2020 PES ISGT Europe 10/28 Panel Video: Keynote 3: Digitizing the Electric Power Grid – the Future Is Now

The electric power utilities are transitioning towards a Smart Grid as a result of the changes in the industry driven by the developments of computer and communication technologies, as well as the increasing penetration of renewable distributed energy resources. The presentation describes the characteristics of the smart grid and the need for digitization in order to meet the requirements of the different applications. It briefly introduces the key components of the IEC 61850 standard and the extensions that are developed to cover the requirements of different domains outside of the substation. It describes the non-conventional sensors that are becoming key components of the digital substations and looks at different architectures, such as distributed, centralized or hybrid systems. Engineering of the digital substations based on the IEC 61850 SCL (system configuration language) is later described. The benefits of the digital grid and its impact on the maintenance and testing of the electric power system are described at the end of the presentation.