Case study of time-domain automation and communications: Field-proven benefits to automation, control, monitoring, and special protection schemes

New precise synchronization strategies of distributed intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) and high-speed data acquisition and exchange of measured and calculated signals are being used to solve ever increasingly complex power system problems. Many specific problems addressed in this paper previously went unaddressed because processing and communications were not proven fast enough nor precise enough for wide-area logic schemes. IEEE C37.118 synchrophasor protocol is a very useful communications method for observation and reaction to distributed synchronized measurements and calculations. However, this paper illustrates using internationally standardized IEC 61850 GOOSE messages for better performance. These messages are implemented by many different IED manufacturers and have attributes that make them faster and easier to deploy over wide-area networks. This paper illustrates simple and effective mechanisms to use time-domain automation to build, test, and monitor elegant local- and wide-area logic and control applications. Field-proven benefits of design and implementation of installed systems demonstrate the utility of these methods and enable others to recognize new important benefits and applications.