IEC 61850 in the Oil and Gas Industries

International electrotechnical commission (IEC) 61850 communication technology appears to be a very promising technology, able to reach a high level of both performance and interoperability. However, considering the real maturity of this technology (from its current level of definition down to its implementation) and the height that breakthrough that this may represent user, a recommendation would lead to a reasonable stepwise deployment based on two different levels. Level 1 would focus on the "monitoring and control" part of the electrical monitoring and control system (EMCS) and brings many benefits to the user while offering a high level of multivendor interoperability. Level 2 would be based on a limited single-vendor deployment of the generic object-oriented substation event (GOOSE) peer-to-peer capability of the IEC 61850 technology. This deployment has de facto many impacts on the user's side, especially in requesting the adaptation of most of the security procedures.