I had an exchange of posting related to this comment posted in one of the LinkedIn Groups that I participate in:
" Standards like IEC 61850 work for some things, where everything is the same or similar. But could we develop an IEC standard for Panama Canal controllers? No. It's a one of a kind problem, unlike electrical substation controllers. "

TOTALLY WRONG

Firstly, Panama Canal is not one of a kind. It is a super-sized lock system that has been used in Europe for centuries.

Nor is a substation one of a kind - I can assure you every one is different.

IEC 61850 has sensors that are modelled in the T group logical nodes

H group gives the supervision alarms for Hydro applications.

You have a sensor that gives the instantaneous water level in the Canal?

"TLEV-Level sensor "

You have an alarm of the canal runs dry or overflows based on TLEV input?

"HLVL Water level indicator" and "HOTP over-topping protection"

or the flow rate sensor giving the instantaneous measurement of the water flow?

"TFLW -Liquid flow"

or how about a "HGPI Gate position indicator"?

I generally hope that substations don't need indicators for water levels around the yard or control room.

So what measurement or function is not able to be modelled that is so unique to the Panama Canal?
And even if there was a super weird one amongst the hundreds of ones needed quite happily provided from the Standard, you can submit a TISSUE to create a new one or if you can't wait that long, the Standard allows you to create your own proprietary data model under your own Namespace which just applies to that function.

We need to stop thinking that IEC 61850 is JUST substation protection and SCADA.
It can be applied to Electric Vehicles, Condition Monitoring, gas, water, wind, solar, rail networks ... and the Panama or Suez Canal without difficulty - in fact the specification of the control system for Panama could be directly understood by a contractor in any country, who creates a System Configuration Description of all the data and communication flows and IED configuration even before they decide which vendors boxes to buy.

Extra Notes:

Logical Nodes providing IEC 61850 9-2 Sampled Values

Controls: K Group

Apart from the various general controls such as
KFAN Fan
KFIL Filter
KPMP Pump
KTNK Tank
KVLV Valve control

S Group

SIMG