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CoMPAS

CoMPAS (Configuration Modules for Power industry Automation Systems) is an open-source software toolkit (grid automation, configuration management) from LF Energy that supports the creation, management, and validation of Indirect Evaporative Cooling (IEC) 61850 Substation Automation System (SAS) configurations.

  • Tools for modeling, editing, and validating IEC 61850-based substation configurations (substation automation).
  • Support for System Configuration Language (SCL) files used in IEC 61850 engineering workflows (configuration management).
  • Modular architecture designed for integration into utility engineering processes and vendor toolchains (integration tooling).
  • Focus on standardized, reusable configuration modules for digital substations (grid automation engineering).
  • LF Energy-hosted open-source project with governance and collaboration under the Linux Foundation (open-source governance).

More About CoMPAS

CoMPAS (Configuration Modules for Power industry Automation Systems) addresses the problem of managing complex configuration data for digital substations and other power system automation environments that use the IEC 61850 standard (substation automation). Substation automation projects rely on consistent and correct configuration of intelligent electronic devices (IEDs), communication services, and system topologies, all of which are described using the IEC 61850 System Configuration Language (SCL) (configuration management). CoMPAS provides an open-source toolkit to help utilities, vendors, and integrators create, manage, and validate these configurations in a structured way.

The project focuses on supporting IEC 61850 engineering workflows (substation automation) through tools that operate on Secure Control Loop (SCL) artifacts such as Substation Configuration Language files. By providing functionality for modeling and editing IEC 61850 configurations (engineering tools), CoMPAS aims to reduce manual effort and lower error rates associated with handling SCL by hand or in proprietary silos. Its modular design enables separation of concerns between different aspects of configuration, such as device data, communication parameters, and substation topology, which can be organized as reusable configuration modules (configuration modularization).

In enterprise and utility environments, CoMPAS can be integrated into engineering processes for greenfield and brownfield substation projects (grid project engineering). Engineers can use CoMPAS-based components to generate or validate SCL files that are then exchanged with vendor-specific IED configuration tools, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems, or protection and control engineering platforms (systems integration). Because the project is hosted under LF Energy, it is aligned with other open-source efforts in the power systems domain and is intended to interoperate with standard-compliant tools and equipment that implement IEC 61850 (interoperability).

Technically, CoMPAS belongs in categories such as substation engineering tools, configuration management for Operational technology (OT), and standards-based grid automation software (OT software). It focuses on the IEC 61850 standard and its SCL schema, which are widely adopted for communication and configuration in digital substations (communication standards). The use of standardized data models and schemas allows organizations to build repeatable workflows for designing, deploying, and maintaining substation configurations across fleets of assets and across multiple vendors, while retaining control of configuration logic in an open-source code base (lifecycle management).

For enterprises, especially transmission and distribution system operators, CoMPAS provides a way to structure and centralize IEC 61850 configuration assets (enterprise OT architecture). By introducing reusable configuration modules and automated validation against IEC 61850 SCL rules, the project supports quality assurance and consistency in grid automation engineering (quality and compliance tooling). CoMPAS therefore fits into directories and taxonomies under grid and substation automation software, IEC 61850 engineering tools, and OT configuration management platforms.