If we say the computer technology (and IT technologies) has revolutionized the ways, forms of communication, relationships, etc.. between human beings we are not saying anything new. We mention a fact that has received in recent years thousands upon thousands of words in scientific studies serious and nonserious.

It is no less real than the computer and its associated technologies have revolutionized the life of the industries and services. In this case we see the impact on the energy industry, including power transmission, and more accurately in high voltage substations.

We therefore need to focus on how traditionally substations were designed and how they can be designed using the best features of existing technologies now.

In the past, the substations were controlled by computers that perform specific functions. The protection functions were performed by protective relays protecting the transmission lines and equipment such as transformers or reactors. Additionally, protection relays were built to protect certain specific aspects of possible faults.

In addition, control was made through panels composed of keys and buttons. The remote supervisory control functions was carried out by machines called Remote Terminal Units that send information to higher-level machines and executed simple logic.

Today's devices have changed and their functions are much more varied and combined with each other. Protective relays in addition to their own specific functions for the purpose they are designed, have potential for implementing control functions, programmable logic and sophisticated calculation. Additionally, as discussed below, the functions of 61850 revolutionize the way to build the substation.

This requires that the communications architecture is changed. What we have seen in the last post is an adaptation of the communication structures that were used in the past.

But the most important are the changes in the practical implementation in the construction of substations. In the past it was necessary wiring between devices to ensure signals control logic needed to comply with certain operating conditions.

In the next post we'll see how it adapts the wiring of substations in a case study of 61850 implementations.

From top to bottom, levels of communication detailed in the diagram of the previous post are: - SCADA high level: at regional or country. ICCP Protocol (in this case) - SCADA Enterprise: the enter...
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The communications system architecture is based on the fundamental property of ethernet networks that allow different sessions on the same interface and with different protocols. That's the biggest re...
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The first definition that one should take to implement the recommendation IEC61850 is to define the architecture of communication systems to be used inside the substation. We start with defining wh...
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