The IEC 61850 standard stipulates the Substation Configuration Description Language (SCL) file as a means to define the substation equipment, IED function and also the communication mechanism for the substation area network. The SCL is an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) based file which helps to describe the configuration of the substation Intelligent Electronic Devices (IED) including their associated functions. The SCL file is also configured to contain all IED capabilities including data model which is structured into objects for easy descriptive modeling. The effective functioning of this SCL file relies on appropriate validation techniques which check the data model for errors due to non-conformity to the IEC 61850 standard. In this research, we extend the conventional SCL validation algorithm to develop a more advanced validator which can validate the standard data model using the Unified Modeling Language (UML). By using the Rule-based SCL validation tool, we implement validation test cases for a more comprehensive understanding of the various validation functionalities. It can be observed from the algorithm and the various implemented test cases that the proposed validation tool can improve SCL information validation and also help automation engineers to comprehend the IEC 61850 substation system architecture.

The digital substation system consists of an Intelligent Electronic Device (IED) which requires information for the supervision, protection, and control, as well as a client operating system for substation operation. IEC 61850 communication standard has been defined for information exchange between heterogeneous digital devices in such substations. Currently, the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) digital substation system uses unbuffered reporting and Generic Object Oriented Substation Events (GOOSE) communication functions for monitoring, protection and control automation. However, it is expected that the Setting Group function will be needed to operate adaptive intelligent substation system. The Setting Group function is advantageous in that it is possible to change the setting of the IED in one unified way through the client operating system, rather than changing the correction value of an IED through different manufacturer-based engineering tools. In order to utilize the Setting Group function of the IED in real substation scenario, it is necessary to test both the communication function with the host operating device and the electric functional test to ensure that correction value is properly changed. In this paper, we introduce the IEC 61850 Setting Group function, and propose a method that can integrate communication function and electrical function test of an IED conforming to the setting group functionality. We also tested the Setting Group function of the actual IED device through the proposed integrated functional test method and analyzed the results. We were able to simplify the process of testing both the electrical and communication signals in digital substations.

Globally, traditional power systems are rapidly transforming towards the adoption of smart grid platforms. Substations which are at the center of the electric power transformation from the power plant are changing to IEC 61850 based digital substations. Therefore, within substation, there is a growing demand for the IEC 61850 based Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs). The operation of multiple manufacturers of IEDs in a single digital substation network increases the need for IEC 61850 communications specification conformance diagnosis to ensure interoperability for efficient data exchange between IEDs. The IEC 61850-10 presents test items for diagnosing communication specification conformance. There are many test tools available in the market today to test the compliance of the IEC 61850 communications specifications to the IED. In this paper, we propose a model-based diagnostic method for IED communication conformance testing. The proposed model-based software therefore uses the "drag and drop" technique to select the various IEC 61850 communication services (objects) required to design the test case in a user friendly Graphical User Interface (GUI). This makes the service conformance testing more flexible for test engineers and system integrators especially in situations that require test case modifications. Also, the proposed software tool makes it easy to understand the various IEC 61850 services using the friendly GUI.

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