CIRED 22nd International Conference on Electricity Distribution Stockholm, 10-13 June 2013

Paper 0225

SWITCHGEAR OPTIMIZATION USING IEC 61850-9-2

Janne STARCK Dr. Wolfgang WIMMER Karol MAJER

ABB Oy, Distribution Automation ABB Schweiz AG, Substation Automation ABB Oy, Distribution Automation
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

ABSTRACT
This document describes the utilization of the non-
conventional measurements and advanced features of
IEC 61850 standard for substation automation systems,
especially how sampled value sending according
standard part 9-2 can be used between IEDs in medium-
voltage substation to improve the reliability and
functionality of the system. Calculated results indicate
improvements on availability, performance and reliability
with the selected application example, busbar voltage
sharing.
Figure 1 Basic structure of communication levels
INTRODUCTION
Protection and control IEDs are on the bay level. As bay
With the introduction of the IEC 61850 standard, level IEDs use the same IEC 61850 station bus, it is
substations have been moving into a new era of possible to replace the traditional bay-to-bay signal wires
communication. All manufacturers can adapt their with station bus using horizontal communication. Today,
products to the same communication model and protocol, IEC 61850 GOOSE is used increasingly in substations
enabling the IEDs of different manufacturers to “talk with e.g. for tripping, interlocking or blocking type of signals.
each other” and thus operate with each other. The GOOSE service offers several advantages, for
example reduced costs in the switchgear design,
The IEC 61850 standard defines the Ethernet technology functional flexibility and improved performance [1].
for substation automation communication. It also
includes the related system requirements and the data Process interfaces to high-voltage apparatus are on the
model of the protection and control functions. The process level. Besides the conventional signal wiring
standardized data modeling of substation functions between the process interface and IEDs, IEC 61850
including the communication interfaces pave the way to introduces a concept where process signals can be
openness and interoperability of devices. The IEC 61850 exchanged in process bus using local area network
standard includes self-describing intelligent electronic (LAN). This reduces the wiring between process interface
devices (IEDs) and XML-based Substation Configuration and IEDs by using simple Ethernet cable instead of a set
Language (SCL) which allows system engineering of a of galvanic wires. It also gives flexibility to application
multi-vendor system. and installation as the signals can be shared over LAN
between all the devices connected to the same bus.
The IEC 61850 standard includes the GOOSE service in Changes in application do not necessarily require
the 8-1 profile for real-time communication between the physical re-wiring which increases operational safety and
IEDs. Additionally, the standard includes in the 9-2 decreases modification time.
profile the communication between measurement
apparatus and IEDs. These profiles enable designing This paper introduces a method with example and
substation communication for medium-voltage availability analysis how to combine station and process
switchgear in a novel and flexible way to make the IED buses together to common bus. This has benefits
process data available to all other IEDs in the local especially in medium-voltage switchgear where primary
network in a real-time manner. equipment is close to protection and control IEDs [2].

USING IEC 61850-8-1 AND 9-2 MEDIUM-VOLTAGE APPLICATION

The principle architecture of the IEC 61850 substation The power system networks today are becoming more
automation is divided into three levels as in the following interconnected to each other, from simple radial network
figure. SCADA system interface and substation controller type to meshed networks. This also affects the applied
reside in the station level. In this level, the operator protection and selectivity schemes, which are moving
monitors the system and operates the power network.

CIRED2013 Session 3 Paper No 0225

CIRED 22nd International Conference on Electricity Distribution Stockholm, 10-13 June 2013

Paper 0225

from simpler non-directional functions towards

directional functions with a higher selectivity. Protection
functions used in application focus on protection
requiring voltage measurements as basic voltage
protection and in the directional overcurrent protection
and earthfault protection, plus within incoming feeders
synchrocheck for synchronization of the voltages.

The selected application is applied to medium-voltage

switchgear, e.g. type ABB‟s UniGear ZS1, in single-
busbar arrangement. The switchgear has 20 feeders
divided into 2 sections with a bus coupler (BC) and a bus
riser (BR). There are one incoming feeder (INC) and
eight outgoing feeders (OUT) per section. As measuring
devices for currents and voltages we will consider both
conventional instrument transformers (IT) and non-
conventional instrument transformers (NCIT).

When using ITs, voltage instrument transformer (VT) is

located in the incoming feeders on the cable side and the
busbar voltage is measured in any of the outgoing feeders. Figure 3 Switchgear with NCIT measurement
The sharing of the voltage in the switchgear is done by
wiring signal from busbar to outgoing feeders. Voltage measurements shared via LAN are used in IEDs
for protection purposes. With the usage of NCITs and 9-2,
IED hardware can be simplified as IEDs do not require so
many analog inputs. It is also possible to have several
voltage signal sources from different places in the
switchgear for high-availability back-up schemes. These
are not easily doable with conventional VTs, where more
physical sets of VTs and additional auxiliary equipment
(e.g. terminal blocks, auxiliary relays etc) are needed.
The example application can have two 9-2 sources per
section for redundancy: one from busbar side and the
other, backup from incoming feeder side. By using
NCITs, the protection schemes remain the same, but
digitalization brings benefits while utilizing same signals
in different places of switchgear over LAN.

ETHERNET REDUNDANCY
IEC 61850 specifies a network redundancy scheme that
improves the system availability for substation
communication. It is based on two complementary
Figure 2 Switchgear with conventional measurement protocols defined in the IEC 62439-3 standard: parallel
redundancy protocol (PRP) and high availability seamless
When considering the usage of NCITs (also called as redundancy (HSR) protocol. They rely both on the
sensors) with IEC 61850-9-2 in the same switchgear duplication of all transmitted information via two
arrangement, the design of switchgear is improved. Ethernet ports for one logical network connection.
Sensors are safer, simpler, lighter and easily connectable Therefore, both are able to overcome the failure of a link
to the IED. This has a significant effect on the design of or switch with zero-switchover time, thus fulfilling all the
the switchgear, e.g. the measuring cubicle is not required stringent real-time requirements of substation automation.
any more. The signal from the sensor is routed to one
IED, and sharing of the voltages can be done easily via In PRP, each node is attached to two independent
LAN. In this way, different IEDs connected to the networks operated in parallel. The networks are
network can easily access available voltage measurement completely separated to ensure failure independence and
information if they require it. The interconnection wiring can have different topologies. Both networks operate in
in switchgear becomes simplified as less regular galvanic parallel, thus providing zero-time recovery and the
wires are needed. continuous checking of redundancy to avoid failures.

CIRED2013 Session 3 Paper No 0225

CIRED 22nd International Conference on Electricity Distribution Stockholm, 10-13 June 2013

Paper 0225

TVTR
CSWI
Infeed feeder
XCBR RSYN

TVTR
Sampled Values

Load feeders PTOC

XCBR XCBR
PTOC
Figure 4 Figure PRP TCTR
TCTR

HSR applies the PRP principle of parallel operation to a

single ring. For each message sent, a node sends two
frames, one over each port. Both frames circulate in Figure 6 Voltage data flow for directional earth fault
opposite directions over the ring and every node forwards
the frames it receives from one port to the other. When The engineering wizard for the PTOC „knows‟ that it
the originating node receives a frame it sent, it discards needs the voltages related to the XCBR of the load
the frame to avoid loops. feeder. It traverses the single line to find an appropriate
VT with TVTR, first inside the feeder itself, next from
the busbar. It establishes a Sampled Value Control block
(SVCB) with a data set containing the voltage samples at
the IED hosting this TVTR, and then inserts the IED
hosting the PTOC as destination IED for this message.
Furthermore, it defines the found TVTR.Vol data objects
into an input section of the considered PTOC LN. This
algorithm is repeated for all the PTOCs allocated to load
bays. Similarly, based on the knowledge about the needed
input data, all other data flow between IEDs can be
generated.
Figure 5 Figure HSR
In case of redundant inputs, the algorithm can continue
The choice between these two protocols depends on the searching from the busbar part to an incoming feeder
required functionality, cost and complexity [3]. containing a TVTR, and establish this as the second,
redundant input source for the PTOC. During this
AUTOMATED ENGINEERING traversal, it also finds that this source only needs to be
considered active, if the circuit breaker and the truck /
Any IEC 61850 system must be described with an SCD disconnectors of this feeder are closed, and configure the
(System Configuration Description) file. This contains data flow of this data to the destination IEDs.
the IED addresses, data model, the logical data flow
between the IEDs and the relation between the substation
primary equipment at the single line level and the logical AVAILABILITY CONSIDERATIONS
nodes (LN) on the IEDs. This feature together with the The functionality described in Figure 6 can be
defined semantics of the logical nodes in terms of LN implemented with NCITs providing a sampled value
classes allows automating the data flow engineering and stream either from a merging unit IED, typically for the
also the data input to the logical nodes representing the busbar VT, or from the protection and control IED to
functions. This is done by providing the input data which the sensor is locally connected, typically the
reference to them either in an SCD input section to the sample stream from the incoming feeder. As indicated
receiving logical nodes or appropriate input reference above, for the directional earth fault these streams can be
data objects (Inref objects) of the LNs which make the considered redundant to each other. As they shall be used
input data visible in the communication. in each feeder, also communication redundancy is
necessary. This can be supplied either by a PRP network
The algorithm of automated engineering is illustrated in or by an HSR ring connecting all 20 MV IEDs to the
Figure 6 with the example of voltage sample data flow station level. For both variants, the availability of the
engineering for the directional overcurrent function (LN directional earth fault function in one load bay is
PTOC) with voltage samples provided by the LN TVTR. calculated in the following. It is compared to the

CIRED2013 Session 3 Paper No 0225

CIRED 22nd International Conference on Electricity Distribution Stockholm, 10-13 June 2013

Paper 0225

availability of this function with a conventional VT, Availability result overview

either located in each bay, which is quite costly, or with The following table summarizes the availability figures
some wiring from the busbar VT, which is dangerous and and MTTF with repair, i.e. the resulting MTTF if repair
needing more work. From the availability point of view, of failed parts is done within 24 h.
both are identical if the wiring is neglected.
Type Avail.(%) MTTF(y) Remark
The availability investigation is based on the used
Conv. IED 99.993 44 More wiring
switchgear application. Note that the used MTTF figures
Non-conv. 99.996 75 NCIT in each
are no absolute values; they only show the order and
IED feeder
expected differences between different kinds of IEDs.
NCVT, 99.997 100 Needs more
PRP switches
IED type MTTF(y) Remarks
NCVT, 99.997 99 20 IEDs add 2
VT 80 Conventional VT
HSR ms time delay
NCIT VT 300 Non-conventional VT
Table 2 Used MTTF figures
MU 200 Merging Unit
IED 100 Protection / Control IED As can be seen, all solutions with a non-conventional VT
Switch 50 Ethernet Switch have a better availability than with a conventional VT.
Table 1 Used MTTF figures This is expected due to their different MTTF values
Availability calculation assumed. Due to the redundancy at VT selection (busbar
VT and incomer VT), the system solutions transferring
The availability calculation is performed using
samples to all load bays have a higher availability as the
availability diagrams, showing all components needed
solution with one VT per (load) feeder and are even less
simultaneously as serial connected and components costly. Furthermore, PRP and HSR solutions with high
redundant to each other as parallel connected. This leads availability have almost the same system MTTF value.
to the following availability diagrams.
=Conv. IED
An option is to always to use a separate 9-2 merging unit
MTTF:389333h 44.44400y
MTTR: 24.0h MTTF with repair:
MTTF for repair: 389333h
44.44y
44.44400y (MU) with the VT providing the voltage values. This
Availability(%): with repair: 99.993836 no component repair: 99.993840 increases the number of devices in the system, and thus
ConvVT Prot IED decreases the availability of the protection at the
MTTF(h):700800 MTTF(h):876000
incoming feeder. From the availability point of view for
the load feeders this changes nearly nothing, as the most
Figure 7 Protection with conventional VT determining factor is the MTTF of the protection IED
itself. The high availability of the PRP and HSR solutions
=Non-conv. IED
MTTF: 657000h 75.00000y MTTF for repair: 657000h 75.00000y with the same system MTTF as the IED itself illustrates
MTTR: 24.0h MTTF with repair: 75.00y
Availability(%): with repair: 99.996347 no component repair: 99.996350 this: the voltage value is practically 100% available.
NCIT Prot IED
MTTF(h) 2628000 MTTF(h) 876000
: : CONCLUSIONS
Figure 8 Protection with non-conventional VT Usage of non-conventional instrument transformers
together with IEC 61850 real time communication
= PRP
MTTF: 348612h 39.79600y MTTF for repair: 122232h 13.95300y
enables cost-efficient solutions with higher availability
MTTR: 24.0h MTTF with repair:
Availability(%): with repair: 99.997260
99.99y
no component repair: 99.993120 compared to traditional instrument transformer usage.
NCVT Prot PRP A Prot Utilizing a concept of redundant voltage measurements
MTTF(h):2628000 MTTF(h):876000 MTTF(h):438000 MTTF(h):876000
together with today‟s usage of GOOSE paves the way for
NCVT MU PRP B
future digital MV substation.
MTTF(h):2628000 MTTF(h):1752000 MTTF(h):438000

REFERENCES
Figure 9 Using busbar / incomer VT with PRP [1] A. Hakala-Ranta, O. Rintamäki, J. Starck, 2009,
=HSR "Utilizing Possibilities of IEC 61850 and GOOSE",
MTTF: 355689h 40.60400y MTTF for repair: 37812h 4.31650y
MTTR: 24.0h MTTF with repair: 99.48y CIRED, Prague.
Availability(%): with repair: 99.997246 no component repair: 99.993250
[2] J. Starck, A. Hakala-Ranta, M. Stefanka, 2012,
NCVT Prot HSR ring Prot
MTTF(h):2628000 MTTF(h):876000 MTTF(h):922105
(n-1) of n: 20
MTTF(h):876000 “Switchgear Optimization Using IEC 61850-9-2
and Non-Conventional Measurements", PAC World
NCVT MU
MTTF(h):2628000 MTTF(h):1752000 Conference, Budapest.
[3] H. Kirrmann, 2010, "Seamless Redundancy", ABB
Review, Special Report IEC 61850, 57-61.
Figure 10 Using busbar / incomer VT with HSR

CIRED2013 Session 3 Paper No 0225