IEC 60870-5-104 is the IEC telecontrol standard for network access to the IEC 60870-5-101 application layer over TCP/IP, used by power utilities to monitor and control substations and grid equipment from a control centre. The current edition is 2006.
IEC 60870-5-104
IEC 60870-5-104, usually called IEC 104, carries the telecontrol messages of IEC 60870-5-101 over TCP/IP. Utilities use it between control centres and substations, wind and solar plants, and other remote equipment. The current edition is IEC 60870-5-104:2006.
- Spontaneous reporting - Outstations send changes as they happen, with time stamps, rather than waiting to be polled.
- General interrogation - A control centre can ask for the full current state after it connects or reconnects.
- Checked control - Commands such as select-before-operate let an operator confirm a switching action in deliberate steps.
- Points, not objects - Data is a flat list of addressed information objects, which keeps it compact on the links it was designed for.
As grid data moves into analytics and market platforms, IEC 104 is typically terminated at a gateway or SCADA system and re-exposed through modern APIs.
It is one of fourteen protocols mapped to five communication patterns in OT Fabric’s software architect’s guide to OT.
Industry: Energy
