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A contractor hands over an SCD file claiming it matches the actual device configuration. But how do you verify that quickly and provably when there are 76 IEDs on site and no permanent monitoring system? A field case from Tekvel: the verification module in the Tekvel Magic software automatically compared the device configurations against the SCD and produced an engineering deviation report covering DataSets, GOOSE, Sampled Values and MMS reports in 15 minutes.
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.
On 24 September 2025, NamPower commissioned Sekelduin — a 132/66/33 kV indoor switching station near Swakopmund, Namibia, built by ACTOM as Africa's first fully digital substation with IEC 61850 process bus end-to-end.
IEC TC 57 has approved the New Work Item Proposal for IEC 61850-8-3 with ~95% of national committees voting in favour. The new standard will define a direct mapping of ACSI services onto WebSocket and JSON — a third SCSM alongside MMS and XMPP, designed to extend IEC 61850 beyond the substation.
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