Abb Research Ltd.

Abb Schweiz Ag

Abb Power Grids Switzerland Ag

Claus Vetter

Hubert Kirrmann

Michael Obrist

Thomas Werner

Christian Frei

Lorenzo Gulli

Tatjana Kostic

Erik Svensson

Stephan Gerspach

Christine Mikkelsen

Aleksandra Kuc-Dzierzawska

Jakub Sipowicz

Tetsuji Maeda

Karlene Sharer

Chris Sincerbox

Dilip Kota

David Mcdaniel

An exemplary Substation Automation testing tool for IEC 61850 compliant substations is disclosed. The testing tool verifies the configuration of a first Intelligent Electronic Device (IED) that is part of a Substation Automation (SA) system and initially configured to perform measurement, protection and/or control functions in accordance with a substation configuration specification. Configuration information is first read from an internal server of the first IED and transformed according to a dedicated data model. Related information is then read from a second IED that has initially been configured to perform the same functions as the first IED, or from a Substation Configuration Description (SCD) file, and likewise transformed. The transformed data is then compared in order to identify discrepancies or inconsistencies and to resolve errors introduced by the IED configuration process.

Intelligent electronic device configuration verification

The present disclosure is concerned with a Substation Automation testing tool which combines the information found in the SCL (Substation Configuration Language) File of a substation (Substation Configuration Description) or an IED (IED Capability description) with substation-relevant data extracted from the Substation Communication network traffic. Using a message interceptor, e.g., a laptop computer, connected to a substation communication network, IEC 61850 relevant data is retrieved and analyzed. Hence, consistency verification without revision handling and a reduction of the time and efforts for commissioning or testing a substation installation are possible.

Intelligent electronic device configuration inspection

The present disclosure is concerned with a validation of a configuration description of automated devices in a power network such as a Substation Automation (SA) system, or of a part or component thereof such as an individual Intelligent Electronic Device (IED), that is extended beyond the mere XML schema validation as provided by the known SCL-validation tools. In particular, the disclosure introduces machine-based validation of notations, requirements and/or conventions to be respected by the configuration description and/or the SA system, but not incorporated in or represented by the standardized syntax of the XML schema as defined in part 6 of the IEC 61850 standard. To this end, notations, requirements and/or conventions are initially converted into, or defined as, extended or augmented rules encoded in computer readable format. The content or information of a file having an Substation Configuration description Language (SCL) compliant description of an SA system, or of a part or component there of, is then read by parsing the file and checked for conformance to the rules. Any inconsistency, error, wrong configuration or insufficient description found is displayed to a user, who may then correct the content or information in the file. The procedure according to the disclosure can contribute, in an automated manner, to the correctness of the description of a Substation Automation (SA) system beyond the pure syntactical adherence to the IEC 61850 standard.

Validating a standardized configuration description

The present disclosure is concerned with generating a unique representation of a physical asset from a plurality of datasets representing information relating to the physical asset. Each dataset is generated by a system that acquires the dataset in a system-specific format. Each dataset that includes information about the attributes of a physical asset is mapped to a corresponding system-specific global dataset, based on a global data model. The global system-specific datasets generated are merged together to generate a global dataset, based on the global data model. The global dataset therefore uniquely represents the physical asset.

Generating a unique representation of physical assets

The present disclosure facilitates the interoperability between different local applications. Related local data objects are referenced via global objects or reference containers within a global data model or a global address space of an integration solution. The present disclosure assumes that the integration solution is per default in a consistent state, e.g., an engineered or initially configured global address space is regarded as consistent, and all software components that operate within this space assume that the information they access is valid and likewise consistent. The local applications are the only components that can interact with the global address space and introduce invalidations, they are continuously monitored for changes. Invalidation and subsequent synchronization or restoration of consistency is performed upon a particular triggering event related to a change in a local application object (such as an insertion or removal of an object or a modification of an attribute thereof) or related to a changing application or adapter status (component shutdown/startup).

Maintaining data consistency between integrated applications

Growing community of inventors

Buchs, Switzerland

Claus Vetter