The impact of IEC 61850 on protection

The standard IEC 61850 "communication networks and systems in substations" defines a communication system for substation automation that provides interoperability between equipment from different manufacturers. The standard introduces several new features that will have an impact on the design of a protection system. One example is the introduction of communication services for the exchange of time critical information between intelligent electronic devices (IED) like protection relays. With that, the wiring between the relays used to implement the protection schemes can be eliminated. Other impacts of IEC 61850 are related to HW and SW design of protection equipment, the design, commissioning and testing of a protection system and the required training for protection engineers. All these areas are discussed.