A new approach for sending dispatching orders using protocol IEC 60870-5-104

Most of the Transmission System Operators (TSOs) Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems use the IEC 60870-5-104 communication protocol to exchange information/commands with the substations of the pertaining electrical network. This paper addresses a new approach for sending dispatching orders based on the available IEC 60870-5-104 protocol, as evolved by Terna. Such avantgarde technique exploits the potential of the native IEC 60870-5-104 protocol function dedicated to file sending, in order to send text file containing the dispatching orders to power plants via the Remote Terminal Units (RTU). Given the importance of the dispatching orders in terms of security of the electrical system and the settlement system for electricity market, this approach is deployed within Terna SCADA system to guarantee a higher level of availability of the data exchanged.