Control/Monitoring systems for alternative energy production

Since 2006 an integrated plant management system has been built, both for Conergy's own plants and as a service for other operators of solar and wind turbine farms.

Regular measurement data, alarm messages as well as event-related data is gathered from the local control systems and stored on central servers. From there it is available for current operations as well as statistics and analysis.

The central process control system for alternative energy production of Conery AG is based on the SCADA process control system FlexCtrl by BitCtrl systems GmbH with additional customized developments for the communication to wind power stations and solar parks, connection to process management systems, software development in C/C++ and Java, object orientated process model for ca. 40.000 pv as well as SQL database.

FlexCtrl visualisation is available throughout the entire Conergy AG network via thin clients.

Data transfer uses either dial-up connections, dedicated lines or VPN connections through the internet.

Transfer protocols are either standards conform or manufacturer-specific, in the latter case BitCtrl System GmbH developed additional components for its modular FlexCtrl system to handle these.

In addition to fast collection and processing of current and historical data of the plants the system allows for automatic generation of procedures out of events of the surveillance system. To this end, an interface to the procedure management system CoCheck made by company GICON Großmann Ingenieur Consult GmbH was developed. Within this system all relevant documents, activities, billing etc for a procedure, e.g. a repair, are maintained.