Progress in publishing IEC 61850-90-2 Substation to Control Center Communication

The IEC TC 57 WG 19 is working on the final draft Technical Report for the communication between Control Centers and underlying systems like Substations, Power Plants, and other applications:

IEC Draft TR 61850-90-2:

COMMUNICATION NETWORK AND SYSTEM FOR POWER UTILITY AUTOMATION –
Part 90-2: USING IEC 61850 FOR THE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN SUBSTATIONS AND CONTROL CENTRES

Big utilities are waiting for the publication of this part. They are looking for a seamless communication at various levels.

This technical report provides a comprehensive overview of the different aspects that need to be considered while using IEC 61850 for information exchange between substations and control or maintenance centres or other system level applications. In particular, this technical report:

• Defines use cases and communication requirements that require an information exchange between substations and control or maintenance centres
• Describes the usage of the configuration language of IEC 61850‑6
• Gives guidelines for the selection of communication services and architectures compatible with IEC 61850
• Describes the engineering workflow
• Describes the links regarding the Specific Communication Service Mapping (SCSM)

The utility industry is waiting for the final version. Today, an expert of a big utility stated the following: “From my view, having the alternative to IEC 60870-5-104 and IEC 61850-90-2 for the communication between the substation and the control center my recommendation will be in favour of the 90-2 which allows you to use all 61850 services available comparing with 104 which is more restricted.”

I fully agree with that statement.

By the way, an easy to implement com.tom WEB-PLC based gateway from IEC 61850 (for the down-ling from a gateway) to IEC 61850 (for the up-link to a control center) will be shown during the Hannover Messe next week (07-11 April, hall 13 booth C35/7):

The gateway/proxy server provides all crucial features of IEC 61850.

I look forward to showing you the gateway – meet you there.