scope:

The IEC 61968 series, taken as a whole, defines interfaces for the major elements of an interface architecture for Distribution Management Systems (DMS). IEC 61968-1 identifies and establishes requirements for standard interfaces based on an Interface Reference Model (IRM). Parts 3 to 10 of the IEC 61968 series define interfaces relevant to each of the major business functions described by the Interface Reference Model.

As used in the IEC 61968 series, a DMS consists of various distributed application components for the utility to manage electrical distribution networks. These capabilities include monitoring and control of equipment for power delivery, management processes to ensure system reliability, voltage management, demand-side management, outage management, work management, automated mapping and facilities management.

The IEC 61968 series is limited to the definition of interfaces and is implementation independent. It provides for interoperability among different computer systems, platforms, and languages. Methods and technologies used to implement a functionality conforming to these interfaces are considered outside of the scope of the IEC 61968 series; only the interface itself is specified in these standards.

This part specifies the information content of a set of message types that can be used to support many of the business functions related to network operations. Typical uses of the message types defined in this part include data acquisition by external systems, fault isolation, fault restoration, trouble management, maintenance of the plant, and the commissioning of the plant.

An additional part of IEC 61968 will document integration scenarios or use cases, which are informative examples showing typical ways of using the message types defined in this document as well as message types to be defined in other parts of the IEC 61968 series.