IEC 61850: Conformance Certificate

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HOW TO READ AN IEC 61850 CONFORMANCE CERTIFICATE

Users typically request that IED vendors provide
documentation that the equipment and applications
delivered meets user requirements and proves
conformance to IEC61850. In response to this, users
are typically provided a set of UCAIug conformance
certificates. There are different certificates for IEC 61850
clients, servers, performance, and sampled values.
Additionally, there are variations of the certificates for
the different editions of the IEC 61850 specifications
(a.k.a. Edition 1 and Edition 2). In order to understand
the certificate and where to request additional
information, an understanding of the conformance
testing process helps.
As the standard changes (e.g. revision from Edition 1 to
Edition 2) or Technical Issues (a.k.a. TISSUE) are resolved,
the IEC and UCAIug Conformance Tests are revised.
Revised test procedures used six (6) months after the
revised test procedures are officially released by the
UCAIug. As part of the approval process, the UCAIug
generates Test Procedure Change Lists (TPCLs) for the
various conformance test campaigns (e.g. Client, Server,
Performance, or SCL Conformance). Additionally, the
UCAIug updates the templates that vendors need
to provide in order to allow a UCAIug accredited test lab to select the appropriate test cases from within a specific conformance test
campaign. The templates are for a specific single product/version combination. The vendor provides the completed templates for:
Protocol Implementation Conformance Statement (PICS): Contains a vendor declaration of what communication services are
supported for the specified product. Extended test information is provided in a Protocol Implementation eXtra Information for Testing
(PIXIT) document.
Technical Issue Implementation Conformance Statement (TICS): Specifies which technical issues have been implemented in the
specific product.
Model Implementation Conformance Statement (MICS): Documents the object model (e.g. Logical Nodes and Data) supported by
the vendor for the specific product.
Substation Configuration Language (SCL) Implementation Conformance Statement (SICS): Specifies the SCL options supported by
the specific engineering tool. In some cases, the engineering tool function may be embedded within an IED.
An accredited test lab then uses the completed conformance test templates with the appropriate versions of the conformance test
procedures to select which mandatory and conditional test cases should be executed.
The selected test cases are executed and when all are passed, the test lab forwards the certificate to the UCAIug for a review of the test
results and log files. When the review is complete and the results are found appropriate, the Conformance Certificate is posted on
the UCAIug website. The actual implementation conformance statements and test results are owned by the vendor, therefore, those
documents should be requested from them directly. These statements, along with the appropriate version of the test procedures are
needed by the user to properly interpret a conformance certificate.

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Conformance Certificate

A conformance certificate consists of two (2) pages currently. Page 1 of the certificate contains seven (7) sets of key information regarding:
(1) The type of certificate. If the certificate indicates Level A, then the
test lab is not affiliated with any vendor.
(2) The vendor and the product being tested. If there are multiple
product variants being tested, those are declared on page 2 of the
certificate.
(3) The version of test cases and TPCL used as the basis of testing.
(4) The specific implementation conformance statements provided
by the vendor for the product under test.
(5) Which conformance blocks are claimed and how many of the
possible test cases were executed.
(6) The version of the test tools used for testing.
(7) The name and address of the accredited test lab.
In order to interpret the summary test results (shown on page
2), users should obtain the appropriate TPCL, implementation
conformance statements, and PIXIT. Page 2 restates certain
information found on page 1 and provides a summary of the test
cases which were executed and passed. The summary test results are
divided amongst:
(8) Mandatory tests that are selected based upon the PICS and potentially
modified by the TICS, provided by the vendor. As an example, it is acceptable
to have an IED that does not support IEC 61850 file transfer. If no file transfer
model support was declared in the PICS, no mandatory tests would even be
executed by the test lab and no mandatory or conditional test results would be
present in the table.
(9) Conditional tests that are selected based upon a combination of the PICS
and PIXIT information provided by the vendor.
In the columns, the test case name is shown if the test case passed. In order to
obtain a conformance certificate, all mandatory and required conditional tests
must pass. Although users need to understand the mandatory tests at a high
level (e.g. if the user needs an IED to publish GOOSE, mandatory test results
need to be present), they also need to know which conditional tests need to be
executed in order to meet their application requirements. The best place for a
user to start is the TPCL and the abstract test case document, both of which are
posted on the UCAIug website. As an example of a summary, a user might see:

GopN1

When GoEna=TRUE, no attribute of the GoCB control block can be set except GoEna

GopN1 is the test case name. Test case names have the general format of:
<service model name> [service constraint][negative]<test number>
The service model name and test number are mandatory. The service constraint (e.g. publisher or subscriber) and negative (e.g. N) are
optional.
It is important for users to understand that two vendors products each with an equivalent conformance statement (e.g. the same
mandatory and conditional test passing) does not guarantee application interoperability as object models and other constraints may also
have an impact on interoperability.
CONSULTING
IEC 61850: Conformance Cert / 2014 SISCO INC. / 082014

SOFTWARE

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Sterling Heights, MI 48314

SOLUTIONS
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