Utilizing IEC61850 Standard and the Generic Object Orientated Substation Event Facility in Modern Protection and Control Devices

Abstract

IEC61850 technology has proved to be the future of communications in the power system protection environment. The numerous benefits of IEC61850 overshadow what the current widely used DNP3 technology has to offer. This paper is concerned with the investigation of the electrical protection communications technology which will be most beneficial to power utilities. In evaluating the two communication design alternatives, IEC61850 and DNP3, the research relied on theory, laboratory experiments, probability models and equipment purchase data. Analytical analysis of the two designs was carried out using a Monte Carlo approach whereby the stochastic weights of the seven evaluation criteria used in this research were presented as inputs to Monte Carlo analysis. The Simple Additive Weighting (SAW) strategy was employed as a deterministic model within Monte Carlo to evaluate the probability of IEC61850 being the most preferred technology over DNP3 or DNP3 over IEC61850 conversely. Three worst case scenarios of preferences were used during Monte Carlo evaluation. It was found through statistical analysis of the analytically obtained overall results that the probability of DNP3 technology being beneficial over IEC61850 was 0.54 in one of the worst case scenarios. In the other two worst case scenarios the probability of IEC61850 being the most desirable technology was found to be 0.52 and 0.59.