IEC61850-based protection system for MV/LV substations

IEC61850 is commonly used in substations and in Medium Voltage distribution. Its advantages include interoperability among vendors, data standardization and possibility of computer-assisted protection system design. This paper shows that such advantages can be extended to Low Voltage if circuit breakers with embedded IEC61850 interface are used: an architecture for MV/LV substations based on such a concept is presentedalong with results of tests of relevant IEC61850 features, namely logic selectivity, breaker failure protection and real-time diagnostics.