IEC 61850 Client from GE Digital

Standard electrical substation connectivity that lowers total cost of ownership and complexity
Core set of IEC 61850 client
capabilities for HMI/SCADA
01 Reduced costs for configuration and
maintenance
The IEC 61850 Client allows for interoperability of devices from different

operations vendors, a key advantage to users of substation automation devices

that enables reduced costs for configuration and maintenance. It is
The IEC 61850 Client from GE Digital provides an object-oriented model that critical as multiple protocols exist for substation automation, which
enables powerful substation data and configuration connections to your include many proprietary protocols with custom communication links.
devices for local substation and/or centralized level control, data acquisition,
The IEC 61850 Client leverages modern computer and networking
reporting, and visualization applications.
technology to maximize reliability and performance while minimizing
Based on the Driver Server from GE Digital, the IEC 61850 Client follows the design, installation, and commissioning costs; traditional substation
standards for the design of electrical substation automation. IEC 61850 is communications can only utilize low bandwidth serial-based RTU
part of the International Electrotechnical Commission’s (IEC) Technical protocols.
Committee 57 (TC57) reference architecture for electric power systems.
In addition, the IEC 61850-based models are separately defined and
The IEC 61850 consists of a set of services for substation protection and controlled from the protocols so future networking technology can be
control. It is a client/server system where the IED (Intelligent Electronic adopted when available without breaking the model and forcing
Devices) are the servers and the higher level systems (HMI, etc.) are the reconfiguration of the applications.
clients. IEDs are self-describing, which makes the configuration easier.

02 Native interfaces speed up configuration

Outcomes
• Time savings with fast and easy device communication and
application development
There are two options for connected applications over the TCP/IP
transport profile: native CIMPLICITY and OPC DA. 03 Reduced time to solution & value

The native CIMPLICITY client capabilities deliver automatic HMI/SCADA The IEC 61850 Client delivers enhanced abilities and goes beyond
• Lower total cost of ownership
layer configuration, full dataset communications, file retrieval, data being a client connectivity solution for data collection. It
• Increased consistency and information quality
• Reduced time to solution due to ease of configuration model browsing, sourced time stamps and SCL file import. The OPC DA integrates with the 61850 standard device and object models
• Reduced Risk: time-stamped data from the device, secure control interface delivers the ability to read and write data values from the that automatically assign tag names in a power system context to
operations, results to quality and status bits in the SCADA connected substations. the HMI/SCADA application.
• High Availability solution at the HMI/SCADA and device
communications level
• Reduced Maintenance Costs
IEC 61850 Client from GE Digital
Standard electrical substation connectivity that lowers total cost of ownership and complexity

Dataset communications Control operations

Features • Support for connecting to existing datasets defined • Support for all Control Operation security models.
on 61850 server devices (IEDs) • Status Only
• Core set of IEC 61850 client capabilities for • Support for data sets with unsolicited reporting
HMI/SCADA operation • Support for client side defined datasets • Direct Operation & Select Before Operate (SBO)
• Full support for all 61850 Control operations
• File retrieval from IEC 61850 devices • Unsolicited dataset communications using buffered • Direct Enhanced
• OPC-DA interface for other GE Digital modules (BRCB) and un-buffered (URCB) report control
• IEC 61850 Data Model browsing and/or third-party applications blocks • Select Before Operate Enhanced (SBO Enhanced)
• SCL file import • Polled dataset communications
• Device Sourced Time stamps and data quality • Import of datasets from SCL file types Driver Server Capabilities
• Native support for CIMPLICITY • Extensive system and statistic variables from
61850 Data Model Support communication status to optimization.
• Device sourced time stamps and quality.
• Browsing of IEC 61850 Data model on 61850 Server
devices (IEDs) • Cable redundancy support.
• File retrieval from 61850 Server Devices (e.g. • Secondary redundant server setup that maintains
COMTRADE files) unbroken communication with the device.
• Ability to combine and return quality information
and control operation results in one operation to
user bits (Native only)
• 61850 system variables
• Buffer Overflow detection
• Identity
• Status

HMI/SCADA

Driver Server

Lower your total cost of ownership with a single source

visual goes here
OPC Layer
LEARN MORE
of configuration at the device level
IEC 61850 Protocol Layer

IED
Devices
IEC 61850 Client from GE Digital
Standard electrical substation connectivity that lowers total cost of ownership and complexity

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Specifications are subject to change without notice. 07 2020