Virtual Power Plants, Distributed Generation, Microgrids, Renewables and Storage (IEEE SmartGridComm)

Application of IEC 61850 to the Communication of a Large-scale Photovoltaic Power Generation Operation
- Web Service and Conformance Test Hiroyuki Yusa, Tetsuo Otani, Noriyuki Senke, Eiji Ohba
System Engineering Research Laboratory Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry Komae, Tokyo, Japan {yusa, ohtani, ohba, senke}@criepi.denken.or.jp

Yutaka Arai, Yoshimichi Okuno, Takanori Hayashi, Yasuyuki Hoshi

Power & Industrial Sector Sales Division Social Infrastructure Systems Business Unit Meidensha Corporation Shinagawa,Tokyo,Japan {arai-y,okuno-y,hayashi-tak,hoshi-y}@mb.meidensha.co.jp
AbstractWe developed a SCADA server as a prototype to evaluate the applicability of IEC 61850 for the operation of largescale photovoltaic (PV) generation systems. IEC 61850 and Webservice technology (IEC 61400-25-4) are applied to the data model and the server communication protocol. We also developed a test client for the conformance test, which was then executed. The result showed that the server conformed to IEC 61850 on the data model and protocol. Therefore, the applicability of IEC 61850 to the operation of a large-scale photovoltaic (PV) generation system is confirmed.

service technology (IEC 61400-25-4) are applied to the data model and communication protocol of the server. We also developed a test client for the conformance test, which was then executed. The result showed that the server conformed to IEC 61850 on the data model and protocol. Therefore, Section II illustrates the referenced PV generation and its SCADA system. Section III follows by explaining IEC 61850. In Section IV, we consider its application of IEC 61850 and the web service technology to the SCADA system. Section V illustrates our method and the result of the conformance test, before concluding in Section VI. II. PV POWER GENERATION AND THE SCADA SYSTEM

I.

INTRODUCTION

IEC 61850 [1-4] is expected to be applied to supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems to operate large-scale photovoltaic generation (PV) systems. It is effective for applying IEC 61850 and web service technology to reduce system cost. However, applicability in a real system could not be seen and the conformance of the server with IEC 61850 also had to be tested [5]. A PV system using IEC 61850 is studied in the United States [6]. There are two ways to apply web service technologies to PV systems. One is to utilize Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and another is to utilize Representational State Transfer (REST) architecture. The former method is adopted in IEC 61400-25-4 [7]. The latter is studied in [8], which does not cover the communication service for control. We developed a SCADA server as a prototype to evaluate the applicability of IEC 61850 for the operation of large-scale photovoltaic (PV) power generation systems. The server specification is based on a real representative system in Japan. Our developed server is equipped with data generated from the specification of the reference system. IEC 61850 and Web-

The reference system is located in Wakkanai city of Hokkaido prefecture in Japan. The system was developed in a project by NEDO (the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization). This is composed of a PV power generation system and a SCADA system. A. PV Power Generation System The system is composed of Distributed Energy Resources (DER) described below (Fig. 1). PV panels NAS (sodium-sulfur) batteries (500kW, 1000kW) Electric double layer capacitor (EDLC) battery

The output of the power generation system is 5MW.

978-1-4577-1702-4/11/$26.00 2011 IEEE

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Grid Connection Point

33kV/6.6kV 6.6kV High voltage bus

6.6kV/420V

6.6kV/420V

100kW PCS

100kW PCS

250kW PCS

250kW PCS

250kW PCS

500kW PCS NaS

1000kW PCS NaS

PCS

EDLC Battery Transformer Control unit

100kW PCS

100kW PCS

250kW PCS

250kW PCS

250kW PCS

100kV PV

250kV PV

Fig.1. Large-scale PV power generation system

SCADA server

SCADA client

Set-points Control information

PV Panel

PV PCS

PV Control Unit

The control units of the SCADA system are for the following electric apparatus: Grid connection point Transformer PV PCS NAS Battery PCS(500kW) NAS Battery PCS(1000kW) EDLC PCS 1 unit 6 units 23 units 1 unit 1 unit 1 unit

Battery Unit

Battery PCS

Battery Control Unit

Grid Grid Connection Connection Control Unit Point

Fig.2. SCADA system for large-scale PV power generation operation

B. SCADA System The SCADA system is to monitor and control PV panels, batteries, their Power Conditioning System (PCS), grid connection point and so on. Operators use a client of the system as a terminal to manage electric apparatus via control units as shown in Fig. 2. The control units are connected to the electric apparatus and used as servers of the SCADA system. The servers and clients support the communication service to enable the SCADA functions described below: Monitor function Control function Schedule function Record function

The servers and clients exchange information to enable the above functions, which includes the following data: Status and measuring information Alarm Statically information

The control unit for grid connection exchanges data on the status, the alarm for the circuit breaker, transformer, protection device and itself. The number of data items is 135. This control unit also exchanges measuring data including real energy, active power, reactive power and so on, with a total of 54 data items. The generation system comprises various types of PV panels and PCS, hence the data items differ among PCS depending on the structure of the PV panels or PCS. For example, the control unit for 100kW PV PCS exchanges data concerning the status and alarm for the circuit breaker, transformer, protection device and itself. The number of data items is 51. This control unit also exchanges measuring data including the AC voltage, current, DC voltage, current, power factor, total isolation and so on. The number of data items is 16. The total status/alarm data items and measuring data items are 1868 and 672 respectively.

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LN Energy Converter Battery System LN

DER Device Controller LN

ECP

Electrical Connection Point

Application process
DC/AC LN ZINV WRtg ACTyp PQVLimSet DER Circuit Breaker LN
Logical Node(LN) Data Object(DO)

Application process ACSI SOAP HTTP TCP IP Layer2

Storage Device

Generator Unit LN

ACSI MMS/ACSE ISOPresentation ISOSession TCP IP Layer2

Fig. 3 Logical node and data object

Layer1 Layer1 (a) MMS-based (b) Web service-based Fig. 4 Protocol

III.

IEC 61850

IV.

IEC 61850 defines the data model and communication protocol, details of which are described below. A. Data Model Standrd IEC 61850-7-4[3] defines general logical nodes as a data model. Some example logical nodes (LN) are for circuit breakers, transformers, CT, VT and protection devices. IEC 61850-7-420[4] defines DER specific logical nodes. Some example logical nodes are for inverters and batteries, with hierarchically-arranged data. Logical nodes are composed of data objects (DO)[2] as illustrated in Fig. 3. For example, there are maximum power rating and AC type as DO. B. Protocol Standard IEC 61850-7-2[1] defines an Abstract Communication Service Interface (ACSI), which is intended to exchange SCADA information between a client and server. Fig. 4 illustrates the protocol with ACSI. ACSI enables applications to exchange data independently of lower protocols. The latter include not only the Manufacturing Message Specification (MMS) but also Web service. IEC 61400-25-4[7] defines Web service mapping. When applying Web service to the SCADA system of large-scale PV power generation operation, the flexible adoption of various patterns of PV power generation systems is effective. C. Conformance Testing Standard IEC 61850-10[5] specifies standard techniques for testing the conformance of server implementations. This describes the data model and protocol test as a functional test, as well as the measurement techniques for the performance test. The data model test is required to verify each data implemented in servers. It is considered that this makes the test considerably time-consuming and underlines the need to reduce the volume of related verification work involved. The standard also shows a measurement of the communication processing time of servers as communication latency. IEC 61850-5[9] specifies communication latency for various communication interfaces. The required latencies for server processing and data transfer are 200ms and 100ms respectively.

APLLICATION OF IEC 61850 TO LARGE-SCALE PV SYSTEMS

A. System Configration We developed a server as shown in Fig. 5. IEC 61850 and Web-service technology (IEC 61400-25-4) are applied to the data model and the communication protocol of the server. The details of the server are described below. B. Data Model Logical nodes are assigned to the input-output data items of the control units based on the specification of the reference SCADA system. The assignment is made with IEC 61850-7420 and IEC 61850-7-4, the former of which is applied when the definitions of both specifications differ. We also assigned logical nodes to all the input-output data without extending logical nodes. Some example logical nodes assigned to control units are described below. Control unit for grid connection point: CALH, CSWI, MMTR, MMXU, MMXU, XCBR, XSWI, YLTC Control unit for PV-PCS: ZINV,CALH,CSWI,MMET,MMDC,MMTR,MMXN, MMXU, Control unit for battery PCS: ZBAT, ZBTC, ZINV, CALH, CSWI, KFAN, XFUS, XSWI,

The same logical nodes may differ depending on the composition of the electric apparatus. For example, the differences of logical nodes ZINV account for the utilization of GridModSt and Stdby, which are conditional DOs. C. Protocol Fig. 6. illustrates the application of the ACSI communication service as specified in IEC 61850-7-2 for information exchange between the client and server. IEC 61400-25-4 is applied as web service mapping to ACSI.

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ACSI : IEC 61850-7-2 Web service: IEC 61400-25-4

IEC 61850-7-420 IEC 61850-7-4 IEC 61850-7-3

Application process

Communication protocol (Web service) SCADA client

Request Message

Communication protocol (Web service)

Data (Logical node, Data object)

Response Message Wide area communication 100ms Transfer

SCADA server 200ms Communication process

Based on the specification of the referenced SCADA system.

Transfer delay of IEC 61850

200ms

Fig. 5. SCADA system for large PV power generation operation TABLE I . Logical node assignment Grid PV Connection PCS CALH (Alarm handling) x x CSWI (Switch controller) MMET (Meteorological information) MMDC (DC measurement) MMTR (Metering) MMXN (Non-phase-related measurement) MMXU (Measurement) KFAN (Fan) XCBR (Circuit breaker) XFUS (Fuse) XSWI (Circuit switch) YLTC(Tap changer) ZBAT(Battery) ZBTC(Battery charger) ZINV(Inverter) x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

Battery PCS x

SCADA Information

IEC61850 Services

Status/Measured information GetDataValues Statistical information SetDataValues Alarms GetDataSetValues Set-points SetDataSetValues Realtime Commands Report Schedules Select Stored energy Operate Locally produced energy Power Factor and VAR Weather forecasts Fig. 6 Communication service mapping

E. Effect on PV Power Generation Operation The larger a PV system is, the more important it is to interconnect among various DERs (SCADA servers) manufactured by multi-vendors and a SCADA client and to operate the DERs. The application method of IEC 61850 and the WEB service technology described in this section enables to increase the inter-connectivity. The method supports communication for following information with the clientserver model. Status/ Measured information Statistical information Alarms Set-points Real-time commands

D. Software Structure The C++ language is adopted as the server implementation language, for the following reasons: The major implementation language for control units of DERs is C++. C++ is adequate for a lower computer resource environment. C++ is a common language on UNIX and Windows.

Schedules The method also enables to deliver the information from DERs to remote operators and to operate the DERs by the operators via an IP-based wide area networks or the internet. V. CONFORMANCE TEST

Fig. 7(a) shows the software structure of the server. The application process is accessed via web service from a client and implemented with the CGI method. gSOAP [10] is a lightweight SOAP engine, applicable on various OSs and applied to the server. The persistent memory (mmap) is used to store and access data.

We also developed a test client for conformance tests, composed a test system and executed the conformance test. The result showed that the server conformed to IEC 61850 on the data model and protocol. Details of the conformance test are described below.

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Service gSOAP mmap Webserver OSLinux CGI

Testclient function Apacheaxis2 Apachelog4j Java

The classifying function reduces the number of LN instances to be confirmed into about 50. This is effective in finding errors in the implementation of numerous instances of LNs and DOs. C. Protocol Test We conducted positive and negative tests for the ACSI supported in the server as follows: Application association model Server, logical device, logical node, and data model Data set model Reporting model Control model

OSLinux (a) Server (b) Test Client Fig. 7. Implementation of server and test client
Request message Ethernet switch (100Mbps)

Test client

Response message

Packet mirroring

Server

Test person

Computer for performance test Fig. 8 System configuration

The protocol test method with the test system is shown below. 1. 2. Sending request messages to the server via the test client Confirming the output of the client when the response message is received. The client outputs not only a response message but also the result of judging whether the response is positive or negative. Analyzing the output and judging the result: Passed, Failed, Inconclusive, Not applicable.

A. Configuration of the Test System The test system is composed of the following equipment (Fig. 8) Test client (CPU:3.0GHz) Server (Section IV, CPU:2.66GHz) Ethernet Switch (100Mbps) Computer for performance test Fig. 7(b) shows the software structure of the test client, which is equipped with a program supporting the following functions: When a test person inputs the context of a request message to the server, the client sends the request message and receives its response from the server. The client judges whether the response message is positive or negative. The client classifies logical node instances with the same DOs into groups automatically to facilitate analysis of the data structure.

3.

We confirmed that the server can receive the request messages and send response messages to monitor, control and record the electric apparatus of the PV power generation system. D. Perfomance Test The following items were measured with the test system Server processing time Data amount to transfer

The performance test method with the test system is shown below: 1. Setting the Ethernet switch to duplicate (mirror) the packets to be sent and to be received by the server to the computer for the performance test. Letting the computer for the performance test capture the packets. Analyzing the communication of the captured packets to calculate the server processing time and data amount to transfer. No additional load for the performance test exerted on the server No Functions for the test needed be added to the server.

Apache Axis2 [11] is applied to the client as Java-based SOAP engine. B. Data Model Test The method of the data model test with the test system is shown below. 1. 2. Classifying logical node with the same DOs by using the test client. Confirming the structure of the chief LN of each LN group conforms to IEC 61850-7-4, 7-420, 7-3.

2. 3.

This method has the following benefits:

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TABLE II. Performance test configuration

Communication service Report Operate GetDataValues
70 Maximum value
data amount of TCP level [bytes]

Data from the server Alarm and status Result of operation Status of breaker the circuit
4000 3500 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0

Logical Node/ Data Object TR/LLN0.LocSta TR/LPHD.PhyEnumHealth TR/XCBR01.Pos TR/XCBR01.BlkOpn

60

Server processing time[ms]

50 40 30 20 10 0 Report Operate Response GetDataValues Repsonse Minimum value

Report

Operate

GetDataValues

(a) Server processing time (b) Data amount of TCP level (Data are measured in ten times) Fig. 9 Server processing time and data amount for server sending messages

We transferred messages for Report, Operate and GetDataValues service and measured the server processing times and the data amount for the server sending messages using the proposed method. Fig. 9 (a) shows the result of the server processing times with the configuration described in TABLE II. This result shows that they are satisfied to within the specified 200ms. Fig. 9(b) shows the data amount of the TCP level. It is clear that the transfer time with the configuration can be satisfied to within the specified 100ms if the transmission speed exceeds 256kbps. VI. CONCLUSION

We developed a SCADA server as a prototype to evaluate the applicability of IEC 61850 to the operation of large-scale photovoltaic (PV) power generation systems. IEC 61850-7-2, 7-3, 7-4, 7-420 and Web-service technology (IEC 61400-25-4) are applied to the data model and the communication protocol of the server. We also developed a test client for a conformance test, composed a test system and executed the conformance test with IEC 61850-10. The result shows that the server conforms to IEC 61850 on the data model and protocol. Therefore, it is confirmed that IEC 61850 is applicable to the operation of large-scale photovoltaic (PV) power generation systems.

REFERENCES
[1] IEC: Communication networks and systems in substations Part 7-2: Basic communication structure for substation and feeder equipment

Abstract communication service interface (ACSI), IEC 61850-7-2 Ed.1 , 2003 [2] IEC: Communication networks and systems in substations Part 73:Basic communication structure for substation and feeder equipment Common data classes, IEC 61850-7-3 Ed.1, 2003 [3] IEC: Communication networks and systems for power utility automation Part 7-4: Basic communication structure Compatible logical node classes and data object classes, IEC 61850-7-4 Ed. 2 , 2010 [4] IEC: Communication networks and systems for power utility automation Part 7-420: Basic communication structure Distributed energy resources logical nodes, IEC 61850-7-420 Ed.1, 2009 [5] IEC: Communication networks and systems in substations Part 10: Conformance testing,IEC 61850-10 Ed.1, 2005 [6] Members of PV Inverter Data Identification Focus Group (DIFG): Specification for PV & Storage Inverter Interactions using IEC 61850 Object Models and Capabilities (Draft v15a), http://collaborate.nist.gov/twiki-sggrid /pub/SmartGrid/PAP07Storage/ Specification_for_PV_Inverter_Interactions_Using_61850_v15a.pdf, 2010 [7] IEC: Wind turbines Part 25-4: Communications for monitoring and control of wind power plants Mapping to communication profile, IEC 61400-25-4, 2008 [8] A.B. Pedersen, E.B. Hauksson, P.B. Andersen, B. Poulsen, C. Trholt, D. Gantenbein: Facilitating a Generic Communication Interface to Distributed Energy Resources: Mapping IEC 61850 to RESTful Services, IEEE SmartGridComm , pp. 61-66, Oct. 2010 [9] IEC: Communication networks and systems in substations Part 5: Communication requirements for functions and device models, IEC 61850-5, Jul. 2003 [10] gSOAP Web Site, http://www.cs.fsu.edu/~engelen/soap.html, accesed Feb. 2011. [11] Apache axis2 Web Site, http://axis.apache.org/axis2/java/core/, accesed Mar. 2011.

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