Automation systems have become increasingly complex and the efforts for testing communication, interlocking logic, and proper operation of all signals transmitted to SCADA systems have grown dramatically. During the testing procedure, bugs and errors in device parameters but sometimes also in the device’ firmware are detected and fixed. But every update of firmware version and as well as any change of device settings requires at least retesting of the involved function, ideally a retest of the entire system.
This process is not efficient if manual testing is performed, therefore a new approach towards more automated and efficient system testing is heavily needed. Such a solution is available today and based on the SCL concept which is part of the IEC 61850 standard.