This statement addresses the main stakeholders involved in the development and product implementation of the IEC61850 standard on communication networks and systems for power utility automation: secondary systems suppliers, International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC TC57, WG10 and others), conformance testing companies, third-party tool developers. This standard is of potentially large benefit to electricity transmission system operators (TSOs) as it addresses across different vendors many crucial aspects of TSO communications, with the promise of seamless interoperability of different vendors’ subsystems within the overall TSO system management architecture. As the single association representing 41 TSOs from 34 European countries, ENTSO-E makes the following observations and recommendations regarding the development of this important worldwide standard. Review entire text