ABB REX640 protection relay

The ABB REX640 protection relay provides secure and flexible standardised communication, both within the substation and remote monitoring system.

The all-in-one protection relay has been designed to protect any asset in advanced power generation and distribution applications. It 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, allows lifelong readiness to easily adapt when protection requirements change.

The relay 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 cybersecurity, REX640 introduces secure communication for the IEC 60870-5-104 and DNP3 protocols according to the IEC 62351 standard.

With GOOSE (generic object oriented substation event) communication being an enabler for digitalised protection and control schemes in substations, REX640 is now able to receive simulated GOOSE messages for easy testing of the schemes. Once a 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.