Recognizing the evolving grid and the trend towards increased digitalization, ABB continues to drive the digitalization of substations with the release of new functionality for its avant-garde protection relay, REX640. The all-in-one protection relay has been designed to protect any asset in advanced power generation and distribution applications.
Innovative, flexible and easy to use, REX640 is able to cover the full range of utility and industrial applications and to evolve with the grid. Its fully modular design, together with the continuous access to software and hardware developments, allow lifelong readiness to easily adapt when protection requirements change.
Secure and flexible communication in focus
REX640 supports a variety of communication protocols for access to operational information and controls, and now also the remote communication protocol IEC 60870-5-104 for power system automation. IEC 60870-5-104 allows easy and direct connection to an upper-level system such as SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) without a gateway. To further improve cyber security, REX640 introduces secure communication for the IEC 60870-5-104 and DNP3 protocols according to the IEC 62351 standard.
Easily customizable configuration based on standardized models
To facilitate the mapping of the relay’s IEC 61850 data model to that of the customer, REX640 introduces flexible product naming (FPN). When configuring the relay using ABB’s IEC 61850-compliant setting and configuration tool, PCM600, FPN allows easy manual mapping of the data attributes of the different data models via simple drag-and-drop operations. This way, customers can use a standardized data model in their SCADA system, irrespective of the relay vendor and the vendor-specific data model. Once the data mapping has been done, the customer-specific data model will become visible in all IEC 61850 communication.
Easy testing of protection and control schemes with simulated GOOSE messages
With GOOSE (Generic Object Oriented Substation Event) communication being an enabler for digitalized protection and control schemes in substations, REX640 is now able to receive simulated GOOSE messages for easy testing of the schemes. Once an REX640 relay has been set to allow simulated GOOSE messages, it will reject GOOSE messages sent by other relays and accept simulated messages sent by a testing device instead. This conveniently supports periodical testing, where normally one feeder at a time is subject to testing while the other feeders remain in operation.
For more information, please visit the REX640 product page and the product introduction portal or use ABB’s intuitive online Product Selection Tool (PST) to easily configure your unique product – with no risk of configuration errors. PST also allows convenient access to the latest product and price information.
