Application 25
GOOSEs in the desert
Distributed IEC 61850 testing in the Namib Desert
Dolerite
Trekkopje Okahandja
Lichen
Karibib
Wlotzka
Windhoek
Walvis Bay In south-western Africa, in the Namib
Desert in Namibia, four substations
equipped with the latest IEC 61850
REPUBLIC OF NAMIBIA
technology provide the largest ura-
nium mine of southern Africa with
power. Hundreds of GOOSE messages
are used to transmit signals between
the IEDs within and across all four
substations. The local power company
NamPower invited us to try out our
newest products in their utilities.
The substations are located between a desalina- Verifying SCL against the network
tion plant at the west coast of Namibia and the Upon arrival at the first substation at the coast,
Trekkopje uranium mine, located approximately we used the DANEO to verify if the GOOSEs
65 km north-east of Swakopmund. An optical transmitted on the substation network matched
ground wire connection between the four substa- the configuration in the Substation Configuration
tion automation networks makes it possible to Description (SCD) file. We configured the net-
exchange link-layer protocol messages like GOOSE work switch to forward all GOOSE packets to the
between all locations. DANEO and within a few seconds all GOOSE
Magazine | Volume 6 Issue 1 2015
26 Application
« I wish the DANEO was available We also used the new IEDScout 4 to check
if the MMS reports sent by the IEDs match
when we built these substations. the definition in the SCD file. While doing
It would have saved us many hours this, one thing caught our attention:
A certain Data Attribute changed its value
of troubleshooting interoperability in short intervals, flashing yellow in the
and signaling problems.» IEDScout Activity Monitor. It was an at-
tribute for signaling an alarm condition on
Chris Viljoen a Remote Terminal Unit (RTU). We tracked
Senior Engineer: Protection, NamPower it down to a defective fiber optic cable,
which was immediately replaced.
messages present on the network were Going distributed
analyzed by the DANEO. As shown in After some more local measurements with
Figure 1, we found out that one of the one DANEO, we started setting up the dis-
104 GOOSEs on the wire did not match tributed measurement between multiple
the configuration in the SCD file: The substations. For this, static IP addresses
VLAN ID was incorrect. Depending on the were assigned and network switches were
configuration of the network switch, this configured to allow access to the network.
could prevent the subscribing IEDs from Additionally, we placed an OTMC 100p
receiving the messages. We also saw that GPS clock on the roof of the building to
40 GOOSEs that were specified in the SCD obtain Precision Time Synchronization
file, were not present on the network. (PTP) in the sub-microsecond range for our
These were from IEDs simulated during measurement. We also wired an ISIO 200
commissioning, these are not needed to provide a GOOSE signal which could be
anymore during operation. Figure 1: Result of verification against SCD file manipulated remotely for testing purposes
Magazine | Volume 6 Issue 1 2015
Application 27
without interfering with the live substation.
We connected the ISIO 200 to a binary
output of an RTU.
We left the DANEO, ISIO and OTMC there,
running over the night. In the next morning
we drove directly to the second substation, Figure 2: Top to bottom: binary input change and GOOSE at substation 1,
GOOSE and binary output change at substation 2
confident that all our devices will be acces-
sible remotely.
At our new location we set up another
time-synchronized DANEO to measure the
time it takes until a binary signal change at
the ISIO in the first substation is transmit-
ted to our new location at the second sub-
station. Basically we measured how long it Figure 3: Histogram of propagation delay over (longer) redundant path
takes until the same GOOSE packet arrives
at the next substation 20 km away. Figure 2
shows that the propagation delay between
the two substations was only 149 µs for
that particular measurement. we decided to do a propagation delay GOOSEs to travel all the way to Trekkopje
measurement with the DANEOs, where before they reach their destination – a
Measuring the worst case hundreds of samples are collected to round trip of approximately 75 km. Figure 3
This measurement represents only one create a histogram. To get more interest- shows that most of the measurements
sample, but it doesn’t give us any hint on ing results, we dared to unplug one of were around 476 µs, but there was one
how the worst case could look like. So the redundant connections, forcing the outlier observed with a delay of 658 µs.
NamPower
NamPower, Namibia’s national power utility, was born out
of the South West Africa Water and Electricity Corporation
(SWAWEK). In July 1996, SWAWEK became NamPower and
now it is a main driver of Vision 2030, Namibia’s blueprint
for broad-based, sustainable economic growth. NamPower’s
core business is the generation, transmission and energy
trading with almost 4.4 GWh units into system in 2014. The
‘pulse’ of Namibia’s national power utility beats directly from
the National Control Centre, situated in Windhoek. More
than 950 dedicated employees and management are work-
ing together on all aspects of socio-economic development.
Magazine | Volume 6 Issue 1 2015
