SCL - Substation Configuration Language

Substation Configuration Description Language (SCL) is the language and representation format specified by IEC 61850 for the configuration of electrical substation devices. This includes representation of modeled data and communication services specified by IEC 61850 – 7 –X standard documents. The complete SCL representation and its details are specified in IEC 61850-6 standard document. It includes data representation for substation device entities; it’s associated functions represented as logical nodes, communication systems and capabilities. The complete representation of data as SCL enhances the different devices of a substation to exchange the SCL files and to have a complete interoperability.

Parts of SCL Files

An SCL file contains of the following parts

1.Header – This part is used to identify version and other basic details of an SCL configuration file.

2.Substation – This is the part dealing with the different entities of a substation including various devices, interconnections & other functionalities. The elements include Power Transformers, Voltage Levels, Bays, General Equipments, Conducting Equipments like breakers, logical nodes etc.

3.Communication – This section deals with different communication points (Access points) for accessing the different IEDs of the complete system. This part contains different Sub Networks and Access Points.

4.IED – The IED section describes the complete pre-configuration of an Intelligent Electronic Device (IED). It contains different access points of the specific IED, the logical devices, and logical nodes, report control blocks etc coming under the IED.

5.DataTypeTemplates – It defines different logical devices, logical nodes, data and other details separated into different instances. The complete data modeling according to IEC 61850-7-3 & 7-4 are represented in this part of SCL. It is again subdivided into LnodeType, DOType, DAType and EnumType.

Types of SCL Files

Depending on the purpose of SCL file, it is classified into the following four types

1.IED Capability Description (.ICD) File – It defines complete capability of an IED. This file needs to be supplied by each manufacturer to make the complete system configuration. The file contains a single IED section, an optional communication section and an optional substation part which denotes the physical entities corresponding to the IED.

2.System Specification Description (.SSD) File – This file contains complete specification of a substation automation system including single line diagram for the substation and it’s functionalities (logical nodes). This will have Substation part, Data type templates and logical node type definitions but need not have IED section.

3.Substation Configuration Description (.SCD) File – This is the file describing complete substation detail. It contains substation, communication, IED and Data type template sections. An .SSD file and different .ICD files contribute in making an SCD file.

4.Configured IED Description (.CID) File – It is a file used to have communication between an IED configuration tool to an IED. It can be considered as an SCD file stripped down to what the concerned IED need to know and contains a mandatory communication section of the addressed IED.

ee also

* Difference between CIM & SCL
* Harmonization of CIM & SCL

External links

* [http://www.kalkitech.com/IEC61850SCLManager.htm SCL Configuration Utility]
* [http://www.61850.com/introduction_konfiguration.html IEC 61850 Configuration]
* [http://www.helinks.com IEC 61850 STS Substation Engineering Tool]