Impact evaluation of IEC 61850 process bus architecture on numerical protection systems

The deployment of IEC 61850 process bus in substations calls for an impact evaluation of possible process bus architecture scenarios on the performance of numerical protection systems. Six alternative system architectures are proposed based on a component redundancy perspective. The functionality of each system is assessed using reliability block diagrams based on a success-oriented network. System reliability is calculated using the minimal tie sets method determined by the connection matrix. Sensitivity analysis is then carried out on the results using two approaches. One highlights those components with the greatest impact on system reliability and the other the importance of the task performed by each component in terms of how it affects the functionality of the system.