The New Kid on the Block is Growing Up: IEC 61850 Archtectures, Experiences and Tools
Paper Session
Session Moderator: Kay Clinard, President, UCA International Users Group/KC Associates

Tuesday, March 23, 1:00 p.m.
The IEC 61850 standard is being widely adopted around the world and is now gaining both recognition and acceptance in North America. IEC 61850 is one of the key standards included in the NIST Smart Grid Interoperability Standards Roadmap. The longterm promised benefits are compelling and yet the learning curve is significant and the investment needed in terms of dollars, staff and other resources is large. This session addresses three important aspects of implementing a 61850-based substation: architecture selection, configuration tools and lessons learned from a real world successful implementation.

Architecture and Data Flow Management of IEC 61850 Based Substation Automation System
Author(s):

• Jian-cheng Tan, Principal Engineer, Kinectrics, Inc.
• Wen-Peng Luan, Team Leader, Smart Metering & Infrastructure, BC Hydro

Designing a New IEC 61850 Substation Architecture
Author(s):

• Gerrit Dogger, Senior Product and Application Specialist, Cooper Power Systems
• Garry Tennese, Station Integration Specialist, Manitoba Hydro
• Dennis Kakoske, SCADA Engineer, Manitoba Hydro
• Eric MacDonald, Senior Systems Integration Engineer, Virelec

Making IEC 61850 Configuration Easier with Excel
Author(s):

• Grant Gilchrist, Consulting Engineer, Data Communications, EnerNex Corporation
• Randy Kimura, Lead Technology Specialist, GE Energy
• Greg LaMarre, Technical Lead, GE Transmission and Distribution

NERC CIP — Lessons Learned and the Road Ahead
Panel Session

Tuesday, March 23, 3:00 p.m.
The NERC Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) standards are now in full force and utilities are being audited and held to these standards. In addition, regulatory and legislative activity are raising these standards so today’s solutions may not meet tomorrow’s requirements for many utilities. This panel session will discuss the varied experiences of several companies working on meeting NERC CIP. Full compliance with these requirements involves a comprehensive effort including auditing, corporate processes implementations, training, asset identification, reporting and implementation of layered security technologies. We will also discuss changes in the regulatory landscape and how it will affect the security systems and processes. Specifics here include NERC CIP rev 3 expectations, congressional and senate activities and the influence of FERC. Finally, we will discuss the implications the many smart grid initiatives are having, and will have, on grid security solutions.

Panel Moderator: Deryk Yuill, Vice President, Technology, Bow Networks, Inc.

Panelists:

• Mike Mertz, Manager – Information Security, Southern California Edison
• Rick Geiger, Solutions Director Smart Grid, Cisco
• Tom Flowers, President, Flowers Control Center Solutions 

Nothing Takes the Place of Experience:  Leading Substation Automation Innovators and Implementers Share Their Insights, Successes and Challenges
Paper Session
Session Moderator:  Ron Farquharson, Consultant, Utility Automation, EnerNex Corporation

Wednesday, March 24, 9:30 a.m.
Substations are the sources of a great deal of critical data supporting optimal operation of the utility. As a result, well implemented substation automation programs are an important element in the overall technology strategy of every utility. This session includes the lessons learned from a successful “scale up” implementation, a vision for substation centered applications and innovations with a practical go forward strategy and the results of the high availability automation of a key PREPA substation in Puerto Rico.

Lessons Learned from Huge Expansion in Substation Automation System Design
Author(s):

• Craig Preuss, Engineering Manager Utility Automation, Black & Veatch Corporation
• Anthony Napikoski, Principal Protection and Control Engineer, The United Illuminating Company
• Dave Barlow, Principal SCADA Engineer, The United Illuminating Company

Distribution Substation Automation in Smart Grid
Author(s):

• Jiyuan Fan, Manager/Strategic Planning Leader, GE Energy T&D
• Paul Backscheider, Product Manager, GE Energy T&D
• Willem du Toit, Senior Product Manager, GE T&D Automation

Palo Seco Substation Automation
Author(s):

• Israel Ramirez, Chief Engineer - SCADA, PREPA
• Richard Liposchak, Vice President, Engineering, Microsol, Inc.

Breaking Ground on Smarter Substations with New Technologies
Paper Session
Session Moderator: Ameen Hamdon, President, SUBNET Solutions, Inc.

Wednesday, March 24, 2:30 p.m.
This session highlights the implementations of new technologies that offer the potential of making substations, and subsequently, the grid smarter. This session discusses CFE Mexico’s efforts to harmonize the IEC 61970 CIM model and IEC 61850 device models to enable new, model-based, wide area smart grid applications. The session also addresses the main concerns and objections of deploying 802.11 or Wi-Fi in the electrical substations. Finally, this session looks at PG&Es project to go beyond automated event file collection and implement automated fault analysis solution.

CFE Model-Driven Approach to Smart Substation Automation and Integration
Author(s):

• Raul Lopez, Chief of Information and Technology in Transmission, CFE-Comisión Federal de Electricidad
• Ann Moore, Business Development Executive, OSIsoft, LLC
• John Gillerman, Solution Architect, SISCO, Inc.

Understanding and Quantifying the Risks Associated with the use of 802.11 Technology for Substation Automation Applications
Author(s):

• Lee Lipes, Product Management, Ruggedcom

Using Automated Fault Analysis System to Improve Reliability and Efficiency
Author(s):

• Lee Wang, President, Grid Sentinel, Inc.
• Bernard S. Tatera, Sr. Consulting Engineer, PG&E 

IEC 61850: Have we Realized All Potential Benefits?
Paper Session
Session Moderator: Michael Pesin, Strategic Technology Advisor, Seattle City Light

Thursday, March 25, 8:00 a.m.
This session will discuss IEC 61850 applications that can potentially provide additional benefits. While IEC 61850 has originally been developed for communication within substations, the scope is now being expanded. Different aspects of the integration of the IEEE C37.118 synchronized phasor standard with IEC 61850 will be presented. IEC 61850 brings a new era in the development of integrated substation protection and control systems, creating the foundation for substations without copper cables used for analog and control circuits. This session describes the abstract concept of process bus defined in Part 9-2 of the standard. Since the introduction of ethernet communications into substations, there has been concern that it is not deterministic. With the growing use of IEC 61850 and GOOSE, this concern is still raised periodically. Recent application has shown that modern network speeds and the IEC 61850 standard specification ensure communications reliable enough even to apply IEC 61850-based protection schemes where hard wiring was required in the past. This session will review the non-deterministic concern and provide application examples where a communications-based protection scheme is utilized instead of hard-wired schemes and provide performance similar to more traditional installations.

Transmission of Phasor Information Using IEC 61850
Author(s):

• Christoph Brunner, President, it4power LLC

IEC 61850 Process Bus - Principles, Applications and Benefits
Author(s):

• Alexander Apostolov, Principal Engineer, OMICRON Electronics 

Is the Non-deterministic Argument Dead? IEC 61850-based Protection Schemes Suggest So
Author(s):

• Jay Sperl, Regional Technical Manager, ABB 

IP/Ethernet Substation Networks: A Multi-Service Resource and Path to Smart Grid
Panel Session

Thursday, March 25, 10:00 a.m.
Substations serve many roles in modern power delivery systems, and substation data networks can similarly support many networking applications having diverse requirements. In many historical cases, separate networks have evolved for SCADA, protection signaling, remote engineering access, metering and physical security applications. With the increasing emphasis on smart grid, substations may also play a larger role in AMI backhaul and distribution automation initiatives. There is an ongoing, albeit gradual, convergence of these various applications towards a common IP and ethernet infrastructure at both the local substation LAN level and for wide area substation WAN connectivity. Convergence to a multi-service network is driven by both the economics of a shared infrastructure and the flexibility and reliability promised by modern networking technologies. Establishing such converged networks has many challenges, however, including integration of legacy technologies, adoption of new standards such as IEC 61850, meeting new cyber security mandates and balancing the unique service requirements of different applications and end users. During this panel session, the panelists will present and discuss experiences in implementing substation networks that involve integrating multiple applications at the LAN and/or WAN level, with an emphasis on the successes and challenges of a multi-service substation network.

Panel Co-moderators:

• John McDonald, General Manager, Marketing, GE Energy T&D
• Frank Madren, President, GarrettCom, Inc.

Panelists:

• Michael Pesin, Strategic Technology Advisor, Seattle City Light
• David LaPlante, Supervisor - Transmission Automation, Northeast Utilities Service Company
• Jim Taylor, Engineering Services Superintendent, Tucson Electric Power
• Jonathan Sessions, Global Utilities CTO/Entergy Outsource Chief Technologist, SAIC
• Michael C. Lowe, Fiber/Communications Mgr., Blue Ridge EMC

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Conference Details

Advanced Metering
Customer Service and CIS
Demand Response and Energy Efficiency
Distribution Automation
Enterprise Information and Asset Management
Mobile and Geospatial Solutions
Renewables and the Grid
SCADA and Network Management
Substation Automation
T&D Engineering and Operations
Transmission
Water
Mega Session