Digital Substation is an engineering publication focused on IEC 61850 automation, protection systems, and digital grid intelligence.
In March 2025, Salt River Project commissioned the first confirmed production deployment of virtualized line differential protection using Routable Sampled Values over MPLS WAN, with ABB SSC600. The WAN-connected virtualized relay proved both faster and more consistent than a conventional microprocessor relay on direct fiber.
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.
This paper summarizes the experience gained during a series of practical cybersecurity assessments of various components of Europe’s smart electrical grids.
Much-talked-of Heartbleed bug of open-source OpenSSL cryptography library has been found in ABB Relion 650 series IEDs. Care about this if your IED firmware revision is 1.3.0. Word has been spread by ICS-CERT (Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team).