IEEE P2030.100 DRAFT

Description / Abstract: This recommended practice outlines the necessary steps and procedures implementers of IEC 61850 in substations should undertake in a multi-vendor equipment environment.

It is not the intent of this recommended practice to change the IEC 61850 standard, but treats the standard as providing a set of tools engineers and integrators could use in substation protection, automation and control systems.

IEC 61850 Changes and Additions

The IEC 61850 standard is a constantly evolving standard with plans to update existing parts with new editions and create additional parts to the standard. At the time of this publication the IEC 61850 documents listed in the bibliography were considered. [B1]

Purpose

IEC 61850 has been promoted as an interoperability standard, but to date, interoperability among vendors has been achieved only at a communications level. When actually implementing the various substation functions, the user could be forced to change methods between vendors due to the flexibility and options provided for in IEC 61850. Additionally, IEC 61850 requires significant changes to the design, construction and commissioning of a substation. Hard-wired signals are replaced by logical bits being communicated over Ethernet networks, documentation and naming conventions are distinctly different from existing substation practice, and device functionality could be assigned and even migrate in an operational environment. Users will also require a methodology to integrate IEC 61850 and non-IEC 61850 operational practices in their system as both approaches will have to exist side by side for many years. This recommended practice will provide a starting point for those users who would like to migrate to an IEC 61850 substation approach and establish baseline functionality to which vendors could adhere with confidence of achieving interoperability with other vendors.

This guide is not intended to replace or change the IEC 61850 standard; users who implement IEC 61850 should reference the standard’s sections that apply to their implementation. This guide will help users understand the sections that most effect the end users of IEC 61850 equipment and software, and gives users additional insight into other areas to consider outside of the scope of the IEC 61850 standard.

This recommended practice is a starting point for a series of additional recommended practices to provide implementation details in many specific functional areas of IEC 61850. Each additional subject matter will be given an extension off the existing standard number for this guide, P2030.100.1, .2 … 10 … etc.. This recommended practice provides a general overview of the concepts and tools provided within IEC 61850 with some general considerations the user should be aware of prior to, during and after an IEC 61850 implementation.

The following are examples of specific functional areas that would be good future extensions to this recommended practice.