Method for bay type based IEC 61850 engineering and integration to be used for automation plants, which is provided to distribute functional parts of each bay type across tools (30, 31, 32, 33, 34) by using unique identifiers, whereas an identification of a tool's specific functional part of a bay type is based on the unique identifier, whereas a bay type catalogue for bays (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18) with several bay types is provided, and the following steps are executed: - -all available bay types from the bay type catalogue are loaded by an IEC 61850 master tool, - -the required bays (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18) for the automation plant are instantiated from the available bay types and a complete system configuration description is created, - -in the master tool are memorized the bay type from which each bay (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18) is instantiated by storing a bay type's unique identifier with a version index within the instantiated bay, - -during an export of the system configuration into a system configuration description file, all bays (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18) along with their attached unique identifiers and version index are stored in the file, which contains a list of all bay instances (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18) with assigned bay types from which it was created, - -during an import of the system configuration description file into a slave tool (31, 32, 33, 34), the bays (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18) are scanned by the slave tool (31, 32, 33, 34) and the assigned unique identifiers with a version index are read, - -with the unique identifiers the correct bay type in the bay type catalogue for each bay (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18) is imported from the system configuration description file by the slave tool (31, 32, 33, 34), - -after an identification of the correct bay type, the slave tool (31, 32, 33, 34) is provided to access and import its own configuration part from the bay type catalogue for the bay (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18). - -all available bay types from the bay type catalogue are loaded by an IEC 61850 master tool, - -the required bays (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18) for the automation plant are instantiated from the available bay types and a complete system configuration description is created, - -in the master tool are memorized the bay type from which each bay (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18) is instantiated by storing a bay type's unique identifier with a version index within the instantiated bay, - -during an export of the system configuration into a system configuration description file, all bays (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18) along with their attached unique identifiers and version index are stored in the file, which contains a list of all bay instances (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18) with assigned bay types from which it was created, - -during an import of the system configuration description file into a slave tool (31, 32, 33, 34), the bays (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18) are scanned by the slave tool (31, 32, 33, 34) and the assigned unique identifiers with a version index are read, - -with the unique identifiers the correct bay type in the bay type catalogue for each bay (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18) is imported from the system configuration description file by the slave tool (31, 32, 33, 34), - -after an identification of the correct bay type, the slave tool (31, 32, 33, 34) is provided to access and import its own configuration part from the bay type catalogue for the bay (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18).