IEC 60870-5-104 - the new solution for communication in substations Michael Eckl, Reinhard Krug VA TECH SAT Austria

Abstract Communication to and within substations is currently one of the main issues in substation automation. Existing protocol standards, based on the IEC 60870-5-1 to 5 Stds., i.e. IEC 60870-5-101 Telecontrol tasks [Load Dispatch Centre (LDC) to substation] and IEC 60870-5-103 Informative interface to protection equipment, are well defined, mature and used world-wide. The recently released IEC 60870-5-104 combines the experience gained with IEC 60870-5-101 with the modern protocol of TCP/IP over Ethernet. New tools can support existing object oriented engineering combined with a station bus based on IEC 60870-5-104. Communication Standards When Remote terminal units (RTUs) were introduced, communication between substations and the LDC was required. Due to the lack of standards and limited communication technology, equipment vendors used proprietary protocols optimised to make maximum use of the available bandwidth. Utilities became dependent on a chosen vendors equipment resulting in the need for expensive gateways to interface between different equipments in system extensions. The need for standardisation became evident, consequently international standards were defined, the IEC 608705-1 to 5 series, which covered the basic methods for remote communication and defined important issues like interoperability and data integrity, also defining a profile for RTUs in IEC ..-101 and consequently creating a standard for interfacing protection relays i.e. IEC ..-103. These two standards are now applied all over the world and are supported by nearly all major vendors of RTUs, substation automation systems, and protection relays. The information available via communication became more sophisticated when microprocessors were employed and Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs) started to change the architecture of control equipment in substations.

The increasing information available from modern IEDs and higher level functionality at the bay level like interlocking schemes covering several bays, make the need for a more intensive communication between the different substation functions evident. The station bus meets this need providing an open and reliable method of transport that is highly available and which provides scaleable solutions for substations of different size and importance at MV, HV and EHV levels. In addition a solution has been provided for the refurbishment / expansion of existing substations, taking into account that 60870-5-101/103 Stds. are used in many installations and gateways have been avoided. During the last decade the design of LANs (Local Area Network) typically used for office automation has changed dramatically. Modern concepts, based on high speed (up to 1 GBit/s) switched Ethernet makes state of the art network design a reliable and scaleable solution. The use of TCP/IP protocol and Ethernet guarantees a stable and very well standardised platform for both users and vendors. Today Ethernet is superceding other existing LAN and bus-solutions, practically becoming the worldwide LAN standard. This well proven network platform was, therefore, chosen to be used also for Utility applications. In almost all primary substations fibre optic connections and new LAN/WAN technologies are available. The need to adapt the existing and proven IEC..-101 protocol to TCP/IP based communication in order to make use of new communication technology was evident. IEC 60870-5-104 published by IEC TC57 / WG 3 offers a homogenous transition from the proven IEC..-101 to TCP/IP over Ethernet. Many already successfully completed projects using WAN show the benefit of employing this standard. Due to the rapid development in LAN technology, switched Ethernet can be applied in the substation automation as station bus, at a reasonable price.

VA TECH SAT GmbH & Co, Ruthnergasse 1, A-1210 Vienna, Austria

Switched Ethernet combined with the TCP/IP based protocol IEC..-104 offers state of the art communication technology also for substation automation. The available baud rates can satisfy even the highest demands for data rate in large EHV-substations. Scaleable solutions to meet the users needs Substation automation can be used implemented with different levels of complexity. The variety of substations (AIS/GIS,indoor/outdoor, MV/HV/EHV, refurbishment/new) puts extremely high demands on substation automation in terms of flexibility. Very high demands are usually put on substation automation for the highest voltage levels. This is true not only for the IEDs, but also for the availability of the station bus. Industrial switched Ethernet solutions can provide redundant configurations and extremely fast redundancy switching algorithms: starting with multipoint star configurations with fibre optic for indoor switchgear, but also redundant ring structure based on fibre optics when used in EHV outdoor switchgear with relay kiosks (see figures 1 & 2). Modularity is the key to provide a system that meets the users needs. Stand-alone functionality guarantees highest availability even at the bay level. Rugged hardware design guarantees that the system can be used even within outdoor control cubicles without additional housing. An IEC compliant system architecture guarantees that all functions defined by the Standard can be engineered within a very short time using only one configuration tool. Object oriented engineering - a new paradigm for engineering Todays existing standards like IEC 60870-5 are based on an anonymous datapoint oriented model in order to identify addressed IEDs. This means the source is always identified by a structured numeric address within an RTU regardless of the analogue or digital input or output concerned. New data processing approaches support an object oriented method, now its not bits and bytes to be exchanged but objects identified by their names and attributes! The new draft IEC 61850, defines a Standard for Communication Networks and Systems in Substations, using object oriented models to describe the process to be controlled e.g. substation, feeder or circuit breaker etc. This object oriented approach is aimed at simplification of engineering. Significant savings can be obtained by combining substation standardisation and by creating an object library.

To express it in other words: Up to now it has been important "how" to communicate between IEDs but in the future it will be important "what" kind of information is to be exchanged. Configuration Tool In order to cope with an object oriented data-model as proposed by the new IEC 61850 drafts, object oriented tools are required. Figure 3 shows how a state of the art configuration tool supports IEC 61850-7 compliant modelling of a substation. At the left is a substation consisting of several feeders. One feeder (AD03) is divided into several components (object circuit breaker, twodisconnectors, current and voltage transducers). In the middle window all detail-objects of a circuit breaker can be seen. In the window to the right all attributes concerning the object "pressure-value circuit breaker" are listed. But does this mean that IEC 60870-5-10X standards are out of date? Certainly not, TCP/IP protocol over Ethernet allows both IEC..-104 and IEC 61850 data frames to be communicated, thus providing the advantages of both approaches and maintaining an upgrade path. Using a modern object oriented configuration tool means bridging the gap between a very effective and future proof engineering method and gaining the benefits of an existing open and well proven communication standard. Conclusion With a station bus based on IEC 60870-5-104 the advantages of state-of-the-art communication technology such as switched Ethernet can be employed in combination with well defined and proven standard communication in substations. By adding an object oriented engineering approach further savings can be obtained. This concept allows for a consistent communication from bay level to the dispatcher centres and provides object oriented design of substation automation systems now and for the future. A further advantage is that no additional gateway needs to be installed in order to connect with existing devices that are not compliant with the object oriented IEC 61850. State of the art engineering tools are narrowing the gap between the traditional data point oriented way of engineering and new approaches as proposed by the draft IEC 61850 Standards. Until these become full International Standards, which will probably take some more years, the existing IEC 60870-5-104 is the first choice for an open and efficient standard for the substation bus.

Configuration with Stationbus

Control centre IEC 60870-5-101 and/or IEC 60870-5-104

IEC 60870-5-101 Other RTU Active / stand-by

Router

Station Automation WAN IEC 60870-5-104

Small RTU

IEC 60870-5-104 (ETHERNET)

Station Control Device

IEC 60870-5-103

SIEMENS

SIEMENS

SIEMENS

Bay Controle digital Device Protection BAY 1

Bay Controle digital Device Protection BAY 2

Compact Bay digital Control Device Protection BAY 1

Feeder Manager

High Voltage Bays

VA TECH SAT

Medium Voltage Bays

N-00115e.ppt / 2000 10 03 by M. Eckl, B. Steininger / Copyright (c) by VA TECH SAT GmbH & Co Vienna 1

SAT NLSA Extra High Voltage

Station Control Device
(active / stand-by)
network control centres

Station Automation and Disturbance Archive

SAT 200

remote maintenance

printer

AK 1703
active / stand-by

Router

PS

100 Mbps Station Bus-LAN (IEC 60870-5-104), fibre optic

AM 1703

IEC 60870-5-103

AM 1703

IEC 60870-5-103

AM 1703

IEC 60870-5-103

High Voltage Bays

(bay control devices, protective devices) VA TECH SAT
N-00144e.ppt / 2001 01 29 by M. Eckl, B. Steininger / Copyright (c) by VA TECH SAT GmbH & Co Vienna 2

Bay Level

Station Level

Object Oriented Engineering

IEC 61850 compliant data model

VA TECH SAT

N-00116e.ppt / 2000 10 10 by M. Eckl, B. Steininger / Copyright (c) by VA TECH SAT GmbH & Co Vienna 3