IntelliGrid Architecture Concepts and IEC61850

To elevate advanced automation and consumer dynamics to meet future needs, the energy industry needs to migrate to industry-level architecture. The Electric Power Research Institute recently completed the initial phase of an industry-wide architecture called the IntelliGrid Architecture. Building upon past EPRI and industry standards development, the IntelliGrid Architecture is directing the industry to move toward greater and more effective use of emerging open standards. The standards emerging from the International Electrotechnical Commission TC 57 working groups, such as IEC 61850, bring substantial new capability to the open standards available to integrate advanced automation equipment. IEC 61850 enables not only advanced communications for power engineering applications but can enable improved systems and network management and security. These life-cycle management capabilities are necessary for appropriately integrating field equipment and information systems communications with substation operations. The concepts put forward by the IntelliGrid Architecture encourage more rigorous approaches to systems engineering and requirements engineering for the design and development of advanced automation systems. These tools and methods are necessary to manage the complexity that will come with the next generation of advanced automation. This paper describes several of the key concepts that are important to the advancement of interoperable and secure advanced automation systems to maximize the benefits of the IEC 61850 standard. The paper also introduces the current results and planned work of the IntelliGrid Architecture, developed under a private/public consortium