The XXI Century Communications, Control and Protection Architecture Seminar was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

CIGRE and IEC Argentina have jointly organized for the first time in this country an International Seminar, with experts of recognized international status of the two organizations lecturing on the Standard IEC 61850, describing implementation experiences in substations and power plants, the state-of-the-art, on-going works and trends on technology of protection, automation and communications, as well as on challenges and solutions forecasted for the 21st century, both in the engineering of substations and in the different levels of SCADA systems, especially in Control Centers.

The speakers were chairmen and experts from working groups of both CIGRE and IEC. During the first day, the ongoing work in selected working groups was presented. Carlos Samitier from Spain reported as convenor about the work done in CIGRE WG D2.23 - “The use of Ethernet technology in the Power Utility environment”. That working group is addressing different aspects of Ethernet networks including new trends in the implementation of Ethernet networks and the use of Ethernet IP networks for Wide Area Networks. The CIGRE WG D2.24 - “EMS Architectures for the 21st Century” has been created in cooperation with an International Group of Very Large Power Grid Operators (VLPGO). The convenor of that group, Alain Steven from the U.S. reported about the status.

With regard to the activities related to IEC 61850, Christoph Brunner, Switzerland, convenor of IEC WG10 and Claes Malcolm, Sweden, convenor of IEC WG18 reported on the status of IEC 61850 activities. John Newbury, U.K., convenor of WG20, reported on on-going works on the Standard IEC 62488 Ed. 1.0 that will replace Standards IEC 60495 -Single sideband power-line carrier terminals- and IEC 60663.

The speakers reported about topics associated with the different working groups. With regard to IEC 61850, the status of IEC 61850 as process bus, the use of IEC 61850 for communication between substations and from substation to control centers was discussed. Experience from users implementing IEC 61850 was shared. Clemens Hoga from Germany, member of WG10, reported on IEC 61850 and industrial Ethernet. Finally Ludovic Piètre-Cambacédès of France, reported on cyber security for electric power utilities and related standards.

The active participation in the open discussion session, clearly showed the interest in the topics that had been presented.