planning, test execution, test documentation)

8. Outlook

Intended future activities are:

Improvement of the IED qualification process in terms of acceptance criteria and qualification

test procedures.

Including IEC 61850 ED2 in the End to End Engineering Templates.

Definition of new test procedures for projects and implementing them in the test processes.