Providing an IEC 61850 Counterpart of the Trusty Multimeter - Approaching the Maintenance Procedures for IEC 61850 Substations

Part of the pre-commissioning test in a conventional substation is wires checking. This is usually done by verifying connectivity and measuring voltage using the trusty multimeter. In a substation where fiber optic and data cables are used instead of copper wires, new tools have to be utilized. This paper introduces a fundamental method on 1) SCD file validation during Factory or Site Acceptance Tests, and 2) interoperability issues troubleshooting. The IEC 61850 network traffic is compared to the design description on the SCD file and differences between the two are found. The paper gives a practical example for the concept applied to horizontal communication (GOOSE).