High Performance IEC 61850 GOOSE and Protection Relay Testing

High Performance IEC 61850 GOOSE and Protection Relay Testing

Authors: Hachidai Ito and Kenichiro Ohashi, Toshiba Corporation, Japan Implementation of IEC 61850 GOOSE and Protection Relay Testing IEC 61850 GOOSE messaging is applied for Substation Automation Systems and for status interactions between IEDs by replacing the conventional method of using binary inputs/outputs and wires with communication over Ethernet cables/fibers. With its fast transfer characteristics, it is also applied for protection testing purposes. In order to confirm the basic functionality of IEC 61850 and GOOSE messaging, conformance tests are mandatory for basic multi-vendor interoperability. IEC 61850, the new communication standard for power substations, is now being widely used in practical applications. In particular, GOOSE (Generic Object Oriented Substation Events) messaging has been applied not only for SAS (Substation Automation System) control and monitoring of primary equipment and IED status, but also for status interactions between IEDs including protection relays by replacing the conventional method of using binary inputs/outputs and wires with communication by GOOSE messages over Ethernet cables/fibres. This is achieved through much simpler engineering based on the multi vendor interoperability described in the IEC 61850 standard, which enables the easy connection of different IEDs, including relays supplied by different vendors. In order to confirm the basic functionality of GOOSE messaging in protection relays, functional conformance testing at an independent test laboratory is mandatory for multi vendor interoperability. However, an IEC 61850 device certificate does not fully ensure conformity to the IEC 61850 standard. Furthermore, in some cases, the correct behaviour of an IED is not clearly described in the standard. Hence, performance testing for GOOSE messaging must be considered as an important item in the product type test and/or the routine test because this is critical for practical substation applications. It should be noticed that performance testing for GOOSE messaging is not covered by conformance tests at present. In order to replace the conventional method of using contacts and wires, the performance of the GOOSE messaging, i.e. transfer time should be less than 3ms for a Trip GOOSE command and 20ms for a Block GOOSE command as specified in IEC 61850-5 'Communication requirements for functions and device models'. It is clear that new methods for testing GOOSE messaging including performance and interoperability must be carefully considered, not only by vendors but also by the end users who evaluate system performance in the field. GOOSE APPLICATIONS FOR PROTECTION Advantages of GOOSE for protection devices GOOSE messaging is a very important function in achieving multi-vendor interoperability as described in IEC 61850. The purposes and associated advantages are considered as follows:

Instead of connecting conventional metallic wiring and other ancillary equipment between protection devices, or between protection devices and primary equipment, only a single LAN cable/fibre is required. This results in a reduced total cost of building a system in a substation. Connection between IEDs provided by different vendors is much easier to achieve. Modification or addition of data communications between IEDs can be easily achieved by the simple re-configuration of the IEDs' GOOSE settings, rather than by complex metallic wiring.

Figures 1 and 2 show an example of the differences between the conventional method and that utilising GOOSE messages where communication between a protection relay and a primary CB (Circuit Breaker) is required for an Autoreclose function.

Possible GOOSE application for protection and related ongoing activities GOOSE messaging in IEC 61850 can also be utilised in the following protection functions:

Autoreclose (between relay and CB) Intertripping (between relay and relay) Interlocking (between bay control unit and relay)

Some utilities consider and plan contingencies in the case of a protection failure in a system. In order to minimize the damage caused in the case of a primary fault to the zone protected by the equipment that has failed, messaging between protection relays is very important. This subject is being discussed in CIGRE/SCB5/WG16: Busbar protection. There is a possibility to use GOOSE messages for information communication between the various items of equipment contained within the substation. ACHIEVING INTEROPERABILITY Functional conformance test See Figure 3.

UCAIUG (http://www.ucausersgroup.org) defines the conformance test procedure which is detailed in IEC 61850 part 10 (Conformance testing). The test procedure contains two types of test;

Positive test: Checks with correct parameters. Negative test: Checks with incorrect parameters. However, there are some points that we must be cognizant of with regard to conformance testing; 'Conformance' does not mean 'Interoperability'. Only basic functional tests are undertaken, no performance tests are carried out at present. IEC 61850 communication interfaces in the IED form the main part of the test, but the connections between protect ion applications and their IEC 61850 communication interfaces are too complex and varied to be comprehensively tested.

Regarding standardisation and guidance on testing, functional testing of IEC 61850 based systems is now being discussed in CIGRE Subcommittee B5 Task Force 92. The technical brochure will define the functional aspects of testing which are not defined in IEC 61850-10 (Communication networks and systems in substations -Part 10: Conformance testing). It deals with the functional parts not covered by the IEC 61850 device certificate which is based only on IEC 61850-10. This will have an impact on the work of the protection engineer, and this kind of functional testing approach should naturally be carried out for all existing IEC 61850 conformant devices and systems. Importance of performance testing for GOOSE messaging In order to achieve multi vendor interoperability in GOOSE messaging in consideration of an actual practical situation within a substation, it is important that not only the functional conformity to IEC 61850 be tested, but also performance conformity to IEC 61850 must be tested, by vendors, as a type test of the IED. Performance criteria examples of GOOSE messaging defined in IEC 61850-5 'Communication requirements for functions and device models' are given as follows:

3ms: 'TRIP' GOOSE information (class P2/P3) 20ms: 'BLOCK' GOOSE information (class P2/P3)

The transfer time definition is described in IEC 61850-5 (see Figure 4). IEC 61850-5 states that the transfer time of GOOSE messaging for a Trip command shall be such that the command should arrive at the destination IED within 3ms. For a single IED, by assuming the time for the publishing process and the subscribing process are approximately equal and if 'tb' can practically be ignored, then at least half of the defined time is needed for the IEDs to process the message (i.e. 1.5ms for 'TRIP' GOOSE). See Figure 4. PROTECTION RELAY TESTING USING GOOSE Comparison of testing protection relay with Goose and the conventional method Figures 5 and Figure 6 simply show the difference between the conventional test method used to measure tripping time and the method used to measure the 'Trip' GOOSE transfer time using an IEC 61850 GOOSE enabled test set. In order to simulate network traffic, possibly caused by other equipment connected to the same network, a network traffic simulator running on a PC is used. It is considered very important for the product type test to have a similar environment to that found within the substation, and this is a key point in GOOSE testing. See Figure 5/ Figure 6.

The advantages in testing with GOOSE messaging are considered as follows:

Dedicated metallic cables in the connection between the relay and test equipment and/or cables used for testing can be reduced. Performance evaluation is more accurately achieved in GOOSE messaging since hardware overhead time on conventional binary inputs/outputs can be ignored. The limitation in the number of binary inputs/outputs can be covered by GOOSE. The timing of all GOOSE can be monitored by an external IEC 61850 protocol analyzer connected to the network.

Expanding flexibility in testing with GOOSE IEC 61850 GOOSE, with its fast transfer characteristics within a network environment (<3ms as defined by the standard), is now being widely used for protection purposes in place of conventional dedicated wiring. As described, this brings great benefits to the user since dedicated wiring can be reduced. In the same way, GOOSE can be applied for testing purposes. All signals, even those used internally in the execution process of software for a numerical protection relay, can be assigned to GOOSE. This results in reduced wiring during testing and also facilitates the realisation of more detailed testing. Figure 7 shows a practical example of the test result of a switch-on-to-fault case utilizing GOOSE for a certified IEC 61850 conformant numerical transformer protection relay.

In this case, the COMTRADE waveforms calculated by RTDS with a simulation of both CT saturation and transformer inrush under a switchon-to-fault condition were played on a test set. At the same time the relay's internal signals for 2nd harmonic inrush current detection and CT saturation detection which are used to block tripping were observed along with the trip signal, without any wiring connection but by monitoring GOOSE messages on the network.

The waveform can be seen to consist of fault current and transformer inrush components. In response to this unusual waveform, the relay firstly detects second harmonic to temporarily block tripping and then subsequently issues a trip, which is considered to be the expected result. In the past, there would have been many limitations in the flexibility of this kind of test, e.g. resulting from the delay time of mechanical contacts. PERFORMANCE AND ITS EVALUATION GOOSE messaging implementation to achieve satisfactory performance It is important to minimize the transmission time of the GOOSE packet within the IED in order to achieve the GOOSE performance of class P2/P3 which is defined in the standard. One area in which we have been able to make significant savings in processing time is in the way in which we process the sending and receipt of GOOSE messages. Another opportunity was taken to reduce the time overheads incurred between the GOOSE packet receiving process, the interpret/response/generate GOOSE packet process and the sending process. Implementation of the application software is designed such that the three processes referred to above are executed in series in a task activated in a very short period of time together with the primary protection/measurement etc. functions as shown. See Figure 8.

Methods for performance evaluation in GOOSE communication Figure 9 and table 1 show a test result for the 'Trip' GOOSE transfer time in a certified IEC 61850 conformant numerical distance protection relay as a performance type test. An IEC 61850 GOOSE enabled test set is used with 0.1ms resolution. During the performance type test of an IED, transmission traffic must also be considered.

By calculating the maximum possible traffic on the LAN to which the IED is intended to be connected, or stating the maximum traffic value for which the IED can either publish or subscribe to GOOSE within the specified time, the performance criteria must be stated by the vendor. In practical situations, there are many kinds of GOOSE published by other IEDs and by primary equipment. All of these frames and also frames of other protocols could be on the same LAN network simultaneously. This point must, therefore, be considered when the possible maximum network traffic is calculated. A performance calculation example is also included in Appendix I of IEC 61850-5. Table 1: An example of the test result for GOOSE transfer time. As another aspect of performance evaluation for a single IED, the GOOSE response time shall be checked since it directly affects the system performance. As part of system evaluation, an easy way to test the response time of an IED could be by the 'Ping-Pong' technique as described below. This method is very efficient because it can check the subscribing time ('Tc' of Figure 4) and publishing time ('Ta' of Figure 4) at the same time without other external inputs or triggers.

Set the IED to publish GOOSE (A) when GOOSE (B) is subscribed. Arrange external equipment connected to the LAN to publish GOOSE (B). Observe the behaviour of GOOSEs with external equipment connected to the LAN.

Figure 10 shows the test result of an IED, a certified IEC 61850 conformant numerical distance protection relay, with an IEC 61850 GOOSE enabled test set. As shown, the response time here is sufficiently fast to adhere to the requirements defined in the standard (Figure 10). However, as it is only a single test result then to actually verify the performance, we must repeat the same case at least e.g. 100 times and check the maximum response time under simulated network traffic. As an extension of these procedures, this 'Ping-Pong GOOSE' can be played continuously between two or more IEDs without any external equipment. In case of two IEDs, the same settings as shown above are sufficient with the exception of exchanging GOOSE (A)/GOOSE (B) and inverting their logic at one IED. An IEC 61850 network analyzer could observe the continuous 'Ping-Pong GOOSE' rally, and as for evaluation, it is only necessary to determine how many GOOSEs were issued to the network in a certain time period, i.e.

Here is a test result captured by an IEC 61850 protocol analyzer, which was carried out between two certified IEC 61850 conformant devices (Figure 11). Furthermore in this case, once the 'Ping-Pong' is set, the IEDs start playing 'Ping-Pong' as soon as the IEDs are connected to the network. Therefore, it could be used also for the purpose of increasing the network traffic.

Note that cases utilizing GOOSE introduced here can be basically also applied to all IEC 61850 conformant devices which support the service for GOOSE. In order to obtain the expected benefits of IEC 61850 it is of critical importance to apply IEDs which provide sufficiently high performance of GOOSE messaging. Biographies Hachidai Ito was born in Osaka, Japan, in September 15, 1956. He joined Toshiba in 1981, and worked as a development engineer and a manager of Protection and Control Development Department. He is now a Chief Specialist in Power System Protection & Control and is principally responsible for technology and overseas marketing of protection and control products in Toshiba Corporation. He is a senior member of IEEE, and a member of CIGRE, IEEJ and IEICE. Also he is a secretary of Japanese National Committee of IEC/ TC95, a Convenor of its MT1 (Maintenance Team 1) and a member of its other 3 working groups, and also a member of several working groups in IEEE/PSRC. Kenichiro Ohashi was born in Miyagi- Pref., Japan, on March 5, 1973. He joined Toshiba in 1995. He is currently responsible for product development of protection and control systems as a quality assurance/testing engineer in Toshiba. He is a member of IEC/TC95/MT2 (Maintenance Team 2: EMC standards for measuring relays and protection equipment).