Patent ID: 8374727

Claim:
A method of establishing switchyard zones of a high or medium voltage switchyard, wherein the switchyard comprises switchyard elements interconnected by lines and wherein the switchyard is operated by means of a Substation Automation system including a plurality of Intelligent Electronic Devices, and wherein the method is triggered by a change in switchyard topology and comprises: calculating the switchyard zones depending on a present topology of the switchyard; assigning each switchyard element of a switchyard zone to said switchyard zone by means of a zone identification; and storing the zone identifications of the assigned switchyard elements in a distributed manner on at least two of the plurality of Intelligent Electronic Devices, wherein the switchyard zones are calculated in a distributed manner by exchanging telegrams between the plurality of Intelligent Electronic Devices, each telegram being directed from a source switchyard element to a target switchyard element and comprising a zone identification of the source switchyard element.