IEC 61850 vs IEC 60870-5: Which and Where
IEC 61850 and IEC 60870-5 are both IEC utility standards, and newcomers often think they compete when they usually cooperate. This page compares their scope and role - substation automation versus telecontrol to the control center - and shows how a single utility uses both, so you place each correctly rather than choosing one over the other.
IEC 61850 vs IEC 60870-5 in one line: IEC 61850 is a substation-automation framework: a full object model plus MMS, GOOSE, and Sampled Values for communication inside and between stations. IEC 60870-5 is a telecontrol protocol family (101 serial, 104 networked) for moving data between stations and control centers. They usually coexist - 61850 inside the substation, 60870-5 to the SCADA master - rather than competing.
Different Jobs, Not the Same Job
The two standards operate at different layers of a utility system, which is why comparing them as rivals misleads people. IEC 61850 is a comprehensive framework for substation automation: it defines a standardized data model (logical nodes, logical devices, datasets) and three communication services for the fast, rich, device-to-device traffic inside a station - protection signaling over GOOSE, digitized measurements over Sampled Values, and client-server data over MMS. Its ambition is interoperability among the IEDs that run the substation.
IEC 60870-5 is narrower and older in concept: a telecontrol protocol family whose job is to carry status, measurements, and commands between a station and a control center over serial (101) or IP (104) links. It has an efficient, compact application layer built around ASDUs and the cause of transmission, tuned for the point-to-point or polled links that connect remote sites to a master. It is about telemetry over a distance, not modeling a substation's internals.
How They Coexist and When to Choose
| Aspect | IEC 61850 | IEC 60870-5 |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Substation automation framework | Telecontrol protocol family |
| Where | Inside and between stations | Station to control center |
| Data model | Rich object model (LN, LD) | Compact ASDU points |
| Speed tier | GOOSE and SV for protection | Telemetry-grade |
| Transport | Ethernet (MMS, GOOSE, SV) | Serial (101) or TCP (104) |
In a real utility the two live together: IEC 61850 runs the automation inside the substation, and a station gateway maps a subset of that data up to the control center over IEC 60870-5-104. So the decision is rarely 61850 or 60870-5; it is which layer you are working on. If your real fork is between the two telecontrol families, that is the DNP3 vs IEC 60870-5 comparison, and if it is serial versus network within 60870-5, see 101 vs 104.
A Worked Gateway Mapping Example
Concrete mapping makes the layered picture click. Suppose a substation IED reports a circuit breaker's position as a double-point status inside its 61850 model - the breaker logical node carries a position attribute whose four states distinguish open, closed, and the two invalid in-between conditions. The control center, speaking 60870-5-104, expects that same breaker as a double-point information object at whatever information object address the utility's signal list assigns - call it address N in the station's addressing plan. The gateway's engineering job is to bind the two: subscribe to the 61850 report, translate the state along with its quality and timestamp, and emit the 104 object with the right cause of transmission when it changes.
The mapping exercise, repeated for every point, follows a stable sequence:
- Extract the candidate signals from the station's 61850 configuration.
- Decide which subset the control center actually needs - stations typically model far more than dispatch wants to see.
- Assign each chosen signal an information object address and ASDU type in the 104 signal list.
- Define the reverse path for commands, mapping select-and-operate from the control center onto the IED's 61850 control model.
- Test both directions point by point during commissioning, including quality and timestamp behavior, not just values.
Different Engineering Artifacts, Different Skills
The two standards also feel different to work on. The 61850 side is configured through SCL files - the ICD, SCD, and related XML documents that describe devices and the station - using system configuration tools, and its networking questions are Ethernet questions: VLANs, multicast handling, and network redundancy for protection-grade traffic. The 60870-5 side is configured through point tables and addressing plans, and its questions are telecontrol questions: which ASDU types, which causes of transmission, and how the link behaves over an imperfect wide-area network.
Teams reflect that split: substation automation engineers live in SCL and IED tools, while SCADA and telecontrol engineers own the signal list and the master configuration. On projects that touch both layers, the gateway signal list is the contract between the two groups, and the commonest integration failures are simply the two sides holding different versions of that list. Version-controlling the signal list, and reviewing every change to it with both teams present, is cheap insurance against a commissioning week spent chasing points that were renumbered on one side only.
When One of the Two Is Enough
Not every job needs both standards. A small remote site with an RTU and no IED-to-IED automation has no use for 61850's machinery; a telecontrol link alone - 104, or its serial sibling - carries the telemetry fine. Conversely, a facility whose data terminates in a local system and never travels to a remote master may run 61850 internally and nothing else. The pairing appears when a modern station must also report upward, which is the normal case for utilities.
Outside the classic utility control center, the upward link increasingly lands in cloud platforms, and the pattern holds: the station gateway still speaks a telecontrol protocol northbound, and the receiving platform consumes it - the mechanics are the same as connecting IEC 60870 to a cloud SCADA. The substation's internal 61850 traffic stays where it is; GOOSE and Sampled Values are engineered for the station LAN, not for a WAN hop.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do IEC 61850 and IEC 60870-5 compete?
Usually not. IEC 61850 handles substation automation inside and between stations, while IEC 60870-5 carries telecontrol data from the station to the control center. A single utility typically runs 61850 in the substation and 60870-5 to the SCADA master.
Which is better for a new substation?
For automation inside the station, IEC 61850 is the modern framework with its rich data model and protection-grade services. For the link up to the control center, IEC 60870-5-104 or DNP3 is still common. They serve different layers, so a new substation often uses both.
How do 61850 and 60870-5 connect to each other?
Through a station gateway that terminates the IEC 61850 network and maps a chosen subset of its data to the control center over IEC 60870-5-104 (or another telecontrol protocol). The gateway is the bridge between the two layers.
Can GOOSE messages be sent to a control center?
Not in the normal design. GOOSE is a layer-2 multicast service engineered for fast peer-to-peer signaling on the station network, and it is not routed across a WAN in conventional architectures. Data leaving the station goes through a gateway as telecontrol traffic. A routable profile (R-GOOSE) exists for specialized wide-area applications, but station-to-control-center telemetry is not what it is for.
Do I need IEC 61850 to modernize an aging substation RTU?
Only if you are modernizing the automation layer. If the goal is a better link to the control center, replacing or re-fronting the RTU with a 104-capable device achieves it without touching protection. 61850 earns its complexity when the IEDs themselves are being replaced and you want standardized device-to-device automation.
Sources and verification
This page references the protocol specifications published by the organizations below. Editions, product capabilities, and documentation change over time - confirm current requirements and specifications directly with the source.
- Overview of DNP3 (IEEE Std 1815) - DNP Users Group
Merobix is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by these organizations; their names are used only to identify the standards and products discussed.
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