The protection relay supports a range of communication protocols including IEC 61850, IEC 61850-9-2 LE, IEC 60870-5-103, Modbus® and DNP3. Profibus DPV1 communication protocol is supported by using the protocol converter SPA-ZC 302. Operational information and controls are available through these protocols. However, some communication functionality, for example, horizontal communication between the protection relays, is only enabled by the IEC 61850 communication protocol.
The IEC 61850 communication implementation supports all monitoring and control functions. Additionally, parameter settings, disturbance recordings and fault records can be accessed using the IEC 61850 protocol. Disturbance recordings are available to any Ethernet-based application in the IEC 60255-24 standard COMTRADE file format. The protection relay can send and receive binary signals from other devices (so-called horizontal communication) using the IEC 61850-8-1 GOOSE profile, where the highest performance class with a total transmission time of 3 ms is supported. Furthermore, the protection relay supports sending and receiving of analog values using GOOSE messaging. The protection relay meets the GOOSE performance requirements for tripping applications in distribution substations, as defined by the IEC 61850 standard.
The protection relay can support five simultaneous clients. If PCM600 reserves one client connection, only four client connections are left, for example, for IEC 61850 and Modbus.
All communication connectors, except for the front port connector, are placed on integrated optional communication modules. The protection relay can be connected to Ethernet-based communication systems via the RJ-45 connector (100Base-TX) or the fiber-optic LC connector (100Base-FX).