Relay protection, SCADA, Metering, and Cybersecurity for electrical infrastructure.
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.
ENTSO-E's 472-page final report on the April 28, 2025 blackout in Spain and Portugal identifies systemic failures in voltage control, protection settings, and distributed generation visibility — not a single technology — as the root causes of the largest European grid incident in over two decades.
The System Operator of the Unified Energy System (SO UES) has published comprehensive data on the operation of relay protection and automation devices (RPA) within the Russian Electric Power System (EPS) for the calendar year 2023. This report aims to provide a detailed analysis of the operational integrity and challenges faced by these critical components in ensuring the stability and reliability of the power grid.
CIGRE Distinguished Member and Chairman of Study Committee B5 - Iony Patriota de Siqueira - informed that Working Group B5.14 has just finished a technical brochure (TB 644) on Wide Area Protection & Control Technologies, which is to be published on www.e-cigre.org, with a summary on the October edition on Electra Magazine.