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Applications of IEC 61850 in distribution automation

Article · March 2011

DOI: 10.1109/PSCE.2011.5772491

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Applications of IEC 61850 in Distribution
Automation
Salman Mohagheghi*, Member, IEEE, Jean-Charles Tournier, Member, IEEE, James Stoupis*, Member, IEEE
Laurent Guise*, Thierry Coste*, Claus A. Andersen*, Jacob Dall*
Abstract—Distribution Automation (DA) is viewed as an
integral component of the Smart Grid paradigm. It facilitates the
employment of computer technology and communication
infrastructure to advance management and operation of the
distribution network from a semi-automated approach towards a
fully automated one. SCADA systems, advanced sensors, and
electronic controllers are integrated into the DA system in order
to achieve the desired performance and reliability at the
distribution network. Interoperability of all the components
participating in the DA system requires communication
standards covering not only the devices in the substation, but all
the components from the substation to the point of interface with
the end consumers. While the IEC 61850 standard was originally
addressing applications and communications within the
substation, recent work is undergone for extending it beyond the
substation fence. With its object oriented structure, IEC 61850
can provide comprehensive and accurate information models for
various components of distribution automation systems, while
providing an efficient solution for this naturally multi-vendor
environment. This paper provides some concrete examples on
how IEC 61850 can be employed in the context of distribution
automation applications, and what measures need to be taken to
enable it to efficiently respond to some of the emerging
technologies in DA systems.
Index Terms—IEC 61850, communication protocols,
information models, interoperability, distribution automation,
feeder automation, Smart Grid
I. INTRODUCTION
S MART Grid refers to a power system that incorporates the
state of the art in communication, electronic control and
information technology in order to achieve enhanced
operational monitoring, control, intelligence, and connectivity.
To achieve a “smart” distribution system, various automatic
technologies and approaches have been attempted in the areas
of system metering, monitoring, protection, and control.
Although some automation schemes may only utilize local
measurement (e.g. loss of voltage to initiate switching
operations), most advanced schemes of distribution
automation systems require communication between the
different devices located in the field and/or to initiate an
S. Mohagheghi, J.C. Tournier and J. Stoupis are with ABB Corporate
Research, Raleigh, NC 27606 USA (email: salman.mohagheghi@us.abb.com,
jean-charles.tournier@us.abb.com, james.stoupis@us.abb.com).
L. Guise is with Schneider Electric, Grenoble, France (email: laurent.guise
@schneider-electric.com).
T. Coste is with EDF, Clamart, France (email: thierry.coste@edf.fr).
C.A. Andersen and J. Dall are with EURISCO ApS, Odense, Denmark
(email: caa@eurisco.dk, jd@eurisco.dk).
*
Member of the IEC Technical Committee 57, Working Group 17 on
Communication Systems for Distributed Energy Resources.
1
action or report an action to the central control center [1].
Such a communication system should make large quantities of
data available to different applications while preserving its
quality. This in turn raises the issue of how and with what
format the data should be modeled and transported.
Additionally, in more advanced automation applications, data
needs to be accompanied by additional attributes such as the
address of the device the message is being sent to, the address
of the device initiating the message, type and length of the
data, time stamp of the event/message, its priority compared to
the other messages received, as well as its quality.
Traditionally, proprietary protocols have been used to
model and transport the data and the applications. The
technologies developed were exclusive to each vendor and
were not compatible with the systems and technologies of
others. The inherent multi-vendor nature of advanced
distribution automation applications leads to the need for an
interoperable environment in which all devices and vendors
share a common modeling and communication protocol.
While the IEC 61850 standard was originally intended for
intra-substation applications, this paper promotes the idea of
extending its applicability to distribution automation
applications integrating field devices located outside the
substation fence. Some typical DA applications have therefore
been presented here based on integration with IEC 61850.
These include volt/Var control, fault detection, fault isolation,
and service restoration. For each application, the paper
attempts to discuss the modeling aspects, as well as the gaps
and improvements that could be brought upon the standard to
better suit distribution applications.
The remainder of the paper is organized as follows: Section
II gives an overview of the IEC 61850 standard by focusing
on its modeling and communications aspects, while section III
presents the main characteristics of distribution automation
systems. Section IV is the core of the paper and presents the
use cases of some typical DA applications using IEC 61850.
Section V discusses communication aspects of the standard,
and some practical considerations related to the
implementation issues. Finally, concluding remarks appear in
section VI.
II. COMMUNICATIONS WITHIN THE SUBSTATION- IEC 61850
A. Overview
IEC 61850 is a standard recommended by the International
Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) originally for the design
of substation automation (SA) systems [3], which was recently
 2

extended to cover other utility automation functions as well.
Traditionally for the SA systems, the standard divides inter-
substation communications into three levels: process level
including the I/O devices, intelligent sensors and actuators,
bay/unit level including the protection and control IEDs, and
the substation level, including the substation computer,
operator’s desk and the interfaces with outside the substation.
All the communications within and between these levels are
covered in the standard (Fig. 1). Moreover, in its recent
edition, the standard also covers protection data exchange
between the bay and remote protection, as well as control data
exchange between the substation and the remote control
center.
and services used for access to the elements of the domain
specific object model. ACSI is a network independent
interface that defines the semantic of the service models with
their attributes, and describes what these services provide. The
abstract nature of ACSI is necessary to make the SA system
compatible with the fast advances in the communication
technology, keeping the SA specific data models separate
from the underlying communication technology.

Fig. 2. Data structure in IEC 61850.

The syntax and encoding of the messages are defined in

Fig. 1. Substation automation topology based on IEC 61850.
Specific Communication Service Mapping (SCSM). For
example, IEC 61850-8-1 is a SCSM for mapping of services
to Manufacturing Message Specification (MMS). Figure 3
illustrates how these communication stacks and interfaces are
related.

In the IEC 61850 environment, protection and control

functions are broken down into smaller units called Logical
Nodes (LN). These virtual units are in fact the objects defined
in the object oriented context of the standard, and present one
of the most important advantages of the standard over legacy
protocols. These LNs correspond to various protection,
protection related, control, metering, and monitoring functions
as well as the physical components such as transformers and
breakers. Each LN can have a few or up to 30 data objects,
each of which belonging to a Common Data Class (CDC).
Each data object in turn has a few or more than 20 data
attributes. The LNs can be on any of the three levels defined
for substation automation, and are normally grouped into
logical devices (LD) – one or more of which reside in each
physical device [3] (Fig. 2).
IEC 61850 defines an abundance of services that act upon Fig. 3. Communication services- mapping to the OSI layered model
the data objects of the LNs. These services not only cover the
traditional control/read/write commands, but they also cover In addition to the client/server services by mapping to the
new and expanded services for grouping the data objects, MMS stack, the standard provides peer-to-peer services for
reporting an event and logging, as well as transmitting the fast transmitting Sampled Values (SV) and GOOSE messages
messages, i.e. GOOSE and GSSE [3]. (Fig. 4). SV represents quantities digitized at the source to be
The communication services and data models are defined transmitted to the substation. These quantities come from
in section 61850-7-2 of the standard. The Abstract modern low energy voltage and current sensors which gather
Communication Service Interface (ACSI) specifies the models information from the primary power system. IEC 61850-9-1

and 61850-9-2 define two mappings for SV over serial
unidirectional multi-drop point-to-point link and SV over
ISO/IEC 8802-3.
Fig. 4. Client/server and peer-to-peer communication modes in IEC 61850.
Multicast GOOSE messages on the other hand are used to
model the transmission of high priority information such as
trip commands or interlocking information. The model is
based on cyclic and high-priority transmission of status
information. Information like a trip command is transmitted
spontaneously and then cyclically at increasing intervals.
Although other standard protocols exist that cover
communications beyond substations, it is generally believed
that the capabilities of IEC 61850 can be potentially used to
improve these applications. In this context, IEC 61850 can be
used as the communication protocol for feeder automation
applications or communication with the control centers [5].
III. DISTRIBUTION AUTOMATION
Distribution Automation (DA) as a concept emerged in the
1970s to promote the application of computer and
communications technologies for the improvement of
distribution system operating performance. Since then, DA
has evolved and turned into an established concept which is
adopted by the utilities worldwide. Today, DA has gained
renewed attention and accelerated momentum in view of the
recent industry-wide push towards Smart Grids and the need
for more reliable and efficient distribution systems. In fact, it
is estimated that by 2030, 55% of all distribution feeders in
the US will be integrated with advanced DA systems [6].
DA specifics vary from one utility system to another, but in
general it refers to deployment of automation technologies for
protection, control, monitoring, and operation of distribution
systems. These technologies enable electric utilities to
monitor, control, and operate distribution components in a
real-time or non-real-time mode from remote locations. A key
requirement for any DA system is an advanced two-way
communication system for providing capability of remote
measurements/operations of field devices from a substation or
the control center.
3
DA promises to benefit the utility and customers alike by
reducing operation and maintenance costs, improving
reliability and power quality, enabling new customer services,
deferring capacity expansion projects (CAPX), and providing
better information for utility engineers and planners [7]. DA
covers the complete range of functions from existing SCADA
systems to ever-increasing deployment of AMI technologies at
the customer level in which local automation, remote control,
and central decision making are brought together to deliver a
cost-effective, flexible, and cohesive operating architecture
[8]. A DA implementation could be as simple as upgrading a
manual switching scheme with remote control to deployment
of sophisticated DMS systems with integrated IEDs. Some
examples of DA/FA applications are listed below, each
requiring automated operation and control of a specific set of
components within the distribution system:
• Fault Detection, Isolation and Restoration (FDIR) –
algorithms used for detecting and isolating faults in the
distribution system, and restoring power to the customers
located in the outage area. This improves system
reliability and availability of service.
• Feeder Reconfiguration – preventive or restorative
actions for dynamic reconfiguration of the network in
order to achieve improved efficiency, reduced losses, load
balancing, lower congestion, and smaller probability of
outages.
• Outage Management System (OMS) – utilizes the data
available from fault location systems, IEDs and Advanced
Metering Infrastructure (AMI) to achieve accurate outage
scoping, thereby replacing the traditional trouble call
approach and reducing the response time to system
outages.
• Distribution State Estimation (DSE) – perform near-real-
time state estimation and topology processing to achieve
an accurate state/topology of the distribution network to
be used either by other applications or for situational
awareness purposes.
• Voltage/Var Optimization (VVO) – regulates shunt
capacitors and transformer tap positions in order to
achieve minimized power losses, reduced demand and/or
improved voltage profile.
• Distributed Generation (DG) Management – optimal
dispatch of DG units to minimize the losses, improve the
system voltage profile, manage reactive power
production, improve the system congestion profile, or
assist system restoration, while adhering to the market
conditions.
• Microgrid Management – supervisory control of low
voltage and medium voltage microgrids during grid
connected mode and/or performing microgrid islanding.
• Demand Response (DR) – demand side management to
make use of the demand reduction offered by proactive
consumers, primarily for peak shaving purposes. Some
similar mechanisms can also be used to manage ancillary
services that contribute to quality of service and system
security in the distribution system.

• Protection Coordination – to achieve dynamic optimal
coordination between the protective devices in the
distribution system after a change in the network setpoints
or configuration.
• Load Forecast and Modeling – accurate load forecast and
modeling for real-time or near-real-time applications, at
the substation, service transformer or meter level,
considering the consumption patterns and/or econometric
data of individual or groups of customers.
• Electric Vehicle (EV) Integration to the Grid – to model,
analyze, and manage the integration of EVs into the grid
for battery charge and discharge processes, given the
utility needs and the market information.
The recently coined term Advanced Distribution
Automation (ADA) describes the extension of intelligent
control over electrical power grid functions to the distribution
level and beyond [9]. While traditionally, electric utilities with
SCADA systems have control over the transmission level and
distribution level equipment, their area of responsibility falls
short of the end users’ territory and they are unable to provide
direct control of smaller energy units such as autonomous
distributed energy resources (DER), homes and buildings.
ADA concept is a platform that offers extension of utility’s
control over these small scale systems in order to achieve
higher efficiency, sustainability and reliability.
IV. CASE STUDIES
This section provides some detailed examples on how to
model various DA functions using the data models provided
in the standard IEC 61850.
A. Voltage/Var Control
Generally, the objective of volt/Var control (VVC)
problem is to minimize the power losses in the network,
reduce the total demand, and/or flatten the voltage profile.
This objective is achieved by regulating the size/status of the
shunt capacitors, and tap positions of the voltage regulating
transformers along the feeder(s) as well as that of the on-load
tap changer (OLTC) at the substation. The optimization
problem is subject to operational constraints of the control
elements as well as the network constraints for the power
system. Mathematically, the problem can be formulated as
follows:
Min { power losses, total demand }
Subject to one or more of the following:
- Load balance equations
- Bus voltage constraints
- Line/transformer current constraints
- Power factor constraints at the main substation
- Reactive power constraints at the main substation
- Maximum allowable number of operations for each
transformer tap for a given time duration
- Maximum allowable number of switching operations
for each capacitor for a given time duration
The two main control elements of the VVC problem, i.e.,
the shunt capacitor and the voltage regulator, can be easily
4
modeled using IEC 61850.
1) Shunt Capacitor Control
A typical LN-representation of the capacitor bank and the
related controls are depicted in Fig. 5. In this case, three
separate sets of logical nodes are assigned to phases a, b and
c, in order to represent the individual instrument transformers
for the three phases. The logical node XSWI represents a
switching device not capable of tripping short circuits [10].
Examples are load breakers, capacitor breakers, disconnecting
switches and grounding switches. It should be noted that
although the capacitor bank in Fig. 5 is considered to allow
for individual phase switching, the individual XSWIs are
shown as a stack of switches and not three switches for three
phases. This is due to the fact that a capacitor bank normally
consists of several parallel capacitors per phase and therefore
each phase has more than one switch associated with it. The
proposed logical node AVVC represents the application LN
for VVC.
Fig. 5. Decomposition of shunt capacitor bank control into LNs.
The size of the capacitor bank can be regulated by opening
or closing one or more switches from the stack of parallel
capacitors. This can be achieved by accessing the data
attribute Pos belonging to each logical node XSWI.
Furthermore, the logical node ZCAP represents a capacitor
bank, and in addition to typical optional attributes such as the
equipment health and operation time, provides mandatory
attributes CapDS and DschBlk to indicate capacitor bank
device status and blockage due to discharge respectively [11].
Finally, the data attribute OpCntRs belonging to the logical
node SSWI determines the (resettable) number of switching
actions on the XSWI. This information is critical in evaluating
the operational constraints of the capacitor, namely, the
number of switching operations in a day, or the last switching
action –which are often limited.

2) Voltage Regulator Tap Position Control
Voltage regulators with automatic tap changing capabilities
allow for controlling the voltage according to a predefined
automatic logic or by remote access through the operator
command. The most relevant LNs defined in IEC 61850 for
this application are ATCC that represents the automatic tap
changer controller, YLTC that represents the tap changer
which is the device allocated to the power transformer
allowing changing taps of the winding, and MMXU/MMXN
that indicates the presence of three phase/non-phase metering
and measurement for operative purposes [10]. Some of the
main data attributes associated with the logical node ATCC
are as follows [11]:
• Loc: to indicate local operation
• TapPos: tap position
• OpCntRs: resettable operation counter (i.e., number of tap
operations)
• TapChg: change tap position (stop, higher, lower)
• LTCBlk: block automatic control of LTC
• Auto: automatic/manual operation
• ParOp: parallel/independent operation (which is used for
ganged or unganged operation of the tap changer)
• HiTapPos/LoTapPos: to indicate that the high or low tap
positions have been reached.
Fig. 6 illustrates a tap changer with a three-phase control,
which similar to the previous section can be easily expanded
to incorporate individual phase control capability as well. In
that case, the attribute ParOp of ATCC needs to be set to the
correct setting to indicate independent (un-ganged) as opposed
to parallel (ganged) operation.
Fig. 6. Decomposition of tap changer control into LNs.
3) VVC Use Case
A typical voltage/Var control use case can be described as
follows:
1. Load forecast, network model, loss calculations are
imported from external modules and used for algorithm
calculations.
5
2. Single phase and three phase measurements from across
the system are available through MMXU and MMXN.
Examples include the total active demand, total reactive
power, total power factor, etc.
3. Capacitor status and number of switching operations are
retrieved for all capacitors.
4. Tap position and number of operations are retrieved for
all voltage regulators.
5. Algorithm is executed (at the utility side or at the
substation), control actions are determined (subject to
operational constraints of individual capacitors and tap
changers).
6. Finally, control signals are sent to local controllers
(CSWI and ATCC).
The communication scheme for the VVC application
depends on the way the algorithm is being implemented.
While for centralized solutions implemented at the control
center level, the communication services would be in the form
of client/server applications, for more decentralized solutions
–for instance at the substation level or lower– the services
could be either in the form of client/server or peer-to-peer
applications. Both these schemes are supported by the
standard.
B. Fault Detection and Isolation
The objective of fault detection and isolation is to sense
and locate a fault in the network, and consequently, isolate it
from the rest of the network in minimum amount of time.
Fault detection and isolation therefore contribute to the overall
system security by minimizing the impact of an electrical fault
on the network. The fault isolation needs to ensure that the
fault is isolated with minimum amount of unserved load as a
result of the disturbance. This mechanism is largely dependent
on the protection scheme employed at the feeders. In general,
two main protection schemes can be considered that are
currently being used worldwide:
• A distributed protection scheme, mostly used in rural
distribution networks or when large distances have to be
covered – In such a scheme, multiple breakers and/or
reclosers are located on the same feeder and contribute
directly to clear the fault as close to where it occurs as
possible. Since this mode is very frequent in North
America, it has been referred to here as the NA influenced
feeder topology.
• A centralized protection scheme, where protection
devices able to clear the fault are exclusively located in
the primary substation. This means that in the event of a
fault only one breaker can trip (or perform reclosing
action). Any other switching equipment on the line does
not have fault interruption capabilities. In the current state
of the art, no more than 2.5 switches per feeder are
remotely controllable. Since this mode is very frequently
used in Europe, it has been referred to here as the
European influenced feeder topology.
Fault detection and isolation issues for these two schemes
are described in the following sections.

1) NA Influenced Topology
In this first scheme, protective relays often detect the fault
and trip their corresponding circuit breakers to isolate it from
the healthy feeders. Fault detection, location and isolation
applications can be easily modeled using IEC 61850 since it
involves virtually the same set of devices and operations to
detect and isolate the fault within the substation as it does
down on the feeder.
a) Fault Detection
Various protection devices can be used for sensing a
disturbance, the most common ones for the distribution
network being time overcurrent, directional overcurrent,
differential protection, and earth fault detection. Although in
the presence of distributed energy resources other protection
devices such as over/under-voltage protection, over/under-
frequency protection, directional over/under-power and
suchlike can also be employed. All these protection functions
are modeled in details in the standard [11]. In this topology, it
is also common to install reclosers along the feeder. These
devices are equipped with typical protection elements such as
PTOC and can help in detecting the fault.
Once the protection device senses a disturbance, it sends
the trip command to the circuit breakers and reclosers to lock
out and interrupt the fault. Fault detection at the control center
level can be achieved by monitoring the position of the
switch, i.e., XCBR.Pos or the status of the auto-recloser, i.e.,
RREC.AutoRecSt. The standard also provides data attributes
for counting the number of operations of these devices, which
is specifically important in applications involving auto-
reclosers. Examples of these attributes are RREC.OpCntRs
and XCBR.OpCnt.
b) Fault Isolation
Switches and reclosers used for isolating the fault are all
modeled in IEC 61850:
• RREC: an auto-recloser is modeled in the standard as a
controllable device whose status AutoRecSt can be
accessed by an external application, and can operate using
the data attribute Op. The standard provides optional
reclose time attributes that indicate the time of the first,
second and third reclose operations.
• XCBR: is a switch with short circuit breaking capability
that is controlled by the protection logical nodes Pxyz.
The switch position can be accessed by retrieving the
attribute Pos, while its operation mode can be changed
from local mode (without communication) to remote
mode by accessing the data attribute Loc.
• XSWI: the circuit switch is very similar to the XCBR,
except that it cannot interrupt a short circuit. The switch
position and mode of operation (local/remote) is often
controlled by the logical node CSWI.
c) Fault Location
The standard also provides a logical node RFLO for fault
location. Among its various data attributes, the LN provides
measurements for fault impedance (FltZ) and distance (in km)
to the fault (FltDiskm).
6
2) European Influenced Topology
In this type of feeder operation, there is only one breaker in
charge of protecting the line against electrical fault. Very
often in order to minimize the impact of a fault, the real
topology of the feeder is an open ring. Fault detectors are
spread on the line (underground or overhead) and are used to
identify the faulty section of the line. Isolation of this section
will then isolate the electrical fault based on the information
received from the fault detectors and hence, restoration will be
possible by supplying the healthy section by closing the
normally open point of the open-ringed feeder.
a) Fault Detection
The fault detection scheme in this specific case not only
has to detect the fault, but also to ensure that this fault has
been cleared by the upstream breaker. A confirmation is
therefore needed that this fault was a “true” fault. Fault
signature analysis (fault detection) can be performed and
modeled using the P series LNs such as PTOC, PTOV, etc
(see the Appendix). However, in such cases, the
corresponding Start and Op attributes which are considered
mandatory in the standard are generally not very useful unless
they are used for providing setting information.
Fig. 7. Functional breakdown of a fault detector in the European influenced
feeder topology.
Another function –not currently supported by the standard–
is the function in charge of detecting the presence of voltage
or current. It is therefore possible to create a new LN for
supporting these functions, which can also be of interest in a
“standalone” approach.
Moreover, the decision-making function, which will take
into account the signal coming from the fault signature LNs,
as well as from the presence of power (voltage or current), is
very specific, and cannot really be semantically modeled using
the PTRC logical node, which is generally used for protection
relays, because such function is not supposed to perform trip
conditioning. Therefore, it is recommended here to add a new
LN to cover this type of function, from the S series LN (S
meaning supervision). The proposed LN is called SFPI, i.e.,
Supervision Fault Passage Indicator. This would lead to the
LN breakdown of FPI as depicted in Fig. 8. By using peer to
peer communications, current break down may evolve by
computing the real status of the upper breaker, rather than an
image of its position through voltage and current analysis.
 7

• Activation of distributed energy resources (DER) and

Fig. 8. Fault presence indicator LN breakdown for the European influenced
feeder topology. SVPI and SCPI represent supervisory LNs for voltage and
current presence indicators.
bringing the reserve supplies online.
• Adjustment of the generation setpoints of the dispatchable
DER units.
Due to space limitations, this paper only focuses on the
case involving the activation of DER to support the additional
load. To illustrate this case a small example is presented in
Fig. 9. The proposed system consists of two main generation
sources, four feeders and a DER unit. Under normal operating
conditions, feeders 1, 2 and 3 are energized through Generator
1, while feeder 4 is energized by Generator 2 –with the
normally open switch R3 being open. It is also assumed that
Generator 2 has enough capacity to support feeder 4 with no
need for bringing the DER unit online.

b) Fault isolation
Fault isolation is performed by remotely managing the
remotely controllable switches located on the corresponding
feeder(s). Here also peer-to-peer communications between the
fault detectors and the controllable switch can speed up the
overall reaction time of the DA system.
3) Discussion
The standard seems to cover almost all the devices that
participate in the detection, isolation and location of the fault.
Minor information missing can be added as described in the Fig. 9. Service restoration example – normal operating condition.
preceding sections. Moreover, geographical attributes can be
added to the reclosers and switches that indicate their When a fault occurs along feeder 2, switches R1 and R2
association with the connectivity model of the system. open up in order to isolate the fault. The consequence of the
However, the important point is that no new common data fault isolation is that feeder 3 is now without power. It is
class is needed to provide the required data. assumed in this case that the load of feeder 3 can not be
handled solely by Generator 2; however, it can be handled if
C. Service Restoration Use Case
the DER unit is connected to the network. The set of actions
Following the occurrence of a fault in the distribution and operations to perform in order to restore the power on
system and its consequent isolation from the rest of the feeder 3 are (see Fig. 10):
network, the customers initially affected by this interruption • Evaluate the load on feeder 3.
are not limited to those connected to the faulty circuit; rather, • Determine the maximum capacity of Generator 2.
a larger number of customers –for instance those connected to
• Determine the maximum capacity of the DER unit. This
the downstream of the fault location– will be left without
will provide an estimate of the total generation capacity
electricity as well. Service restoration algorithms are therefore
available.
applied in the distribution management system (DMS) in
• If the total power exceeds the loads on feeders 3 and 4
order to supply electricity to the customers located in the
then proceed.
outage area, while the fault is isolated and the faulty circuit is
• Perform synchronism check between the DER and the
being repaired; thereby improving the availability of the
grid.
system. Traditionally, the selection of the restoration sources
and the restoration paths is determined only by the capacity • Connect the DER to the network (set to the load
margin of the restoration source as well as the rating limits of following mode).
the equipment along the restoration path. The consequence of • Close the switch R3 to re-energize feeder 3.
service restoration is an additional load imposed on the
generators located on the restoration path. When the
additional load exceeds the capacity of these generators,
several actions can be performed:
• A demand response signal can be sent to the customers on
the restoration path to lower their load. In this case, the
demand response signal should be a direct load control
(DLC) signal so that the load reduction happens as fast as
Fig. 10. Service restoration example – after service is restored to outage area.
possible.
From an IEC 61850 modeling point of view, the above

example can be modeled as in Fig. 11. The new application
logical node ARES is proposed to indicate the service
restoration engine. To perform its actions, ARES uses:
• MMXU20 that provides the current load supported by
Generator 2,
• ZGEN2 which gives the capacity of Generator 2,
• MMXU2 which provides the load of feeder 3 before the
fault occurred,
• DGEN30 which gives the capacity of the DER,
• DRCC30 which allows to control the set point of the
DER,
• RSYN30 which checks the synchronism of the DER,
• XCBR30 which connects the DER to the network,
• RREC3 which closes switch R3 to re-energize feeder 3.
Fig. 11. IEC 61850 based model of the service restoration example.
V. COMMUNICATION ASPECTS
Distribution automation applications are characterized by a
large number of openly accessible devices, spread out over
large geographical areas, which are connected to each other
through heterogeneous means. Such characteristics make the
requirements on the underlying communication infrastructure
different from the ones applicable for substation automation
applications. While communication infrastructure as defined
by the OSI model [12] is too broad to be discussed in this
paper, the discussion in this section is restricted to the most
critical parts, namely the physical layer, the network and
transport layers, the session layer and cyber security.
A. Physical Layer
At the physical layer, different media such as fiber optics,
Power Line Carrier (PLC) or wireless technologies can be
used. The selection of the proper medium depends on many
aspects, e.g., installation cost, geographical span of the
application, security, etc. Some options such as fiber optics
provide high throughput and high dependability, but are
considerably more expensive for long distance applications
and may be only available in the urban areas. Similarly,
wireless is a viable option for urban areas where the devices
are not far from one another. Moreover, compared to optical
fiber, wireless is a more economical option for many DA
applications, although with lower dependability and higher
security risks. From an economical point of view, PLC is even
cheaper as it does not require heavy investments and is
therefore more suitable for rural areas where the distribution
8
network can be spread over a very large area.
Finally, it is worth noting that compared to substation
automation applications, most DA applications are not very
sensitive to network delays of a few seconds, as long as the
data is received before the next computation period (usually
considered in the order of minutes). This makes most
transmission technologies viable options.
B. Network and Transport Layers
While a point-to-point communication is technically
feasible to implement most DA applications, the ongoing
effort for developing the Smart Grid infrastructure
necessitates considering routable protocols. An obvious
choice is therefore IP and especially IPv6 when considering
the future developments. The downside of IP and IPv6 is the
overhead it would cause for the data transmission channels
with limited bandwidth such as PLC when used over long
distances, where a simple point-to-point protocol would be
sufficient.
From a transport point of view, TCP is a protocol meeting
the reliability requirement needed by DA applications. Indeed,
while latencies are acceptable for such applications, the
assurance of having packets correctly sent and received is
crucial. It is worth noting that compared to substation
automation, DA cannot rely on redundant physical networks
(e.g. PRP or HSR) and therefore requires software redundancy
mechanisms.
C. Session Layer
Communication services can be based on client-server,
publish/subscribe or peer-to-peer patterns. For majority of
applications that are executed at the control center level, a
client-server approach would be sufficiently effective.
However, peer-to-peer can be useful in applications where
all or part of communication with the control center fails and
the system (for instance the capacitor switches, tap positions,
etc) need to go to a failsafe mode.
D. Cyber Security
Security is an important issue for automated DA
applications. In the modern smart grid paradigm, the nature of
attacks to the power system have shifted from easily
observable physical damages to physical assets towards more
subtle cyber-intrusions and cyber-attacks that can continue for
a long time without showing an immediately observable
impact on the performance of the system.
When it comes to DA applications, some of the most
important cyber security concerns for the utilities are:
• Availability – denial of service, whether issued from the
server side or resulting from inaccessibility of field
devices, can disrupt the performance of the DA
applications.
• Integrity – integrity violation by an unauthorized entity
can adversely affect the performance of the network and
even its configuration, which can potentially impact
thousands of customers.
• Intrusion – intercepting the data packets through a man-
 9

in-the-middle scenario, eavesdropping or spoofing are all • XCBR: circuit breaker

serious security threats for a DA system that if followed • XSWI: circuit switch- all kinds of switching devices not
by unauthorized alteration of data packets can lead to able to switch short circuits
malfunction of the distribution network and in some • YLTC: tap changer
extreme cases to system instability leading to brown-outs • ZCAP: Capacitor
and black-outs. • ZGEN: Generator
While, many of these issues can be potentially prevented
by message authentication and data encryption when B. Protection Logical Nodes
confidentiality is required, the major issues remain twofold: Some of the protections LNs that are more related to the
(a) the key management for such a wide and distributed DA applications are listed below:
network; and (b) unlike substations where a security • PDIF: differential protection
parameter or fence can be clearly identified, most the • PDIR: directional protection
distribution automation assets are located in the field and are • PDOP/PDUP: directional overpower/under-power
easily accessible. These characteristics pose serious challenges • PIOC: instantaneous overcurrent
to properly secure DA applications. • PSDE: sensitive directional earth fault
• PTEF: transient earth fault
VI. CONCLUDING REMARKS • PTOC: time overcurrent
IEC 61850 is an international standard for communication • PTOF/PTUF: over/under-frequency protection
networks and systems proposed originally for applications • PTOV/PTUV: over/under-voltage protection
within the substations, which was later extended to cover
systems outside substations as well. The purpose of this paper VIII. REFERENCES
was to demonstrate through use cases that the standard’s [1] J. Northcote-Green and R. Wilson, Control and Automation of Electrical
features can be utilized for control and automation functions Power Distribution Systems, CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL, 2007.
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IEC 60870-6-TASE.2 with IEC 61850,” February 2002, [Online]
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[9] IntelliGrid Architecture, [Online] available at
A. Non-Protection Logical Nodes http://www.intelligrid.info/IntelliGrid_Architecture/Overview_Guidelies
/index.htm.
• ATCC: automatic tap changer control
[10] IEC 61850- Communication Networks and Systems in Substations, Part
• CSWI: switch controller for controlling any switchgear 5: Communication Requirements for Functions and Device Models, IEC
• DGEN: DER unit generator Std. 2003, [Online] available at www.iec.ch.
[11] IEC 61850- Communication Networks and Systems for Power Utility
• DRCC: DER supervisory control Automation, Part 7-4: Basic Communication Structure – Compatible
• IHMI: operator interface Logical Node Classes and Data Classes, Ed. 2, IEC Std. 2010, [Online]
• MMXN: non-phase related measurement available at www.iec.ch.
[12] R. Horak, Communications Systems and Networks, John Wiley:
• MMXU: measurement Indianapolis, IN, 3rd Ed., 2002.
• RFLO: fault locator [13] IEC 61850- Communication Networks and Systems for Power Utility
Automation, Part 7-420: Basic Communication Structure – Distributed
• RREC: recloser
Energy Resources Logical Nodes, Ed. 1, IEC Std. 2009, [Online]
• RSYN: synchronism-check available at www.iec.ch.
• SSWI: circuit switch supervision
• TCTR/TVTR: current/voltage transformer

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