Saeid Khademi, - Khorasan Regional Electricity Company (KREC), Dispatching Center (NE-AOC)Mashhad, I.I.IRAN
Mustafa Rajabi Mashhadi - Khorasan Regional Electricity Company (KREC), Dispatching Center (NE-AOC)Mashhad, I.I.IRAN

Legacy substation automation protocols and architectures typically provided basic functionality for power system automation and were designed to accommodate the technical limitations of the networking technology available for implementation. There has recently been a vast improvementin networking technology that has changed dramatically what is now feasible for power system automation in the substation. Technologies such as switched Ethernet, TCP/IP, high-speed wide area networks, and high-performance low-cost computers are providing capabilities that could barely be imagined when most legacy substation automation protocols were designed. IEC61850 is a part of the International Electro-technical Commission’s (IEC) Technical Committee 57 (TC57) architecture for electric power systems. The model-driven approach of the TC57 standards, including IEC61850, is an innovative approach that requires a new way of thinking about substation automation that will result in very significant improvements in both costs and performance of electric power systems. This paper describes the evolution of communications in Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs), the drive for standardization early on in the process, the platform required to fuel this migration, and the issues raised intesting for interoperability among these new devices.

Substation Automation, IEC61850, Next Generation Communication Systems