1

IEC 61850 for Power System Communication

Christoph Brunner, Member, IEEE

Abstract--The international standard IEC 61850 has been IEC 61850 defines the communication services that are
published between 2003 and 2005. The first use of the standard used, to exchange the information between the IEDs and
was for the communication within a substation automation towards local HMI and control centre. An extensive set of
system. In the mean time, the standard is as well used in other
services is defined, that supports event driven information
domains like as an example, the control of hydro power plants. It
is the strategy of the standardization community, that IEC 61850 exchange towards the control centre as well as time critical
will in the future provide the basis for collecting all information information exchange between the IEDs themselves. These
in the different field devices of a power system. This paper services are using standard Ethernet technology with MMS
provides an overview on IEC 61850 concepts, its use in the (Manufacturing message specification) and TCP/IP.
different areas of the power system and an outlook on future
develppments related to IEC 61850.
II. THE FEATURES OF IEC 61850
Index Terms--IEC 61850, Substations, Protection, Protocols, A. The object oriented data model
Power system communication
IEC 61850 specifies an object oriented and hierarchical
I. INTRODUCTION data model. The data model is domain specific and includes
the semantic. Logical nodes are the core elements of the data
I n electrical substations, intelligent electronic devices (IED)
are used to control and protect the equipment of the
substation including the power line leaving the station. In
model. They represent either the information content of a
function internal to the substation automation system (e.g.
PDIS, the logical node for a distance protection function) or
order to perform its operation, information needs to be
they represent the information from the external process
exchanged between these IEDs and to local HMIs and to the
equipment (e.g. XCBR, the logical node for the interface to a
network control centre. While in the past, that information
circuit breaker). Figure 2 shows as an example the logical
exchange was mainly based on many cables carrying the
node XCBR with the major information.
binary or analogue information, communication networks are
used in modern substations. To standardize that information
XCBR
exchange over communication networks and to achieve Data Name Type Explanation
interoperability between the IEDs, the standard IEC 61850, Common LN Mode INC enable / disable
Information EEHealth INS ok / warning / alarm
"Communication networks and systems in substations" has EEName DPL Name plate
OpCnt INS operation counter
been developed and published between 2003 and 2005. Figure Pos DPC Position (control / status)
1 shows a typical configuration of a substation automation Controls values BlkOpn SPC Block opening
BlkCls SPC Block closing
system based on IEC 61850. ChaMotEna SPC Charger motor enabled
CBOpCap INS op. capability (o-c...)
Status
information POWCap INS point on wave capability
MaxOpCap INS maximal op. capability
Control Center HMI, Station
controller
TrCoilFail1 SPS Failure of trip coil 1
Extension
TrCoilFail2 SPS Failure of trip coil 2
Router HydrLeak SPS Leakage of hydraulic

Serial communication Figure 2: Example of a logical node

Bay Relay Relay Bay Relay Relay
Controller X1 X2 Controller X1 X2 Logical nodes consist of data and data attributes that are
Serial communication standardised and that represent the information. The
Intelligent Intelligent
information modelled is however not restricted to process
CT/VT CT/VT
Switchgear Switchgear information. It includes as well configuration information,
name plate and diagnostic information. Name plate and
diagnostic information is available both for the software and
hardware of the automation system (IED and logical nodes) as
Figure 1: Typical architecture of an IEC 61850 based substation automation
system including process bus well as for the process equipment. The diagnostic information
is summarized in a device status information that indicates the
Christoph Brunner is with UTInnovation, Zug, Switzerland health of the device as a green (ok) – yellow (warning) – red
([email protected]) (alarm) indication.

978-1-4244-1904-3/08/$25.00 ©2008 IEEE

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The data model supports self description. This means that a A. Control of a circuit breaker
client can browse a device for available data and that the data The first example deals with the control of a circuit
can be retrieved including the format specification without breaker. The elements of the function are shown in Figure 4.
knowing the device beforehand. In addition, description In our example, a bay controller IED accesses the circuit
attributes with an explanation of the semantic of the data can breaker through binary outputs that connect to the open and
be presented to an operator. Self description as well allows close coil and through binary inputs that connect to the
verifying, if a system is configured as expected. position indication. The operate command is sent from a local
B. The configuration language HMI of a station controller to the bay controller using an IEC
61850 station bus. Following an operate request, the bay
The Substation Configuration Language (SCL), is an XML
controller checks for interlocking conditions, before the
based file format that can be used to exchange configuration
operation is done by activating the open or close coil.
information between tools. Based on a system specification
and the device capability description files, the system Operate Open / Close
configuration tool is used to configure the substation. The
result is the substation configuration description file that is
then used for the IED configuration tools to create the
configuration download. I
0
With the configuration information available in a
standardized file format, it is possible to use that information
as well for applications outside the substation.
C. The communication technology Station Controller Bay Controller
IEC 61850 is designed to be future proof. The
communication services and models are designed in an
Position
abstract form in the so called ACSI – Abstract
Communication Service Interface. These services will then be
Figure 4: Control of a circuit breaker
mapped on existing communication protocols like MMS and
TCP/IP over Ethernet. The current mapping that is used in
The data model according to IEC 61850 for that application
IEC 61850 is shown in Figure 3. Major part of IEC 61850
is shown in Figure 5. The logical node CSWI is used to
communications is based on client / server communication.
operate the breaker from the station controller, the logical
But IEC 61850 supports as well communication methods that
node XCBR is used to model the information received from
can be used for a fast, real time information exchange between
the circuit breaker and the logical node CILO provides the
IEDs like protection equipment. With that, wires that are used
information about the interlocking conditions for opening or
in today's system to implement protection schemes can be
closing the circuit breaker.
replaced with communication links.
CSWI.Pos.ctlVal
CSWI.Pos.stVal
Application CSWI.Pos.q
CSWI.Pos.t
ACSI 61850-7-2
Time critical Client / Server
services services I
Stack IF 0
MMS
ASN.1
ISO Session
RFC 1006
TCP Station Controller Bay Controller XCBR.Pos.stVal
IP XCBR.Pos.q
CILO.EnaOpn.stVal XCBR.Pos.t
Priority tagging IEEE 802.1p/802.1Q CILO.EnaCls.stVal
Ethernet ISO/IEC 8802-3

Figure 5: The data model for controlling a circuit breaker

Figure 3: The communication stack

To start an operation, the station controller sends operate

III. THE USE OF IEC 61850 IN A SUBSTATION
commands to the bay controller. The sequence of commands
Based on typical functions of a substation automation and responses is standardized in IEC 61850-7-2 and is shown
system, we will explain how the communication services are in Figure 6. Use of select before operate is one option.
applied and how the functions involved will be modeled using Following the operate request on the data object
IEC 61850 logical nodes and data. CSWI.Pos.stVal, the bay controller checks fro the interlocking
condition (e.g. is CILO.EnaOpn.stVal=TRUE) and if an
operation is permitted, activates the output to the open coil of
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the circuit breaker. The bay controller then supervises the

return information from the circuit breaker. If the operation A_TCTR.Amp.instMag
terminates with success, a command termination (CmdTerm) B_TCTR.Amp.instMag
MMXU.PhV.phsA.cVal.mag
message will be sent to the station controller. MMXU.PhV.phsB.cVal.mag C_TCTR.Amp.instMag
MMXU.PhV.phsC.cVal.mag
Client Server (Control Object) Operated Device

Select (CSWI.Pos.ctlVal=open)
Select rsp+ Select

Operate (CSWI.Pos.ctlVal=open)
Bay Controller
Operate rsp+ Activate output
A_TVTR.Vol.instMag
sampled values
B_TVTR.Vol.instMag
Control model (61850-7-2) between
C_TVTR.Vol.instMag
open
Figure 7: The data model for measuring current and voltage
Report (CSWI.Pos.stVal=open)

Reporting (61850-7-2) Deactivate output The device that uses the samples needs to be able to
correlate samples from different sources to the time. For that
CmdTerm purpose, the source of the samples – in the example above the
CT and VT, are synchronized. The samples are tagged with a
Control model (61850-7-2)
reference to the time before they are transmitted over the
Figure 6: Control services
communication network. The configuration of that service is
again done using a dataset that defines the data content and a
If the position of the circuit breaker has changed, that control block as shown in Figure 8. In that example, an IED is
information may be transmitted spontaneously to the station configured to transmit the samples of the current transformers
controller. For that, the reporting model defined in IEC of the three phases using a sample rate of 80 samples per
61850-7-2 is used. The station controller, acting as a client, period.
configures a report control block in the bay controller, acting
as a server. The control block is configured to monitor a set of IED
information defined in a dataset for changes. As soon as one
Dataset CurMeas1 A_TCTR
of the information – in our example the data CSWI.Pos.stVal
A_TCTR.Amp.instMag.i
changes the value, a message is sent to the client including the B_TCTR.Amp.instMag.i B_TCTR
new value of the data with time stamp t and quality q. C_TCTR.Amp.instMag.i
All of the above mentioned communication services are C_TCTR
defined in IEC 61850-7-2 as abstract services and are mapped
in IEC 61850-8-1 as shown in Figure 3 on services of the MSVCB01
Manufacturing Message Specification (MMS) and transmitted DatSet = CurMeas1
using TCP/IP on Ethernet. The report control block is mapped MsvID = ChamosonT1V
in IEC 61850-8-1 on a MMS named variable. SmpRate = 80

B. Measuring current and voltage

In that second example, current and voltages are measured
in CTs and VTs, the waveform is transmitted as digital
Figure 8: Configuring the sampled value transmission
samples over a communication link to an IED that calculates
values like e.g. RMS current or active and reactive power.
The transmission of the sampled values is time critical, in
Figure 7 illustrates the example including the data model.
particular when it is used for protection. IEC 61850-5 requires
Logicl nodes TCTR and TVTR are used to model the single
a transmission delay of less than 3 milliseconds. In addition,
phase current and voltage transformers. The logical node
the message needs to be sent to multiple receivers. To achieve
MMXU is used to represent the calculated values – in the
that, this service does not rely on the client / server concept
example the phase voltages are shown. While in the past, the
and does not use the seven layer stack. The service is using
link between the CT / VT and the bay controller was based on
multicast and the mapping as defined in IEC 61850-9-2
analog signals and the A/D conversion was made in the bay
directly maps the ASN.1 encoded messages on Ethernet. To
controller, IEC 61850 supports the possibility to use a
guarantee a timely delivery, priority tagging is used in
communication channel that transmits directly the digital
addition.
samples of the waveform from the CT/VT to the bay
The result, how the message is transmitted over the wire is
controller. For that purpose, the abstract service to transmit
shown in Figure 9. The example only shows the application
sampled values is defined in IEC 612850-7-2.
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data (no Ethernet headers are shown). It is possible, to instantiated to realize the required functionality; e.g. multiple
combine multiple samples in one frame. In the example, two instances of a bay controller IED are required for each bay of
(noASDU=2) consecutive samples (ASDU1 and ASDU2) are the substation arrangement. The information flow needs to be
packed in one frame. ASDU1 has the sample count (smpCnt) configured. For the information flow from IEDs to the
21 that is used as a reference for the time correlation. substation controller or the gateway, reports are used; the
report control blocks and the associated datasets need to be
ASN.1 encoded (ISO/IEC 8824-1 / 8825) defined. The same is true for the information flow between the
TAG Len Val IEDs using GOOSE (Generic object oriented system event)
savPdu 60 81 messages. In addition to configure the source of the
noASDU 80 1 2 information flow, optionally it is possible to define the
Seq of ASDU A2 76
Seq ASDU1 30 36
destinations of the information flow as well.
svID 80 7 “MSVCB01” The output of the system configuration tool is the
smpCnt 82 2 21 substation configuration description or SCD file, which
confRev 83 4 2 contains the complete configuration information for the
smpSynch 85 1 2 substation. This file can be used as input to the IED
Seq of data 87 12
[A_TCTR.Amp.instMag] 4 Byte
configuration tool. With the IED configuration tool, additional
[B_TCTR.Amp.instMag] 4 Byte IED specific information can be added and the configuration
[C_TCTR.Amp.instMag] 4 Byte download for a specific IED is created.
Seq ASDU2 30 36
…… …… V. USE OUTSIDE THE SUBSTATION
Figure 9: The message to transmit sampled values
Although originally defined for the communication within
the substation, the basic concepts of IEC 61850 make it
IV. DESIGN AND ENGINEERING OF A SUBSTATION suitable for other applications in the utility automation
industry. This has been recognized by the industry, and
With IEC 61850-6, the substation configuration language is
several new working groups have been created within IEC,
introduced. That configuration language, intended to
that are preparing standards based on IEC 61850 for new
exchange configuration information between engineering
application domains.
tools, has a major impact on the design and engineering of a
substation automation system. The principle is shown in A. Use of IEC 61850 in power generation
Figure 10. In three areas of power generation, IEC 61850 concepts are
used by defining new domain specific object models (logical
nodes).
System The standard IEC 61850-7-410 – Hydroelectric power
Specification Substation
Configuration plants – Communication for monitoring and control is used
Description for the control and supervision of a hydro power plant. The
Device standard defines logical nodes for electrical functions; various
Capability
control functions, essentially related to the excitation of the
generator. New logical nodes defined within this group are not
specific to hydropower plants; they are more or less general
Figure 10: The use of the substation configuration language for all types of larger power plants. Further, it defines logical
nodes for mechanical functions related to the turbine and
The SCL is supporting the design, engineering and associated equipment and it defines logical nodes for
commissioning of the substation during its whole life cycle. It hydrological functions.
starts with the formal specification of the substation (single Another standard, IEC 61850-7-420 – Communication
line diagram, functionality in terms of logical nodes) in the systems for distributed energy resources (DER), is to be used
system specification description or SSD file. The capability of for information exchange between DER devices and any
the IEDs (logical nodes and communication services that can systems which monitor, control, maintain, audit, and generally
be supported) that will be used to implement the substation operate the DER devices. That standard defines the logical
automation system is described in the IED capability nodes for a DER system in general, as well as for the models
description or ICD file. The ICD file may as well specify the of DER equipment like reciprocating engines ("piston
predefined object model of the IED that is used for the engines"), fuel cells, photovoltaic systems or combined heat
intended functionality of the IED within the system. and power devices.
The SSD and ICD files are used as input for the system A third standard, the IEC 61400-25 series defines logical
configuration tool. With the system configuration tool, the nodes for the communication between wind power plant
complete design and engineering of the future substation is components like wind turbines and related SCADA systems.
then made. Multiple IEDs of the same type need to be
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B. IEC 61850 for wide area communication the transmission line. A fault in zone 2 requires a permissive
As well discussed in the working groups, is the use of IEC signal to be received from the other side in order to initiate a
61850 for wide area communication like communication trip.
between substations or communication between substation
Permit
and control centres. PDIS1 PSCH PDIS1
Permit
PSCH
A report IEC 61850-90-1 will discuss the different aspects PDIS2 PDIS2

of the use of IEC 61850 for the communication between

substations. In that report, the following applications are PTRC
Trip Brk Trip Brk
PTRC

Protection IED Protection IED

considered:
1. Protection functions like current differential line Figure 13: IEC 61850 model using tunneling approach
protection, distance protection with permissive and
blocking schemes, directional and phase comparison
Figure 13 shows the IEC 61850 model for that application,
protection, transfer tripping, predictive wide area
using the tunnelling approach. The logical nodes PDIS
protection and substation integrity protection schemes.
represent the two distance elements for zone 1 and zone 2.
2. Control functions like auto reclosing, interlocking, cross
triggering, generator or load shedding, out-of-step The logical node PSCH implements the logic of the
detection and topology determination of high voltage teleprotection scheme. An output of that logical node is the
networks. permissive signal that is sent to the other side of the
From a communication viewpoint, two different transmission line using a GOOSE message. The logical node
architectures are possible. A first approach is called the PTRC implements the local trip logic and creates the trip
gateway approach and uses a relative low speed signal for the local circuit breaker. That logical node uses
communication channel with specific teleprotection information from the logical nodes PDIS as well as from
communication equipment. This is an approach used today; PSCH. In Figure 14, the model is shown using the gateway
the only specific is the use of a IEC 61850 interface for the approach. Instead of a direct tunnelling of the GOOSE
teleprotection equipment. message, the teleprotection equipment is implementing a
The second approach is the tunnelling approach shown in image of the remote PSCH logical node. The logical node
Figure 11. This is the use of a high speed communication link RTPC is used to model communication related information of
with a direct transmission of the IEC 61850 messages from the teleprotection communication channel.
one substation to the other substation.
RTPC RTPC
Permit Permit
PDIS1 PSCH Comm PSCH PDIS1

PDIS2 PSCH Channel PSCH PDIS2

Teleprot Teleprot
Equipment Equipment
Telepr Telepr
PTRC PTRC
Trip Brk Trip Brk
Protection IED Protection IED

Figure 14: IEC 61850 model using gateway approach

Contr Prot Prot Contr

The use of IEC 61850 for the communication from the
substation to the control centre and other system level
Figure 11: Tunneling approach applications will be discussed in IEC 61850-90-2. In that
scope, the harmonization of IEC 61850 with IEC 61968 /
As an example, the permissive underreach teleprotection 61970 (CIM and related standards) needs to be considered.
scheme is discussed. The application is explained in Figure IEC 61968 / 61970 is a standard series for information
12. exchange between energy management systems, control centre
Zone 2 (Overreach)
applications, distribution management functions and other
Zone 1 (Underreach)
Zone 2 (Overreach)
system level applications. This is discussed in more details in
Zone 1 (Underreach) [3] and [7].
Another topic that needs to be considered with regard to
the communication towards the control centre is the optional
Permit Permit
Zone 1 Comm Zone 1 requirement for a data concentration / data filtering at the
Channel
interface to the substation.
& OR Trip Brk Trip Brk OR
&
Zone 2 Zone 2

VI. OUTLOOK AND CONCLUSION

Figure 12: Permissive underreach teleprotection
It is the vision of the IEC TC57, that in the future, IEC
Zone 1 of the distance protection is set to underreach; zone 61850 will be used to collect the information from the
2 is set to overreach. A fault detected in zone 1 results in an different field devices and transmit this information to the
immediate trip and a permissive signal sent to the other side of control centre and other systems that manage the power
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system. As a first step to realise that vision, IEC 61850 is well Papers from Conference Proceedings (Published):
received by the industry as the communication standard to be [4] Lars Andersson, Christoph Brunner, Fred Engler, "Substation
automation based on IEC 61850 with new process-close technologies",
used within substations. IEEE PowerTech 2003, Bologna, Italy
The use of IEC 61850 in new application domains is also [5] Christoph Brunner, "IEC 61850 – Communication backbone for the
well advanced. The standard for the wind power plants and utility automation system of the future", DistribuTECH 2007, San
Diego, USA
the standard for hydro power plants have been approved; the
[6] Christoph Brunner, "Using IEC 61850 for communication between
standard for the distributed energy resources will be circulated substations and from substation to control centre", PowerGrid 2007,
early next year. In addition, the working groups are already Madrid, Spain
preparing a second edition of IEC 61850 that is adding [7] Christoph Brunner, "IEC 61850 – Harmonization with CIM / IEC
61968/61970", DistribuTECH 2008, Tampa, USA
besides clarification many new features that are used for the
applications in these new domains. Standards:
The work, to use IEC 61850 for wide area communication [8] IEC 61850 – Communication networks and systems in substations, IEC
Standard, 14 parts, 2002 … 2004.
is in progress. Within the technical reports IEC 61850-90-x,
the issues are discussed. These issues will later be integrated
VIII. BIOGRAPHIES
in future editions of IEC 61850. An important aspect of that
work is the harmonization between CIM and IEC 61850. Christoph Brunner (M 2001) has graduated
as electrical engineer at the Swiss Federal Institute
of Technology in 1983. He is president and chief
VII. REFERENCES technology officer of UTInnovation in
Switzerland. Before, he worked as a project
Periodicals: manager at ABB Switzerland Ltd in the business
[1] Christoph Brunner, "IEC 61850 – a new standard that will change the area Power Technology Products in Zurich /
industry", Metering International, Issue 3, 2006, page 70 – 73 Switzerland where he was responsible for the
[2] Klaus-Peter Brand, Christoph Brunner, Ivan de Mesmaeker, "How to use process close communication architecture of the
IEC 61850 in protection and automation", ELECTRA, No 222, October substation automation system. He is convenor of
2005, page 11 - 21 the working group (WG) 10 of the IEC TC57 and
member of WG 17, 18 and 19 of IEC TC57. He is
Technical Reports: member of IEEE-PES and IEEE-SA. He is active in several working groups of
[3] Harmonization of IEC 61970, 61968, and 61850 Models. EPRI, Palo the IEEE-PSRC (Power Engineering Society – Relay Committee) and member
Alto, CA: 2006. 1012393 of the PSRC main committee and the subcommittee H. He is international
advisor to the board of the UCA international users group.