IEC 61850 on 5G Communication Infrastructure: Feasibility Analysis and Practical Considerations

In recent years, electrical substations have been rapidly moving towards a fully digital paradigm. In this context, the IEC 61850 series of standards defines the communication infrastructure that allows full interoperability between different instruments and control actions, and in this paper we specifically consider the case of Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs). Unfortunately, distances between substations are a limiting factor for the adoption of high performance wired communication standards (i.e. Ethernet, TSN, etc.) due to the significant wiring costs. Therefore, we investigate here the possibility of transmitting their measurements using a 5G communication infrastructure. For this analysis, we reproduce a real distribution network and simulate plausible transmissions between several PMUs and a Phasor Data Concentrator (PDC). An average communication delay of 10 ms was observed. Based on the results obtained, it is reasonable to say that the 5G communication infrastructure may represent a valuable solution, especially in distribution networks where line lengths are reduced.