Implementation of IEC 61850 process bus. A Utility view on design, installation, testing and commissioning, and lifetime issues.

The Architecture of Substation Secondary Systems (AS ) [6] is a project within National Grid Electricity Transmission which is seeking to overcome some of the ownership challenges presented by modern protection and control (P&C) devices, which have an inherent short life due to their dependence on modern electronics and software. This will be achieved by implementation of a process bus using IEC 61850 [3]. This paper seeks to review the high level design principles required to allow for the implementation of IEC 61850 with respect to minimising installation and subsequent asset replacement outages, testing and commissioning requirements, and lifetime issues with respect to operations and maintenance. This paper is based on internal discussions and working groups within National Grid and is a high level outline of the findings to date. The findings could well be implemented as formal policy at later date but have yet to be, and as such the contents of this paper in no way represent National Grid formal policy and should not be used as such.