Use of the standard IEC 61850 outside the areas of Electrical Utilities

The Standard IEC 61850/UCA is developed in international co-operation. The primary target is the electrical substation automation (switchyards and transformers in the medium and high voltage transport and distribution networks).

All major Electrical Utilities (e.g. AEP, EdF, EON, RWE, VEW, ... ) and automation system suppliers (like ABB, Alstom, ... General Electric, SAT, Siemens, ... ) participate in the development of the standard.

UCA was published in 1999 as IEEE TR 1550; the essential parts of the IEC 61850 will be published as International Standard in 2002. IEC 61850 is to a large extent based on the UCA.

The IEC 61850 is, due to its modular structure, its generic basic information for process control, and due to its general functionality, almost predestined for the use in (almost) all areas of industrial automation to achieve unified definition and exchange of any process information.

The gas and water industry in the USA has decided to promote and intro-duce the IEC 61850. The IEC TC 88 (wind power plants) specifies currently a standard for communication with SCADA systems (IEC 61400-25); IEC 61850 forms also here a basis.

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