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Modeling Distribution Automation System
Components Using IEC 61850
S. Mohagheghi, Member, IEEE, M. Mousavi, Member, IEEE,
J. Stoupis, Member, IEEE and Z. Wang, Member, IEEE
Abstract—IEC 61850 was proposed as a standard protocol for
communications within the substation. In its current edition, the
standard does not cover communications outside the substation,
either with the control center or with other substations, for
instance for remote protection. However, during the recent years,
there has been a general belief that some features of the standard
can be efficiently utilized for applications outside the substation
as well. With the advent of new monitoring and control
technologies the idea of power system automation at the
distribution system and feeder level is crossing new boundaries.
In such applications, accessing the accurate data is a necessity.
With its future-proof object oriented structure, IEC 61850 can
provide comprehensive and accurate information models for
various components of distribution automation systems. This
paper provides some examples on how the standard can be
employed for this purpose, and what measures need to be taken
to enable it to efficiently respond to some of the emerging
technologies in distribution automation systems.
Index Terms—IEC 61850, information models, feeder
automation, distribution automation, Smart Grid.
I. INTRODUCTION
S MART Grid refers to a power system that incorporates
the state of the art in communication and information
technology in order to achieve enhanced operational
monitoring, control, intelligence, and connectivity. The
enhanced capabilities of a smart grid can significantly
improve the reliability and security of the electric grid,
provide an economical solution for the customers, utilize the
full capacity of the grid in an efficient manner, and also
minimize its environmental impact. Although there has been
much focus and discussion on this topic in the power industry,
a unanimous definition of the smart grid, its characteristics
and the areas that it covers, is yet to be defined. Nevertheless,
it is generally believed that a smart grid should be able to add
one or more of the following capabilities to the power grid:
• Communication and metering infrastructure that provides
access to the real-time information on the electric grid’s
equipment, resources and customer data.
• Self-healing mechanisms that allow the grid to respond to
disturbances and provide practical countermeasures.
• Providing a power quality at a level suitable for the
current sensitive electronic loads in the grid.
• Advanced monitoring systems that enable fast and
The authors are with ABB Inc., US Corporate Research Center, Raleigh, NC
27606 USA (email: salman.mohagheghi, mirrasoul.j.mousavi, james.stoupis,
zhenyuan.wang@us.abb.com).
accurate interpretation of the data.
• Efficient demand responsive programs that allow the
customers to actively participate in the electricity market.
• Providing a future proof design for the grid that can be
easily adapted to accommodate modern and emerging
technologies.
• Providing an interoperable infrastructure where products
from different manufacturers can be utilized in the same
system.
To achieve smart grid at the power distribution system
level, various automatic technologies have been attempted in
the areas of system metering, protection, and control. A need
for an efficient communication infrastructure is perhaps the
most fundamental characteristic among these various
technologies. Although local automation schemes may only
utilize loss of voltage or other criteria to initiate switching
operations, most large scale deployments of distribution
automation systems require communication to initiate an
action or report an action to the central control center [1].
Such a communication system should make large quantities of
data available to different applications while preserving its
quality. This in turn raises the issue of how and with what
format the data should be modeled. In more advanced
automation systems, data needs to be accompanied by
additional attributes such as the address of the device the
message is being sent to, the address of the device initiating
the message, type and length of the data, time stamp of the
event/message, its priority compared to the other messages
received, as well as its quality.
In the early days proprietary protocols were used to model
the data and utilize it in related applications. The technologies
developed were exclusive to each vendor and were not
compatible with the systems and technologies of others. A
need was later on felt for creating an interoperable
environment where various systems from different vendors
can coexist and function together. This was the beginning of
an era when different communication standards and protocols
came into existence.
Since the early 1990’s it was noticed that the speed of
advances in communication technology seemed to overpass
its power system counterpart, which called for more
adaptability by substation automation systems and higher
independence from the underlying communication
technology. The natural shift in the industry from proprietary
communication protocols to open access standards was
therefore further accelerated and was directed towards more
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advanced solutions that provide an interoperable and future with each physical device containing at least one logical
proof environment. In order to be able to respond to these device [3] (Fig. 2).
concerns, IEC 61850 was proposed as a future proof,
adaptable communication protocol, capable of providing
interoperability in a multi-vendor environment and with a
highly advanced object oriented modeling structure. The
migration from legacy protocols and de facto standards such
as Modbus, DNP3, and IEC 60870-5 has already started and it
seems likely that it will continue at a steady pace in the future.
Among many other benefits, IEC 61850 is more easily
extendable than legacy protocols, uses hierarchical names
instead of indexed addressing, provides a more descriptive
context for the data, fully supports vendor independent
engineering tools for development, and is open for future
service systems, such as HTTP and COBRA [2].
In addition to the efforts to provide an advanced solution
for substation automation systems, IEC 61850 is also efficient
for being utilized beyond the substations either downstream,
at the feeder level or upstream, at a higher level of network
management. This paper describes how the standard can be
used for modeling components in a distribution automation
system. Fig. 1. Substation automation topology based on IEC 61850.

II. COMMUNICATION WITHIN THE SUBSTATION- IEC 61850

A. Overview
IEC 61850 is a standard recommended by the International
Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) for the design of
substation automation systems [3]. It divides inter-substation
communication into three levels: process level including the
I/O devices, intelligent sensors and actuators, bay/unit level
including the protection and control IEDs, and the substation
level, including the substation computer, operator’s desk and
the interfaces with outside the substation. All the
communications within and between these levels are covered
in the standard (Fig. 1). Although in its current format, the
standard does not cover protection data exchange between the
bay and remote protection, nor control data exchange between
substation and remote control center.
Fig. 2. Data structure in IEC 61850 [4].
In the IEC 61850 environment, protection and control
functions are broken into smaller units called Logical Nodes
IEC 61850 defines an abundance of services that act upon
(LN). These virtual units are in fact the objects defined in the
the data objects of the LNs. These services not only cover the
object oriented context of the standard, and present one of the
traditional control/read/write commands, but they also cover
most important advantages of the standard over legacy
new and expanded services for grouping the data objects,
protocols. There are a total of 92 LNs defined in IEC 61850
reporting and logging, as well as transmitting the fast
that correspond to various protection, protection related,
messages, i.e. GOOSE and GSSE [3].
control, metering, and monitoring functions as well as the
The communication services and data models are defined
physical components such as the transformers and breakers.
in section 61850-7-2 of the standard. The Abstract
Each LN can have a few or up to 30 data objects, each of
Communication Service Interface (ACSI) specifies the models
which belonging to a Common Data Class (CDC). Each data
and services used for access to the elements of the domain
object in turn has a few or more than 20 data attributes. The
specific object model. ACSI is a network independent
LNs can be on any of the three levels defined for substation
interface that defines the semantic of the service models with
automation. It should be noted that each physical device such
their attributes, and describes what these services provide.
as an IED can host several logical nodes depending on its
The abstract nature of ACSI is necessary to make the SA
functionality. These LNs are grouped into logical devices
system compatible with the fast advances in the
(LD) which are defined in the context of the physical device,

communication technology. In other words, the SA specific
data model needs to be separate from the communication
technology.
The syntax and encoding of the messages are defined in
Specific Communication Service Mapping (SCSM). For
example, IEC 61850-8-1 is a SCSM for mapping of services
to Manufacturing Message Specification (MMS). Figure 3
illustrates how these communication stacks and interfaces are
related.
Fig. 3. Data model and communication services- mapping to the OSI layered
model
In addition to client/server services by mapping to MMS
stack, the standard provides peer-to-peer services for
transmitting Sampled Values (SV) and GOOSE messages
(Fig. 4).
Fig. 4. Client/server and peer-to-peer communication modes in IEC 61850.
SV represents quantities digitized at the source to be
transmitted to the substation. These quantities come from
modern low energy voltage and current sensors which gather
information from the primary power system. IEC 61850-9-1
and 61850-9-2 define two mappings for SV over serial
3
unidirectional multi-drop point to point link and SV over
ISO/IEC 8802-3.
GOOSE messages on the other hand are used to model the
transmission of high priority information like trip commands
or interlocking information. The model is based on cyclic and
high-priority transmission of status information. Information
like a trip command is transmitted spontaneously and then
cyclically at increasing intervals. GOOSE uses a multicast
exchange.
Although standard protocols exist that cover
communications beyond substations, it is generally believed
that the capabilities of IEC 61850 can be potentially used to
improve these applications. In this context, IEC 61850 can be
potentially used as the communication protocol for feeder
automation applications or communication with the control
centers [6].
III. DISTRIBUTION AUTOMATION
Distribution Automation (DA) as a concept emerged in the
1970s to promote the application of computer and
communications technologies for the betterment of
distribution system operating performance. Since then, DA
has evolved and turned into an established concept while
being challenged in the past for the lack of hard return-on-
investment numbers due to deregulation and privatization.
Today, DA has gained renewed attention and accelerated
momentum in view of the recent industry-wide push towards
Smart Grids and the need for more reliable and efficient
distribution systems.
DA specifics vary across the board from one utility system
to another, but it is in general used as an umbrella term to
capture the deployment of automation technologies for
protection, control, monitoring, and operation of distribution
systems. These technologies enable electric utilities to
monitor, control, and operate distribution components in a
real-time or non-real-time mode from remote locations. A key
differentiator in DA is the remote operation enabled by
leveraging a communications infrastructure where the
automation can be local, remote, or central. Local automation
is achieved at the device level by some logic whereas remote
and central automation is SCADA-like and is controlled from
a substation or control room.
DA promises to benefit the utility and customers alike by
reducing O&M costs, improved reliability and power quality,
enabling new customer services, deferring capacity expansion
projects (CAPX), and by providing better information for
utility engineers and planners. DA covers the complete range
of functions from existing SCADA systems to ever-increasing
deployment of AMI technologies at the customer level in
which local automation, remote control, and central decision
making are brought together to deliver a cost-effective,
flexible, and cohesive operating architecture [7]. A DA
implementation could be as simple as retrofitting remote
control to deployment of sophisticated DMS systems with
integrated intelligent devices.

A widely-recognized instance of a DA project involves
utilization of communications infrastructure and information
technologies to enable remote control of switching devices
including substation breakers, automated line reclosers and
field switches as well as cap banks and line regulators. This
category of DA is commonly referred to as Feeder
Automation or FA. Before the era of DA/FA, the switching
operations had to be done manually by the field crew which
required physical patrolling of the feeder route and
verification of every switching action. Evidently, this practice
prolongs the switching time and gives rise to extended outage
times and system inefficiencies. With the application of
remote data collection and control through FA, these
switching tasks are accomplished in an automated fashion
giving rise to accelerated restoration times that are much less
than those offered by the legacy systems.
DA/FA concepts are being extended to distribution systems
and beyond in the form of Advanced Distribution Automation
or (ADA) which promotes automation of distributed
generation control and demand response programs [8].
IV. CASE STUDIES
This section provides some examples on how to model
basic components commonly used in DA systems.
A. Auto-Reclosers
An auto-recloser is a circuit breaker that is capable of
automatically closing after it has been opened due to a fault in
the system. In general, the auto-recloser can take several
predefined attempts to reenergize the line. If the fault has
cleared, then the line remains energized, but if the fault exists,
then the recloser mechanism reopens the circuit breaker and
trips the line. This process continues until the maximum
number of attempts is met. Many reclosers used in DA
systems have single phase as well as three phase operation
capabilities. In this case, the switch first disconnects the faulty
line, and after switching it back on, if the fault still exists it
trips the line again. This procedure continues as many times
as the mechanism is set to. Consequently, if the fault is
permanent and still prevails, the auto-recloser disconnects all
three phases.
Figure 5 illustrates the schematic diagram of
decomposition of the recloser function into logical nodes.
Logical nodes XCBR, TVTR and TCTR correspond to the
circuit breaker, voltage transformer and current transformer
respectively (each for an individual phase here), while IHMI
denotes the Operator Interface, which includes the front panel
operator interface at bay level to be used for configuration
and local control, as well as the local operator interface at the
station level to be used as workplace for the station operator
[9].
Also, the logical node GAPC in Fig. 5 represents a generic
automatic protection control which covers any possible
control or protection functionality in the DA system. CSWI
handles all switchgear operations from the operators and from
related automatics (controls any devices described by XCBR
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and XSWI logical nodes). It checks the authorization of the
commands, supervises the command execution and gives an
alarm in case of an improper ending of the command [9].
Fig. 5. Decomposition of recloser function into LNs.
The logical node RREC represents the automatic reclosing
function. After any successful protection trip, the automatic
reclosing tries 1 to 3 times to reclose the open breaker again
with different time delays assuming a transient fault [9]. Some
of the main attributes of the logical node RREC defined by
IEC 61850 are as follows [10]:
• OpCnts: resettable operation counter
• BlkRec and ChkRec: for block and check reclosing
• Op: operate
• AutoRecSt: recloser status
• Rec1Tmms, Rec2Tmms and Rec3Tmms: for first, second
and third reclose time. RREC can be extended with
additional reclose times in order to incorporate more than
three reclose cycles.
It is also possible to define a new data attribute CBLoc for
the logical node RREC for permanent fault detection purpose
in order to represent the lock out status of RREC.
B. Shunt Capacitors
Shunt capacitors are widely used in the distribution system,
either for improving the power quality (e.g. power factor
correction) or more complicated applications such as the
voltage and Var optimization. Traditionally, these capacitors
have been controlled manually by the utility crew. However,
in an automated environment these capacitors need to be
controlled either based on a local automated algorithm, or
remotely by the utility operators from the control center.
A typical LN-representation of the capacitor bank and the
related controls are depicted in Fig. 6. In this case, three
separate sets of logical nodes are assigned to phases a, b and
c, to represent the individual instrument transformers for the
three phases.
The logical node XSWI represents a switching device not

capable of tripping short circuits [9]. Examples are load
breakers, capacitor breakers, disconnecting switches and
earthing switches. It should be noted that although the
capacitor bank in Fig. 6 is considered to allow for individual
phase switching, the individual XSWIs are shown as a stack
of switches and not three switches for three phases, as in Fig.
5. This is due to the fact that a capacitor bank normally
consists of several parallel capacitors per phase and therefore
each phase has more than one switch associated with it.
The logical node ZCAP represents a capacitor bank, and in
addition to typical optional attributes such as the equipment
health and operation time, provides mandatory attributes
CapDS and DschBlk to indicate capacitor bank device status
and blockage due to discharge respectively [10]. Such
information can be used in the DA function implemented in
the generic GAPC.
Fig. 6. Decomposition of shunt capacitor bank into LNs.
C. Tap Changer Control
Voltage regulators with automatic tap changing capabilities
allow for controlling the voltage according to a predefined
automatic logic or by remote access through the operator
command. IEC 61850 defines the LNs for this application as
illustrated in Fig. 7, where ATCC represents the automatic tap
changer controller, YLTC represents the tap changer which is
the device allocated to the power transformer allowing
changing taps of the winding, and MMXU indicates the
presence of metering and measurement for operative purposes
[9].
Some of the main data attributes associated with the logical
node ATCC are as follows [10]:
• Loc: to indicate local operation
• OpCntRs: resettable operation counter
• TapPos: tap position
• TapChg: change tap position (stop, higher, lower)
• LTCBlk: block automatic control of LTC
• Auto: automatic/manual operation
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• ParOp: parallel/independent operation
Fig. 7 illustrates a tap changer with a three phase control,
which similar to the previous sections can be easily expanded
to incorporate individual phase control capability as well. In
that case, the attribute ParOp of ATCC needs to be set to the
correct setting to indicate independent (un-ganged) as
opposed to parallel (ganged) operation [10].
Fig. 7. Decomposition of tap changer control into LNs.
V. FUTURE TRENDS
Although IEC 61850 can efficiently model the existing
components employed in the DA environment today, some
modifications or expansions might be necessary to ensure it
can fully respond to the needs of emerging technologies. This
section discusses some areas that may need further
investigation.
Power fuses as used today in the MV circuits are simply
over-current protection devices with unique time-current
characteristics (TCC) curves and there is no potential for
automation due to the lack of communications. However, it is
conceivable that these devices may be integrated into the DA
schemes in the future especially at the presence of Distributed
Generation (DG). To achieve this, some level of intelligence
and communications capability is required to support DA
schemes.
The primary function of such a “Smart” fuse will remain
the same but it may provide more functionality such as
selective operation, local sensing, monitoring, and reporting.
When this is realized, a smart power fuse can be treated as a
IEC 61850 communicative device whose various functions
can be decomposed into logical nodes. LNs model a specific
function such as overcurrent protection or act as a proxy for
primary equipment such as a circuit breaker. The LNs for
smart fuses can be largely borrowed from the existing set
defined for substation automation (SA) functions. Example
LN groups that might be rehashed in part for modeling smart
fuses are control (C), switchgear (X), metering and
measurement (M), sensor and monitoring (S), protection-
related (R), and interfacing (I). The actual LNs within these
groups will depend upon the degree of sophistication and
range of embedded functions in the device. Currently, there is
no LN defined for fuses to act as a proxy. A placeholder may

be necessary to extend the application to future DA schemes.
Furthermore, in the near future, there may be a need to
revise LN attributes for reclosers where the emerging new
reclosing technologies may change the traditional
open/close/…/lock-out cycle of these devices.
VI. CONCLUDING REMARKS
IEC 61850 is a standard for communication networks and
systems proposed originally for applications within the
substations. Although applications for outside the substation
are not covered in its current scope, it is generally believed
that some of the standard’s features can be utilized for control
and automation functions in the context of distribution and
feeder automation systems. This paper presented examples of
how IEC 61850 can be used to model certain DA related
equipment.
VII. REFERENCES
[1] J. Northcote-Green and R. Wilson, Control and Automation of Electrical
Power Distribution Systems, CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL, 2007.
[2] K. Schwarz, “Comparison of IEC 60870-5-101/-103/-104, DNP3, and
IEC 60870-6-TASE.2 with IEC 61850,” February 2002, [Online]
available at www.nettedautomation.com.
[3] IEC 61850- Communication Networks and Systems in Substations, Part 1-
Introduction and Overview, IEC Std. 2003.
[4] [Online] available at http://www.bitswiz.co.kr.
[5] SISCO. Inc., “Overview and Introduction to the Manufacturing Message
Specification (MMS),” November 1995, pp. 1-49, [Online] available at
http://www.sisconet.com.
[6] S. Mohagheghi, J. Stoupis and Z. Wang, “Communication Protocols and
Networks for Power Systems- Current Status and Future Trends,” To
Appear in Proc. IEEE PSCE, Mar. 2009.
[7] E. Clarke, Control and Automation of Electrical Power Distribution
Systems, CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL, 2006, p. 81.
[8] IntelliGrid Architecture, [Online]. Available: http://www.intelligrid.info/
IntelliGrid_Architecture/Overview_Guidelines/index.htm.
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[9] IEC 61850- Communication Networks and Systems in Substations, Part 5-
Communication Requirements for Functions and Device Models, IEC Std.
2003.
[10] IEC 61850- Communication Networks and Systems in Substations, Part 7-
4- Compatible Logical Node Classes and Data Classes, IEC Std. 2003.
VIII. BIOGRAPHIES
Salman Mohagheghi (S’99, M’07) received the B.Eng. from University of
Tehran, Iran and M.Sc. from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, both
in Power Electrical Engineering in 1998 and 2001 respectively. In 2006 he
graduated with PhD in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Institute of
Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA, where he later joined as a Postdoctoral Fellow.
He is currently a Senior R&D Engineer at ABB Inc, US Corporate Research
Center, Raleigh, NC, USA. His current research focuses on communication
networks in power systems, Smart Grid applications and distribution
automation.
Mirrasoul J. Mousavi (S’01, M’05) is with ABB US Corporate Research
Center in Raleigh responsible for executing and leading R&D projects related to
power system automation, monitoring, and diagnostics. He received his Ph.D.
degree in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University in 2005. He was a
research assistant in the Power System Automation Laboratory and a graduate
lecturer at Texas A&M University prior to joining ABB. Dr. Mousavi is a
member of IEEE, IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES), and IEEE Dielectrics
and Electrical Insulation Society (DEIS). His current professional interests are
related to fault diagnosis, asset management, power system automation as well
as power system modeling and simulation.
James Stoupis (M’91) is a Principal Consulting R&D Engineer in the Power
Technologies Department for ABB’s US Corporate Research Center located in
Raleigh, North Carolina. Jim has been employed at USCRC for 12 years, and
his research has been focused in the areas of distribution and feeder automation,
wireless communications, power system protection and control, and event
detection and classification. Jim holds a BSEE from the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign and an MSEE from Virginia Tech.
Zhenyuan Wang (M’2000) joined ABB Corporate Research in Raleigh, North
Carolina in 2000, where he is currently a Principal Consulting R&D Engineer.
His research interests include electric power equipment condition
monitoring/assessment/diagnosis, system monitoring, control and automation for
a smart grid. His experiences include asset management IT applications in the
electric power industry, power system transient analysis, substation/distribution
automation, and data integration/warehousing/mining applications.