Relay protection, SCADA, Metering, and Cybersecurity for electrical infrastructure.
CIGRE's first dedicated framework for virtualised IEDs will not publish until Q1 2028 — but the vPAC pilots that have to align to it are being commissioned now. Its scope is already public, through the working group's Terms of Reference and a framework article refeatured in ELECTRA 345 (April 2026): what is mandatory, what is deliberately out of scope, and what every 2026 vPAC pilot should already be doing in response.
UK Power Networks' Constellation project replaces bay-level protection relays with virtualized software on substation computers, using IEC 61850 process bus for local protection and R-GOOSE over 5G for wide area coordination. The first site is operating in Maidstone, Kent, with five more planned across South East England.
In March 2025, Salt River Project commissioned the first confirmed production deployment of virtualized line differential protection using Routable Sampled Values over MPLS WAN, with ABB SSC600. The WAN-connected virtualized relay proved both faster and more consistent than a conventional microprocessor relay on direct fiber.
Rosseti, the Russian distribution grid operator, and ABB agreed to cooperate in order to carry out next generation digital grid projects in Russia, including those with advanced digital technologies of grid operating process automation.
The company will supply a $16 million hybrid substation for a wind farm. It will be the first hybrid substation in the country.
Swiss power electronics specialists ABB have launched an innovative new plug-and-play microgrid designed to augment the global embrace of renewable energy technologies.
Future Intelligent Transmission Network SubStation (FITNESS) is the pilot live multi-vendor digital substation demonstration in GB. The project was successfully awarded under RIIO NIC, Ofgem, in late 2015 and detailed design work began in 2016.
Microsoft announced Tuesday it was expanding its strategic partnership with ABB, just as the Swiss engineering firm was rebuffing investor calls to split up its business.
The number of Ethernet switches with integrated IEC 61850-8-1 server increases. Manufacturers do not only implement standard logical node classes according to IEC 61850-7-4 but also those ones introduced by IEC 61850-90-4 technical report. These switches do also support buffered and unbuffered reporting mechanisms. Seems like the closest future is the one where IEC 61850-8-1 (MMS) communications will replace communications over SNMP (being widely used at the moment). This will allow for integration of Ethernet switches in process control systems the same way as it is done with IEC 61850-8-1 pr
Much-talked-of Heartbleed bug of open-source OpenSSL cryptography library has been found in ABB Relion 650 series IEDs. Care about this if your IED firmware revision is 1.3.0. Word has been spread by ICS-CERT (Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team).