This technical report provides a set of guidelines on the use of the following TASE.2 international standards: IEC 60870-6-503 IEC 60870-6-702 IEC 60870-6-802 These standards specify a method of exchanging time-critical control center data through wide- and local-area networks using a full ISO compliant protocol stack. They contain provisions for supporting both centralized and distributed architectures. These standards include the exchange of real-time indications, control operations, time series data, scheduling and accounting information, unstructured ASCII or binary files, remote program control, and event notification. However, the style of the TASE.2 standards may make them somewhat difficult to read for someone either not familiar with the precise syntax of the language used to describe the protocol or with all the background leading up to the development of these specifications. Furthermore, certain types of information that may be very useful to a user of TASE.2 but not necessary for specifying the protocol or services provided by TASE.2 have been omitted. Thus the need for this User Guide. 1.1 Intended users This User Guide is intended for a broad audience of readers from an end user trying to decide if TASE.2 is appropriate for their data transfer needs to a vendor planning to implement TASE.2, with the goal of offering a TASE.2 product. In particular, this guide should be helpful to the following: • An end user, such as an electric utility, with the need to transfer real-time data to another utility or utilities or to another internal control center, who is trying to evaluate which protocol is the most appropriate. • An end user who has already decided to use TASE.2 and now needs guidance in how to procure TASE.2. • An end user who has procured TASE.2 and is now concerned about how to map their actual data into TASE.2 data objects exactly. • An end user who is looking for conventions and answers to practical questions regarding configuring TASE.2 software and networks. • A vendor with a project to implement the TASE.2 specification either as a special project or to offer a standard product. 1.2 Organization This guide first introduces the background and concepts of TASE.2 to provide a framework for understanding the TASE.2 specification. Then the individual server and data objects comprising TASE.2 are described with cross references into the specification. At this point, (i.e., Clauses 1-8) the reader should have all the necessary basic understanding to use the TASE.2 specifications intelligently. The remainder of the guide (Clauses 9-20) address practical issues that arise in connection with the use of TASE.2. 1.3 TASE.2 Version This edition of the TASE.2 User Guide was prepared using the Second Edition of the TASE.2 standards, which at the time of the preparation of this report was the 2000 edition.