IEC 61850 - Hands-On Trainings in Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo

Dear expert interested in the standard IEC 61850 for Substations and other Power Automation Systems,

NettedAutomation GmbH (Germany) and STRI (Sweden) are proud to announce possibility for two 3-day Hands-On Training sessions in Buenos Aires (12-14 August 2009) and Sao Paulo (19-21 August 2009).

This training has the objective to provide both theory and practice on the application of IEC 61850 in a substation or a smart grid. We cover the planning, design and engineering process for real applications all the way to configuration and testing based on a real multivendor test installation. The 3 day course consists of:

Module 1 gives a level 1 introduction to the IEC 61850 standard together with a summary with real applications and the demonstration of STRI facilities for multivendor interoperability testing.

Module 2 gives an independent and more detailed update on the IEC 61850 standard for substation and device modelling as well as communication principles with real examples.

Module 3 provides a IEC 61850 hands-on workshop demonstrating interoperability of protection and control devices from ABB and Siemens as well as testing techniques communicating over a substation Ethernet network.

The program will be similar to the Training session scheduled for Frankfurt (Germany) on October 20-23, 2009 - mainly the Modules 1, 2, and 4a (of the Frankfurt event) will be used for the events in Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo:

Program and registration for the Frankfurt event [pdf]

The training is subject to minimum number of some 10 attendees. As we are traveling to South America for other events, we can offer these training sessions for a high discounted price of EURO 930 per person plus tax.

Please let us know by July 13, 2009 if you are interested to attend. Your feedback is essential in order to run the events.

We are confident, that our experience and service would meet all your expectations! You’d get first-hand, very comprehensive, vendor neutral and up-to-date knowledge, experience, and guidance.

Our experience profile can be found here:
http://nettedautomation.com/download/Netted-Schwarz-Profile-en_2009-01-21.pdf

http://www.stri.se/iec61850

We look forward to greeting you at one of our next training events.

If you are interested in a special in-house training for you and your people, please contact us.

Please feel free to forward this email to any colleagues who you think might be interested in one of the events.

Best Regards,

Karlheinz Schwarz
NettedAutomation GmbH
Im Eichbaeumle 108
76139 Karlsruhe
Germany

Phone +49-721-684844
Fax   +49-721-679387
karlheinz.schwarz@nettedautomation.com
http://www.nettedautomation.com

Nicholas Etherden
STRI AB
Box 707
SE-771 80 Ludvika, Sweden

Phone  +46 (0)240 795 02
Mobile +46 (0)70-6179562
Fax    +46 (0)240 807 66
nicholas.etherden@stri.se
http://stri.se

First Substation with IEC 61850 compliant Devices in Australia

According to ABB, the first substation with IEC 61850 conformant Devices (Protection and Control) has been commissioned in Australia in August 2008. "The system formed part of the $10-million turnkey construction of the Juna Downs 220kV substation, and is part of Rio Tinto Pilbara Iron’s extensive power upgrade in the Pilbara region of WA."

Click HERE to read the news report from ABB.

PAC World Magazine digs into Smart Grid

PACWorld magazine discusses some crucial aspects of the Smart Grid in the Spring 2009 issue. SmartGrids are discussed all over and on all levels: from Presidents to kids in the Kindergarten. Kindergarten in Germany are quite advanced in education of Physics and Technology: Click HERE for a presentation which shows some kids in the Kindergarten trained ... even on Substation Automation in my office (on page 21).

Different people have different opinions what Smartgrids mean - it is not just to safe money. SmartGrids require smart Hardware, smart Software and (in the first place) SMART Peopleware! No smart people - no smart grids.

The latest issue of the PAC World magazine discusses several crucial aspects of the protection of smart grids:

Click HERE to get to the list of contents ... that let you access and download the well written papers and other useful information. Enjoy.

IEC 61850-3 compliant Computer for Substations and Power Plants

Moxa has announced the Moxa's DA-681 x86-based embedded computer line, that has just passed IEC 61850-3 power certification. This specially designed IED (embedded system) is intended for any power automation and substation application that require to be compliant with the IEC 61850-3 standard.

The general purpose IED has six Ethernet Ports and many other serial ports! It runs Embedded Linux, WinCE 6.0, or WinXPe.

Click HERE for more details.

Standard IEC 61850-7-420 (DER) now available

A further part of IEC 61850 "Communication networks and systems for power utility automation" has been published:

Part 7-420: Basic communication structure – Distributed energy resources logical nodes

This standard in conjunction with other standards of the series IEC 61850 and IEC 61400-25 provide a comprehensive set of standardized means to engineer, monitor, operate and maintain distributed energy systems.

One of the key issues to understand is the fact that many tools, software and IEDs (like programmable controller, HMI clients, etc.) developed for IEC 61850 can be used for distributed energy applications.

Click HERE for a 12 page preview of the standard including the introduction and table of contents.

You may also re-use the knowledge and experience you obtained by one of our IEC 61850 Training sessions.

Click HERE [pdf] for a list of training modules on IEC 61850 and other Standards.

EPRI Provided Crucial Input to the U.S. Smart Grid Interoperability Roadmap

NIST (U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology) released on June 18, 2009, a report that identifies issues and proposes priorities for developing technical standards and an architecture for a U.S. Smart Grid. The report is out for public review.

The nearly 300-page report, developed and delivered to NIST by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), is now publicly available:

Click HERE to download the Report [pdf, 5,7 MB].

Click HERE for the NIST press release.

A similar report has been written for the German projects "E-Energy" (the report is available in German only!):

Click HERE for more information on the German report.

The report refers to many Standards published by IEC TC 57 (Power System Management) and IEC TC 88 (Wind Power). Even this report is focusing on the U.S. power system, it is applicable for other regions as well. Contributions have come from non-U.S. experts. The IEC standards referenced in the report are TRUE International Standards.

The open review process is quite crucial because the final Roadmap will become a more or less official guideline for the whole power delivery system!

Standards like IEC 61968/70 (CIM), IEC 61850, IEC 62351, IEC 60870-6-TASE2, DNP3, IEC 61588, ... are important parts of the power system and recommended in the report to be included in the Final Roadmap. It could be expected that these standards will need extensions, and new standards may be needed as well.

The standardization work in the years to come requires that all the IEC Standardization groups closely cooperate together and with U.S. and other related standardization groups like IEEE, ISO and others. It could be expected that the resources needed for the global standardization work is at least as high as during the last 10 years.

In addition, there are several crucial regional and national R&D and other Smart Grid related projects going on, just started or planned that have also an influence on the International Standardization. It is highly recommended that the successful cooperation of U.S. activities (UCA 1.0, UCA 2.0) and e.g., the European initiated activities like IEC 61850 and IEC 61400-25 will be continued during the next decade in International Standardization!

The press release states that "NIST will use the EPRI report in drafting the NIST Smart Grid Interoperability Standards Framework. The NIST document will describe a high-level architecture, identify an initial set of key standards, and provide a roadmap for developing new or revised standards needed to realize the Smart Grid. Release 1.0 of the NIST Smart Grid Interoperability Standards Framework is planned to be available in September. 

A third public EPRI-sponsored Smart Grid interoperability-standards workshop will be held in early August to engage standards-development organizations in responding to unaddressed, high-priority needs identified in the draft standards roadmap.

Ultimately, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) determines whether sufficient consensus has been reached to implement final standards and protocols necessary for Smart Grid functionality and interoperability. NIST’s role is to identify and submit to FERC recommendations for the final product."

2nd IEC 61850 Training Session in Moscow (01.-03. September 2009)

The second comprehensive training on IEC 61850 in Moscow (Russia) will be held from 01.-03. September 2009.

Click HERE [pdf in Russian] for the first announcement and contact details for the course on 01.-03. September .

Click HERE for a brief report on the the first event in March 2009 and HERE for the program of the first event (this is tentatively the program for the next event in September 2009).

RWE and Siemens: IEC 61850 for Power Plant MV Power Supply

RWE Power and Siemens Implement IEC 61850 in a huge medium voltage substation in German Power Plant. IEC 61850 is used to integrate the information of the medium voltage substation (for the power supply of all power needs within the Power Plant) into the power plant control system.

"IEC 61850 is a comprehensive standard that defines the communication platform and the specific requirements for the network structure, network components, data models,
interoperability criteria and the engineering process. Proprietary protocols, specialised bus systems and manufacturer specific solutions are a thing of the past. The new standard offers improved possibilities for the standardisation of E-Technology structures and their integration into the whole process, without being tied to one single manufacturer."

Click HERE for a full paper on the project [the abstract is in English and German; the main body is in German].

Click HERE for a information on ABB's application of IEC 61850 in Power Plants.

Advanced Information Exchange for Ontario's Green Energy Act

Ontario’s Green Energy Act asks for more clean, renewable sources of energy, like wind, solar, hydro, biomass and biogas. One of the "back bones" of the future power system is a “Smart Grid” to facilitate and maximize the development of new renewable energy projects.

Click HERE and HERE to read more about the Green Energy Act.

A Smart Grid means: The "advanced information exchange systems and equipment that when utilized together improve the flexibility, security, reliability, efficiency and safety of the integrated power system and distribution systems"

Click HERE for the Bill 150 [pdf, 3 MB].

A new amendment of the 1998 Electricity act requires standards:

§ 53.0.1 "The Lieutenant Governor in Council may make regulations governing the smart grid and its implementation, including regulations,
(a) in respect of the timeframe for the development of the smart grid;
(b) assigning roles and responsibilities for the development, implementation and standardization of the smart grid;
(c) prescribing the standards for communications and any other aspects in respect of the operation of the smart grid."

Distribution Automation or Remote Control?

Distribution Automation is one of the crucial technologies that build the backbone of the "SmartGrid" or "SmarterGrids". The future power delivery system will be based on more Automation at the lower voltage levels than before. Substation Automation is in place for High and Medium Voltage networks - usually Low Voltage networks are not really automated. They are protected by Protection Relays and controlled remotely by RTUs (Remote Terminal Units).

The automation functions for distribution networks is now being added to remote control either as local automation through auto-recloser and self-sectionalizing or via decision support tools. Distributed monitoring and control is the foundation to Distribution Automation - to improve the reliability of the network and to keep the aging infrastructure running. An aged transformer needs special attention to extend his life time, e.g., by preventing over loads and other stress situations.

The basis of automation are sensors that provide precise measurements - mainly of the ac current. There are first IEC 61850 compliant IEDs available that provide measurements and calculated values for LV and MV automation applications.

Click HERE [pdf] for information of Powersense or HERE for measurement units from Camille Bauer. More to come ...

ABB and others push IEC 61850 all over

According to a news letter dated 2009-05-04 "ABB has introduced and exploited the benefits of IEC 61850 for customers in 55 countries and supplied hundreds of systems and thousands of products for new substation installations, as well as retrofit and migration projects. ... ABB played a key role in developing and verifying this global standard, and actually commissioned the world’s first IEC 61850 multi-vendor project in 2004 at the 380 kilovolt (kV) Laufenburg substation in Switzerland – one of the largest and most important substations in Europe."

Click HERE for the ABB news report.

All big vendors like ABB, AREVA, GE, SEL, Siemens, and several others, utilities and several independent consultants have heavily contributed to the standard - and are still contributing!

During today's one-day seminar on IEC 61850 organized by Asia iKnowledge Sdn. Bhd. here in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) it was interesting to see the huge interest of power, gas and oil utilities in the new standard! It was clearly reported and confirmed by key people that attended that the education of "smart" engineers in the new standards is one of the crucial pre-requisite for smarter grids!

Click HERE [pdf, 600 KB] for today's program and the program of the conference tomorrow and Thursday.

DDS NETCOM lädt zu IEC-61850-Informationsveranstaltung nach Volkestwil bei Zürich ein (4. Juni 2009)

Die Normenreihe IEC 61850 "Communication networks and systems for power utility Automation" ist die global anerkannte, einheitliche Integrationslösung für die Automatisierung in der elektrischen Energieversorgung. Sie definiert im Wesentlichen:

• Informationsmodelle (Ströme und Spannungen in Dreiphasen-Systemen, Leistungsschalter, ...)
• Services für den Informations-Austausch (Ereignisübertragung, Archive, Steuern, Echtzeit, ...)
• System-Konfigurationssprache (Konfiguration einer gesamten Anlage)

Mittlerweile wird die Norm in Transport- und Verteilnetzen, in Windenergieanlagen, in Wasserkraftwerken und dezentralen Energieversogungssystemen eingesetzt.
Die durchgängige "Vernetzung" von Produktions- und Energieversorgungsprozessen mit IEC 61850 senkt die Kosten der Automatisierung und hilft, Energie effizient zu nutzen!
Um die wesentlichen Aspekte der Normenreihe und ihre Akzeptanz zu vermitteln, lädt DDS NETCOM für Donnerstag, 4. Juni 2009 um 12:30 Uhr nach Fehraltorf/Volketswil (Schweiz)zur folgenden Info-Veranstaltung ein:

„Norm IEC 61850 im industriellen Umfeld“

Klicken Sie hier für weitere Einzelheiten und das Programm.

MMS Reports with or without Segmentation?

A utility specified for IEC 61850 conformant IEDs, that all the data of FC=SG are referenced in a single dataset, to make the setting group value easily read in one GetDataSetValues service. But once the data objects are too many so that one MMS PDU can't carry the values of all members, is there any method to help transmit the values of all members of such a huge dataset? The MMS standard (ISO 9506) does not have a parameter like "more  follows" or "continue after". Is there a possibility at the level IEC 61850-7-2?

One can use an IEC 61850 report control block, refer to the "big" data set and run the "general interrogation" issued by a client. The reporting model provides segmentation! It is - of course - optional. So the server and the client need to support segmentation.

The IEC 61850 report message has the following parameter:

MoreSegmentsFollow (More report segments with the same sequence number follow).

Power Plant DCS - Incorporating IEC 61650

A nice summary of the development of open Distributed Control Systems (DCS) for Power Plants since the eighties was written by Ralph Porfilio (ABB Power Generation).

One of crucial solutions for Open Systems is IEC 61850:

"DCS controller connectivity is currently under development for integrated IEC-61850. IEC-61850 uses Ethernet as backbone communication and will enable DCS controller integration for medium and high voltage electrical equipment. Used with electrical power distribution and substation equipment, IEC-61850 is being deployed within medium and high voltage drives, switchgear, motor starters, relay protection, generator and transformer protection, excitation and synchronization. DCS integration with IEC-61850 will include control, monitoring, asset monitoring, time stamp and integrated configuration tools to program the Intelligent Electrical Devices. With Profinet and IEC-61850 and an industrial Ethernet, it is expected that the DCS will be able to tightly integrate electrical system packages along  with instrumentation for process control into a common system."

Click HERE for the complete paper.

Additional 50 Million Euro funding for Electro Mobility in Germany

The German Government (Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Technologie BMWI) has decided to fund further R&D activities (2009-2011) with some 50 Million Euro in the domain of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for Electro Mobility.

Five projects out of 36 proposals have been awarded. These five projects are closely related to the funded E-Energy projects.

Click HERE for the official press release (in German).

Click HERE for the "Studie zum Normungsumfeld von E-Energy" (in German)

Australian Government to support communication for Smart Grids

ZDNet Australia reported that "The Federal Government has announced an up to $100 million investment in the 2009 Budget to assist the development of smart grid technology to create a "smarter and more efficient energy network". ... Smart grid technology monitors electricity supply across distribution networks using communications technology."

The Australian "Information and communication technology" research will get also more funding (AUD 185.5 million over four years).

Click HERE for the ZDNet Report.

US DOE supports IEC 61850 for Smart Grids

The US government directly supports the application of IEC 61850 for Smart Grids in the USA. According to a ABB we have a very famous supporter for the standard: DOE Secretary Chu and Commerce Secretary Locke:

"As announced by DOE Secretary Chu and Commerce Secretary Locke on Monday, IEC 61850 will serve as the initial smart grid interoperability standard for substation automation and protection."

Click HERE for the full ABB Press Release.

Click HERE for a Press release of U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu (dated May 18, 2009)

Click HERE for the NIST - Recognized Standards for Inclusion In the Smart Grid Interoperability Standards Framework, Release 1.0

Excerpt of standards from the list:

DNP3
Substation and feeder device automation

IEC 60870-6 / TASE.2
Inter-control center communications

IEC 61850
Substation automation and protection

IEC 61968/61970
Application level energy management system interfaces

IEC 62351 Parts 1-8
Information security for power system control operations

IEC 61850 for condition monitoring diagnosis and analysis

The IEC TC 57 (document: 57/1007/DC) has invited for a new project to extend IEC 61850 and use it for CMD (Condition Monitoring Diagnosis) to diagnose the power grid health status to improve the reliability of the power system by preventing a potential failure in advance. Too many different CMD solutions in various forms from many vendors are currently used - there is need to standardize the basic information models and information exchange within IEC TC57.

It is intended to first write a report that addresses communication aspects related to specific sensor networks that are widely used as well as information exchange towards asset management systems. It is proposed to publish that report as IEC 61850-90-3.

A task force within TC57 WG10 will prepare this report. The proposed project leader is: Mr Hyuk Soo Jang, Department of Computer Software, Myong Ji Univ. Yongin, 449-728 Korea.

The TC57 P-members are invited to submit comments to this proposal and nominate experts willing to participate in that work
by 2009-07-03.

Please contact your TC 57 National Committee to receive a copy of the Invitation (57/1007/DC).

The work will address condition monitoring of equipment handled by the following technical committees of IEC: TC11 (Overhead lines), TC14 (Power Transformers), TC17 (Switchgear), TC20 (Electrical cables) and TC38 (Instrument transformers).
In addition, coordination with the work done in TC88, IEC 61400-25-6 (Condition monitoring for wind power plants) is required.

Proposed Architecture: