The R&D Nester researcher Ricardo Cartaxo was present at the international conference 'PAC World 2016' in June, which was attended by representatives of industry, utilities and universities.

In this event, Ricardo presented the paper "Enhanced testing platform for the Smart Substation' depicting the test platform installed at R&D Nester laboratory, in order to make the proof of concept of the system developed in the ‘Substation of the future' project.

One of the topics under discussion was the envisagement that, in the future, there will be a decoupling between the hardware and software in the control and protection devices. In other words, it is expected that relays with a specific function (for instance, distance protection) will no longer be purchased; instead, companies will acquire algorithms that will be installed in generic hardware.

Ricardo Cartaxo was also recently present at the quarterly meeting of the Working Group 10 (under the Technical Committee 57) of the International Electrical Commission.

This Working Group is in charge of the development of IEC 61850 standard (communication networks and systems for the automation of power systems) and other related ones.

In the meetings, it is discussed the contents of standards that are being produced and proposals for new ones/amendments (NWIP - new work item proposal).

As an example, the draft of the standard that will integrate the internal logic of the devices into the IEC 61850 was finalized and five proposals for improving the efficiency of the engineering process (configuration of the control and protection devices) have been approved.

One of the points of this meeting was a session with the ENTSO-E Working Group AhG IEC 61850 (of which the employee is a corresponding member) which aims to create a IEC 61850 profile common to members of that international organization, with the purpose of improving interoperability between equipment, the main purpose of that standard.