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Substation Protection · Automation · Design · Commissioning

The substation specialists.

Vendor-agnostic engineering for utilities and EPCs across North America.

See our work
Welcome to Coastal Grid

Engineering consulting services

Coastal Grid is a specialized engineering firm delivering comprehensive substation protection, automation, and design engineering. Our work spans the full range of substation technology, from traditional relay systems to modern digital substations built around IEC 61850.

PG&E San Luis Obispo substation
San Luis Obispo, CA
Engineering Specialization

Full project lifecycle. Planning to energization.

From greenfield builds to IED upgrades, maintenance, and substation expansions, we handle all types of projects. Backed by extensive field experience, we guide each one from planning to energization, building in reliability that lasts.

Design

Innovative design, drafting, and project management

SVC · 01 Learn more
Protection

Protection design, configuration, and commissioning across all voltage levels

SVC · 02 Learn more
Automation

SCADA, networks, automation, and protocols from legacy serial to IEC 61850

SVC · 03 Learn more
Configuration

Vendor configuration tool expertise

SVC · 04 Learn more
RAS

Full cycle RAS services, including design, configuration, and testing

SVC · 05 Learn more
Testing

Detailed factory and site acceptance testing

SVC · 06 Learn more
All services
The Coastal Grid difference

Why utility teams bring us in.

01

Real utility experience.

Coastal Grid's engineers spent years working in protection and automation at major utilities. We have a deep understanding of the systems and the challenges that come with them.

02

Deep IEC 61850 expertise.

We design, configure, and commission digital substations across the full protocol stack: GOOSE, MMS, Sampled Values, PTP, and PRP.

03

No vendor allegiance.

We work hands-on across SEL, GE, Siemens, ABB, and more. The relay we recommend is the one that fits your scheme and your standards, not a vendor we happen to favor.

04

One firm, start to finish.

We stay with the project from the first design package through commissioning. One firm carries the whole job, so nothing slips through the handoffs between separate teams.

Featured work

Selected utility engineering projects.

All projects
Aerial view of the AES Bellefield solar and battery storage construction site in Kern County, California
Kern County, CA 2025
The AES Corporation

RAS engineering for the Bellefield Solar Project

Remedial Action Scheme design for Phase 1 of what will become the largest solar-plus-storage facility in the United States.

Coastal Grid delivered Remedial Action Scheme (RAS) logic design and relay configurations for the first phase of the Bellefield Solar Project, developed by The AES Corporation in California. At 2 GW when fully built out, Bellefield will be the largest solar-plus-storage facility in the United States. We supported both the utility and customer sites to bring Phase 1 online in 2025, and we continue to engineer the RAS as the project moves toward full buildout.

RASLogic DesignRelay ConfigurationSolar + StorageUtility InterconnectIPP

For additional details, see Announcement on LinkedIn.

Voltage
230 kV
Site
Kern County, CA
Year
2025
Centralized protection and control panel
Southern California 2025
Southern California Edison

Centralized protection across three vendor platforms

Validated multi-vendor interoperability for a fully digital substation initiative.

Coastal Grid supported SCE's Fully Digital Substation initiative by performing centralized protection configuration and testing for three platforms (GE, SEL, and Siemens). The project evaluated multi-element protection for a typical subtransmission substation, including transformers, feeders, buses, and circuit breakers. Testing covered protection scheme validation, interoperability, Sampled Values, GOOSE, PRP network redundancy, and PTP time synchronization. We documented results, resolved issues during testing, and delivered recommendations for future centralized protection design and deployment decisions.

IEC 61850Sampled ValuesGOOSEPRPPTPGESELSiemens
Voltage
All
Site
Southern California
Year
2025
Drafting of substation protection and automation standards
Southern California 2022 - 2023
Southern California Edison

Protection and automation standards development

Created new substation protection and automation standards, adopted utility-wide.

Coastal Grid served as the lead technical resource for protection and automation standards at Southern California Edison. We worked with all SCE engineering teams to develop new substation standards, including standard schematic and logic prints. We presented updates to the standards committee, served as subject-matter expert, and published all related documentation.

ProtectionAutomationStandardsSchematicsLogic DesignSME Lead
Voltage
All
Site
Southern California
Year
2022 - 2023
Live · IEC 61850

Fluent across every protocol.

Sampled Values, GOOSE, MMS, PTP, and PRP, across SEL, GE, Siemens, and ABB. This live feed is the kind of traffic we design for, configure, and commission every day.

GOOSESampled ValuesMMSPTPPRPHSR
PROCESS-BUS capturing
Software product

We turned our substation expertise into software.

StationBolt is our Windows desktop application for IEC 61850 substation configuration. Vendor-agnostic. Single-line designer, MMS, GOOSE and Sampled Values. Full station design pipeline.

StationBolt · Windows 11
Configure any
IEC 61850 substation.
Multi-vendor.
SCD · CID · ICD · IID
GOOSE · MMS · SV
AutoCAD DWG
Edition 1 · 2 · 2.1
WINUI 3 EARLY ACCESS
Diablo Canyon Power Plant containment domes on the Central California coast
Diablo Canyon · Central Coast, California

Coastal Grid calls the Central California coast home.

Vendor agnostic

Tools we know.

Native expertise across every major IED vendor in the utility industry.

Vendor
SEL
Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories
Configuration tools
  • AcSELerator QuickSet
  • Architect
  • Grid Configurator
  • RTAC
Devices configured
  • SEL 400 series
  • SEL 700 series
  • SEL 300 series
  • SEL RTAC
  • SEL Axion
  • Network Switches
  • Clocks
Plus test, communications, and supporting platforms
OMICRON
Doble
Megger
Tekron
Schneider
RTDS
Novatech
Subnet
Start a conversation

Ready to engineer your next substation?

Tell us about it.

Send us a message See our work
Direct line
(805) 242-6458
Headquartered in
San Luis Obispo, CA