IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SMART GRID, VOL. 4, NO.

4, DECEMBER 2013 1821

IEC 61850 Enabled Automatic Bus Transfer Scheme

for Primary Distribution Substations
Nirmal K. C. Nair, Senior Member, IEEE, and Dylan L. P. Jenkins

Abstract—Automatic bus transfer scheme (ABTS) is the practice financial incentives to defer this investment is significant, there-
of transferring a load bus to an alternate source when the normal fore to meet these emerging loads the modern distribution net-
power supply fails or is tripped thus ensuring continuity of supply. work operator will often seek to increase the capacity of existing
This paper comprehensively reviews existing schemes and imple-
mentations of ABTS especially for motor bus. To limit the fault substations by installing additional transformers. However it is
levels, during certain situations, the transformers supplying a pri- likely that for existing local primary substation this can result
mary distribution substation can be run in split instead of parallel in raising the fault levels beyond design limits when operated in
operation. This is because during outages if one transformer is lost, parallel with the existing transformers.
overloading of remaining transformers, if it occurs, can be man- A high impedance primary transformer can be used to limit
aged. This paper proposes an ABTS for a primary distribution
substation for a utility facing such a situation and present details fault levels. However these assets are non-standard equipment,
of its implementation. In the proposed scheme which is enabled by meaning that spares would not be readily available in the event
digital communications, if a transformer is lost, the bus section cir- of its failure. Additionally sub-optimal load sharing will occur
cuit breaker (CB) will be closed automatically after the incomer CB between the transformers during normal operation. This effec-
trips. The proposed ABTS has been implemented in the bus section tively reduces the useful rating of the new transformer when
relay for a new 11 kV switchboard where inter-relay communica-
tion is based on the IEC 61850 suites of standard. The contribu- operated in parallel with the other existing units.
tion of this paper is that it shows how to use a standard automation Other primary equipments such as series reactors and neutral
scheme smartly to defer network reinforcements and manage fault earthing resistors can be used to restrict fault levels but these
levels in primary distribution substation. would incur additional cost and have similar disadvantages like
Index Terms—Automatic bus transfer scheme, IEC 61850, intel- the high impedance transformer solution with regards to main-
ligent electronics devices (IEDs), substation automation. taining of spares. Series reactors can also potentially result into
other issues such as the production of electromagnetic radiation
that are difficult to be kept within the regulatory limits.
I. INTRODUCTION One novel approach proposed in this paper is to restrict the
network configuration so that the substation busbar is run spilt
under normal operation. The obvious disadvantage of this tech-
I N MODERN distribution network operations, increases
in substation loadings requires to be managed smartly. To
meet emerging loads it is likely that some substation might
nique however is that if a transformer trips then feeder outages
or overloading of the remaining transformer may occur. Clearly
if there is a method of quickly and automatically closing the nor-
require housing additional transformers but due to increased
mally open bus section circuit breaker following such an event
fault levels they cannot always operate in parallel with the other
is available then these shortcomings can be minimized. The de-
existing transformers. Implementing smarter and cost-effec-
velopments and investments in smart grid by distribution utili-
tive bus transfer schemes to manage the operation of parallel
ties provide opportunities in this direction.
transformers is one option.
The concept and development of the term and definition of
New planned subdivision and relocation of large industrial
smart grid is arriving towards a consensus both amongst policy
customers to the suburb necessitates increased local distribu-
makers and grid owners [1], [2]. The difficulty of interoper-
tion network capacity. The traditional approach to addressing
ability amongst legacy power network controls and emerging
this is often to construct a new primary substation. While this
intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) is also a significant chal-
will certainly address the immediate need and provide excellent
lenge that needs to be addressed [2], [3]. Towards the end of
network security, it usually comes at a considerable cost. The
2009, National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST)
published an initial suite of smart grid standards. One of the
Manuscript received November 28, 2010; revised June 20, 2011; accepted
standard included in it, that addresses substation automation
October 08, 2013. Date of publication November 04, 2013; date of current ver-
sion November 25, 2013. This work has been supported in part by The Univer- and the communication aspect is IEC 61850 [1]. IEC 61850 is
sity of Auckland FRDF grant # 362665/9573. Paper no. TSG-00351-2010. a universal communication standard for Substation Automation
N.-K. C. Nair is with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
System (SAS) which has the ability to offer interoperability
University of Auckland, Auckland 1142, New Zealand (e-mail: n.nair@auck-
land.ac.nz). amongst IEDs from different vendors [2], [3]. In the context
D. L. P. Jenkins is with the Centre of Excellence, Alstom Grid, Stafford ST17 of IEC 61850, the functions that are required to be performed
4LX, U.K. (e-mail: [email protected]).
by the IEDs are decomposed into subparts which are known
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. as logical nodes (LNs), and each LN usually has a list of
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TSG.2013.2285557 data with their attributes [3]. The data and their attributes

1949-3053 © 2013 IEEE

1822 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SMART GRID, VOL. 4, NO. 4, DECEMBER 2013

together represent the information which is needed to be ex-

change amongst LNs by the communication service offered
[4] through IEC 61850. This communication service interface
is called Abstract Communication Service Interface (ACSI).
One of the communication service model in the ACSI models
is the Generic Substation Event (GSE) model service [4]. The
GSE contains the Generic Object Oriented Substation Event
(GOOSE) message [5]. The GOOSE message is being used by
protective relay IEDs to send tripping signals [6]. Modelling
of distribution system components in IEC 61850 is also being
actively researched [7].
This paper proposes a scheme for ABTS and discusses im-
plementation following transformer addition to a primary distri-
bution substation. The overall scheme is realized through IEC
61850 enabled features. With the advent of modern IEDs in sub-
stations and the new IEC 61850 substation automation standard
such a scheme is deemed to be feasible and can be successfully
developed and deployed widely resulting in significant capital Fig. 1. Building blocks of the automatic bus transfer schemes.
efficiency gains.
This paper begins by firstly reviewing existing philosophies to block transfer during through fault conditions. Transfer is
of ABTS and its current practice following microprocessor ad- allowed during stable system conditions with normal system
vancement and the availability of IEDs as protective relays. voltage available to maintain or reaccelerate operating loads.
Second, the case study for substation capacity upgrade through The inputs to this scheme includes current transformer (CT), po-
ABTS and a new transformer addition to primary distribution tential or voltage transformer (PT/VT), relays and other moni-
substation will be outlined. Third, the IEC 61850 solution to toring and interlocking devices of substation automation. In the
ABTS will be detailed. Fourth, implementation details of the de- context of emerging substation automation vocabulary IED is
veloped scheme on an actual 11 kV distribution substation will the keyword that captures these secondary system control and
be presented which will be followed by testing of the scheme. protection elements.
Finally, conclusions will be drawn and future projections out- An example of ABTS is the loss of incoming source 1 side
lined. voltage, whereby its CB breaker is tripped. After bus 1 residual
voltage decays to an acceptable level and bus 2 voltage is
normal and stable, tie-breaker closes, and 2 side power is sup-
II. REVIEW OF AUTOMATIC BUS TRANSFER SCHEME
plied to bus 2. After a transfer operation, return-to-normal open
Most of the existing publications regarding ABTS are for tie breaker operation is performed manually. The sync-check
motor bus load applications [8]–[15]. The existing ABTS relay permissive inhibits CBs in incoming lines and tie breaker
for primary auxiliary buses that supply major rotating ma- CB from being simultaneously closed, unless the two incoming
chinery loads can be classified to include fast, slow, parallel, sources are in synchronism. The sync-check relay and hence
residual voltage, and in-phase transfer methods [12], [13]. its permissive is not required when both incoming sources
These methods are designed depending upon the criticality of originate from the same upstream synchronized substation.
the motor loads, safety of the applied motors, and the cost of The tie breaker trips following successful synchronization of
implementation [14]. both sources and normal pattern of supply is restored. Momen-
Typically, ABTS operates immediately following an ab- tary closure of the three CBs may significantly increase the
normal system condition, such as, a fault or equipment failure. downstream fault duty. Because of this concern, some manual
Some examples of these includes loss of one utility source, transfer operations are not make-before-break. These control
upstream transformer cable/line fault, substation transformer options are well established and determines the logic of the bus
failure, bus fault, downstream cable/line fault, etc. There can transfer scheme implemented.
be special considerations which will dictate some in-depth and A summary of all the four typical transfer schemes are avail-
case specific assessment [9], [11]. Historically, ABTS using able from [14]. Table I represents a quick comparative view of
discrete relays provide both automatic and manual operating these schemes discussed there. Bus voltage column corresponds
modes. ABTS restores power to either “A” side or “B” side of to if monitoring of the voltage is required for the scheme. Slow
substation main buses. Manual make-before-break operation transfer scheme typically does not require the bus voltage to be
is used to retransfer to the normal open tie configuration or monitored. All others require bus voltage monitoring. The cost
manually transfer the substation (closed main, closed tie, and column corresponds to if the scheme is relatively cheaper. Slow
open main) for maintenance, repair, or modification [8], [10]. and residual transfer schemes are relatively less expensive com-
Fig. 1. illustrates a typical secondary selective system with pared to the other two schemes. The need for a synchro-check
ABTS controlling the operation of the circuit breakers (CB). relay to verify that the bus is in synch with the source when re-
The purpose of this ABTS is to reestablish power to one of turning back to the normal source is shown in the column corre-
two main buses following transient disturbance situations and sponding to synchronizer (represented by an yes “Y” if needed).
NAIR AND JENKINS: IEC 61850 ENABLED AUTOMATIC BUS TRANSFER SCHEME FOR PRIMARY DISTRIBUTION SUBSTATIONS 1823

TABLE I
COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT OF BUS TRANSFER SCHEMES

Fig. 3. Normal configuration for distribution substation following installation

of a third transformer.

tain situations system tripping includes a transfer trip from

the downstream substation switchgear incoming breaker to
the upstream feeder breaker trip circuit. This is particularly
useful to increase sensitivity with low-resistance grounding
and restricted earth-fault relays at the downstream substation,
because the upstream feeder phase protection cannot sense
the low magnitude ground fault on the secondary side of the
downstream transformer. The transfer trip implementation
historically uses pilot wire relaying or remote input/output
(I/O) connected via fiber-optic cable.
Fig. 2. Bus transfer zones [14]. Within the scope of this paper we do not include the above
discussed features but the methods and procedure proposed here
The complexity of the scheme is generally dictated by the su- for developing an ABTS can be easily integrated in future with
pervisory, inter-locking and timing requirements of the scheme other integrated automation, control and protection schemes in
(indicated by “Y” in the complexity column of the table) and future.
corresponds to increasing cost. The cost increases to realize in-
III. DISTRIBUTION SUBSTATION CAPACITY UPGRADE
creased complexity is due to the need for accurate information
like, e.g., tie breaker closing time, etc., for the scheme to be im- Fig. 3 presents the planned configuration of distribution zone
plemented. substation after its third transformer is installed. Taking into
The time column generally corresponds to the timing eval- consideration the fault level management, bus section 2–3 is to
uation for the motor bus requirements. Slow transfer schemes be run normally open and bus section 1–2 is to be run normally
are usually designed to wait for a predetermined time (hence closed. ABTS is the most economic means to adding substa-
shown as X in Table I), which is normally greater than 0.5 sec- tion capacity without increasing fault levels but it does not re-
onds before connecting the decaying bus voltage to the alterna- sult in any increased revenue for the utility. Other possibilities
tive healthy incomer source. This is captured in Fig. 2 available to be compared include series reactor, neutral earthing resistor
from [14]. and high impedance transformer. The option we propose in this
The overall control scheme for the bus transfer scheme will paper is the control and automation of a split-bus scheme. Two
need to operate automatically during abnormal operational sit- cases are considered in the ABTS which requires decision to be
uations and facilitate quick manual transfers. During plant ex- made by bus section 2–3’s IED. These cases are elaborated in
pansions and modification, the system can be re-configured by the following subsections.
performing a manual transfer. Only tie breaker failure or a bus
fault with single-ended operation requires a total shutdown of A. Case 1: T3 Trips
the substation. In this situation feeders connected to T3 bus bar will lose
The transformer protection and control can also be inte- supply. Bus section relay 2–3 will check parameters and if it
grated into the ABTS, if the substation design requires one. is safe to do so will automatically close its circuit breaker. Once
This can then include features like tap-change voltage control T3 has been restored the control room operator should ideally
and even capacitor bank switching. On similar lines, adding open either bus section before the T3 incomer CB is closed, to
a high-impedance bus differential relay scheme greatly re- prevent paralleling of all three transformers.
duces bus fault clearing time for main bus faults and serves
to minimize arc flash zones. However, this will then require B. Case 2: T1 Or T2 Trips
coordination with a down-stream transformer differential Overloading of remaining transformers could occur, and loss
protection, if any, using a transfer tripping scheme. In cer- of any additional transformer will cause loss of supply to feeders
1824 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SMART GRID, VOL. 4, NO. 4, DECEMBER 2013

attached to that transformer’s bus bar. Bus section relay 2–3 will
check parameters and if it is safe to do so will automatically
close its circuit breaker.
Once both T1 and T2 are operational again the control room
operator should ideally open either bus section before the in-
comer CB is closed. This is to prevent paralleling of all three
transformers.

C. Special Considerations
For both situations listed in the previous subsections the fol-
lowing considerations are required to be satisfied to ensure that
the overall scheme operates safely and reliably:
1) Safety: The scheme must only operate for the two cases
described in the previous subsection. A dangerous situation can Fig. 4. Case 1, T3 Trip.
occur if the bus-section were to automatically close on to a fault
following a bus-bar or downstream uncleared feeder fault. This messages can be sent over a substation’s LAN. Normal Ethernet
has the potential to cause a cascading outage that could affect communication uses acknowledgement messages which ensure
the whole primary substation. that all messages sent reach their destination, but this is done
If all three transformers are paralleled then there is also a at the expense of transmission speed. GOOSE messages do not
safety hazard due to fault levels rising above design limits. The use acknowledgements; instead the message is resent multiple
scheme needs to be designed so that this risk is avoided. times at increasing intervals once an event occurs to ensure that
2) Self Monitoring: The scheme should have the ability to there is a very high probability of the message getting through
monitor its own integrity, especially with regards to the automa- to its destination. One of the features of GOOSE is the facility
tion scheme, to ensure its availability at all times and also to to interrogate the status of each transferred message. While the
minimize re-testing requirement after commissioning. interruption of a connection cannot be detected with conven-
3) Control: Control to turn the automation scheme on and off tional wiring, the signal transmission with IEC 61850 has an
should be provided both locally for technicians and remotely for integrated continuous monitoring which indicates failure of the
control room operators. connection or the transmitter. Since modern IEDs also have in-
4) Speed: The scheme should operate as fast as possible built device health monitoring this effectively makes the entire
to minimize disruption and potential overloading of remaining control scheme maintenance free.
transformers. Special consideration however should be made if
downstream distributed generation exists so that the bus section C. Improved Testing
circuit breaker does not automatically close onto an island that
has formed following an outage of the third transformer (like in Tools exist which enable the simulation of GOOSE messages.
Case 1 in Section III-A). This greatly assists in testing of the scheme compared to the
hard-wired approach.
IV. IEC 61850 FOR AUTOMATIC BUS TRANSFER SCHEME
D. Interoperability
The IEDs involved in the ABTS need to exchange informa-
Unlike some other peer-to-peer relay communication tech-
tion to determine when a transformer unit trip has occurred and
nologies IEC 61850 GOOSE is vendor independent. Different
to determine the position of all relevant circuit breakers so that
relay types can be integrated into the scheme.
the risk of paralleling is minimised. As such it is preferred that
Fig. 6 proposes an ABTS system that can be developed for
peer-to-peer relay communications is used to avoid the need for
the system of Fig. 3 using GOOSE enabled communication fea-
hard wiring.
tures of the IEDs associated with the secondary systems in the
IEC 61850 GOOSE messaging provides this peer-to-peer
primary distribution substation. Such a scheme has been imple-
communications capability. There are several advantages in
mented for an actual distribution substation of Fig. 7. The details
using this technology for the ABTS which are:
of the implementation with the design features are elaborated in
A. Installation Cost Savings the next section.

If GOOSE messaging is available on existing station bus, no

additional hard wiring is required for the transfer of information V. PRACTICAL IMPLEMENTATION
between relays. For substations with existing IEC 61850 com- This section details the implementation of the scheme pro-
pliant IEDs the scheme can be implemented rapidly without the posed in Section III for the primary distribution substation net-
need to replace or rewire any existing devices and equipments. work of Fig. 7. As can be seen from the figure there are 2 existing
transformers T1 and T2 supplying existing loads through bus 1
B. Continuous Health (Integrity) Monitoring and bus 2. Bus section 1–2 is between them. A third new trans-
GOOSE messages have been designed to give reliability at former T3 is to be installed in parallel at the same distribution
least as good as point-to-point wiring so that fast protection substation, so that savings can be made by avoiding building a
NAIR AND JENKINS: IEC 61850 ENABLED AUTOMATIC BUS TRANSFER SCHEME FOR PRIMARY DISTRIBUTION SUBSTATIONS 1825

B. Voltage and Synchronism Check Before Closing

If a VT failure is detected the automatic change over scheme
is disarmed and an alarm will trigger. Before the bus section
closes a check is carried out by the relay to ensure that the
voltage, frequency and phase angles either side of the section
is within a preset range.
This functionality is implemented using a Synchrocheck
function. If Synchrocheck is disabled then the ABTS is also
disabled.
Before a release is granted, the following conditions must be
satisfied:
• T3’s bus voltage is dead and T1’s bus voltage
is healthy (greater than 9 kV and less than 12.1 kV)
Fig. 5. Case 2, T1 or T2 Trips.
• Or—The voltage of both buses is healthy (greater than 9
kV and less than 12.1 kV)
• And—The voltage difference between the two buses less
than 200 V primary
• And—The frequency difference between the two buses
less than 0.1 Hz
• And—The angle difference between the two buses less
than 10 deg

C. Fault Level Protection

Due to increased fault levels on the 11 kV network there is a
risk to plant and personnel if all three transformers at the substa-
tion are run in parallel. To minimize this risk without compro-
Fig. 6. Design of ABTS using IEDs and GOOSE messaging. mising the distribution network operators’ ability to effectively
manage the network an interlocking scheme to prevent a parallel
new one, and the bus section 3–1 in this situation can be man- has not been implemented. Instead, in the event of a parallel an
aged, especially from increased fault levels, using the ABTS de- alarm will be raised and a high-set overcurrent protection ele-
sign proposed and discussed in the previous section. IEC 61850 ment is activated in bus section 3–1. The setting for this element
compliant IEDs are used at each bus section and its incomer. has been set to operate at a very low pick-up as under normal
The relay for 3–1 bus section receives information from the conditions there is very little current flowing through the bus
other IEDs via GOOSE messaging to determine if and when section and because discrimination between bus bar and feeder
the circuit breaker should be closed and is the location where faults is not required (this would be a double contingency).
ABTS can be deployed. The following subsections detail how The bus section 3–1 relay detects a parallel by subscribing
the scheme has been implemented within the IEDs: to GOOSE messages of circuit breaker position from every bus
section and incomer relay. These messages are monitored and
A. Detecting Transformer Outages and Preventing Automatic in the event of a GOOSE message failure the relay will assume
Closure on to Faults that the breaker status is closed—this means that it is possible
To determine that an outage has occurred, all transformer bay for the high-set element to be activated in the event of a com-
protection trip and circuit breaker status information is sent from munications failure.
the three incomer relays to bus section 3–1 relay via GOOSE
messaging. The trip messages only relate to transformer unit D. VT Health Monitoring
protection, transformer Buchholz, pressure relief protections or
The bus section relay monitors the bus voltage transformer
transformer temperature trips. They are not issued for overcur-
through its analogue inputs and if a failure is detected the ABTS
rent or earth fault (OC/EF), breaker failure or arc detection trip
will disarm and an alarm will trigger.
to prevent auto closure onto faults.
For bus section 3–1 to recognize that an incomer circuit
E. ABTS Enable/Disabled Controls
breaker has opened due to a transformer bay trip it must receive
indication that both the bay trip has occurred and that the The ABTS can be enabled or disabled via bus section 3–1
incomer circuit breaker has opened within five seconds. relay’s front panel or remotely through SCADA. The control
Additionally an extra safety precaution has been imple- display, showing how the scheme status is displayed on bus sec-
mented to ensure that if the bus section circuit breaker does tion relay 3–1 is shown below in Fig. 8.
auto switch on to a fault, it will trip instantaneously by a high-set It is important to note that “Enabled” does not imply that the
protection element and lock-out. ABTS will not operate if the scheme is ready to operate. All operating parameters must be
bus section 3–1 circuit breaker is locked out for any reason. satisfied for the scheme to be “Armed” and active.
1826 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SMART GRID, VOL. 4, NO. 4, DECEMBER 2013

Fig. 7. Primary distribution substation bus.

station and will disarm automatic closure if a failure is detected

and trigger an alarm to the control room. Time delay before au-
tomatic closure
Due to the inherent very fast properties of GOOSE messages
the ABTS can potentially operate within milliseconds from the
opening of an incomer circuit breaker. However special consid-
eration for distributed generation has to been made in the event
of a T3 trip (Case 1 Section III-A, Fig. 4) if there is significant
generation connected downstream to bus 3, then an island may
form and the bus voltage will not immediately drop off to zero.
This will prevent the automatic closing of bus section 3–1 by
the relay synchro-check function unless a time delay is applied.
For the actual substation implementation of Fig. 7 such a
delay had to be implemented as there is downstream generator
at a local land-fill gas power station. The IEEE technical stan-
dard for the connection of distributed generation [16] requires
that this generator ceases to energize the network within two
seconds of the formation of an island. The time delay for the
ABTS is thus set to 2.5 seconds before automatic closure to
Fig. 8. Graphical display for bus section relay 3–1. allow these generators to disconnect from the network and for
the bus voltage to fall to below 500 V.
F. Goose Message Monitoring
As discussed previously one of the advantage of GOOSE is VI. PRACTICAL TESTING PROCEDURE FOR ABTS
the facility to interrogate the status of each transferred message. This implementation of bus transfer scheme for primary
The ABTS continuously monitors all messages within the sub- distribution substation has been made possible by the inte-
NAIR AND JENKINS: IEC 61850 ENABLED AUTOMATIC BUS TRANSFER SCHEME FOR PRIMARY DISTRIBUTION SUBSTATIONS 1827

gration of IEDs into the substation automation projects. It is and proposes to extend it to primary distribution substation.
usually recommended that whenever a new IEC 61850 based The possibility to enhance ABTS enabled through IEC 61850
control scheme is designed it be bench tested exhaustively. IEDs has been established. A scheme for ABTS in an existing
Constructing a suitable test rig, developing a testing method- substation while adding a third transformer in parallel to ex-
ology [6] and comprehensively test the scheme to uncover isting transformers has been developed. The novelty comes
any potential issues are important aspect that needs practical from being able to use an automation scheme based on IEC
considerations before actual implementation. For the IEC 61850 standards to defer network reinforcements and manage
61850 enabled ABTS implemented using the practical case fault levels in primary distribution substation. The proposed
study, thirty-two different tests were required to pass before scheme has been implemented, tested and made operational
acceptance was completed. This approach is applicable for fac- in one of the 11 kV primary distribution substations. Future
tory acceptance test (FAT) of control scheme but is particularly implementation pathways, following inter-substation commu-
important when using GOOSE to ensure that interoperability nication, have been briefly discussed.
between IEDs is achieved and that GOOSE transmission speeds
are acceptable.
Pre-installation testing uncovered a number of issues. How- ACKNOWLEDGMENT
ever these were relatively easy to diagnose and correct on the
The authors thank the entire Otara Third Transformer Re-
test-rig when compared to what would have been required
placement Team, from within Electrix, Tesla Consultants, HV
during on-site commissioning. The final test requirements after
Power, and Vector for their input and support to implement the
the installation of T3 transformer of Fig. 7 were minimal as a
ABTS.
result. The scheme has been tested and is fully operational.
The economic advantage of using an ABTS is the avoided
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1828 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SMART GRID, VOL. 4, NO. 4, DECEMBER 2013

Nirmal K. C. Nair (S’01–M’04–SM’10) received Dylan L. P. Jenkins received his B.Eng. degree with
his B.E. degree in electrical engineering from M.S. first class honors from the University of Auckland,
University, Baroda, India, and M.E. degree in high New Zealand.
voltage engineering from Indian Institute of Science, He is currently a Product Manager for Substation
Bangalore, India. He received his Ph.D. degree in Automation Products from Alstom Grid, based at the
electrical engineering from Texas A&M University, Center of Excellence in Stafford, U.K. Previously
College Station, TX, USA. he was an Electrical Protection and Control Systems
Presently, he is a Senior Lecturer at the Department Engineer at Vector, New Zealand’s largest electricity
of Electrical & Computer Engineering in University distribution company. Prior to this he held a number
of Auckland, New Zealand. His current interest in- of roles within Vector’s Asset Management, Project
clude analysis, operation, protective relaying and op- Engineering, and Capital Delivery teams as a Grad-
timization in the context of smart grid, electricity markets, and integration of uate Engineer.
DG/renewable.
Dr. Nair volunteers as the Chair of PES/PELS Chapter of NZ North Sec-
tion. He is Chair of PES Life Long Learning Subcommittee (2012–13) and also
the Constitution and Bylaws Committee member in the PES Governing Board
(2011–). He is currently an Executive committee member for CIGRE NZ Na-
tional Committee and is 2010–14 Observer Member for CIGRE B5 (Protection
and Automation) from NZ.