IEC 61850 SCL Validation Using UML Model in Modern Digital Substation

Abstract

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.