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Siemens Smart Infrastructure has unveiled SIPROTEC V — a virtualized version of SIPROTEC 5: up to 60 virtual IEDs on a single substation-grade server, Linux with a real-time kernel, the familiar DIGSI 5 and IEC 61850 System Configurator. Functions are organised by bays, with GOOSE, MMS, Sampled Values, PTP, PRP/HSR and NERC CIP / BDEW cybersecurity. The architectural signal: protection is going software-defined.
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.
Siemens announced SIPROTEC V at DISTRIBUTECH 2026 — a software-defined protection and control system consolidating up to 60 hardware IEDs on a single server. We look at what changes for substation engineers, and what Siemens has not yet disclosed.
Top-down IEC 61850 engineering — formalized in TR IEC 61850-90-30:2025 and TR IEC 61850-7-6 (Ed. 2) — moves specification errors from commissioning to the design phase, before a single IED is selected or procured. This article explains the mechanics of the five-step process: what each step produces, what files are exchanged, and why the sequence achieves outcomes the conventional bottom-up approach cannot.
In 2023, fourteen European TSOs signed a common statement on IEC 61850 engineering and demonstrated a working proof of concept. Their five-step top-down process — backed by two new IEC technical reports — changes how utilities, IED suppliers, and tool vendors interact. Here is what they built and why it matters.
The EN100 Ethernet communication module and SIPROTEC 5 relays are affected by security vulnerabilities which could allow an attacker to conduct a Denial‑of‑Service attack over the network.
National Grid, one of the world’s largest energy companies, has selected Siemens to provide technology to help deploy the IEC 61850 digital design standards for its bulk transmission substations.
The IEC 62443 standard is the first that provides a basis for IT security certification for industrial automation and control systems.
SIPROTEC 4 and SIPROTEC Compact users are recommended to check EN100 module firmware.
Siemens presented the new series of arc-fault protection devices 7XG31. The new series includes 7XG3124 RA24 device which is capable of transmitting GOOSE messages on detection of arc-faults in different compartments of enclosed switchgear. It is possible to...
Recently we have received binary signals input/output module by Siemens - SICAM IO UNIT 7XV5673. This device is absolutely new: as binary inputs/outputs expansion module it was presented last fall and, regarding to Siemens office, we were one of the first to try it out.