Energy & Utilities

In a digital substation, time is not a comfort but a protection requirement. Differential protection, synchrophasors (PMUs) and sampled values (IEC 61850-9-2) all need a common time at the microsecond level, otherwise the measurements at both ends of a line do not agree.

What we typically roll out in energy and utilities:

• GMR6000 as a PTP IEEE 1588-2019 grandmaster with IEC 61850-9-3 Power Profile and IEEE C37.238 conformity — the appropriate source for digital substations
• Multi-GNSS with OCXO or Rubidium holdover for multi-day bridging where antenna sight is not guaranteed
• Redundant power (dual AC or DC) because power loss in critical infrastructure is not an option
• NTP100-GNSS for the IT and SCADA layer; DA12 to distribute reference signals

Points to note for substations:

• Power Profile is not optional in an IEC 61850 environment: a generic 1588 grandmaster is not accepted by the relays
• Network budget of about 1 microsecond across the whole substation requires boundary or transparent clocks in every switch
• Redundancy via HSR or PRP so a single link or switch fault does not interrupt the time
• Traceability to UTC for audit and regulation

We do not supply relays, RTUs or SCADA integration — that is the domain of your grid-automation vendor. The Power Profile time source beneath it is our expertise.