“To implement the European smart grid concepts, the European electricity market, and the European Network Codes as well as to ensure interoperability, European standards are of utmost importance.”, states Maurizio Monti, Chairman of CENELEC Technical Committee 57 (CLC/TC 57) on ‘Power systems management and associated information exchange’, in the frame of the EU Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW).

CLC/TC 57 deals with Standards related to power systems control equipment and systems including Energy Management Systems (EMS), Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), distribution automation, teleprotection, and associated information exchange for real-time and non-real-time information, used in the planning, operation, and maintenance of power systems.

Maurizio Monti brings us through the journey of CLC/TC 57 of the last 40 years, explaining us how its work contributed to the EU Single Market, and what the next challenges in its current standardization activities are.

Standardization in support to the European Single Market for energy

Within the European Union, a target has been defined for the implementation of the Energy Internal European Market (EIEM) and in particular the electricity market. The harmonization of business processes is been carried out in particular for the data interchange between market participants such as Transmission System Operators (TSOs), Distribution System Operators (DSOs), balance responsible parties, customers, traders, etc. These business processes address a number of energy market activities such as congestion management, scheduling, reserve resource management, explicit auction for transmission capacity, settlement, reconciliation, etc. To achieve the established EIEM targets, CLC/TC 57 contribution is of major relevance.

The main achievements from the 80’s to today are:

In the 80’s and 90’s
The main goal of standardization activities was to enable utilities to have interoperable equipment from manufacturers and “ever green” IT systems, meaning that it was possible to buy applications from different manufacturers without having to completely replace the control centre. The main standardization activities were the:

• Seamless data exchange from remote terminal unit (RTU) to control centre, EN IEC 60870-5 series;
• Between control centres EN IEC 60870-6 series;
• Development of the Common Information Model (CIM), EN IEC 61968 series;
• And EN IEC 61970 series for distribution and energy management system.

In the mid 90’s
Standardization focused on substation automation and information exchanges between Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs), and the EN IEC 61850 series for Power Utility Automation. The main purpose was to develop a Unified Modelling Language (UML) to describe all the components within a substation as well as the information and controls available.

Since 2000
The implementation of European Regulations for the electricity market has led to the development of the EN IEC 62325-451 series on the electricity market in compliance with the Capacity Allocation and Congestion Management (CACM) Network Code as well as the European Commission Regulation (EU) 543/2013 (Transparency), the EC Regulation (EU) 1227/2011 (Wholesale Energy Market Integrity and Transparency) and harmonised business processes for the wholesale electricity market.

CLC/TC 57 main deliverables

For a better understanding of CLC TC 57’s achievements within the European style market, the following processes have been harmonized and standards developed accordingly based on the Common Information Model (EN IEC 61968, EN IEC 61970 and EN IEC 62325):

• The acknowledgement process - EN IEC 62325-451-1
  This process deals with the technical and functional acknowledgment of electronic documents carried out within any European style market process.
• The scheduling system process (ESS) - EN IEC 62325-451-2
  This process deals mainly with the validation of the bilateral trades between market participants and the assessment of the balance of each market participant (how much energy its resources will generate, how much energy its clients will consume, as well as the import and export of energy).
• The transmission capacity allocation and nomination process (ECAN) - EN IEC 62325-451-3
  This process describes the explicit and implicit auctions of capacity for cross border trades. The secondary market of capacity rights is also described, i.e. once a capacity trader has acquired capacity in an auction, it could be resold in a bilateral transaction or in another auction.
• The settlement and reconciliation process (ESP) - EN IEC 62325-451-4
  This process describes how to exchange the information necessary to settle the electricity market, i.e. the comparison of the scheduled energy and the actual meters.
• The status and problem statement processes - EN IEC 62325-451-5
  The status process enables to request information from another party; the problem statement process enables to inform a counter part that the process is not properly working and the consequences (delay, escalation process, etc.).
• The transparency process, EN IEC 62325-451-6
  This process enables market participants to provide/receive the information as per Commission Regulation (EU) 543/2013 and Commission Regulation (EU) 1227/2011.
• The market data exchange process, EN IEC 62325-503
  This standard provides the implementation requirements in order to exchange in a secure way (encryption, authentication, etc.) information between market participants.
• The balancing process
  This describes how the resources are scheduled and especially how the system operator can activate the different reserves for balancing purpose. Currently, for the “balancing process” standardization work is under way, as the Network Code on “Balancing” has been issued.
• The Common Grid Model process
  This process enables merging each TSO grid model into a European grid model in order to carry out network studies for security and congestion assessment. Currently a first IEC Technical Specification (IEC TS 61970-600-1 and 61970-600-2) has been drafted to comply with the Network Codes (“Capacity Allocation and Congestion Management” and “System Operation”).

Looking to the future

The implementation of the Single Market for electricity is an ongoing process. There are a number of EU Regulations and Network Codes defining “harmonized” business processes, but there remains many business processes needing to be defined and harmonized, such as exchanges of information between TSOs and DSOs for market flexibility, between suppliers and customers, between aggregators and customers, or the integration of Renewable Energy Sources (RES). Worth to mention are the following examples: the IEC-TS-61970-600 series complying with the System Operation Guideline (SOGL Network Code), and EN IEC 62325-451-7 (NP) for the Network Code on Electricity Balancing.

Finally, the prospective challenges include the following:

• Developing within the CIM (EN IEC 61968, 61970 and 62325) and EN IEC 61850 the necessary extensions to cope with the European Regulations requirements, and avoid developing new information exchanges from scratch;
• Taking into account the cyber security requirements as well as the confidentiality requirements on personal information as per European Regulation;
• Being the entry point for all stakeholders on the electricity single market as well as smart grid requirements.

The EIEM, which has been progressively implemented since 1999, aims to deliver a real choice to all consumers in order to achieve efficiency gains, competitive prices and higher standards of service, and to contribute to security of supply and sustainability. CLC/TC 57 continuously identifies gaps in order to update existing Standards and develop new ones, which is of utmost importance for the establishment of a single electricity market.

More information on energy related standardization work can be found on the:

• CEN-CENELEC website
• CENELEC website