Friday, October 22, 2010

IEC 61850-6 SCL (System Configuration Language) in Operation

One of the most crucial aspects of IEC 61850 is defined in part 6 "Configuration description language for communication in electrical substations related to IEDs". The abbreviation is SCL; SCL stands for "System Configuration Language". One example of a system is a Substation. But it could be any automation system. IEC did not support the request to change "Substation" in the title to "System".

An increasing number of vendors is understanding the impact of SCL on the configuration of a single IED (Intelligent Electronic Device) but also of a whole system. In my training courses I usually say that SCL represents 51 per cent of the importance of the standard ;-)

Invensys uses a SCL tool to configure their SCADA system.

Click HERE to read a brief description what SCL does for their SCADA system.

2 comments:

Paulino Aguayo R. said...

I still have the doubt: The true IEC name of 61850-6 is System Configuration Language or Substation Configuration Language. This is very important for me, as we are demanding IEC-61850 compliance for our new control system. I want to know which is the correct way to write the name of the configuration language

Karlheinz Schwarz said...

Dear Pauli,

Thanks for the question.

The title of Part 6 Edition 2 is:
Configuration description language for communication in electrical substations related to IEDs

The abbreviation of SCL in Editon 2is:
System Configuration description Language

We were not allowed to change the title - so we just modified the abbreviation. SCL is really a system configuration language: for substations and many other applications.

An IED that contains a Temperature value and its supervision is applicable in any system - in substations, buildings, factories, ...

Best regards, Karlheinz