The four terms describe four different things. vPAC (Virtual Protection, Automation and Control) is a technical concept. The vPAC Alliance is an industry consortium. LF Energy is an open-source foundation. And SEAPATH is actual software, hosted by LF Energy, that you can build vPAC with.
vPAC Is a Concept
vPAC stands for Virtual Protection, Automation and Control. It describes the approach of running a substation's protection, automation, and control functions as software on general-purpose computing hardware instead of on dedicated protective devices.
vPAC is not a product, not an organization, and not a standard. The concept itself does not prescribe the implementation technology. A proprietary hypervisor, an open-source platform, or a combination of both can all be used to realize a vPAC architecture.
The vPAC Alliance Is an Industry Consortium
The vPAC Alliance brings together grid operators, protective relay vendors, and server and software suppliers. Its goal is to define an open and interoperable architecture for virtualized protection and control systems with cybersecurity built in from the start.
The Alliance produces shared specifications, reference architectures, and interoperability tests. It does not publish standards and it does not develop software.
Instead, it serves as a forum where vendors align on architecture and interoperability requirements. Welotec, part of the Westermo group since 2025, is a member.
LF Energy Is an Open-Source Foundation
LF Energy is a foundation under the Linux Foundation umbrella and supports the energy transition through open-source software projects.
Several LF Energy projects are relevant to digital substations, including SEAPATH for virtualization, CoMPAS for IEC 61850 engineering and configuration, and FledgePOWER for protocol conversion.
OpenSCD is often mentioned alongside these projects, but it is an independent community project and is not governed by LF Energy.
LF Energy provides governance structures, licensing frameworks, development processes, and technical steering committees. It does not define architectural requirements or standards.
SEAPATH Is Software
SEAPATH stands for Software Enabled Automation Platform and Artifacts (Therein) and is one of LF Energy's flagship projects for digital substations.
Although often referred to as a hypervisor platform, SEAPATH does not include a proprietary hypervisor of its own. Instead, it provides a validated reference architecture and integrates established open-source technologies including KVM, QEMU, libvirt, Pacemaker, Corosync, Ceph, and Open vSwitch.
These components are configured and tested to meet the real-time and time-synchronization requirements of IEC 61850 environments.
SEAPATH Releases
Version 1.0 (February 5, 2025)
The first fully production-ready release. It merged previously separate development branches and supported both Debian and Yocto deployment models.
Version 2.0 (June 19, 2026)
Introduced major architectural enhancements including support for Debian 13 and The Yocto Project Wrynose, cephadm-based storage management, high-availability support for containerized workloads using Podman, and automated CI/CD pipelines for official and weekly releases.
One of the most significant changes in Version 2.0 was the equal support of both deployment approaches. Debian offers package-based lifecycle management, while Yocto provides fully reproducible builds from source. In addition, high-availability clustering was extended beyond virtual machines to container-based workloads.
SEAPATH in Utility Deployments
The development of SEAPATH was strongly driven by RTE, the French transmission system operator, which required a virtualization platform for its R#SPACE protection, automation, and control initiative.
The first production substation using SEAPATH, a 63 kV installation, has been operating since December 2023. A second deployment followed in 2024, with three additional projects planned for 2025. RTE's long-term objective is to deploy the technology across 100 substations by 2030.
Contributors to Version 1.0 included RTE, Alliander, GE Vernova, Savoir-faire Linux, Red Hat, and Welotec. Contributors to Version 2.0 included Savoir-faire Linux, RTE, Sprecher Automation, ABB, Red Hat, CIRCE, and Elia. The Technical Steering Committee includes GE Vernova, RTE, Savoir-faire Linux, Schneider Electric, and Welotec.
Side by Side Comparison
| Category | vPAC | vPAC Alliance | LF Energy | SEAPATH |
| What it is | Technical concept | Industry consortium | Open-source foundation | Software platform and reference architecture |
| Output | None; it is an architectural approach | Specifications and interoperability testing | Governance, licensing, and development processes | Working software, documentation, and releases |
| Public role | Explains the technical concept | Industry collaboration and onboarding | Open-source community and ecosystem development | Technical implementation, demonstrations, and proof-of-concept projects |
| Vendor-dependent | No | No, cross-vendor | No | No, hardware- and vendor-independent |
| Key question answered | What do we want to achieve? | What should the architecture look like? | How do we develop together? | What do we build it with? |
| Welotec involvement | Supplier of substation computing hardware | Member | Contributing organization | Technical Steering Committee member |
Table 1 — The relationship between vPAC, the vPAC Alliance, LF Energy, and SEAPATH.
Common Mix-Ups
vPAC and the vPAC Alliance are not the same thing.
vPAC is the technical concept. The vPAC Alliance is the organization promoting interoperable implementations.
SEAPATH is not the only way to implement vPAC.
It is currently the most visible open-source platform, but proprietary virtualization solutions also exist.
SEAPATH is not a hypervisor.
It deploys and manages proven open-source virtualization technologies according to a defined reference architecture rather than introducing a new hypervisor.
The vPAC Alliance and LF Energy are not competitors.
The Alliance defines architectural guidance, while LF Energy provides practical implementations such as SEAPATH. Several companies, including Welotec, actively participate in both organizations.
Facts at a Glance
- vPAC is a technical concept for virtualized protection, automation, and control
- The vPAC Alliance is an industry consortium focused on interoperability
- LF Energy is an open-source foundation under the Linux Foundation
- SEAPATH is an LF Energy project for virtualized substation workloads
- SEAPATH uses open-source technologies including KVM, QEMU, Ceph, and Open vSwitch
- SEAPATH Version 1.0 was released in February 2025
- SEAPATH Version 2.0 was released in June 2026 with container high availability support
- RTE plans to deploy SEAPATH-based solutions across 100 substations by 2030
In short: vPAC is the vision, the vPAC Alliance defines the architecture, LF Energy provides the open-source ecosystem, and SEAPATH is one of the software platforms that turns the concept into reality.
