The impact of IEC 61850 on transmission and distribution substations busbar protection

The new IBC 61850 standard for communication networks and systems in substations has a significant impact on the development of a new generation protection solutions that offer significant benefits to the user. The paper analyzes conventional centralized and distributed bus differential protection schemes and compares them with IBC 61850 station and process bus based solutions. It describes their principles and discusses the benefits of the new bus protection schemes - improved flexibility, performance, safety and reduced cost. The use of IBC 61850 based solutions for the protection of distribution busbars is described later in the paper.