Friday, June 1, 2012

IEC 61850 Goes Power Distribution – Grid4EU Project

The electrical power distribution is faced a lot of challenges all over in the years to come: renewable power, virtual power plants, energy storage, aging infrastructure, aging workforce, security, …

How to get prepared for the future power transmission and distribution system? There are many answers. One is to work in teams. The  European Commission funds projects for major smart grid demonstrations integrating production from renewable energy and management mechanisms active demand management (Smart Grid). The project Grid4EU received a favorable agreement of the European Commission. 27 companies and organizations started the project on 1st of November 2011.

The budget for the project is 54 Million Euro, it will run until end of 2015:

  • 6 DSOs (cover more than 50% of the metered electricity customers in Europe)
  • 27 partners (Utilities, Energy Suppliers, Manufacturers, Research Institutes)

Website of the Grid4EU project.

Statement from the project leader ERDF.

According to several information I received, IEC 61850 is playing a crucial role when it comes to information models and information exchange in medium and low voltage applications. There is a need for the project partners to be trained in order to get a reasonable level of knowledge on how to implement and use IEC 61850. It is highly recommended to have the training at the beginning – and not when people figure out after years that they have missed to use the standards in the way they were intended.

More to come … stay tuned.

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