Nowadays, we hear much about smart grids as a promising idea that will have a direct
impact on our life of tomorrow. Research, articles and standards are also numerous on this
subject. Among them, IEC 61850 is an important standard about communication which could
have a big influence on electrical substations or even power plants in the future. However, the
feasibility of this standard has been little investigated.
This study has been done with Tractebel Engineering France, which is a branch of
GDF Suez. They have good expertise on hydro power plant, but their projects can also cover
electrical substations and electrical transmission lines. Smart grid’s development can have
direct impacts on their activities.
The study presents firstly the different aspects of smart grid, in order to know the logic
of motivations and the interesting points for the company. A certain emphasis has been put on
the electrical gird functioning aspect as well as renewable energies, because they seem to be
especially important for Tractebel.
Secondly, the study is focused on the main aim of this article, the feasibility of IEC
61850 to a substation of Tractebel’s Kaléta project. A presentation and analysis of essential
notions of the standard 61850 has been done in chapter VII. In the following chapters, the
study tries to make a judgment of the feasibility by analyzing the aspects of software,
modeling and practical functioning of the substation.
The study concludes that despite the fact that IEC 61850 seems to be the standard of
the future, it is still premature today for Tractebel to use it in the case of Kaléta. Due to the
independent software tools’ complexity and the lack of interoperability between different
components, the modeling process remains complicated if we don’t want to choose a software
program provided by a specific equipment supplier. Moreover, the functioning of an IEC
61850 substation requires new skills for the staff, which could be another practical problem
for Kaléta.