IEC 61850 substation to control center communication — Status and practical experiences from projects

Introduced in 2004 edition 1 of standard IEC 61850 defines the communication of intelligent electronic devices within substations. Due its TCP/IP communication platform the standard IEC 61850 is also applicable on wide-area communication technologies. Therefore the standardization working groups focus on new application fields such as substation-to-substation communication and communication from substation to control centers. This paper introduces IEC 61850 substation to control center communication, the current status of standardization and presents experiences gained from practical applications.