International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) - Volume4Issue5- May 2013
Incorporated Communication Technology for Administrative Control and
Data Acquirement System of Power Station
Kurra Ranjit Kumar, Pillem Ramesh
ECE, Koneru Lakshmaiah University (K.L.U), Vaddeswaram, INDIA
Abstract— Large-scale lattice-connected power station
andPatron-premise lattice-connecte power station is currently
the main types of power station in entire world. Because of
various scale of edifice, operation environments, fixinglocations
and applications, the ACADA (Administrative control and data
Acquirement) system of power station is supple and multifarious.
This paper studies and proposes an incorporated communication
podium solution which integrates optical fiber communication,
power line transporter communication and wireless
communication. The solution has individuality of uniform
network management,supple configuration and strong
malleability, which can fulfill the requirements of the ACADA
system of multiform power station.
Keywords— PV Power Station; ACADA; Communication
I.
Introduction
With the support of policies of “Solar covering Plan”
the measure and extent of the concluding, under construction
and preparation solar energy PV power stations are rising
sharply each year. According to the differences of lattice
voltage level and installed capacity, power stations can be
separated into small-scale, medium-scale and large-scale;
according to different forms of erection, power stations can
be alienated into off-lattice and trellis-connected. Presently,
large-scale and patron-hypothesis trellis-connected power
stations account for a momentous proportion of the ultimate or
under construction power stations in different parts of the
world.
Large-scale and patron-hypothesis trellis-connected power
station must be outfitted with mechanical operation, fully
functional ACADA system. Communication is the key of
information broadcast to ensure the efficiency of the ACADA
system, so the exhaustive research and testing of the
communication solution are needed. Presently, the ACADA
technology of power station is still in the improvement stage,
and the communication result is also self-contained and
adolescent. Overall, because of single method, lack of system
management, low level of assimilation, the current
communication solution of the ACADA system is difficult to
carry increasing commerce needs, the research of new
solution is necessary. This document is a template. An
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ISSN: 2231-5381
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II. REQUIREMENT OF LARGE-SCALE
NETWORKCONNECT POWER STATION
The ACADA system of large-scale lattice-connected
power station is different from conservative
power plant
control system or substation mechanization system, relatively
speaking, the types of equipments are less than the
conventional power station, and the control process is not
very complicated within the large-scale lattice-connected
power station. But the power station is typically characterized
by large capacity (12MW and above), wide area (140 acres or
more), geographic isolation, and the maintenance staff is
relatively small, so requires the concentration of operation,
equipments monitoring, environmental monitor and security,
and is able to adapt to the speckled locations and flexible
configuration features.
From the point of communication, large-scale latticeconnected power station has the following characteristics:
(1) High information flow. The large number of
monitoring and control points, makes a very high demand of
info flow, thus, the communication speed of the trunk line
should be rate up to 8Mbps or more.
(2) Far transmission distance. Large-scale latticeconnected
power station covers wide area, and the
equipments are installed dispersedly, so the transmission
distance of communication solution which is choose should
be at least 4km.
(3) High performance requirements. Because of large
capacity and power for remote transmission, large-scale
lattice-connected power station needs to interact with the
lattice dispatching, receives orders accurately and timely, and
sends to electrical equipments to complete response. The
communication system as a key component needs to have
responsive, stable and reliable characteristics.
III.
REQUIREMENT
OF
CUSTOM-PREMISE
LATTICE-CONNECTED POWER STATION
Custom-premise lattice-connected PV power station is
located in the custom side, accesses the power lattice through
a distribution network. BIPV (building integrated PV) and
BAPV (building attached PV) are the main forms.
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International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) - Volume4Issue5- May 2013
The voltage level of the common coupled point of the
power station is 250V or 5kV, and the installation capacity is
generally between 80kW and 1MW, the MW-level power
stations will access to the power lattice through multiple
common coupled points, and the instillation capacity of each
point is less than 150kW.
From the view point of communication, custom-premise
lattice-connected power station has the following
characteristics:
1. Information flow is moderate. Because of small installation
capacity and small number of equipments, the information
flow of the ACADA system, and the transmission rate of the
communication system is not high, typical industrial field bus
can fulfil the demands.
2. Covering area is not wide. The area is generally less than
ten thousand square meters, so wired and wireless
communication solutions are easy to implement coverage.
3. Operation mode is flexible. BIPV and BAPV are the main
forms of the power station, the operation environments are
complex, which require the communication system to adapt
to different environments, and are easy to installation and
maintenance.
IV.
SEVERAL COMMUNICATION SOLUTIONS
AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS
A. Industrial Ethernet
Industrial Ethernet is technically compatible with
commercial Ethernet (IEEE802.3 standard), and is widely
used in industrial control systems. However, in product
design, industrial Ethernet should be able to meet the needs of
the industrial field in material selection, product strength, realtime, reliability and environmental applicability. Its main
technical features are as follows:
1) Wide range of applications. Industrial Ethernet has
many characteristics of low price, various transmission media
options, high speed, easy-to-network, and has been applied in
the resource management layer and manufacturing execution
layer of integrated automation systems in industrial
enterprises. Recently, the development trend of industrial
Ethernet in field control is presenting.
2) High speed of communication. Industrial Ethernet
communication speed range is from 8/80Mbps to today's
8Gbps, of which 8/80Mbps has been widely used, and
800Mbps and 10Gbps Ethernet technology is gradually
mature.
3) Security of control network. Industrial Ethernet uses
anti-virus measures, intrusion detection, network isolation,
message encryption and other measures, has proposed a series
of control network security models.
4) Supports a variety of physical media and topology.
Industrial Ethernet supports a variety of transmission media,
supports bus and star topologies, and multiple redundant
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connections can be used to improve network performance.
B.
Field bus
Field bus, including technologies such as MODBUS,
CAN, PROFIBUS, LONWORKS, and many other
technologies, is mainly used to solve the data communication
between intelligent sensors, meters, controllers, actuators and
other in-site devices. It’s currently the most widely used and
relatively mature industrial communications technology.
Field bus connects on-site connection, display, control,
execution and other devices by network technology, reduces
consumption of cable, and facilitates the equipment diagnosis
and maintenance. Field bus increases information capacity and
improves the communication performance of real time,
reliability and accuracy. The devices which integrate field bus
have functions of calculation, control and diagnosis, and the
control functions are dispersed to improve the control system
performance and security. These features not only have been
fully reflected in the distributed control system, and have been
applied to the SCADA system of PV power station.
MODBUS, CAN and LONWORKS have been used in
inverter control, and these technologies can be deployed in
different types of power stations through the use of different
physical media.
C. Power line carrier communication
Power line carrier communication (PLC) technology
transmits data through power line. The PLC technology
making use of high-voltage (9kV or above) power lines is
widely used, and the PLC technology making use of lowvoltage (220V or 340V) power line is also used in the
development and promotion of remote meter reading.
The main advantage of PLC is eliminating the trouble of
laying the additional dedicated communication cable.
However, the disadvantages of PLC are obvious, too. Power
line is a very bad channel for communication; the main
problem is interference and signal attenuation. The
interference is from power electronic devices, low-voltage
load, switch operation and broadcast signals injection. In such
noisy environment, it is difficult to ensure data quality. Signal
attenuation is brought by the complex structure of power
lattice, so signals have multiple transmission paths. Therefore,
the power line communication environment is very harsh to
ensure reliability and stability.
PV power station has many power electronic devices, such
as inverter, static var compensator and static var generator.
These devices arouse harmonic interference into the AC
power line, so PLC should not be used on the AC power line.
However, the DC power line between PV convergence box
and inverter has less interference and single transmission path,
can implement the technology.
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International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) - Volume4Issue5- May 2013
EPON
EPON (Ethernet Passive Optical Network) uses passive
optical fibre, and provides a variety of businesses over
Ethernet. The typical topologies include tree, star, bus and
ring, and consist of the OLT (Optical Line Termina1), POS
(Passive Optical Splitter) and ONU (Optical Network Unit).
EPON uses the physical layer of PON technology, the
MAC layer of Ethernet technology. Therefore, it combines the
technologies and advantages of PON and Ethernet, such as
high bandwidth, flexibility, fast service construction,
compatibility with existing Ethernet and convenient
management.
EPON costs low, but is less reliable and stable than
industrial Ethernet, so it can be used as a low-cost solution.
D. Zigbee
Zigbee technology is a protocol specification for a wireless
network of small devices. Zigbee has a complete set of
protocol hierarchy, and is work out by IEEE802.15.4 and
Zigbee Alliance. The Zigbee devices should include the PHY
and MAC layers from IEEE802.15.4, and the stack layer,
network layer, application layer and security service layer
from Zigbee.
system.
B. Network management system
The network management system follows the ITU-T’s
TMN (Telecom Management Network) specifications, and
uses object-oriented database technology, distributed data
acquisition and storage technology, real-time data networking
technology, standard protocol conversion technologies and
standard interface technologies (CORBA, SNMP, TCP/IP,
Q3 etc.), represents the more mature development model of
the area.
The network management system adopts hierarchical
modular software architecture, and is divided into three
subsystems as comprehensive monitoring, resource
management and process management. The system is
constructed by the presentation layer, application layer,
adaptation layer and database; the subsystems interact through
a distributed processing platform, shown in Figure 1.
External System
Zigbee is a new wireless technology, can communicate
between thousands of tiny nodes. These nodes consume low
power, and the information data is transferred between the
nodes in relays, so the efficiency is very high. The bandwidth
of Zigbee is 15~200kbps; the number of network nodes is up
to 6500; the communication distance of a pair of nodes is
more than 65m. Zigbee also has features of self-organization
and dynamic routing, is very suitable for using in custompremise lattice-connected PV power station.
V. THE COMPOSITION AND APPLICATION OF THE
INTEGRATED COMMUNICATION PLATFORM
The integrated communication platform of PV power
station is integrates industrial Ethernet, field bus, EPON,
PLC, Bluetooth, Zigbee and unified network management.
PV power station will be supported by the integrated
communication platform to achieve comprehensive,
integrated, multi-purpose business applications.
A. Platform constitutes
The integrated communication platform consists of
communication lines, communication devices and network
management system. Network management system is the core
of the platform; different types of wired and wireless
communication devices form a unified platform through the
system. The integrated platform completes network planning,
operation, maintenance, and other tasks, and promotes the
environmental adaptability of the whole communication
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Communication Network
Figure 1. Framework of the network management system
C. Communication network solution for large-scale latticeconnected PV power station
According to the preceding analysis, industrial Ethernet
and EPON can be used to build the communication network of
large-scale lattice-connected power station. Industrial Ethernet
can meet the more stringent requirements, and EPON can be
used in the project of lower performance requirements as a
low-cost alternative. Figure 2 shows the communication
solution using industrial Ethernet and EPON, in the case PLC
technology is used on the DC power lines between the
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International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) - Volume4Issue5- May 2013
convergence boxes and inverters, and EPON technology is
used to form a subnet.
VI.
CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, the requirements of communication system
of different types of power stations are presented, and the
technical characteristics of industrial Ethernet, field bus, PLC,
EPON and Zigbee are analysed. Finally, this paper presents an
integrated communication platform, which is fully capable of
supporting the ACADA system of both large-scale and
custom-premise lattice-connected power station.
REFERENCES
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
Figure 2. The communication solution of industrial Ethernet and
EPON
FENG Liwei, MA Yonghong, WANG Yirong, Application of EPON in
distribution automation system. Telecommunication for Electric Power
system, 2010, 4:24-26.(in Chinese).
JIANG Liqun, XU Aidong, SONG Yan, WANG Jing. Research and
realization of high availability industrial Ethernet technology.
Computer Engineering, 2009, 6:260-262.(in Chinese).
ZHU Bin, TANG Yong, TAN Yong, XIA Kai. Design of Zigbee-based
data acquiring and transmission system in industrial control network.
Control and Instruments in Chemical Industry, 2010, 37:81-85.(in
Chinese).
JIN Wenbo, ZHENG Gang. Research on architecture of integrated
network management in NGN. Application Research of Computers,
2008, 4:1183-1185.(in Chinese).
C. Communication network solution for custompremise lattice-connected power station
Field bus and Zigbee technologies are suitable for custompremise lattice-connected power station. Field bus uses the
twisted pair as communication medium, and can be applied to
achieve easy wiring and maintenance; Zigbee can reduce
costs, improve system reliability and reduce maintenance
intensity. Zigbee communication solution is shown in Figure
3.
Figure 3. The communication solution of Zigbee
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