2026 Event Schedule

Digital substations can be invaluable assets for T&D network owners and operators since they offer pathways to increased resilience and reliability through digital data gathering, communication, and effective cybersecurity frameworks, in addition to providing cost savings during their construction, operation, and maintenance phases. The four-hour tutorial will provide a detailed overview of the digital substation’s core elements, technologies, and key benefits.  

Today’s utilities are coping with growing operational complexity from the intersection of massive additions of variable renewable generation and rapidly increasing load. The demand for substation information in order to maintain, let alone improve, system awareness and reliability has never been greater. The digital substation facilitates data gathering and real-time exchange between the connected devices in the substation, and from the substation to remote control rooms. The IEC 61850 standard for Ethernet communication in power substations enables interoperable data exchange for control and protection intelligent electronic devices, such as process-interface units, low-power instrument transformers, protective relays, and control units, allowing for advanced substation automation. 

Converting the substation’s process events and measurements into digital messages and sampled values, respectively, and transmitting this data digitally through process- and station- bus network architectures to processing units, fully delivers IEC 61850’s promise of interoperability, free allocation of functions and future proof to utilities and their customers, which significantly improves the overall reliability and resiliency of the 21st-century substation. Digital substations also offer cost savings from reduced footprint, elimination of copper wires, improved efficiencies in engineering through reuse of design, functional consolidation, reduced testing and condition-based maintenance. 

Digital substation solutions can be developed and implemented to deliver the same level of testing capabilities and to utilize standardized practices similar to those usually applied in conventional substations.  

In addition, cybersecurity becomes more manageable in digital substations by leveraging security recommendations from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Securing Energy Infrastructure Executive Task Force (SEI ETF) effort and subsequent ISA/IEC 62443 Application Security Profile Development. The reference architecture developed by the SEI ETF for digital substations and application security profiles provides a common language for control system cybersecurity designs and introduces a methodology to assess tolerable risk for security applications.  

Attendees will gain: 

• An overview of the IEC 61850 standard, focusing on the IEC 61850-8-1 (digitized events) and IEC 61850-9-2 (sampled measured values) process- and station-bus architectures, engineering and testing capabilities and core technologies to support the industry’s grid modernization efforts.
• Industry experience will be discussed from the adoption of utility testing and maintenance practices, highlighting the benefits of digital substation technologies for field operation and maintenance personnel.
• Key benefits and drivers supporting the utility’s grid modernization strategy and business cases.
• An overview of the security profile applications and process for cyber security implementation coupled with the Department of Energy’s SEI ETF National Cyber-Informed Engineering (CIE) strategy, with its focus on consequence-driven CIE.
• The importance of performing a security risk assessment to identify security architecture weaknesses, understand tolerable risk levels and associated consequences, or architecture rework to improve the OT control system security posture. 
   

Top three takeaways: 

• The tutorial introduces the digital substation components, architecture, and underlying IEC 61850-related procedures that provide the foundation for improved safety, reliability, and cost savings, in support of utility grid modernization initiatives.
• Testing is key, and digital substation implementation supports the same procedures and purpose as testing substation equipment. This session will showcase the real-world experience of a utility’s journey to the digital substation.
• Attendees will leave the session with an understanding of current cybersecurity concerns and how these issues are being addressed by ISA/IEC 62443 developments for Electric Energy OT Application Profiles standardization activities, as well as the ways that the U.S. Department of Energy’s SEIETF recommendations for electric energy OT systems are being leveraged. 

Grid University Course Sponsored by Hitachi