Description of PD IEC TR 61850-90-16:2021 2021

This part of IEC 61850, which is a technical report, specifies the mechanisms for the system management of Smart Grid Devices as IEC 61850 equipment in power utility automation as well as telecommunication and cybersecurity equipment.

System Management of Smart Grid Devices or Smart Grid Device Management refers to functionalities that are not directly linked to the operational role of the equipment (which for grid automation equipment would be to protect and allow remote supervision and control on the grid) but allow it to perform its operational functions in the best conditions possible.

The main functions of Smart Grid Device Management can be categorized as illustrated in Figure 1 and described below. These actions being available from remote information systems, they affect system automation functions, telecommunication functions and cybersecurity functions as these three categories are interacting in a Smart grid Device or system.

The Smart Grid domain has been chosen for these use cases, including distributed energy resources. This content is expected to be applicable to other domains, such as industrial automation domain and grid user domain.

IEC TR 62351-10, Power systems management and associated information exchange - Data and communications security - Part 10: Security architecture guidelines. The main five functions for System Management are listed below:

1. IEC TR 62351-90-1, Power systems management and associated information exchange - Data and communications security - Part 90-1: Guidelines for handling role-based access control in power systems

2. Managing the software (administration): download, update and manage the firmware versions of automation equipment;

3. Supervising: active supervision of Smart Grid devices in order to ensure the required quality of service of the system, to diagnose potential problems and if possible to suggest resiliency solutions in case of deficiency;

4. Maintaining the system: collect data concerning the operational state of the equipment in order to be able to initiate predictive analysis, perform maintenance actions and reduce failure probabilities;

5. Managing one’s assets: collect and transfer patrimonial data to the information systems in charge of asset management and maintenance.

This part of IEC 61850 specifies these functions through use cases associated state machines, requirements and processes necessary for their implementation.

Since the outcome of that work will affect several parts of IEC 61850, in a first step, this technical report has been prepared, which addresses the topic from an application specific viewpoint across all affected parts of IEC 61850. That approach is similar to what is done for example with IEC 61850-90-1 for the communication between substations. Once the report is approved, the affected parts of the standard can be amended with the results from the report.

The major part of the work consists in designing the use cases with the appropriate requirements.

Smart Grid Devices Management Use Cases will also be used for extracting requirements on cybersecurity:

• These steps and requirements will "surround" the Use Case functional steps for the most part, but may require some validation steps within the procedures as well.

• The IEC 62351 series should address those requirements (For example: modifying RBAC parameters in an IED, install RBAC parameters inside the IED).

• Those cybersecurity workflows and requirements will be considered as pre-requisites in Smart Grid Devices Management Use Cases.

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