Improving engineering process in Smart Grid by IEC 61850 SCL and OPC UA integration

IEC 61850 has been recognised as one of the fundamental components for reference Smart Grid architectures. Nevertheless, certain parts of the IEC 61850 definitions seem inadequate to compete with the accelerated Smart Grid evolution. IEC 61850 engineering process is based on engineering tools for configuration of substation automation systems. Issues about dynamic requirements and interoperability of the configuration process are not manageable with current IEC 61850 SCL-based engineering capabilities and require an alternative approach that is capable of handling Smart Grids integration principles. The authors believe that engineering process for Smart Grid environment may be improved by the integration of IEC 61850 and OPC UA. A proposal is presented in the paper based on the mapping of the entire set of IEC 61850 SCL elements to the OPC UA information model.