Files used by IEC 61850 driver.

Question:

What are IEC61850 driver’s ICD, SCD, LD, RPT, and CDS files, and what are they for?

Solution:

IED Capability Description (ICD) file: Contains the IED’s settings, with the definitions of Logical Devices, Logical Nodes, reports, datasets, etc. The ICD file is generated by the IED’s configuration tool, supplied by the vendor.

Substation Configuration Description (SCD) file: Describe the complete substation project, containing one or more IEDs. In practice, it represents the sum of several ICD files.

Declaring relays in Elipse’s IEC61850 driver: There are two possible ways to declare relays: by inserting them manually (on IEC61850 DeviceConfig tab, at Add, Update or Delete options), or by importing them from ICD or SCD files (on IEC61850 DeviceConfig tab, at Browse SCL Files option).

At IEC61850 driver, both files (SCD and ICD) are used to describe the relays offline. After file selection, an ID is created on the IEC 61850 servers list for each relay description found; a file with LD extension representing each IED’s Logical Device is also created, including the Logical Nodes database in each one.  This LD file is used to populate the tags database, which can be imported to the application via Tag Browsing window in Offline folder.

Logical Device (LD) file: These are proprietary cache files which describe each Logical Device set up in the IED. When running the driver or importing the ICD/SCD file (offline), an LD file is generated for each Logical Device. Whenever the driver is executed, or online import happens, this file’s existence is checked out, thus accelerating the startup process.

If you’re not sure on the relay’s contents, on the tag’s declaration, or on any changes in the IED’s settings, you should update the LD files. In this case, there are three options:

1. Browse online, searching for the database again, and then browsing one more time and confirming it to delete it.
2. Delete all LD files manually and restart the driver; thus, all files will be generated again.
3. Enable Check Nameplate Mismatch and Check Report Revision Mismatch options, which will rebuild the LD files automatically whenever any changes in the IED’s nameplate (representing IED switchover) or any changes in the reports and datasets is found.

You can set up the directory where all LD files will be stored at LD File Path field on IEC61850 General tab of the driver settings.

LD File Path: Default directory where the driver stores all descriptor files of each Logical Device found, in order to accelerate the driver startup process. In the next startup, if a file is found in the specified directory, and whose name is given by the format SERVER_LDNAME.LD (where SERVER is the device’s name, and LDNAME is the Logical Device’s name), then this Logical Device will be describe from the LD file.

RW Report List (RPT) file: If you don’t want the driver to search automatically for reports, you can set a list of reports which must be enabled. The RPT file is used to define which reports must be searched by the driver. This file should be in the cache files default directory (LD), and it’s called IEDName.RPT (one file per IED). The file structure is the following:

RW DataSet List (CDS) file: When using a pre-set reports list, you are able to inform whether the datasets will be declared dynamically by IEC 61850 driver (client). The CDS file is used for defining which datasets must be searched by the driver. This file should be in the cache files default directory (LD), and it’s called IEDName.CDS (one file per IED). Currently, only Siemens IEDs support this functionality. The file is structure is the following:

For information on RPT and CDS files’ parameters, please refer to IEC61850 Driver’s manual.

NOTE: Attached to this file are examples of the five files described here (ICD, SCD, LD, RPT, and CDS).

Frequently Asked Questions

What are CID files? Can they be used in IEC61850 driver?

Configured IED Description (CID) file: CIDs are template files, and they are NOT supported by Elipse’s IEC61850 driver. To import a CID file, you must instance it at the IED’s programming tool and save it as an ICD. However, in some cases you can only change the CID extension to an ICD one, and it will be enough to import it successfully.

I can’t import my ICD/SCD files. What could be the problem here?

• Check if the ICD file is not actually a renamed CID file.
• Check at E3 log whether there are any error messages after import.

When must I use CDS files?

• When you want IEC61850 driver to create datasets dynamically.
• Up until this document’s latest review (Dec/2013), only Siemens IEDs supported this functionality.

Attachments:

KB5200.zip