Application Note

Testing dynamic reports

Author
Burak Tahincioglu | burak.tahincioglu@omicronenergy.com

Date
2021-03-12

Related OMICRON Product

StationScout

Application Area
PUC

Keywords
Dynamic datasets, StationScout, Substation Automation Systems, Reports, IEC 61850

Version
v1.0

Document ID
ANS_21001_ENU

Abstract
Testing reports with dynamic datasets might be cumbersome due to the fact that dynamic datasets are not a
part of SCL file. In this document, basic checks and useful tips are mentioned for testing dynamic reports
with StationScout.
 General information

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© OMICRON 2021. All rights reserved. This Application Note is a publication of OMICRON.

© OMICRON 2021 Page 2 of 17

 Table of content

1 Safety instructions ................................................................................................................................4

2 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................5
2.1 Background Knowledge ..................................................................................................................6
2.1.1 What is Dynamic Reporting? ............................................................................................................ 6
2.1.2 Persistent and Non-persistent Datasets............................................................................................ 6
2.1.3 Dynamically created datasets and assignment to report control blocks ............................................ 8
2.1.4 Report control block trigger options .................................................................................................. 8
2.2 Testing Dynamic Reports ...............................................................................................................9
2.2.1 Checking dynamically created datasets ............................................................................................ 9
2.2.2 Checking assignment of datasets to report control blocks .............................................................. 11
2.2.3 Checking report activation and reservation status .......................................................................... 12
2.2.4 Event Logging ................................................................................................................................. 16

© OMICRON 2021 Page 3 of 17

1 Safety instructions
This Application Note may only be used in conjunction with the relevant product manuals which contain all
safety instructions. The user is fully responsible for any application that makes use of OMICRON products.
Instructions are always characterized by a  symbol, even if they are included in a safety instruction.

NOTICE

Equipment damage or loss of data possible.

 It is important to understand test modes and simulation flags as defined by IEC 61850 and how
to operate these for IEDs under test, before starting to test in a real-life substation.
This topic is out of scope of this application note.

Only experienced and competent professionals that are trained for working in high voltage or high current
environments may implement this Application Note. Additionally, the following qualifications are required:
• Authorized to work in environments of energy generation, transmission or distribution, and familiar
with the approved operating practices in such environments.
• Familiar with the five safety rules.
• Good knowledge/proficient in working with StationScout and IEC 61850.

© OMICRON 2021 Page 4 of 17

2 Introduction
IEC 61850 based Substation Automation Systems (SAS) utilizes “reports“ as a part of the Client/Server
communication. Reports are vertically communicated from Servers, mostly IEDs, to the Clients such as HMI
and/or RTU(s) in the substations.
StationScout supports testing of reports in various occasions during lifetime of SAS. IEC 61850 allows
engineering SAS freely amongst two popular methods of Reporting. It can be Static Reporting, which is fully
defined in the SCL file, but also there is another method of Reporting without including the information of
what to report in the SCL file which is often called Dynamic Reporting.
Starting from v1.30 release, StationScout users can enjoy the enhanced capabilities to test Dynamic
Reporting with persistent datasets, without digging deep into the details of the standard. On the other hand,
testing static reports has already been fully supported since the initial release of StationScout.
Not only testing, but also documenting the tests have been conducted, duplicating the test cases to same
type of feeders, re-testing in maintenance intervals, simulating the missing/upcoming extension project
equipment of the substation; StationScout gives the full control of IEC 61850 based SAS to the PAC
engineers.
In this application note, how to test dynamic reports efficiently with StationScout is explained. The test setup
used is shown below. On the upper side of the Station Bus, there is the testing client as StationScout and
IEDScout running over the MBX1. There is also a Zenon HMI running on MOXA rackmount PC which is a
dynamic reporting client. Below, there are two identical IEDs, Reporting with dynamic datasets and two
ISIOs are used as switch control units (SCU).

Figure 1: Test Setup

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2.1 Background Knowledge

2.1.1 What is Dynamic Reporting?

One of the basic "Abstract Communication Service Interface" (ACSI) services in IEC 61850 is the “report”.
Static Reporting refers to a Client/Server communication clearly defined in the SCL file. Datasets and their
members, report control blocks with their attributes are configured for the servers in SCL file. A static
reporting client’s role is limited to receive the reported signals. They cannot decide which signals to be
received.
There is also another type of reporting, so-called “Dynamic Reporting”. Here, datasets are not defined in the
SCL file, instead they are created by the clients when there is an association established between client and
server. These dynamic datasets are not part of the SCL file and therefore can only be known by
StationScout when actively querying this information from an IED. Both client and server shall be supporting
the process of creating dynamic datasets in this method. Today only a few vendors are supporting Dynamic
Reporting.
Dynamic Reporting has advantages on ease of configuration on the server side. It reduces the effort spent
on report configuration engineering in the IEDs. Report configuration is done by the clients and which signals
to be reported is defined by the client as well.
On the IED side, an IED reserves empty report control blocks to be used with a dynamically created dataset
using a CreateDataSet request by clients. Reserved report control blocks can be both buffered and
unbuffered.
Dynamic datasets are defined in the standard IEC 61850-7-2 Ed.2 clause 13.1.

2.1.2 Persistent and Non-persistent Datasets

Datasets form a group or set of data. Datasets can be used to read or write several data objects/data
attributes at once using a single request/response message exchange.

The data attributes or data objects that are part of a dataset are called members of a dataset.

The IEC 61850 standard defines ASCI services related to datasets:

• GetDataSetValues to get the value of all members of a dataset.

• SetDataSetValues to set the value of all members of a dataset.
• CreateDataSet to create a new dataset dynamically.
• DeleteDataSet to delete a dataset that was created.
• GetServerDirectoy to query existing datasets in the server
• GetDataSetDirectory to get the list of the members of a dataset

StationScout uses the GetDataValues service to poll the values of members of datasets, GetServerDirectoy
to query the available dynamic datasets, and GetDataSetDirectory to query the members of a dataset.

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 Figure 2: A dataset with its members; [ST] (status information) shows the functional constraint

Two types of datasets exist:

▪ Non-persistent datasets: they have a reference of the format @DataSetName. They are only visible
within the connection they were created by a client through the CreateDataSet service. These datasets
only exist as long as the client-server connection is available. They can only be referenced by an
unbuffered report control block.

▪ Persistent datasets: they have a reference of the format LDName/LNName.DataSetName or

/DataSetName. They are visible to all clients. Persistent data sets can be preconfigured in the SCL file.
In this case, they cannot be deleted by the client.

Figure 3: IEC 61850-7-2 Ed.2 Dynamic creation of data set instances

Persistent datasets can also be dynamically created by clients. In this case, they may be deleted again later.
A dynamic dataset assigned to a report control block cannot be deleted. Only datasets which are not in use
can be deleted.

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 Dynamically created datasets can be persistent or non-persistent. This is decided by the client which is
sending a CreateDataSet request to the IED and may be determined by the IED itself because not every IED
supports non-persistent datasets.

Throughout this document, dynamic dataset will always refer to “persistent” ones, since a non-persistent
dataset is only visible to the client that created it.

2.1.3 Dynamically created datasets and assignment to report control blocks

A client that wants to receive reports from a certain report control block would usually first attempt to reserve
the report control block. If successful, it would then configure the report control block. The most important
attribute to configure is the referenced dataset. Dynamically created datasets are assigned to the report
control blocks by the SetU(B)RCBValues service. Finally, the client would enable sending the reports.

A report control block is blocked once a client has reserved the report control block or enabled it. That
means a single report control block cannot be used by several clients in parallel. The associated dataset of
the report control block can be dynamically changed by the client at run-time.

2.1.4 Report control block trigger options

Triggering options are part of the report control block attributes as a 6-bit bitstring. They define when an IED
sends a report and are already defined in the configured SCL. A client is able to change these options via
write operations. The possibilities are:

Figure 4: Triggering options shown in StationScout

1.General Interrogation (GI): A report will be sent if the client issues a general interrogation command. This
report will contain all the data of the associated dataset.

2.Data update (dupd) and data change (dchg): A change or update of a data attribute included in the
associated dataset will initiate a report to be sent to the client.

Data change refers to a value change of a dataset member. It is worthwhile to check dead band values set
in the IED when measurements are being reported with data change triggering option.

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 Data update initiates a report when the value of the dataset member is updated independent from if the
value was updated to the same value or not.

If a member has both dupd and dchg configured as triggering options in report control block, it should only
trigger on one of them.

Data update or data change reports only transmit the dataset members that were changed or updated.

3. Integrity: Periodic (cyclic) sending of reports has been enabled by setting the integrity period of a report
control block and selecting integrity as triggering option. Integrity period IntgPd is a separate attribute which
becomes active when integrity is selected as triggering option. It defines the interval for retransmitting the
report, where the special value of “0” is treated as integrity reports are disabled. Integrity reports will contain
the current values of all members of the referenced data set.

4. Quality change (qchg): The quality data attribute of the dataset member change will initiate a report to be
sent to the client.

2.2 Testing Dynamic Reports

2.2.1 Checking dynamically created datasets
StationScout detects when a dataset is created dynamically by a server upon a client request.

Signals from newly created dynamic datasets are automatically added to the IED Overview in a grouped
manner like all existing signals read out from SCL file.

Detection occurs only when StationScout is connected to the IED (Live Status=On). Once the signals from
dynamic datasets are added, they are kept even after disconnecting from the IED (Live Status=Off).

SIEMENS DIGSI 5 IEDs reserve a series of unbuffered and buffered report control blocks with report IDs:
A_URCB_101…A_URCB_2901 and A_BRCB_101…A_BRCB_2101 specifically for dynamically created
datasets to be assigned. They have no datasets referenced in the SCL file.

Figure 5: RCBs of IED in Offline Mode Figure 6: An RCB (A_URCB_101) without dataset assigned

© OMICRON 2021 Page 9 of 17

 When Live Status is switched on, StationScout watches the report control block for any sign that a dynamic
dataset may be in use (e.g. the dataset reference used by the report control block was not defined by the
SCL). If a dynamic dataset reference is detected the dataset is queried from the IED, signals referenced by
the datasets are detected and created, and associated to the visualized report control block. Now,
A_URCB_101 has a dynamically created dataset assigned with members in Transmitted Signals section.

Figure 7: Activated RCBs containing Dynamic Datasets Figure 8: Dynamic Dataset assigned to A_URCB_101 by Client

StationScout will also create an Event Log entry containing the information from which IED and dataset
reference members had been fetched from.

Figure 9: Event Log entry for dynamically created dataset detection

When “Live Status” is turned off, dynamically added signals are still available and can be used for further
tests. Test Cases can be created out of added signals for preparation in office to testing activities such as
SAT and Commissioning.

© OMICRON 2021 Page 10 of 17

 In Simulation mode, dynamic created datasets will be immediately visualized, and a client can receive the
generated reports using the dynamic dataset from simulated IEDs. This allows testing clients such as RTUs
and HMIs, without the need of physical IEDs in place. Created test cases can be run to perform tests of
RTUs and HMIs.

Figure 10: Live status: Off keeps the dynamic datasets Figure 11: Simulating the IED with dynamic datasets

2.2.2 Checking assignment of datasets to report control blocks

As a next step, assignment of dynamically created datasets to the correct report control block at an IED shall
be checked. Here we check the report control block that client wanted to assign the dynamic dataset.

Misconfiguration might occur because of either incorrect client configuration or an unexpected IED response.

After a client sent a dynamic dataset creation request, the IED will create the dynamic datasets. Then, the
client will assign the dynamic dataset to a report control block and enables it.

The important point to verify is which report control block has which dataset assigned. This can be ensured
by simply checking the dataset reference and activated report control blocks. Additionally, Event Log entries
with list the created datasets and associations.

Figure 12: RCB Assignment of the created dynamic dataset Figure 13: Enabled report with dynamic dataset

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 Figure 14: Event Log entry for report control block assignment

2.2.3 Checking report activation and reservation status

It is important to check the “activation”, “reservation”, and “enabled” status of the reports of an IED,
especially if the dynamic reporting is utilized. These fields are only visible when StationScout connected to
the IED (Live Status = ON).
Same checks are performed for buffered and unbuffered report control blocks.
The exception is, unbuffered report control blocks have a Reserved (Resv) control block attribute as a
Boolean and buffered report control blocks have instead a Reserve Time in seconds (ResvTms) which is an
integer and only optionally existing in Ed.2 IEDs.
Report Activation Status: In StationScout, the report activation status can be “Reserved”, “Not Activated”,
or “Activated”.
Report activation status is a combined summary expression of reservation and enabled status of the report.
It is a key indicator for verifying the established client/server report communication.
A client can send a write request to an IED, to change the RptEna attribute to TRUE, which also means in
another terms “enabling” and at the same time implicitly “reserving” the report. If this request is responded
positive by the IED, the report status will change into “Activated”. An activated report is ready to transmit its
dataset, when one of the trigger conditions are fulfilled.
There is only one exception for this workflow: In Ed 2.1 buffered report control blocks shall always be
reserved by writing a positive value to their reservation time attribute before modifying or enabling the report
control block.

Figure 15: Not activated Unbuffered RCB Figure 16: Activated Unbuffered RCB

When a client sends an enable request for activating the report control block to an IED, the respond of the
IED shall be checked.
A not activated or reserved report can be a typical situation when a client is disconnected from the network
or cannot communicate with the IED anymore.
When a client loses its connection, unbuffered report control blocks will immediately change its state to “Not
activated”, while buffered report control blocks will stay “Reserved” until the reservation time is expired. In
such an event, only then the “Status”, “Enabled”, and “Reserved”/ ”Reserved time (s)” fields of the report
control block will change respectively.

© OMICRON 2021 Page 12 of 17

 Figure 17: Disabled buffered RCB after a disconnection Figure 18: Disabled unbuffered RCB after a disconnection

Report Reservation: Report control blocks can be reserved for a client specifically using “Client LN”
attributes in the SCL file as long as client information is included in the SCL file. This will let StationScout
show report arrows and subscribers even when live status is OFF.

Figure 19: Client reservation via SCL configuration

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 StationScout can also show report arrows without a reservation in SCL if the IED supports the “Owner”
attribute after switching into Live Mode.
For both buffered and unbuffered reports, an enabled report is implicitly reserved for the client who activates
it.

Figure 20: Reserved Unbuffered RCB by a client Figure 21: Reserved buffered RCB by a client

Reserve time is introduced for buffered report control blocks in Ed.2 as optional attribute. If not present the
control block is reserved by simply enabling it.

> A reserve time of -1 indicates that the control block was reserved by configuration for a certain client.
> A value of 0 indicates that the buffered report control block is not reserved. A client can reserve the
control block by writing a value larger than 0.
> Any other value represents the number of seconds that the reservation shall be maintained after the
association of the client that enabled the reservation was closed or interrupted.

An example of not reserved buffered report control block before getting enabled is below. A reserve time
of 0 s shows that it is not reserved for a specific client.

Figure 22: Not enabled and not reserved buffered RCB

Below two buffered report control blocks after getting enabled are shown. Left one is reserved to a client
in SCL file and right one is not reserved for a client in SCL file.

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 Figure 23: Activated buffered report Figure 24: Activated buffered report to max reserve time

The picture below shows the status of same buffered report control block after a client disconnection.

Figure 25: Buffered Report after client disconnection

When there is no client reservation defined in the SCL file, after a client disconnection, the IED keeps
the reservation of the client for a period of reserve time in seconds long active. After reserve time
expires, the report control block can be freely enabled by any client again.

Activated buffered RCB Client disconnected Reserve time expired

Figure 26: RCB Reservation lifetime during client connection and disconnection

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2.2.4 Event Logging
Any detection of dynamically created datasets with its used members and possible assignment to a report
control block will always create an entry in the Event Log. Furthermore, the unassigning of a dataset from a
report control block creates another log entry.

Figure 27: Example of a chronological event list of dynamic reporting activities

© OMICRON 2021 Page 16 of 17

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