1588 Power Profile Test Plan

Published

July 7, 2014

Author(s)

Carol Perkins, Jeff Laird, Ryan McEachern, Bob Noseworthy, Julien M. Amelot, Ya-Shian Li-Baboud, Kevin G. Brady

Abstract

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, facilitating the industry adoption of IEEE Standard C37.238 for the use of IEEE 1588 in Power Systems Applications in support of the Smart Grid. The University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) is a non-profit institution designed to promote the industry adoption of standards through conformance and interoperability testing. This particular test plan has been developed to help implementers evaluate the 1588 Power Profile functionality of their products. This test plan is aimed at validating conformance of IEEE 1588 products. The conformance tests have been identified and supported by NIST and developed at the UNH-IOL. These tests are designed to determine if a product conforms to specifications defined in IEEE C37.238 IEEE Standard Profile for Use of IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol in Power System Applications (hereafter referred to as the "1588 Power Profile") standard from the IEEE Power & Energy Society's Power System Relaying Committee and Substations Committee (PSRC). Passing all tests contained in this suite does not guarantee that the tested device will successfully operate with other 1588 Power Profile products. However, when combined with a satisfactory level of interoperability testing, these tests provide a reasonable level of confidence that the 1588 capabilities of the Device Under Test (DUT) will function properly in many power application environments. The tests contained in this document are organized in order to simplify the identification of information related to a test, and to facilitate the actual testing process. Tests are separated into groups, primarily in order to reduce setup time in the lab environment, however the different groups typically also tend to focus on specific aspects of device functionality.

Citation

NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR) - 8002

Report Number

8002

NIST Pub Series

NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR)

Pub Type

NIST Pubs

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DOI Link

Keywords

Test Plan, Conformance, Power Profile, Time Synchronization, IEEE 1588, C37.238

Citation

Perkins, C. , Laird, J. , McEachern, R. , Noseworthy, B. , Amelot, J. , Li-Baboud, Y. and Brady, K. (2014), 1588 Power Profile Test Plan, NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR), National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, [online], https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.IR.8002 (Accessed October 13, 2025)