The electric grid of China’s Henan province was showing its age, and there was a need to secure and enhance the communication systems. Kyland completed a modernization project at the Qixian Digital Substation —the backbone of Henan's power system —in December 2010.

Today, the communication between all the utility intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) is full IEC 61850 Compliant and delivers IEEE 1588 v2 precision clock synchronization protocol supporting the ultra-fast GOOSE messaging, Network Measurement and Control Systems with zero packet loss, and a seamless connection timing system that is accurate within the nanosecond range.

Mission-critical substation automation networks rely on accurate time synchronization in order to coordinate activities across various subsystems and devices that enable precise event analysis. For substation communications, every nanosecond counts — but most legacy technologies are simply inadequate and costly to deliver that level of performance. A substation auto mation network needs nanosecond-level accuracy in order to support mission-critical applications such as fault recording, remote monitoring, and remote control. NTP and SNTP are no longer adequate for today’s most demanding substation applications
Although IEEE 1588 v2 PTP is designed specifically to improve timing accuracy, there is certain limitation in time distri bution.