IEC 61850 integration
IEC 61850 is the communication standard for substation automation and is also used in solar, wind and battery plants. It models protection relays, bay controllers and meters as logical devices and logical nodes. ALLINLET approaches it as a read-only MMS client for monitoring data.
Where it is used
Transmission and distribution substations, renewable plant collector substations, battery energy storage systems and large industrial electrical networks. Data includes measurements from MMXU logical nodes, breaker positions from XCBR, protection events and equipment health. Many sites also run IEC 60870-5-104 or DNP3 towards the control centre, which can be an alternative path.
Transport and services
Client-server communication uses MMS over TCP, usually port 102. Values are read on request or delivered through buffered and unbuffered report control blocks configured in the IED. GOOSE and Sampled Values are multicast Layer 2 services on the station or process bus for protection and are not part of this integration.
Prerequisites
- SCL files from the system configurator, ideally the SCD for the substation or the CID for each IED.
- Approval from protection and control engineers, with a free client association and report control block allocated.
- Network access from the integration zone, normally through a station gateway or firewall following IEC 62351 and utility policy.
- A test window on a non-critical IED before wider rollout.
Payload meaning
Each data attribute is addressed by a path such as IED1LD0/MMXU1.TotW.mag.f. Values come with a quality attribute (validity, test, operator blocked and others) and a UTC timestamp from the IED. ALLINLET keeps the IED time and quality, so a test-mode or questionable value is not mistaken for a valid measurement. The SCL file supplies names, functional constraints and the logical structure used to map attributes to assets.
Limitations
- Read-only: no control operations, setting changes or file transfers.
- Report control blocks are limited per IED and may already be used by SCADA.
- Vendor implementations vary; each IED family is validated individually.
- Time quality depends on the substation time source, such as PTP or SNTP.
- Listing this connector does not imply certification or conformance testing by ALLINLET.
Further reading
Catalogue listings describe possible integration paths. Implementation and validation status is confirmed for each source during project scoping; no certification, service level or price is implied by this page.
Plan your data integration
Share your devices, protocols and network constraints, and we will propose a first validated connection.