Design and Performance Testing of a Multivendor IEC61850–9-2 Process Bus Based Protection Scheme

The deployment of IEC61850-9-2 process bus increases the possibilities that new and refurbished substations will be based on the use of Ethernet communication networks with free allocation of Protection and Control functions. The design and performance testing of a multivendor prototype protection scheme based on the process bus for use in a mesh transmission substation is presented. A practical test setup is developed to evaluate the performance of the protection scheme, including interoperability between different manufacturers, degree of maturity, robustness, and possible benefits. This integrates network analysis software, test sets, conventional hardwired and IEC61850-9-2LE protection Intelligent Electronic Devices, Merging Units, Ethernet Switches, Fiber Optic communications and an IEC61850 process bus. The worst case scenario of traffic based on the current 100 Mbps network is created and the system responses investigated. Recommendations for process bus communication requirements are presented to avoid the degradation of system performance.