Pitfalls of implementing multi-vendor IEC 61850 Substation Automation Systems

The implementation of the substation automation system of the 69 kV S/S Azogues 2 was conceived as a multi-vendor IEC 61850 solution using equipment from different manufacturers. Unexpectedly, the integration that should have been relatively easy became a complicated task and it was shown during the execution of the project that the IEC 61850 standard is not applied equally by all the vendors causing several pitfalls that needed expertise and many hours of hard work with the support of specialists from the equipment providers to be satisfactory solved. The conclusions of the project implementation are presented in this article as well as some of the main troubles and solutions found during the development and current operation of the system.