Digital Substation is an engineering publication focused on IEC 61850 automation, protection systems, and digital grid intelligence.
Work on harmonizing the Common Information Model (CIM) and IEC 61850 is increasingly focused on formal rules that software tools can process directly. For digital substations, this opens the way to automatic transformation of engineering data and automatic consistency checking between models at different levels.
The CIM Users Group has released version 2.0 of CIM-compare, an open-source tool for comparing two versions of the Common Information Model (CIM) UML model and automatically producing a report of all the changes found. The tool is useful for developers and experts working with models based on IEC 61970, IEC 61968 and IEC 62325, as well as with corporate CIM extensions. Version 2.0 brings a completely redesigned HTML report, change markers directly on UML diagrams and much smaller reports.
A new and important mechanism for validating SCL files is emerging in the IEC 61850 engineering process: OCL (Object Constraint Language), a language for formally describing constraints and rules for the objects of an information model.
A report from the tutorial of CIGRE Study Committee B5 at the 2026 Paris session. Three renowned experts built their talks into a single historical sequence: process bus → centralized protection (CPC) → virtualization. The protection function is becoming a software application, and the server a computing platform that can be replaced.
A report from the exhibition floor of CIGRE 2026 in Paris. The main theme for us was the virtualisation of protection — and it is no longer a single experimental product: we met it at the stands of ABB, Siemens, Moxa, Welotec, Kalkitech and others. Some offer virtualised protection functions (ABB SSC600 SW, Siemens SIPROTEC V, Kalkitech VPR), others the substation servers to run them on (Moxa DA-920E, Welotec RSAPC), others still assemble multi-vendor vPAC architectures on the open SEAPATH platform. The key question has shifted: no longer «can protection run in a virtual machine», but who defines the hardware architecture and answers for the reliability of the computing platform. Plus a contrast: while the secondary systems move towards a software-defined substation, Arteche's optical current transformers never went mainstream, and Hopf showed a GNSS-antenna signal carried over fibre for 30 km.
One run of Tekvel Magic — and the device chosen from the SCL comes alive: an MMS server is started from its data model, and a control panel opens in the browser. You change signal values and quality — and the upper-level client receives real dchg/qchg reports, exactly as from a real IED. The module works without a single physical device on the bench: an SCL file is enough. The fourth case in the series tackles the task from the other side of the table: for the first time Magic does not watch the traffic but generates it — it becomes an IEC 61850 server to test how the receiving side (SCADA, telecontrol server) receives and displays reports, including invalid quality, test data and rare scenarios. Plus an auto-sweep of values and quality for bulk testing in one click.
The Yamal LNG plant is powered by an islanded on-site power station rated at 376 MW and built around eight gas-turbine units; its distribution network spans 110, 35, 10 and 0.4 kV and more than five hundred feeders. Islanded operation places tough demands on stability, short-circuit and protection-selectivity calculations — and therefore on how up-to-date the digital model is. The article describes a cycle that automatically updates a DIgSILENT PowerFactory network model from DMS telemetry: the load-flow calculation runs as a single process in external-control (Engine) mode, without opening the GUI, and starts automatically whenever a new export appears. All control, power-balance diagnostics and analysis of the accumulated case history live in a Windows notification-area icon. The solution was built in-house and, in operational effect, is comparable to commercial real-time modules whose licences for a power system of this scale run into tens of millions of roubles.
In digital-substation projects most attention goes to GOOSE, SV, PTP and the network. But there is another important layer — MMS exchange and IEC 61850 reports, through which SCADA, HMI, gateways and monitoring systems receive telemetry from IEDs. In practice the problems here are deceptively simple: the MMS connection is up, the device is reachable, the client «sees» the server — yet data does not update, some signals disappear, events are duplicated, or the report control block does not activate at all. This article covers the sharpest problems with report control blocks (RptEna, ConfRev, a block already taken by another client, TrgOps, a DataSet mismatch, duplication from the buffer via entryID and too much faith in the SCL file) and a practical principle: cross-check the SCL file, the device's actual MMS model and a PCAP capture together.
On a digital substation, the end devices kept reporting a communication fault that just as suddenly cleared itself, and the cause stayed unclear — the alarm was a shared one. The only source of information was a pcap file about 11 minutes long — almost 186,000 GOOSE packets and more than 200 sources. A manual analysis in Wireshark at that scale would have taken hours. We show how, in a few minutes, the Tekvel Magic software turned the network capture into a structured Excel report of an unscheduled inspection.
Precise time is a mandatory part of a modern substation: it is needed for event recording and oscillography, for Sampled Values, for phasor measurements and for other applications. But relying on a local receiver alone is becoming increasingly dangerous: jamming, interference and spoofing turn a single satellite source into a systemic risk. An architecture built around an ePRTC (enhanced Primary Reference Time Clock) in the telecom network and a TDG (Time Distribution Gateway) on site offers a heterogeneous approach: one precise time comes «from the sky», another «via the ground». The article — what ePRTC and TDG are, how they fit IEC 61850-9-3 PTP, and why a single redundant GNSS receiver is not enough.
A new version of Skunkworks Network Analyzer — a specialised Wireshark build with extensions for analysing IEC 61850 traffic — has been released on the OTB Consulting Services website. The update fixes the SclExtractor, adjusts the semantic data displays and removes outdated IEC 61850-90-5 terminology. Useful for engineers who diagnose GOOSE, Sampled Values and MMS on digital substations.
On 12 May 2026, Hitachi Energy and TEİAŞ announced the commissioning of Türkiye's first digital substation pilot. The scope is one feeder bay.
One run of Tekvel Magic software over SCL data — and you have a ready MS Word document - Signal list: a per-device summary, full detail of every URCB/BRCB control block and an element-by-element breakdown of every DataSet, with signal descriptions taken straight from the SCL. The module runs offline — from an SCD file or a folder of CID files, with no need to connect to the devices. The third case in the series closes the «how do you hand it over» task: handover documentation and as-built documentation in a single run, plus a separate «Configuration findings» document with a lightweight offline audit.