Section 2
Introduction to IEC 61850
2.1
Overview
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The general scope of the IEC 61850 protocol standard is designed to support the communication of
all functions being performed in the substation. Its’ main goal is interoperability; this is the ability for
IEDs from one or different manufacturers to exchange information and use the information for their
own functions. Moreover, the standard allows a free allocation of these functions and accepts any
system philosophy, from a distributed architecture (for example, decentralised substation automation)
to a centralised configuration (for example, RTU based).
The standard separates the functionality represented by the data model and the related
communication services from the communication implementation (stack).
The data model of the standard is an object-oriented one, grouping the data into the smallest
possible sets referring to the smallest possible functions to be implemented independently. These
smallest possible data groups or functions are named logical nodes. The logical nodes and all data
and attributes contained are named according to a standardised semantic, which is mandatory.
This manual describes how the IEC 61850 standard is applied in the IEDs. References and brief
descriptions of the standard are also included. It is assumed that the reader has basic knowledge of
the IEC 61850 standard.
The following parts of the IEC 61850 standard are of importance as they relate to this manual:
•
Station Configuration description Language (SCL) is described in IEC 61850-6. The SCL is an
XML based definition of how to describe the parts of a substation. This part of the standard also
includes the roles of different tools as well as the engineering concepts.
•
Communication profile (IEC 61850 stack) is described in IEC 61850-8-1. This part of the
standard includes a number of possible communication profiles, and how the services defined in
IEC 61850-7-2 are mapped to the communication profile.
•
Communication services are described in IEC 61850-7-2. This part deals mainly with the
communication facilities from client and server point of view. It includes the different possibilities
of communication functionality.
•
Logical node data model. This is described in IEC 61850-7-3 and IEC 61850-7-4.
•
Conformance tests and the basis for conformance documents are handled in IEC 61850-10.
Detailed information regarding the IEC 61850 implementation of the IED is described inside the
conformance documents.
•
MICS, Modeling Information Conformance Statement, contains the declaration of the used
logical node types.
•
PICS, Protocol Information Conformance Statement, contains the details and what is supported
regarding protocol facilities.
•
PIXIT, Protocol Extra Information, contains additional information on how the IEC 61850 is
implemented and used.
•
TICS, Tissue Information Conformance Statement, contains the supported Tissues, which are
handled in the Tissues process as defined by UCA, Utility Communication Architecture forum.
The Tissues handling is found in http://www.tissue.iec61850.com.
The conformance documents are unique for each product release and refer to each other. The
identities included in the related documents refer to a specific version of the IED series.
The communication profile in IEC 61850 uses the MMS standard, which uses Ethernet and TCP/IP to
handle the information transport within the substation.
1MRK 511 441-UEN Rev. C
Section 2
Introduction to IEC 61850
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Communication protocol manual
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