Integration of IEC 61850 SCL and OPC UA to improve interoperability in Smart Grid environment

Abstract

Integration of the several heterogeneous and geographically dispersed actors in Smart Grid environment is currently hampered by the usage of non-interoperable and proprietary automation solutions. Standards-compliant integration is an indispensable requirement for successful Smart Grid automation. The international standard IEC 61850 has been recognised as one of the fundamental components for reference Smart Grid architectures. Nevertheless, certain parts of the IEC 61850 definitions seem inadequate to compete with the accelerated Smart Grid evolution. For this reason, current literature presents solutions able to surpass the main limitations of the standard, improving harmonisation in Smart Grid; among them, there is integration of IEC 61850 data model with OPC UA information model. According to the current literature, integration of IEC 61850 with OPC UA does not involve the IEC 61850 engineering process, based on a particular language called Substation Configuration description Language (SCL). The paper will present a common Smart Grid scenario where interoperability could be improved extending the idea of the integration between IEC 61850 and OPC UA also to the SCL-based engineering capabilities of the IEC 61850 standard. The paper will present a proposal of mapping between IEC 61850 SCL and OPC UA, describing the relevant algorithm, its implementation and performance evaluation.