IEC 61850 compliant extendable modular remote input output (RIO) units

Most of the substation and distribution automation products have fixed number of binary input/outputs (IO). Situation arises where additional binary IOs are needed to provide various control and status information to the product. This paper describes an IEC 61850 compliant Remote Input Output (RIO) unit, which works as an IO extension. ‘Ethernet Based IEC 61850 GOOSE’ (horizontal communication) available in RIO makes engineering simpler, faster and decreases the hardwiring inside substation. Further due to modular approach different IO modules can be combined so as to achieve required IOs. Depending upon application need in future, the modules can be scaled down or scaled up as well.