Influence of data-related factors on the use of IEC 61850 for power utility automation

• A real time performance analysis of an IEC 61850 stack is carried out.
• Influence of data and data model over performance is identified.
• Practical recommendations to improve communications performance are proposed.

Smart grids play an important role in the development and modernization of the electric power system. Smart grids deal with the integration of information technology and the electric grid. In this context, a communication system is needed to achieve the main goals of smart grids. Interoperability between the systems has become an important issue. To achieve this, the IEC 61850 standard models the electric power system by means of a hierarchical data model based on semantics definitions. Existing and future applications for the electric power system heavily depend on the performance of the communication system. Several factors can affect the performance of the IEC 61850 communications. Previous studies have already analyzed the influence of network related aspects. In this research, some factors related to data and data modeling of IEC 61850 have been identified that influence the performance of the IEC 61850 devices, through the processing time. The study presented in this paper analyzes them and proposes practical recommendations to optimize the performance of the system. The results obtained reveal the importance of a proper use of data sets because their influence over the communications performance.