Integration and testing challenges of IEC 61850 multivendor protection schemes

A major challenge facing utilities today is the successful configuration and testing of multi-vendor protection schemes using the EC 61850 standard. Even though the EC 61850 standard allows for interoperability between different manufacturers´ relays, the implementation of the communication protocol varies greatly from vendor to vendor. The standard does not mention how the ED should be configured and each vendor is left to provide their own proprietary methods. This paper will discuss the pitfalls in the engineering process, configuration, and testing of multivendor ED´s using a distributed communications assisted breaker failure scheme as an example.