Presentation: PI Connector for IEC 61850: Tapping into the Data Stored in 61850 Based Substations

Stedin is a Dutch gas and electricity distribution system operator. Stedin covers the densely populated cities of Rotterdam, the Hague and Utrecht, the port of Rotterdam and several major horticultural zones between those cities with around 4 million customers. In 2011, they developed a vision to digitize grid operations in order to improve efficiency and quality of grid operations and to anticipate market trends and regulatory drivers towards the energy transition. As part of this vision, they adopted 61850 as design philosophy for our substations. Today, around 60 substations are fully 61850 based and each year 15-20 substations are refurbished into 61850. They also started a program to revise and improve our processes around asset life-cycle management. One of the objectives is to improve decision making around asset investment planning,operations and maintenance by making better use of the data that sits in the assets. In the spring of 2017, OSIsoft and Stedin started a joint project to connect the 61850 landscape and the PI infrastructure allowing us to make the data available in the 61850 substations sources better available. A 61850 connector for the PI System was developed, connecting the substations into the PI data infrastructure, and from thereon into our data lake without having to go through the SCADA environment. This presentation will elaborate on the project objectives, going into some of the experiences gained and making some projections on the road forward.