Functional testing of IEC 61850 based Substation Automation Systems

Automation systems have become increasingly complex and so have the efforts for testing communication, interlocking logic, and proper operation of all signals transmitted to SCADA systems.

Surprisingly, even today testing the Substation Automation System (SAS) is usually performed manually. This manual process is time-consuming and extremely expensive. Therefore, a new approach towards more automated and efficient system testing is needed.

Such a solution is available today and based on the SCL concept which is part of the IEC 61850 standard.

This white paper details the SCL concept and testing approach, and showcases how functional testing of IEC 61850 Based SAS can:

• Use logics for interlocking schemes to ensure proper operation of disconnect and ground switches
• Follow the propagating signals through the SAS and find signal errors immediately
• Use logics for interlocking schemes to ensure proper operation of disconnect and ground switches
• Extend an existing substation without risk of affecting existing bay IEDs