Paper #203
New Ethernet Technologies for Substation
Automation
Author: Clemens Hoga, Siemens Germany, clemens.hoga@siemens.com
Abstract— One of the most crucial issues in the field of
substation automation is the use of Industrial Ethernet.
Compared to earlier communication systems, such as the DNP
and IEC 60870-5 protocols, Ethernet has its base not in the
industrial sector but in the office environment. To be fully usable
in the fields of substation and factory automation, it requires
additional features in the following areas:
• Reliability
• Hardness suitable for substation environment
conditions
• Power supplies suitable for substations
• Services enabling short response times
• Redundancy
During the last ten years, the enormous progress made in these
areas has led to the decision to include Industrial Ethernet in the
IEC 61850 project. Ongoing development in the fields of
Industrial Ethernet will lead to new, comprehensive solutions
using IEC 61850, especially in the field of process-bus
applications.
Index Terms—IEC 61850, Real Time Ethernet, Redundancy,
Process Bus , IEEE P1588
I. INTRODUCTION
S INCE its introduction in 2004, IEC 61850 has been has
been highly successful in the field of substation
automation. It not only provides a better device-to-device
communication protocol but also defines structures and
systems for a new type of standards-based automation — a
process already being used in hundreds of substation
applications around the world. Nearly all of these cases
involve the station-bus application, which lets IEDs
(Intelligent Electronic Devices) communicate with each other
and with a substation controller. IEC 61850 applications also
use the provided Substation Configuration-description
Language (SCL) to create efficient engineering systems.
However, another of the key technologies in IEC61850 is
much less well-known and rarely used, despite its great
potential: the process-bus application. This technology allows
signals of a conventional or non-conventional instrument
transformer to be sampled and digitally transmitted to one or
several protection and measuring devices.
1
Effective use of this technology requires enhancements to
Ethernet in the areas of speed, bandwidth, and reliability.
Fortunately, new developments are enabling Ethernet to
provide performance that is much more real-time — meaning
real bandwidth-reservation redundancy with no telegram loss
and IEEE P1588 time-synchronization with an accuracy of
below 1 µs directly over the Ethernet itself.
This new Ethernet Technology, combined with the sampled-
values and GOOSE-message specifications of IEC 61850,
may be the necessary enabling factor for NCIT
implementations and process-bus applications in tomorrow’s
substations.
II. IEC 61850 FOR STATION BUS
Users and vendors have worked together in designing IEC
61850 to handle the needs of a wide range of applications. At
one end of this range are applications for IED-to-substation-
controller communication over a replacement of the discrete-
wire signalling among IEDs; at the other end are
comprehensive engineering systems configured using SCL.
Once considered too slow and unreliable, Ethernet has now
become state-of-the-art for applications that perform such
tasks as interlocking with GOOSE (Generic Object-Oriented
Substation Events).
Today, the substation controller communicates to the Control
Center (CC) by means of IEC 61870-5-101/104 or DNP3.0. In
addition, IEC Technical Committee 57 is working on
harmonizing the Common Information Model (CIM) from
IEC 61970 with the data model from IEC 61850 to provide
seamless communication from the IED to the CC. At the same
time, efforts are afoot to standardize substation-to-substation
communication using the IEC 61850 data models and
communication services.
Of course, all of these efforts hinge on the usability of
Industrial Ethernet. The hundreds of applications already
installed and in operation since the completion of 61850 in
May 2004 have shown that today’s ring-redundant
infrastructure with 100MBit/s switched Ethernet (to prevent
telegram collisions) is the most efficient structure for station-
bus applications such as the one shown in Figure 1.
Paper #203 2

Station Controller has to be set up carefully, and the recovery time of the
complete system depends on the mesh factor.
62,5µ or 50µ FO switch Another possible way to achieve this type of configuration is
Multimode fiber the HyperRing redundancy system. As with eRSTP, this
system reroutes telegrams originally sent in one direction
along the ring to take the alternative direction if the original
path is disturbed. One of the switches in the ring must be
Standby

Patch-
Patch-
configured as the redundancy manager, so it can control the
cable redundancy-switchover mechanism.
Interface
electrical
The upcoming IEC 62439 standard, originally designed for
FO factory-automation applications, defines a protocol based on
CU the HyperRing redundancy system. Called the Medium
device 3 device 4
device 1
Redundancy Protocol (MRP), it promises ring redundancy
Bay 1 Bay 2
with the features mentioned above.
Figure 1: Typical Ethernet station bus
The IEC 62439 standard also describes also a Parallel
In this application, many event-driven messages and user- Redundancy Protocol(PRP). This protocol is based on a
initiated controls are sent and time-stamped with an accuracy system with two interfaces in the IEDs and a completely
of 1 ms, using the Simple Network Time Protocol; the use of a separated, doubled Ethernet system — along with another
time stamp to organize the events is more than sufficient. type of redundancy especially made for the Fieldbus
Foundation system.
In the case of a fiber break, the switchover time of 30 to 50 ms
(depending on the structure and size of the communication Another current development is that Technical Committee 57
network) to change to the redundant communication path of the IEC has set up a task force to discuss the redundancy
provides adequate efficiency for most purposes. This kind of topic.
redundancy can be achieved by a variety of mechanisms.
IEC 61850 also describes, in part 9-2, the transmission of
One such mechanism is the Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol sampled values of conventional or non-conventional
(RSTP) relevant to IEEE 802.1w, which is commonly used in instrument transformers (ITs or NCITs) to the protection
substation automation. This technology provides ring devices via Ethernet. This data transmission can take place by
redundancy and also redundancy in meshed configurations, means of a separate network communicating with a second
allowing a great deal of flexibility for the communication- process-bus interface in the relay, or it can occur by means of
network configuration. an appropriate Ethernet system providing enough bandwidth
and reliability for both applications (see Figure 2).
*in standardization
work
Control Centre
To be harmonized
MODEM
with CIM
IEC 104 to Control Center IEC 61970*
Control Center
communication
Station Station IEC 61850 to other
IEC 61850
Controller 1 Controller 2 substatons*
Firewall

Router
IEC61850 Station Bus

IED IED
independent & IEC 61850 (Ethernet)
redundant loops 100MBit FO
Protection & Control
IEC61850 Process Bus

Digital Instrument Transformer Merging

IEC 61850 – 100 Mbit switched Ethernet Unit
Data via IEC61850-9-2

CT
VT

Figure 3 IEC 61850 process level to station level

100MBit TP

Figure 2: Multiple-ring configuration III. IEC 61850 PROCESS BUS

While the native RSTP seems to have some configurations
where the redundancy-recovery time is more than 1s, an
enhanced version (eRSTP) is offered on a proprietary basis.
The enhanced version improves the redundancy-recovery time
to 5ms per switch and offers a larger number of switches
(more than 31) in one ring. Nevertheless, the configuration
Part 9-2 specifies the transmission of the sampled values of
Instrument transformer on Ethernet. It assumes that a merging
unit will acquire the values from the instrument transformers
(typically from several sensors in one bay) and transmit them
over Ethernet in a standardized format. The electrical shape or
data format from the instrument transformer to the merging
unit is not specified, so it doesn’t matter whether it is a
Paper #203 3

conventional 1A format or the proprietary digital format of an Control Centre HMI Engineering

NCIT.
IEC 61850-8-1

IEC 61850 specifies the output of the merging unit; the relays Router
connected to the system get this standardized telegram format Station Bus
regardless of which instrument-transformer technology is used
(Figure 4). In order to enable the relays to compute sample
output from different merging units, the units need a 1-µs time Bay Relay Relay Bay Relay Relay
synchronization. Today, this synchronization is commonly Controller A B Controller A B
implemented by an external, 1-pps signal coming from a Time Sync
1PPS
central time-server device by way of a point-to-point fiber- IEC 61850-9-2

optic infrastructure. With a speed of about 0.6c , the light Switchgear MU Switchgear MU
needs 200m per µs, which requires some time compensation CT / VT's CT / VT's

inside the merging units in large applications. Figure 5: Process bus with doubled Ethernet

However, the structure of the application layout and that of

the Ethernet technology are not fixed, so they can remain open
to future developments in the fields of Industrial Ethernet.
IV. REQUIREMENTS OF THE PROCESS BUS
Control Protection
With vitally important functions of the substations now
depending on this communication, the communication system
must meet extraordinarily high requirements for availability
L1 Prot. IEC 61850-9-2
and reliability. While the reliability and availability of the
L2 Prot. system depend greatly on the high quality of its components
L3 Prot.
they also depend just as certainly on the system being able to
L1 Mess Merging Unit 1 pps recover its capability after loss of a component or link.
L2 Mess
Signal
L3 Mess
Neutral Processing Time Redundant systems with a main bus and a back-up bus
Sync
Synchronisation, provide a good communication safety — and sometimes
L1 Monitoring, Test, bumpless redundancy. But such systems require extra
L2
L3
Configuration
hardware and do not satisfy the other important requirements
Neutral in this area, such as bandwidth reservation and time
Busbar synchronization.
Nevertheless, the traditional concept with two independent
Figure 4: Merging Unit according IEC 61850
protection systems (main and back-up, or main1 and main2)
Process Bus – a Combination of 8-1 and 9-2From the applications
having separate CT-cores and trip coils can now be easily
standpoint, the fact that sampled values for transmission of
adapted with an independent merging unit, a CBC (circuit
instrument-transformer values in part 9-2 are separated from
breaker controller), and a process-bus loop for each of the
monitoring and control signals (as well as from digital signals
protection systems. The decision as to whether to have a third
such as the trip signals sent via GOOSE) of part 8-1 might be
process-bus loop for control and monitoring or to use one of
efficient for standardization, but it does not reflect the
the protection-system process-bus loops is left to the system
topological conditions in a real application. A separate
designer. Even redundant bay-control is easy to provide, as
infrastructure for both applications can lead to excessive
there are several protection relays available with integrated
Ethernet-network components and can double the amount of
bay-control functions.
fiber cables needed. Combined with the additional star-type,
1-pps fiber cabling that must be doubled as well (in principle, Interlinking among the independent process-bus loops of one
at least), this layout may turn out not to be very beneficial bay is possible by using the redundant station-bus level — or
compared to a conventional installation (see Figure 5). interlinking switches, if needed. But there is also another
Nevertheless, the interfacing of NCITs requires digital solution on the horizon.
communication, so a bus system of some type is always
required.
V. REQUIREMENTS OF A COMBINED PROCESS BUS
In principle, the requirements for a process bus connecting
switchgears, merging units, and monitoring devices are as
follows:

ƒ Real bandwidth reservation for guaranteed

response times
Paper #203 4

ƒ No-dropout ring redundancy, so no telegrams are Trip-GOOSE messages. The rest of the time in the time slice
lost if an interruption occurs. can be used for normal, less time-critical data, such as TCP/IP
ƒ < 1µs time sync via the Ethernet, so the time sync telegrams, interlocking GOOSE messages, or control or
is redundant as well monitoring data. Topologically configured as a ring, the IRT
ƒ Real-time and non-real-time (TCP/IP) channel allows data to be sent in both directions; the receiver
communications on the same wire/fiber —for can receive the data from both directions quasi-
monitoring and controls as well as for SV and Trip- simultaneously. This set-up provides a bumpless redundancy
GOOSE messages. with no recovery time, as well as redundant time
synchronization.The open channel is transparent; its
redundancy can be provided by known ring-redundancy
These requirements are not met in the recent Ethernet mechanisms with switchover times of 50ms and more, as
specifications, but new developments are likely to lead to discussed in part II.
optimized process-bus solutions.
IRT Open IRT Open
The IEC Technical Committee 65 currently specifies real-time channel channel channel channel
Ethernet protocols as IEC 61784-2. Originally designed for (IP) (IP)
factory applications such as numerical control, IEC 61784-2
Cycle 1 Cycle 2 Cycle n
— especially the profile 3/6, also known also as Profinet IRT
(Isynchronous Real Time) — seems to be applicable for
process-bus applications as well, since it due meets all the E.g. 1 ms control cycle
requirements for such applications. Only the base function of
Synchro-
Profinet IRT is used in combination with IEC 61850; no nization
Deterministic communication Open communication
IRT data
Profinet application is used at all, in this case. IP data

IT- IEC 61850-Application Figure 7: The principle of IRT reg IEC 61784-2 CP3/6
Appliation
e.g..
2 Sampled Values
„ HTTP
„ SNMP GOOSE Trip-GOOSE When using this technology, there is no need for changing the
„ DHCP... IEC 61850 data or protocol information, because the
MMS enhancements are on a low Ethernet level. Here’s how these
enhancements work: the normal Ethernet frame is extended as
Real-Time

described in IEC 61784-2 CP3/6 (see Figure 8). The sampled

1 TCP/UDP values are inserted as a payload inside the IRT frame and are
therefore part of a planned communication that provides the
bandwidth reservation. The synchronization of cycles is used
IP
to reset the sample counter in the 9-2 frame to zero, as an
external 1-pps pulse would do
3 IRT
Ethernet Ethernet Frame 68 to 1522 Byte
Pre- Sync Source Dest. Priority Ether- Cycle Data Transf. CRC
ambel MAC MAC Tagging* type Frame ID Daten
Counter Status Status

Figure 6: Combined Communication Stack 7 Byte 1 Byte 6 Byte 6 Byte 4 Byte 2 Byte 2 Byte 40 bis 1494 Byte 2 Byte 1 Byte 1 Byte 4 Byte

The communication stack is organized as follows: Ethernet-Standard RTE-APDU

1: TCP/IP
IEC 61784-2 CP3/6
„ Parametrization/ device configuration
„ Read of diagnosis data IEC 61850-9-2 Ethertype - or -8-1 Trip-GOOSE - PDU
„ IEC 61850-8-1 Figure 8: Mapping of IEC 61850 to Real-Time
2: GOOSE Ethernet
3: Isynchronous Real-Time
„ Isynchronous data transmission Of course, the case of the sampled values is not the only one
„ Jitter <1μsec in which no telegram must get lost. In this technology, the
„ IEC 61850-9-2 + GOOSE messages are separated into two categories: Trip-
trip-GOOSE GOOSE messages and other GOOSE messages. Since both
types of GOOSE messages have the same Ethertype-ID and
VI. THE ISOCHRONOUS REAL TIME ETHERNET the same priority regarding IEEE 802.1q, there is no common
Synchronized by the highly-accurate time-synchronization ID to identify a Trip-GOOSE message. Thus, the
mechanism of IEEE P1588 (transparent clock mode), the identification has to happen in the configuration.
Ethernet bandwidth is time-sliced in pieces of, for example, 1
ms (slice time can be parameterized). Every 1-ms slice has a The combination of Real-Time Ethernet and IEC 61850 in the
predefined IRT part (channel) with a preconfigured telegram process level creates numerous advantages, as shown in the
space (Figure 7). The telegrams can be sampled values or
Paper #203 5

table that follows:

OMICRON
Requirement IEC 61850 IEC 61850 CPC 100
(AC / DC source)
native extended with
IEC 61784-2
(CP3/6)

CT 1 A
HALL

LoPo

LoPo
Samples must not -9-2 sampled RTE part is Clock, e.g. GPS
Merging Merging
get lost values must use a redundant without Unit 1 Unit 2
doubled bus any switchover flicker free

time 1µs time sync redundant

Ethernet

Sample blocking -9-2 sampled RTE part, Protection Ethernet

free values are on a predefined CB-Control
Relay Bay Switch SICAM PAS
separate bus communication
infrastructure
Trip signal non- Discrete wire RTE part,
Figure 9: IRT process-bus application
blocking and bandwidth The fiber in the ring was cut, but the system continued to
highly redundant reservation
work without any telegram loss on the IRT channel. The time-
redundant, no
sync accuracy between stations was measured at 20-30 ns per
switchover delay
station.
Time External fiber Integrated in the
synchronization system required system, time synch This was a real, working prototype for the Cigre Conference;
<1µs derived from the the next step is to test it in pilot installations in the field to
RTE start point prove its applicability.
Client/server for 8-1 client/server, Standard part, open
monitoring parallel different bus TCP/IP
on the same system infrastructure Communication
VIII. BENEFITS
The process-bus technology — including the sampled
VII. CASTLE IN THE AIR?
measuring values and the optimized measuring-instrument
transformer design (conventional as well as non-conventional)
During the Cigré 2006 session, Siemens featured a real, — opens the door to many technical advantages and provides
working prototype of this technology. the flexibility needed to adapt to future functional
Here’s how the prototype was set up to work: requirements and changes in network conditions. The
combination of Real-Time Ethernet and IEC 61850 provides
An A/C source feeds step-by-step a current of up to 1200A in an easy-to-handle communication system. Any signal, once
a bar installed through two conventional and one Hall- brought into the digital system, can be rearranged in the
Instrument transformers. The ITs are connected to two provided bus-communication structures without major
merging units that transmit the sampled values using the IRT hardware changes. Today’s fixed, built-in parameters may in
channel to the relays. the future be easy-to-change settings in the electronics (for
The sequence works as follows: example, rated current in metering systems). In the evaluation
process during the contracting stage of a project, the above-
• The station controller switches the circuit breaker on mentioned technical features can be difficult to weigh
with an IEC 61850-8-1 control transmitted via the correctly, due both to the earliness of the stage and to the lack
open channel. The Omicron provides a current of of long-term operational experience with these features;
200A. however, this new technology can open up ways to decrease
• The instrument transformer measures 200A, and the overall cost for the initial investment (for example, integrated,
merging unit to which it is connected deliver 9-2 non-conventional measuring sensors) and to speed up project
sampled values via the IRT channel to the relay. execution.

The relay sends a report of the measured current value to the

substation controller via the open channel, and the substation
controller displays it.
The current is increased stepwise; the relay trips at 1000A and
sends the trip information in a GOOSE telegram by means of
the IRT channel to the Circuit Breaker controller. The CB
controller switches off, and then reports the Substation
Controller about the new switch position.
IX. CONCLUSION
IEC 61850 is the international state-of-the-art technology in
substations. Adding to it the specifications for sampled-values
transmission provides the basis for an effective process-bus
solution. The combination of Real-Time Ethernet with
factory-automation technology seems to provide important
benefits — especially those arising from the IEC 61784-2 CP
3/6 specifications. This solution is currently under evaluation
Paper #203 6

and will undergo rigorous pilot testing.

REFERENCES
[1] IEC 61850 Standard Series Communication networks and systems in
substations
[2] IEC 61784-2, Controller Profile 3/6 Digital Daza Communications for
Measurement and Control – Additional Profiles for ISO/IEC 8802-3
based communication networks in real time applications
[3] UCAinternational.org, IEC 61850-9-2 LE Implementation guideline for
digital interface to instrument transformers using IEC 61850-9-2
[4] R. Gross, H.J. Hermann, U. Katschinski, P.Menke, A. Ostermeier, J.
Schmid, M. Wache; Substation Control and Protection Systems for
Novel Sensors; CIGRE Session 2000 Paris August 2000
[5] Hubert Kirmann, »Standard Redundancy Methods for Highly Available
Automation Networks, rationales behind the upcoming IEC 62439
standard », 2006 EFTA, ABB
[6] P. Lequitte, J. Schmid; Measurement of Current and Voltage in MV and
HV Switchgear with Low Power Instrument Transformers; Proceedings
Mat Post 03, pp 229-233, Lyon Nov. 2003
[7] Praxis-Profiline: IEC 61850 – Basics and user-oriented project examples
Vogel-Verlag Würzburg 2005
ISBN 3-8259-1931-5

Author: Clemens Hoga received the Dipl.-Ing. degree in information

technology from Georg Simon Ohm University of Applied Science, Nürnberg,
in 1985. He joined SIEMENS in 1986. From the beginning. he was involved
in the development and product management of communication protocols,
especially for factory-automation applications. In 2000, he moved to the
Power Transmission and Distribution group and was responsible for the
Substation-IT project.
Currently, he heads up Innovation and Standardization Management in the
PTD Energy Automation division.
He is a member of IEC TC 57 WG 10 and TC 65 WG11 and is the convener
of the DKE 952.0.10, the German IEC 61850 mirror committee. He also acts
as vice chairman of the UCA international, the users group for IEC 61850,
CIM, and openAMI.