Testing and Configuration of IEC 61850 Multivendor Protection Schemes

The International IEC 61850 standard is relatively new. It was developed to control and protect power systems by standardizing the exchange of information between all intelligent electronic devices (IED) within an automated substation and a remote control link. One of the goals of IEC 61850 is to obtain interoperability between different protective devices from different vendors. IEC 61850 has many benefits and one of these is replacing the traditional copper wiring with Ethernet/Fiber cables. This means no more binary inputs and outputs for control and protection functions. The traditional method of tripping a breaker via a contact is replaced by a GOOSE (Generic Object Oriented Substation Events) message sent via Ethernet or fiber optic cable. Power substations designed around the IEC 61850 standard, which underpins the high level of automation associated with the Smart Grid initiative, lead to a requirement for complex protection schemes which create significant testing challenges. One of the major challenges currently facing IEC 61850 is defining testing procedures. How is an IEC 61850 device supposed to be tested? What is required in order to test these devices? How is GOOSE message time performance compared to the conventional hard wired relay output? The presentation provides information which may answer some of those questions and discusses challenges such as Virtual Wiring Map for GOOSE messages using relays from different vendors, the IED signals engineering process, functional tests and Substation Network Security. The presentation also discusses some issues and solutions related to the multiple vendors integration process. The overall implementation processes of IEC 61850 using multiple vendors, as well as the testing process, are explained step by step using a distributed breaker failure scheme. The results of the comparison between GOOSE messages and those hardwired from different vendors are shown at the end.