An overview of the new IEC 61850 synchrophasor publish-subscribe profile

The continuing development and implementation of Synchrophasors throughout the world has given rise to multi-utility sharing of these synchronized measurements, new applications using these measurements, and the need for secure transmission of such. To this end, the IEC TC57 Working Group 10 has undertaken the task to identify the communication requirements for these synchronized measurements and to develop a communication profile to effectively meet the identified requirements. This paper starts by reviewing the identified requirements, including those defined in the North American SynchroPhasor Initiative Network (NASPINet) document, as well as a number of other “use” cases. A description of the resulting profile to meet these requirements is then presented. Of particular note is the use of existing IEC 61850 constructs, such as GOOSE and Sample Values and the XML-based configuration tools that already exist to populate such. The issue of transmitting large synchrophasor datasets will be discussed as well as the management of redundant messages by the subscriber. The paper will also review the complete security suite that is part of the profile including message authentication, data encryption, and key management among the various subscribers of the message. Operational needs in the larger network will be discussed. Finally, a comparison between the existing C37.118 communication profile and IEC 61850 90-5 will be presented.