The research of this thesis implements Load Tap Changer (LTC) control using the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 61850 standard in a laboratory environment. In particular, Generic Object Oriented Substation Event (GOOSE) messages are used to facilitate all required communication. A set of two Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Inc. (SEL) devices is used for the demonstration. IEC 61850 has many benefits including great flexibility and improved interoperability and promises to be more widely implemented in the United States with time as is already the case in many other parts of the world. This research shows that LTC operation using IEC 61850 is reliable and brings with it all the benefits that the implementation of IEC 61850 has to offer. Above all, due to elimination of the majority of copper wiring, the proposed method is very flexible and can be implemented using a variety of different devices
