Protection and Automation

Introduction

This report reviews the organization, processes, results and activities of Study Committee B5 (SC B5) in the year 2021. CIGRE Study Committee B5 - Protection and Automation, or SC B5 for short, focuses on Protection, Control, Monitoring and Metering and aims to cover the whole Power system, end-to-end related to this topic, from transmission systems, to distribution systems, including generation and HVDC systems.

Objectives

Study Committee B5 promotes the synthesis and dissemination of state of the art practices, recommendations and information about Power System Protection and Automation on a worldwide basis. Its main activities cover the principles, design, application and management of power system protection, substation control, automation, monitoring, recording and metering, as well as the associated internal and external communications and interfacing for remote control and monitoring. SC B5 aims to be an independent analyzer of different solutions and provider of high quality unbiased publications and contributions to the electrical supply industry. Members of SC B5 from all regions of the world provide a global perspective on the issues and challenges facing the protection of electrical power systems, aimed at top and medium management and technical staff of utilities, suppliers and consultants, universities and research centers, including young and experienced engineers and standardization organizations.

Organization

To attain its objectives, SC B5 is organized as shown on Picture 1. Five Advisory Groups support the decisions of the Chair and Secretary: the Strategic Advisory Group (SAG), the Tutorial Advisory Group (TAG), and three Strategic Thematic Groups (TG) specialized in Substation and Automation, Protection and Monitoring, and New Network Requirements, respectively. The Study Committee is formed by twenty-four regular country members, six additional regular members from distribution, twelve observer members, several Working Groups (WG) and Joint Working Groups with other Study Committees and organizations.

It is the mission of the Strategic Advisory Group (SAG) to advise the chair about strategic issues related to the activities of the committee, helping in the elaboration of the SC Strategic Plan. The Tutorial Advisory Group (TAG) advises about the organization and promotion of tutorial activities of the committee, selecting the topics for the tutorials, the presentation material, appointment of lecturers and monitoring their quality. The three permanent Strategic Thematic Groups (TG) organize the proposals of new Working Groups and Preferential Subjects related to Substation Automation, Protection and Monitoring, and New Network Requirements for discussion and voting during SC B5 meetings and select reviewers of the final reports of the Working Groups.

Table 1, 2 and 3 shows the WGs that were active at the end of 2021, organized by Strategic Thematic Groups (TG), with their respective conveners.

Technical Activities

In 2021, four new WGs were suggested during the SC B5 Centennial session in "Paris, France", and were approved by the Technical Council Chair in 2022, to address current issues related to protection and automation of power systems:

• WG B5.77 - Requirements for Information Technologies (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) managed of Protection, Automation and Control Systems (PACS), Convenor Emiliano Casale (IT)
• WG B5.78 - New requirements of network protection and control for renewable energy integration, Convenor Nirmal Nair (NZ)
• WG B5.79 - PACS design for reliability
• WG B5.80 - Protection Roadmap for Low Inertia and Low Fault Current Networks

Three WG's were disbanded by the chair in 2021 with the technical brochure sent for publication:

The best paper from SC B5 during the Centennial session 2021 was: 

• SC B5 - B5.211 Data segregation and traffic anomaly detection within the transmission substations and the whole power system, E. CASALE, M. MATTA, M. MACINA, P. MIGLIORE, G. CECI, N. MORELLI, Terna, Italy

It will be published in CIGRE Science & Engineering (CSE) in 2022.

Tutorials

To promote the discussion of current issues related to protection and automation, and as part of its mission to help the dissemination of knowledge about protection and automation, in 2021 the following tutorials were presented by SC B5 members;

SC B5 Tutorial in 2021 with the following topics:

• SC B5 Tutorial during Virtual Centennial Session August 2021 related to Protection, Automation and Control of the Evolving Grid
• SC B5 Tutorial during CIGRE Symposium 2021 related to Protection requirement on transient response of digital acquisition chain
• Tutorial during International conference Protection and Automation of Electric Power Systems, Moscow, Russia, October 2021 related to Experience and Recommendations for Implementation of Process Bus in Protection, Automation and Control Systems (PACS) (WG B5.69)

Keynote speeches

To disseminate the activities of CIGRE, members from SC B5 have participated and presented Keynote speeches during:

• 2021 August CIGRE New Zealand "NEWS CIGRE SC B5_Presentation"
• 2021 October PES_IEEE "CIGRE B5 - Impact on climate change"
• 2021 October APAP "News from CIGRE SC B5 Including updates from Paris session 2021"
• 2021 November CIGRE RPA Moscow "CIGRE SC B5 - News and best world practices and trends in PACS development"

Virtual Centennial Session and SC B5 Discussion Sessions

The main forum for technical debates about Protection and Automation in 2021 was the Virtual Centennial Session event in "Paris, France". SC B5 conducted two discussion sessions during the annual Discussion Session in Paris, France, about papers submitted on the following Preferential Subjects:

PS1 – Human aspects in Protection, Automation and Control (PACS)

Topics selected for discussion include   Causes, types, stages of occurrence and consequences of human errors,   Impact of PACS complexity and degree of functional integration on human errors,         Prevention of human errors including training, work authorization and peer reviews, procedures, application templates and standardization, and best practices for working with subcontractors and third parties. The session was reported by Simon Hussey (IE).

PS2 - Communication network in Protection, Automation and control (PACS): Experience and challenges

Topics selected for discussion include Management of Redundancy in communication network for applications and Intelligent Electronic Device (IED), Data Segregation including use of virtual networks for PACS applications, Architecture of PACS communication network including Management of communication constraints. The session was reported by John Wright (UK).

For 2022, SC B5 will take part in the CIGRE Session in Paris, France, and papers submitted on the following Preferential Subjects will be discussed based on the questions from the special report from SC B5:

PS 1 - Addressing protection related challenges in network with low-inertia and low fault-current levels

Topics selected for discussion include Asset protection challenges and system protection challenges, Protection schemes: best practices, role of grid codes and impact of inverter characteristics and specifications, New asset protection principles, advancements in inverter technologies, system monitoring and state estimation for aiding asset and system protection.
The session will be reported by Sean McGuinness from Ireland.

PS 2 - Applications of emerging technology for protection, automation and control

Topics selected for discussion include Virtualization; digital twins, protection automation and control functions independent of hardware, centralized protection systems, New protection principles and monitoring principles for AC and DC grids including use of new sensors and better use of today’s sensors and process interfaces.
The session will be reported by Tianshu Bi from China.

PS 3 - Integration of intelligence on substations (Joint PS with B3)

Topics selected for discussion include Data analytics, remote supervising & monitoring and autonomy application, IoT and machine learning applications based on protection automation and control data including asset management, monitoring and data analysis.
The session will be reported by Peter Kreutzer from Switzerland.

CIGRE Symposium, Ljubljana

In November 2021, SC B5 took part in the symposium in Ljubljana, which was run as a hybrid event. The theme was ‘Reshaping the Electric Power System Infrastructure’ and Rannveig Løken was Chair of the Technical and Scientific Committee and a member of the Steering Committee.

Awards

In recognition for their contribution to the activities of CIGRE, SC B5 has nominated and supported the following recipients for awards in 2021:

 CIGRE SC B5 Outstanding Service Award

The Outstanding Service Award of CIGRE Study Committee B5 - Protection and Automation is granted by the SC Chairman annually to members in recognition for outstanding participation and contribution to the activities of the Study Committee. For 2021, the award went to Bogdan Kasztenny, from Canada in recognition of his contribution, commitment and dedication to the objectives of CIGRE. He is a recognized expert in power system protection, he is a member of the SAG of SC B5, and has also been frequent contributor to CIGRE working groups. The award ceremony was conducted digitally by the Chair of SC B5 during the SC B5 Virtual Meeting.

CIGRE Pioneer 2020 e-session Achievement Award

CIGRE Pioneer e-session Achievement award was a special award created to recognize the outstanding efforts of the SC members who contributed to the achievement of the 2020 e-session and/or of the 2021 Session.

Awards for B5 “Protection and Automation” was granted to Simon Hussey (IE), John William Wright (GB) and Richard Adams (GB)

CIGRE Technical Council Award

Technical Council Award recipient from SC B5 in 2021 was John William Wright from United Kingdom. His main working area being use of IEC 61850 in protection, automation and control systems, and asset management of protection, automation and control systems. He is also a Fellow of The Institution of Engineering and Technology (FIET).

Mr John Wright has been the Special Reporter for PS2, Communication network in Protection, Automation and control (PACS): Experience and challenges in SC B5 in 2020 and 2021. He has contributed to making the first eSession in CIGRE SC B5 a success with his experience and knowledge.

Mr John Wright has shared his knowledge with the CIGRE B5 community for many years and his contributions has been very valuable to CIGRE B5. The award ceremony was conducted digitally by the Chair of SC B5 during the SC B5 Virtual Meeting.

CIGRE Women in Energy Award

This award is intended to recognize outstanding contributions of Women in Energy members to CIGRE activities.
Recipient of Women in Energy Award in 2021 for B5 “Protection and Automation” was granted to: Rannveig J.S. Løken (NO)

CIGRE Fellows Award

The "CIGRE Fellow" award is attributed for active participation in the activities of the technical work of the Study Committees and for providing a lead technical role in the Study Committees (maximum five awards every two years). One of the five 2021 Special Edition Awards was granted to: Iony Patriota de Siqueira (BR).

In acknowledgement of his active participation to the activities of the Association, as Working Group B5.64 convener, Special Reporter for 2008 Paris Session, Chair of Study Committee B5 “Protection and Automation” from 2008 to 2012, and co-editor of CIGRE Green Book on « Electricity Supply Systems of the Future ».

Strategic Planning

The strategic plan of CIGRE Study Committee B5 – sets out the strategic technical directions to be followed by the B5 Committee over the period 2021–2030 in order to address the main objectives set by CIGRE Technical Committee.

Based on this analysis, the following technical directions were validated by SC B5 Strategic Plan for the period 2021-2030:

Influence and Contribute towards Protection and Automation Global Expertise

•    Providing Key Technical SC B5 PACS information to Executives, Regulators, Policy Makers and Technology Innovators
•    Increase brand and visibility of SC B5 PACS amongst membership, research academics, trade associations, regulators, policy makers and government.
•    Developing Marketing avenues and platforms to support leading edge innovative concepts of B5
•    CIGRE B5 Africa Strategy

Supporting CIGRE Power System of the Future Vision: SC-B5 Strategy

•   Understand and influence the development of new technology and practices for all voltages and systems

Supporting CIGRE Peoples and Skill of Future Strategy: SC-B5 Efforts

•    Engaging actively with Central Office efforts towards operation Excellence

Details about the process adopted by SC B5 and the complete result can be found in the Strategic Plan.

Conclusions

The year of 2021 was full of achievements for SC B5, a result of the voluntary work of dedicated individuals and organizations, including the secretary, advisors, conveners, special reporters, members and observers from many countries around the world. For the future, the strategic directions set by SC B5 aim to facilitate the human development and application of new technology to improve the efficiency of the engineering, design, operation and maintenance of protection and automation of electric power systems and keeping the spirit of collaboration that distinguishes CIGRE among organizations around the world.

Contact

• Contact of the Chair and/or the Secretary of the Study Committee