So it has been quite some time since our last post related to the International 61850 Process Bus User Task Force. We’re happy to report things have been progressing better than expected.
We’re averaging a task force meeting every 2-3 weeks and have consistent representation from across the globe. To date, we have 30 members who represent 17 electric power utilities across 7 countries. The process bus user task force is represented in thirds. 1/3 of the members are from Canada, 1/3 from USA and 1/3 from overseas, including Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Colombia, and Great Britain. Most of the discussions to date have been focused on the member’s requirements and their vision/experience with process bus. Furthermore, we were very fortunate to have a technical manager from NERC CIP host one meeting, where he described the cyber-security requirements that ought to be considered when deploying IEC 61850 process bus solutions. We plan on building from this session where we’ll complete an exercise of the various “NERC CIP safe” network architectures that could be considered.
Members have also completed a survey (~30 questions) that attempted to summarize the priorities/concerns associated to their process bus deployment, all of which will be fed into the final recommendations that will produced by this user task force. Our first priority is listening to the user’s feedback and ensure their priorities are identified and documented. Next step will be listening to the perspective of the vendor community….Special thanks to all the members who have contributed thus far, as well as the NERC CIP technical managers for your valuable insight.
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