Measurement Tools for Substation Equipment: Testing the Interoperability of Protocols for Time Transfer and Communication

A test harness was designed and developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to study the interoperability of the Precision Time Protocol (PTP) Power Profile and other communication standards for substation automation. Particular focus of the harness is on protocols that purport to comply to standards established by the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineering (IEEE) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). The test harness is intended for field evaluation of substation equipment and includes 3-phase electrical waveform generation capabilities, timing reference signal sources, measurement hardware for network clocks and software for monitoring and analyzing communication and time transfer protocols.The test harness was demonstrated at a Universal Communications Architecture International Users Group (UCAIug) Interoperability Plugfest (IOP) in 2017 where over 200 participants gathered to evaluate the interoperability between their products and tools.