Mission

CoMPAS - (Co)nfiguration (M)odules for (P)ower industry (A)utomation (S)ystems

The mission of the CoMPAS project is to develop open source software components related to IEC 61850 model implementation (profile management) and configuration of a power industry Protection Automation and Control System (PACS).

The project seeks to:

• leverage multi-vendor and multi-end-user development resources and 61850 competences to accelerate the development of common software blocks;
• promote top-down configuration processes and common model implementation choices (thus also accelerate the conformity to IEC 61850 through software implementation);
• deliver and maintain a production grade and reference implementation of the standard.

The project strives not to duplicate works already carried out in standardization groups. When the rules and principles from the standard are not comprehensive enough or subject to interpretation or still work in progress, the project may have to take choices for the implementation. In such case it should strive to a configurable implementation.

Background

Due to the Energy Transition the use of power transmission and distribution grids is changing. The control architecture of power grids needs to be swiftly adapted to take account of infeed at lower grid levels, higher dynamics in flow patterns and more distributed controls (both internal controls and grid flexibility services from third parties).

In this context TSOs and DSOs require a new generation of Digital Substation Automation Systems (DSAS) allowing for more dynamic protection settings and adaptive automation functions. Moreover, data management gets significant, both for administration of deployed automation and protection functions as well as operational grid data.

The design of the new DSAS will have to allow for a drastically higher level of modularity, interoperability and scalability compared to the previous generations. An open source collaboration is essential to meet those requirements in a cost-efficient way by sharing the effort through a leveraged development approach that involves all stakeholders from equipment manufacturers to end-users, fostering vendor-agnostic implementations and convergence of utility practices.