Meeting the 61850 challenge

Test sets with IEC 61850 functionality are available, but they are costly and their purchase may be hard to justify, especially if only a few IEC 61850 devices are to be tested.

Fortunately, there is an alternative - Megger's Goose Message Interface (GMI), which converts GOOSE messages to binary inputs and outputs.

The GMI has several binary outputs, each of which users can map to a specific GOOSE message. When that message appears on the network, the associated GMI output operates. Likewise the GMI has binary inputs that can be assigned GOOSE messages. When a signal is received at an input, the GMI sends the appropriate GOOSE message.

With the GMI, any relay test set can be adapted for testing IEC 61850 protection schemes. This means that a smaller investment is required than would be needed to purchase a new test set, and that protection engineers can continue to use equipment with which they are familiar.

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Megger Limited is based in Dover, Kent, UK. www.megger.com