Use of IEC 61850 to increase the security of the protection system

So far, the discussion on implementation of the horizontal communication for relay protection with IEC 61850 GOOSE messages has been focused on the dependability of the protection system. Less discussed has been the positive impact of GOOSE messaging on its security. This paper describes in paragraph II the fundamental concepts of protection dependability and security; a typical medium voltage overcurrent blocking protection scheme is then taken as example to show how correct implementation of the IEC 61850 GOOSE technology can increase the security of the scheme, without compromising on its dependability. The comparison is done with the classical analog technology. The secret behind the increased security lies in the IEC 61850 GOOSE protocol, which opens for the implementation of the communication supervision: this is detailed in paragraphs III, IV and V. Generic benefits of self-supervision mechanisms, are described in paragraph VI, while paragraphs VII and VIII report about several practical implementations of protection systems where the protection security was increased by using GOOSE messages. The conclusions discuss about the competence and standardization needed for these implementations to be more popular in the practical implementations, with a final message to the academic world to study these concepts and create new solutions for the protection of our future electric smart grid: more dependable, and more secure.