IEC 61850-7-2:2010(E) applies to the ACSI communication for utility automation. The ACSI provides the following abstract communication service interfaces:
- abstract interface describing communications between a client and a remote server;
- and abstract interface for fast and reliable system-wide event distribution between an application in one device and many remote applications in different devices (publisher/sub-scriber) and for transmission of sampled measured values (publisher/subscriber).
Major technical changes with regard to the previous edition are as follows:
- data types not required have been removed,
- service tracking for control blocks have been added,
- security issues are solved by the IEC 62351 series,
- service tracking for control blocks have been added,
- the view concept will be according to the new work on role bases access (RBA),
- security issues are solved by the IEC 62351 series.

This publication is of core relevance for Smart Grid.