Managing the data and choosing the right protocol

The need for information in the deregulated, competitive utility environment places even greater emphasis on the communication protocol. Historically, suppliers have developed their own protocols that best suited their products. The system suppliers and integrators who tried to integrate these products had a difficult time making these products talk to each other. Worse yet, even the same protocol had different versions that caused incompatibility between two systems or devices. With the greater emphasis on the communication protocol today, there is greater emphasis on standardization of communication protocols. The most focused industry activity today in protocol standardization is in the substation integration and automation area. Specifically, these efforts address a standard intelligent electronic device (IED) protocol, as well as a standard substation local area network (LAN) technology. The efforts also include an integration architecture to bring the substation information out of the substation and into the utility enterprise.