Services section

Owned by Jakob Vogelsang
Last updated: Apr 06, 2023
3 min read

The Services element within the SCL allows defining the capabilities of an IED. It does it so through several child elements and grandchild elements. With the new upcoming concept of a virtual IED, the Services can also be used to define wishes regarding the capabilities of an IED. The element Services can be allocated to an IED or to one or more access point of the IED at the same time. This allows to define the global IED capabilities and capabilities per access point. Let's assume we are talking about an IED that has two ports. One is designed to be connected to the process bus and the other one to be connected to the station bus. In such an IED, you might find three Services elements. The first one is a child of the IED and defines the GOOSE capabilities, as this service is required on both the ports. The second one to define the capabilities of the process bus port, containing sampled values capabilities. The third on defining Report capabilities or other client server type services.


DataSets

There are three settings regarding DataSet capabilities within the IED and they are all attributes of the element ConfDataSet.

  • maxAttributes: is an integer that tells how many attributes (FCDA elements) a DataSet element can have at max.
  • max: shows how many DataSet element can be defined for the IED or the access point.
  • modify: indicates whether DataSet element can be modified with an SCL editor.


The default values in case ConfDataSet is not present are

  • maxAttributes: not restricted by definition, only by the size of the Ethernet packet with GOOSE and sampled values
  • max: the amount of DataSets already defined in the IED or access point, respectively. This basically means you cannot add new DataSets with the SCL editor
  • modify: true. Existing DataSets can be changed.



Report control block configuration

There are multiple settings regarding report control block configuration capabilities within the IED. Some can be found in the ConfReportControl element

  • max: shows how many instantiated report control blocks can be defined for the IED or the access point. New report control blocks or new instances of an existing report control block can only be added, if the number is smaller than already defined instances of report control blocks
  • bufMode: what type of report control block can be created/deleted with SCL editor. Type can be buffered, unbuffered or both.
  • bufConf: Whether the buffered attribute of a ReportControl element can be changed by the SCL editor
  • maxBuf: The maximum number of instantiated* report control blocks with the attribute buffered="true" can be defined in the IED.


The default values in case ConfReportControl is not present are

  • max: the number of instantiated report control blocks
  • bufMode: both
  • bufConf: false. SCL editors cannot change the report control blocks buffered/unbuffered type
  • maxBuf: the number of instantiated report control blocks


Others are defined in the element ReportSettings (tbd)

  • cbName:
  • datSet:
  • rptID:
  • optFields:
  • bufTime:
  • trgOps:
  • intgPd:
  • resvTms:
  • owner:

*instances of reports: The SCL allows making a distinction of report control blocks and its instances. Say you have four clients that need a specific report, you must not define four individual report control blocks but can define one and say how many instances of this report control block you need in the IED. This is done using the RptEnabled element like so: <RptEnabled max="4" >...</RptEnabled>. Such a report control block is called an indexed report control block. You can see an instance of a report control block only in the online IED.