Engineering the Future: Alliander’s Journey Toward Software-Defined Substations
Engineering the Future: Alliander’s Journey Toward Software-Defined Substations
Event Recap: LF Energy Summit Europe 2025
TL;DR At LF Energy Summit Europe 2025, Sander Jansen (Product Owner, Alliander N.V.) detailed the Dutch DSO’s transition toward software defined substations. The initiative focuses on decoupling hardware from software and introducing process bus (IEC 61850) to manage grid congestion. By contributing to LF Energy CoMPAS and evaluating projects like SEAPATH and CoS, Alliander is moving toward a standardized, interoperable architecture for substation automation.
Presentation Overview
Jansen introduced Alliander as a Dutch Distribution System Operator (DSO) managing electricity and gas distribution. The Netherlands currently faces severe grid congestion, resulting in multi-year wait times for new connections or upgrades. Alliander’s strategy involves maximizing the utilization of existing assets and expanding the grid rapidly to support the energy transition.
Alliander’s current substation automation uses a first generation of centralized, virtualized protection. While functional, these systems are proprietary and lack open standards. Operations currently rely on multi-year contracts with single vendors using standardized building blocks, with engineering primarily performed in-house by subsidiary Qirion.
Software Defined Substation Drivers and Architecture
Alliander defines a software defined substation as the decoupling of sensors and analog-to-digital converters from protection, automation, and control (PAC) functions. This approach emphasizes the introduction of process bus and the separation of hardware and software, with functions running on centralized substation computers.
Increased demand for automation drives the need for this flexibility. Jansen noted recent additions such as compound-based control for transformers and frequency protection, with future needs potentially including traveling wave algorithms and thermal behavior monitoring of cables to identify additional capacity.
To build this infrastructure, Alliander leverages several LF Energy projects:
- LF Energy CoMPAS: Alliander is a highly active contributor. Jansen stated that configuration is the foundation of digitized substations, allowing engineers to manage how information is shared among components and where functions are running.
- LF Energy SEAPATH: Investigated as a potential platform for centralized control and protection.
- LF Energy CoS: Used in a previous pilot for centralized protection and control.
- LF Energy CoP: Following steering committee activities for gateway functions.
Testing and Operational Validation
Alliander utilizes a hardware first testing approach, where functions are validated on dedicated devices before moving to virtualized environments. This allows the team to compare performance and ensure tuning is accurate.
Testing priorities include:
- Functional and protection testing.
- Network management of the process bus, including HSR and PRP.
- Time source stability and resilience against time jumps.
- Evaluation of SCL (Substation Configuration Language) imports into IEDs.
- Operational test cases, such as hardware replacement in the field and software update processes for operating systems and virtualized IEDs.
In one test, Alliander utilized an Omicron device to send sampled values to a machine that replicated the streams to an ABB IED to measure trip times. This methodology was used to validate the performance of sampled value processing in a virtualized context.
Market Challenges and Outlook
Jansen identified several challenges regarding the maturity of the centralized protection and control (CPC) market, noting that current solutions are not yet ready for large-scale rollout. Specific hurdles include:
- Limited vendor support for full SCL imports.
- Non-scalable configuration processes, such as requiring manual IP address changes via a user interface after installation.
- Requirements for out-of-band management for substation computers to monitor hardware health.
- Discrepancies between hardware support lifecycles (5 years) and utility operational requirements (10 years or more).
Alliander intends to develop formal specifications and blueprints for future tenders. This work will include investigating user rights, monitoring functions, and risk and security assessments. Jansen concluded that while the market is in its early stages, open source collaboration is providing a promising path forward for utility-grade infrastructure.
FAQ
What is Alliander’s primary goal for software defined substations?
The goal is to increase flexibility and scalability while allowing the utility to perform more engineering work with the same number of technically skilled people.
Why is LF Energy CoMPAS central to this work?
Jansen noted that CoMPAS is essential for configuration management, which is the starting point for understanding how digitized components are configured, spotting errors, and tracking shared information.
What technical standards are mentioned in the transition?
The transition relies heavily on IEC 61850, specifically the implementation of process bus and the use of SCL for engineering and configuration.
About CoMPAS
Configuration Modules for Power automation Systems (CoMPAS) is an LF Energy project providing open source software components for the design and configuration of power automation systems. It implements the IEC 61850-6 standard to ensure multi-vendor interoperability throughout the engineering process. Learn more about CoMPAS: lfenergy.org/projects/compas/
About LF Energy
LF Energy is the community for technologists to co-develop open, industrial-grade technology, standards, and data to deliver affordable, reliable, safe and clean energy. Strategic Members include Alliander, Google, Hydro-Québec, Microsoft, RTE and Shell, in addition to over 60 General and Associate Members from across the energy industry, technology, academia, and government. Find further information here: https://www.lfenergy.org.
