Testing Protective Relays in IEC 61850
Framework
L.X. Zhang, Student Member, IEEE, and Nirmal-Kumar C Nair, Member, IEEE
Abstract-- Increasing number of IEC 61850 compatible
Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs) are being developed by
manufacturers and being commissioned as part of the Substation
Automation Systems (SASs), especially in distribution networks.
For protective relays complying with IEC 61850 standards new
test bench and methods for functional and performance testing
needs development. This paper reviews the conventional
protective relay testing methods and proposes new test
approaches for testing the IEC 61850 features of relays. Three
aspects are assessed at this stage: peer-to-peer communication
speed which refers to the GOOSE (Generic Objective Oriented
Substation Event) applications, interoperability functions, and
configuration software tools. The experiences of testing these
features on commercially available relays and issues arising
thereof are detailed in this paper.
Index Terms-- Power system protection, IEC 61850, GOOSE
I. INTRODUCTION
S ubstation Automation Systems (SASs) is being
increasingly implemented in transmission and distribution
substations. Currently more than 4000 Substation Automation
Systems are in operation all over the world [1]. Substation
automation systems that are currently being commissioned are
no longer composed of individual devices operating in
isolation. The increasing levels of state-of-the-art secondary
equipments provide new features for substations, such as the
fast digital communication, interoperability function, time
synchronization, and the information database management.
These changes are triggered by the microprocessor based
Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs). Protection and control
can not be seen anymore as totally independent technologies
since they are now generally integrated in some way, or at
least interact, using powerful communication links [1,2].
The international standard of communication networks and
systems in substation the IEC 61850 provides an
engineering approach to maximize the benefits of a substation
automation system. The philosophy of the IEC 61850 is far
more than a communication standard. It engages in changing
the way in which substations and power systems are designed,
constructed, operated, maintained, and upgraded [1]. One
L.X. Zhang (Master Student) is with the Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering, University of Auckland, New Zealand (E-mail:
lzha226@aucklanduni.ac.nz)
N-K.C Nair is with the Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, University of Auckland, New Zealand (E-mail:
n.nair@aucklanduni.ac.nz)
2008 Australasian Universities Power Engineering Conference (AUPEC'08)
feature of IEC 61850 is its flexibility, which means that it is
totally free for engineers to choose different devices,
technologies and approaches to construct and operate a SAS.
On the other hand, this feature also increases the complexity
of the system and has the potential risk of reducing the
stability, if things go wrong.
Conventional relay technologies include electromechanical
relays, static relays, and microprocessor relays. Currently,
microprocessor protective relays are dominating the available
product range. Several tests need to be conducted during the
different stages of these protective relay, including factory
testing, pre-commissioning testing, and periodic maintenance
testing [3]. These tests usually measure the key protection
requirements of the relays, which are selectivity, sensitivity,
and response speed. However with the emergence of the IEC
61850 standard, two new features must be taken into account:
the digital communication ability and the interoperability.
Therefore a new functional testing bench, regarding these two
features from the IEC 61850 standard, is required for
achieving a complete protective relay testing [2]. Since the
GOOSE (Generic Object Oriented Substation Event) service is
one of the main features of IEC 61850 compatible relays,
there is a need to report standardized way of testing it.
The first part of this paper reviews the operational concepts
of the GOOSE service, as defined by the IEC 61850
standards. Then we present a laboratory based test bench for
testing the GOOSE features of some IEC 61850 compatible
protective relays. It is followed by three tests that are relevant
to relays and their results: the GOOSE message speed test, the
interoperability test, and the GOOSE buffer managing ability
test. We finally conclude by summarizing the observed results
and issues that will need addressing by protective relay
engineers, if the IEC 61850 compatible relays are to be
adopted in a large way.
II. THE GOOSE SERVICE
a. Overview of the GOOSE service
IEC 61850-7-2 defines a generic substation event service
which can provide a fast and reliable distribution of input and
output data values, including either digital or analogue values
[4]. The generic substation event service is based on the
concept of an autonomous decentralization method which
supports an efficient way allowing the simultaneous delivery
of the same event information to more than one physical
device through the use of multicast services. Besides multicast
model, the distribution also supports peer-to-peer and
client/server communication models.expressed as:
Paper P-161 page 1
 Fig 1 GOOSE service operation mechanism
Two classes of messages are defined in IEC 61850-7-2:
Generic object oriented substation event (GOOSE)
supports the exchange of a wide range of possible
common data organized by a Date-Set;
Generic substation state event (GSSE) provides the
capability to convey state change information (bit pairs)
[4].
The major difference between the GOOSE service and the
GSSE service is the kind of information to be exchanged. The
GOOSE service provides a flexible means to specify which
information is to be exchanged; while the GSSE service only
supports a simple list of status information. In this paper, all
the applications are implemented based on the GOOSE
service.
Fig 1 shows an overview of the abstract data classes and
services of the GOOSE model. The message exchange method
is based on a publisher/subscriber mechanism. When the value
of one or several Data-Attributes of a specific functional
element in the Data-Set change, the transmission buffer of the
publisher will be updated through the local service
publish.req and the values are transmitted to the
transmission buffer combined with a GOOSE message.
Specific mapping services of the communication network will
update the content of the buffer in the subscribers
automatically. New values received in the reception buffer of
the subscriber are forwarded to the relevant applications [4].
2008 Australasian Universities Power Engineering Conference (AUPEC'08)
The GOOSE messages contain information that allow the
subscriber to know that a status has changed and time of the
last status change. The time of the last status change allows a
subscriber to set local timer relating to a given event.
A newly activated device will send current status or values
as the initial GOOSE message. Moreover, all devices sending
GOOSE messages shall continue to send the message with a
long cycle time, even if no status/value change has occurred.
This ensures that devices that have been activated recently
will know the current status values of their neighbouring
devices.
One conclusion can be drawn from Fig 1 is that the
transmission time of the GOOSE message contains three
parts; see following equation (1):
TTransmissi on = Ta + Tb + Tc (1)
Ta The local forwarding time in the publisher
Tb The transmission time from the publisher to the
subscriber
Tc The local forwarding time in the subscriber
This equation shows that two conditions must be
considered when calculating the transmission time of the
GOOSE message: the network communication ability and the
local information processing ability. If an interoperability
Paper P-161 page 2
application is performed, the levels of the state-of-the-art from
all the manufacturers must be taken into account.
The transmission time of the GOOSE message is crucial for
a protective relay to perform some time-critical protection
functions. IEC 61850-7-1 defines several performance classes
and message types for the protection and control purpose. For
example, the transmission time for a trip application in a
transmission bay should be below the order of a quarter of a
cycle. Therefore, 4 ms is specified for the 50 Hz system.
Where the GOOSE message is not used for the time critical
applications, it is allowed to have a longer transmission time,
like 500 ms for a low speed message [5].
b. Features of the GOOSE service
From the previous discussion, we can appreciate that
GOOSE message is a flexible communication model for
exchanging generic substation events within IEDs. The
features of GOOSE message are listed as following:
Handshaking and automatic retransmission
mechanisms to make sure that no GOOSE messages be
lost during transmission
Predefined destinations reduce the messages roaming
time on LAN
High priority of communication level minimises the
transmission delay
Peer-to-peer and multicast communication methods
allow variety applications
Easy to be designed, mapped to current communication
technologies through SCSM (Specific Communication
Service Mapping) service [6]
Transmission time not only depends on the network
situations but the IEDs local information forwarding
abilities
c. The GOOSE services applications for protection
When we implement the GOOSE service in a power system
protection and control scheme, the digital communication
speed and the stability are the key issues need to be taken into
account. Followings are some applications related to the
GOOSE service:
Interoperability (information exchange) between IEDs
from different vendors
All the configuration parameters can be set and
modified through substation LAN; as well as the log
files and reports can be read directly
Possibility of improving systems reliability and
stability by designing new Special Protection Schemes
(SPSs)
Achieving economic benefit by replacing conventional
wires with digital communication cables and fiber
optics. In this case, the amount of connections will be
reduced enormously.
Easy for expansion, monitoring, maintaining, and
upgrading
2008 Australasian Universities Power Engineering Conference (AUPEC'08)
Currently, the major applications of the GOOSE service in
protective area are the transmission of signals for auto-
reclosing, inter-tripping and interlocking. In addition, the
GOOSE service is also able to be applied for protective relay
testing purpose, detailed in [7]. The abstract-data-model
feature of the GOOSE service allows it to be used for
interconnecting the IEC 61850 standard with other power
system standards, such as IEC 61400-25 and IEC 61970 [8].
III. THE GOOSE TEST BENCH
Typically, relay testing is performed using phasor-based
methods and conventional test sets [9]. Fig. 2 shows a
laboratory test bench for transient testing purpose, which
includes the current and voltage waveform generator, the
amplifiers, and test relays [10]. However as a functional test
bench for assessing the characteristics of the IEC 61850 we
connect protective relays using Ethernet switches, network
cables, and fiber optics to form a communication network.
The GOOSE message is generated by the relay itself. Except
for the time synchronization function, no other additional
signal needs to be generated for testing the communication
capability.
Fig 2 Transient test bench for relays
In this paper three IEC 61850 service tests are discussed:
the GOOSE message speed test, the interoperability test, and
the GOOSE buffer managing ability test. The IEDs used in the
experiments are digital protective relays from Siemens and
GE. During the testing, all the protective relays were
synchronized by a Network Time Server (NTS). However,
from our observations, the time gap between the IEDs still
existed and was around 5 ms. Since such a condition would
cause an incorrect result for the fast GOOSE message test, we
use another method to calculate the transmission time; see
equation (2):
Tsend - Treceive - Tlocal
TGOOSE = (2)
2
Paper P-161 page 3
 Table 1 Results of relay002 in the GOOSE message speed test
TGOOSE Transmission time of GOOSE
Tsend Initial GOOSE starting time in the publisher
Relay 002 STAR P2P RING
Treceive Confirmation GOOSE receiving time in the Average Trans.
14.70 14.75 14.60
publisher Time (ms)
Tlocal : Local processing time in the subscriber Local Processing
36 157 147
Time (ms)
Initially, the GOOSE message is generated by pushing the
button on the faceplate of the publisher relay. This message is Table 2 Results of relay003 in the GOOSE message speed test
then routed to the predefined destinations. When the
subscribers receive this special GOOSE message, they Relay 003 STAR P2P RING
perform a local logical calculation and send a confirmation Average Trans.
GOOSE message back to the publisher. All these events will 14.70 14.70 14.55
Time (ms)
be precisely recorded into the log files for calculating the Local Processing
transmission time and the local forwarding time for each 432 79 96
Time (ms)
device.
The communication technology used in these tests is
Ethernet which is a mature technology for constructing the Table 3 Results of relay004 in the GOOSE message speed test
LAN (Local Area Network). As the communication delays
within the Ethernet switch usually are several microseconds, Relay 004 STAR P2P RING
this can be fully ignored during these testing. Average Trans.
14.70 14.85 14.65
Time (ms)
IV. THE GOOSE SPEED TEST Local Processing
135 256 257
The purpose of this test is to measure the transmission Time (ms)
speed of the GOOSE message between IEDs which are from
the same manufacturer, typically used for distributor feeder The results of this test showed that the average transmission
protection. Four Siemens SIPROTEC 4 7SJ641 Multifunction time of the GOOSE message was around 14.7 ms. The local
Protection Relays were used in this test. The firmware version processing times, which means the time used for the logical
was V04.64.01 and the digital communication module was calculation, shows that they are spread out. We assumed that it
V03.09.01. By using the Siemens configuration tool DIGSI was mainly caused by the insufficient capabilities of the CPU
4, the speed test mechanism mentioned above was designed. (Central Processor Unit) and the new digital communication
One relay performed as a publisher and the others acted as the module. Therefore we conducted an updated test. The
subscribers. They were connected in several types of topology, firmware version was upgraded to V04.71.04 and the
including star, peer-to-peer, and ring. Fig. 3 shows an example communication modules were replaced with refurnished
for the star connection. equipments with module number V04.01.01. The results of
this updated test are much better; see Table 4.

Table 4 Results of the updating GOOSE message speed test

Relay 002 STAR

Average Trans.
9.10
Time (ms)
Local Processing
1
Time (ms)

It can be realized from Table 4 that the average

Fig 3 Star connection for the GOOSE message test
In Fig. 3, Relay 001 is the publisher and Relay 002 004
are the subscribers. It was assumed that the transmission time
of the GOOSE message would not show any significant
difference between each topology. The final results prove the
assumption; see Table 1, 2, and 3.
transmission time was reduced to 9.10 ms. In addition, the
local processing time is around 1 ms. More information and
details of the testing are available from [11, 12].
Fig. 4 shows the distribution of the results from the updated
test. The red line represents the result from the test using the
older version of the CPU & communication module. The
results of the updated test show that the state-of-the-art of the
IEDs has a significant effect on the performance of the
GOOSE service, especially on the speed of the GOOSE

2008 Australasian Universities Power Engineering Conference (AUPEC'08) Paper P-161 page 4
message. This speed is capable for various applications as
mentioned in [8].
Fig 4 Distribution of GOOSE message speed test results
V. THE INTEROPERABILITY TEST
There are two purposes for the interoperability test:
achieving information exchange between IEDs from different
manufacturers and also measuring the GOOSE message speed.
One GE F35 protective relay and one Siemens SIPROTEC
4 7SJ641 relay were used in this test. The GE relay acted as a
publisher. From Fig. 4 we can see, the IEDs are connected in a
star topology. A time code generator and a computer are also
connected to the switch for time synchronization and system
configuration purposes.
Fig 5 Layout for the interoperability test
Unlike the GOOSE speed test, it was found that the
configuration software tools played a key role when testing to
achieve the interoperability function. IEC 61850 defines
several configuration files to facilitate the engineering process
of constructing a substation automation system, like ICD files
for IED Capability Description, SSD files for System
Specification Description, SCD files for Substation
Configuration Description, and CID files for Configured IED
Description. All these configuration files are based on the
XML language and have the same file structure. Usually, an
IED only can generate an ICD file. A successful configuration
software tool is responsible for combining multiple ICD files
with SSD files to generate a SCD file for station level
applications; see Fig. 5.
2008 Australasian Universities Power Engineering Conference (AUPEC'08)
Fig 6 Relationship of the configuration files specified in the IEC 61850
standard
During these testings, a third party configuration software
STS (Substation Tool Set) to compare the engineering
capabilities [13] was also tested. The GE software, which is
called EnerVista, can perform all the engineering requirements
from the GE relay but have no current capability to understand
the ICD files from other IEDs. The DIGSI 4 software from
Siemens is able to import the ICD files from other IEDs and
involve them into its own IEC 61850 substation module.
However, there are still some issues, for instance it can not
currently understand the information of the IP address from
the GE relay. Furthermore, DIGSI 4 can only read the
information from the ICD files from other manufacturers and
can not make any change to them, which means it can not
satisfy completely station-level engineering. The STS
software performs much better than the others from the
station-level viewpoint. By loading ICD files and mapping
logical functions to IEDs, it can not only achieve station-level
engineering but also configure all individual IED.
The GOOSE message speed for the interoperability test is
around 7 ms which is close to the recommended value in the
standards. In addition, the spread of the test results is within a
very narrow area which means that the performance of the
GOOSE message is very stable.
VI. THE BUFFER MANAGING TEST
The purpose of this test is to check the management
mechanism of the GOOSE message. From previous
description we realize that the GOOSE messages should have
different transmission priority levels and will be automatically
delivered with a cycle time even if there is no change of
status/value. Therefore each IED claiming it can support IEC
61850 and GOOSE service should have the ability to set
different priority levels for the GOOSE messages and
efficiently manage the transmission buffer.
Three features have been tested during the experiment: the
priority level configuration, the minimum time slot for
generating the GOOSE message, and the mechanism of
preventing the GOOSE message of flooding the network. One
Siemens SIPROTEC 4 7SJ641 relay was used during the
experiment.
The Siemens relay provides the setting of communication
priority for the GOOSE service in its IEC 61850-station
module. There are three levels: low, medium, and high.
However this setting had no effect the transmission speed of
Paper P-161 page 5
the GOOSE message. We assume that this setting may be
activated when several GOOSE messages are generated
simultaneously. This feature required to be tested in a
redesigned test.
For the other two features, we designed a loop logical
calculation method for automatically generating the GOOSE
message with an identical time slot. The length of the time slot
can be adjusted for checking the minimum frequency for
generating the GOOSE message. From our observation, the
minimum time slot is 42 ms. No matter how we changed the
parameters of the logical calculation block, the GOOSE
message can not be generated higher than this frequency.
Moreover, the GOOSE message will be automatically stopped
after several cycles. It seems that the buffer control
mechanism performs its function.
VII. CONCLUSION
In this paper, several features of the GOOSE service from
the IEC 61850 were tested and discussed. We can classify
these features into two groups: the communication
performance, including the communication speed and local
buffer managing, and the operative capability, referring to
interoperability function. From our testing experiences on
commercial relays, it is observed that the speed of the GOOSE
message largely depends on the level of the state-of-the-art of
the IED, especially the CPUs and the communication
modules. One needs to clearly understand these features to
assess whether these devices meet the requirements both from
viewpoint of simultaneously meeting the IEC 61850 guideline
and power system protection practices.
Furthermore, during the interoperability test it was
observed that the configuration software tool acts an important
role, by providing an overview of the substation system,
loading configuration files from each IED, mapping logical
functions to IEDs, constructing logical connections, and
performing a complete system-level operation. A successful
configuration software tool can make good use of the abstract
data models and services defined in the IEC 61850 and
facilitate overall substation engineering.
VIII. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors gratefully acknowledge CSE-Uniserve New
Zealand Ltd. for providing the GE protective relay and the
Ethernet switches, and HV Power Measurement and
Protection Ltd. for providing the Siemens protective relays.
IX. REFERENCES
[1] Working Group B5.11 of Cigre, The Introduction of IEC 61850 and
Its Impact on Protection and Automation Within Substations,
CIGRE, Aug. 2007.
[2] Apostolov and B. Vandiver, Functional Testing of IEC 61850 Based
Protection Relays, in Protective Relay Engineers, 2007. 60th Annual
Conference for, 2007, pp. 333-340.
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[3] G. Juan, and H. Edward, Protection of electricity distribution
networks, The Institution of Electrical Engineers, London, United
Kingdom, 2004.
[4] Communication networks and systems in substations - part 7-2:
Basic communication structure for substation and feeder equipment
Abstract communication service interface (ACSI), IEC 61850-7-2
International standard, pp. 14-35, 107-154, 2003.
[5] Communication networks and systems in substations - part 7-1:
Basic communication structure for substation and feeder equipment
Principles and models, IEC 61850-7-1 International standard, pp.
13-42, 2003.
[6] C. R. Ozansoy, A. Zayegh, and A. Kalam, "The Real-Time
Publisher/Subscriber Communication Model for Distributed
Substation Systems," Power Delivery, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 22,
pp. 1411-1423, 2007.
[7] I. Hachidai and O. Kenichiro. Implementation of IEC 61850
GOOSE and Protection Relay Testing, in Protection GOOSE,
Winter 2008 issue, Pacworld, Houston, United States of America,
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[8] Schwarz. K, IEC 61850, IEC 61400-25, and IEC 61970: information
models and information exchange for electric power systems,
Presented at the Distributech, 20 January, 2004.
[9] M. Kezunovic, "Fundamentals of Power System Protection," The
Electrical Engineering Handbook, Chapter on Electric Power
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[10] S. Zhao, R. Stevens, N. Nair and S.M. Brahma. Transient Playback
Test System for Protective Relays, in EEA Annual Conference 07,
Auckland, New Zealand, 15-16 June 2007.
[11] L. Zhang and N. Nair. Assessing Protective Relaying in IEC 61850
Framework, in EEA Annual Conference 08, Christchurch, New
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[12] L. Zhang. Test Protective Relays in IEC 61850 Framework, in ME
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[13] Helinks Limited, STS User Manual, [Online] available:
http://helinks.com/sts/HELINKS_STS_User_Manual.pdf, 2008.
X. BIOGRAPHIES
Li Xi Zhang graduated from East China University
of Science and Technology with Bachelors Degree in
Computer Communication in 1999. He finished his ME
research in Power System Engineering at the University
of Auckland in July 2008. His current research areas
involve IEC 61850 standard and power system
protection.
Nirmal-Kumar C Nair received his BE in E.E.
from M.S. University, Baroda, India and ME in E.E
with specialization of High Voltage Engineering from
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. He
received his Ph.D. in E.E. from Texas A&M
University, College Station, USA. He has held several
professional, teaching and research positions.
Presently, he is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of
Electrical & Computer Engineering in University of
Auckland, New Zealand. His current interest includes power system analysis,
protective relaying & optimization in the context of electricity markets and
integration issues of DG/renewable sources into bulk power system.
Dr. Nair is the Vice-chair & Student Branch Counselor for IEEE New
Zealand (North) Section. He is currently the Secretary of PES Life Long
Learning Subcommittee and is also active in several working groups and
Technical Task force of PES Committees.
Paper P-161 page 6