The Real-Time Publisher/Subscriber Communication Model for Distributed Substation Systems

In the past decade, new communication schemes have been designed and retrofitted into substations by utilities to integrate data from relays and intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) and capitalize on the protection, control, metering, fault recording and communication functions available in digital devices. The introduction of IEC 61850 has made it possible and justifiable to integrate station IEDs on a high-speed peer-to-peer communication network (Ethernet) through standardization. However, more advances are needed in order to establish an open and standard working environment allowing for more functions to be developed. In this paper, the authors propose a real-time publisher/subscriber communication model as a means of satisfying the unique behavior and communications needs of the IEC 61850 protocol. The authors provide a detailed design and implementation detail of this model along with interesting performance results. The target audience for this paper includes power system protection and automation engineers and technicians as well as research personnel who have at least a basic understanding of the IEC 61850 international standard and other technology mechanisms addressed in this paper.