Overview

IEC 61850 is a communication protocol for data exchange in electrical substations. The TwinCAT product for IEC 61850 offers this type of communication directly from the TwinCAT control system in the form of a PLC programming interface. The entire communication stack is mapped in the PLC. The products can also be used on the protocols based on IEC 61850. This is particularly true in the field of wind turbines for the data models of IEC 61400-25. In addition to the PLC programming interface, there is also a configurator for the data model. It can read and generate the IEC 61850 icd files. It can also automatically generate the necessary PLC code for the mapping of the data model, allowing the user to concentrate on the actual application. In addition to the client/server communication, TwinCAT also supports the GOOSE protocol, which is based directly on the Ethernet layer.