Looking at IEC 61850, Part 5: The Investment

Skyrocketing demand, burgeoning inverter-based renewable integrations, ceaseless cyberattacks, and a strained infrastructure – pressures in the electric power industry here in the United States today bear some resemblance to those from a generation ago.

Modernization: A Recurring Theme

The early 2000s were also a bit heady. Across the country, investor-owned utilities (IOUs) were in the throes of reshaping and reorganizing themselves as a result of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) that came in the wake of deregulation in the ‘90s. IOUs along with public power entities also reeled from NERC reliability standards enforcement. To top it off, tenured employees had begun retiring.

In the staid, slow-moving electric power industry, M&A, NERC, and retirements came like an asteroid whose impact changed the business environment overnight. That era marked a turning point where modernization initiatives began happening in earnest. Utilities flowed real investments toward automation to avoid falling behind.

Substation automation really took off. Entire panels of electromechanical relays were routinely being thrown in dumpsters as their microprocessor-based replacements rapidly came online. Computerized relays changed the game on protection engineers who could analyze troves of data provided by the devices to glean information about the power system and make decisions quickly. Additionally, the new multi-function relays exchanged digital signals in a feat of automated communication enabled by DNP3, Modbus, and TCP/IP protocols. Applying the necessary protocols, however, was a proprietary matter where you were fine as long as you standardized on one vendor’s platform (though you might choose a second vendor for backup schemes). Applying IEC 61850 (61850), with its uniform data models and protocols, was (and still is) a vendor-neutral alternative for substation automation that promotes interoperability among differently-manufactured devices in substation networks.

No Time Like the Present

This special 5-part “Looking at IEC 61850” series came about essentially to ask why 61850 isn’t more widely adopted here in the States than presumably it would be right now when it seems like electrical facility modernization and general electrical infrastructure expansion can’t happen fast enough.

At present, infrastructure upgrades are historically expensive and complicated. Implementing substation automation based on 61850 can greatly reduce onsite time which in turn can free up resources to chip away at construction and maintenance backlogs more quickly. Ethernet connections bringing Intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) online are simpler and far fewer in number than hard-wired terminations between devices in conventional automation systems. Since 61850 applications can be pre-commissioned in a lab set up to match the substation environment, onsite operations can be pretty much plug-and-play.

Additionally, the technology that supports 61850 applications allows remote monitoring and interventions. Time saved onsite and back-end efficiencies in general can really add up to tremendous savings but to top it off, multi-cast communications based on 61850 make substations more intelligent and put companies in a better posture for future upgrades and expansions that are easier and cheaper as well.

So, what’s the deal? Why would companies eschew advanced substation automation based on 61850 despite the critical advantages that adopting the standard series can produce at a time when they are needed most?

Unfinished Business

For one thing, working modernization initiatives into already busy operations is tricky. Any disruption that comes along – over-promised vendor deliverables, resource re-allocations, insufficient budgeting – jeopardizes progress. Technical complexity doesn’t help, either.

Changing the substation automation paradigm bumps into intricacies that compound the further protection and control (P&C) gets integrated. Protection engineers of different stripes have their own philosophies and methods, as do technicians and relay manufacturers. Existing, non-standard protection system designs, testing methodologies, and novel concepts are tough to transpose into virtual equivalents functioning as they should on substation networks. Reasons like these are behind fits and starts at re-engineering P&C for the digital world that string out for years.

Against this backdrop, pivoting to 61850 won’t likely alleviate complexity and speed things up but instead might just trade one set of complications for another on a path where little ground is gained along the way.

A Deep-dive Effort

But let’s say 61850 is being applied for automated protection and control not in a legacy integration but in an entirely new substation. Still there are particular intricacies that factor into the implementation effort. Power system and load characteristics, features and ratings of individual components…these and many other variables have to be considered in system designs.

61850 is not magic; there are no tricks or shortcuts. A lot of work on the part of engineers, technicians, network specialists – and contractors, consultants and vendors – goes into interpreting the standard series and rolling out the parts and pieces of workable architectures. Such resources must understand P&C theory, substation networks, and the hardware and software systems that support 61850 protocols.

Bonus points for people who understand data and know how to activate processes and procedures that are standardized and produce data that is as well. 61850, of course, engenders standardization, but forming processes that ensure consistent IED protection and configuration settings development and version control, for instance, can be a struggle. Inconsistencies along these lines in the digital world – which depends entirely on accurate data – will halt IED setup, troubleshooting and routine maintenance every time.

61850 adoption calls for capable people whose training prepares them to collaborate effectively over the respective parts of the standard and deploy real world applications based on them. The human element influences the success or failure of 61850 adoption at least as much as the technical bits contained in the standard itself. Companies might stall at the crossroads where either they up-skill existing employees or recruit new ones. Finding qualified resources to staff a 61850 implementation effort can be challenging on either route taken.

A Matter of Trust

Now let’s say people are staffed who have the requisite knowledge and skills, standardization has been set-in effectively, network infrastructures are up to task, and IEDs and other equipment along with associated software products are in place. Still, regarding 61850, points of failure could emerge.

Substation architectures based on 61850 rely on precisely synchronized and correctly structured packets of data streaming between network devices in a sort of high-speed, algorithmic dialogue. Latency compromises GOOSE and sampled values packets that IEDs process in the workings of these communications. Aside from timing issues, though, are other concerns.

Workers could literally and figuratively be in the dark restoring a station after an event trying to trace down interoperability problems, network anomalies, and system errors on top of discerning digital substation matters from power system conditions. How well will they be able to identify and address issues? How can they tell if an IED, a merging unit, a network switch, or other piece of equipment, like a cable, is faulty? Would the IED configuration files they use in the immediacy of the moment be the right ones?

The Big Picture

Advanced substation automation will play a central role in this latest round of power system modernization here in the States, a role for which IEC 61850 was conceived. For years, applications of the standard have produced tangible benefits for utilities and other electric system owner-operators around the world. Meanwhile in the U.S. marketplace, a bevy of industry-proven tools, specialized training courses and seasoned consulting services have emerged.

Today, companies here and abroad have plenty of commercial resources ready to help them navigate the ins-and-outs of implementing IEC 61850. Whether looking at adopting the compendium of standards partially or fully, drawing on the expertise of partners can prevent challenges in these unprecedented times from becoming showstoppers.

Investing in continual workforce skills development and providing physical workspace, a laboratory, equipped with the right tools for the job, can foster inter-departmental collaboration. In a sense, communication and information-sharing happening in the human element go a long way toward substation automation systems that do likewise in the virtual element: smarter, more integrated and more sustainable operations correlate to advanced substation automation based on IEC 61850 that has those same traits. Ultimately, prioritizing human capital will guide the steps to take that produce dividends on investments in IEC 61850.

Authored by: Joe Stevenson

Special thanks to Marcos Velázquez Lechuga and Pete Newell from Doble Engineering for assisting me with this blog.