NOJA Power has announced support for IEC 61850 on its OSM series Automatic Circuit Reclosers. IEC 61850 enables fast, reliable communication between the company’s ACRs and Intelligent Electronic Devices (IED) from other manufacturers used in electricity distribution systems.
IEC 61850 is a family of international standards specifying the use of a set of established protocols, including Generic Object-Oriented System Event (GOOSE). GOOSE messaging is used for high-speed sharing of process coordination information across Ethernet networks linking IEDs, regardless of the equipment’s manufacturer. (NOJA Power’s RC10 control and communications cubicle for the OSM series has an Ethernet interface fitted as standard.) GOOSE messaging compensates for network variability while protecting data integrity and can be transported over technologies such as WiMax (an IEEE 802.16 wireless-network standard) for communication with IEDs beyond a substation.
NOJA Power's OSM series of medium-voltage (15, 27 and 38 kV) ACRs already supports supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) communication between devices and control centres using the IEEE 1815 (DNP3) and IEC 60870-5-101/-104 protocols over serial- or Ethernet-communication channels. In addition, NOJA Power supports direct communication between ACRs for automation coordination using a proprietary protocol. The introduction of IEC 61850––via an upgraded firmware platform for NOJA Power’s ACRs due for release later this year––will complete the suite of communication protocols used in modern networks.
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and the European- and North American-equipment manufacturers who helped develop IEC 61850 are promoting the family of standards as the basis for communication and control of IEDs and other Distribution Automation (DA) for modern networks. The interoperability that widespread adoption of IEC 61850 bestows is important in the realisation of smart grids––computerised, bidirectional electricity delivery systems that monitor, protect, and automatically optimise the operation of their interconnected elements––because it offers the promise to overcome the challenges of integration and testing between systems comprising equipment from different manufacturers.
