OPC Tunneller Bridges Wind Turbines and Power Station

King Island is located in Bass Strait, between Tasmania and Victoria in the Southeast of Australia. As part of the KIREX Renewable Energy Expansion project, Hydro Tasmania installed two Vestas wind turbines to complement the existing wind/diesel power station, using the services of Vestas (turbine supplier) and Hydro Tasmania Consulting (designer). The power station is load controlled and is fully automatic. It is controlled by an Allen Bradley PLC control system, with an RSView operator interface. Part of the installation of the new wind turbines was Vestas' proprietary control system, Vestas Online. This package allows remote control of small and large wind farms from a central control point, with control, monitoring and historical functions. Internally, all communications between the Vestas Server and the turbines is performed using OPC. RSLinx has the capacity to act as an OPC server, so OPC was chosen as the link between the Vestas Server and the Station Controller.

Although the two networks were physically connected, it was not possible to logically link the two systems due to domain and DCOM issues. After some good experiences with MatrikonOPC Explorer, an OPC client utility, during early commissioning of the Vestas network, Hydro Tasmania Consulting chose MatrikonOPC Tunneller to provide the bridge between the two networks. Tunneller provides an easy, reliable and effective way to communicate across different network domains and does away with the headaches typically associated with the configuration of DCOM. The implementation of this software was carried out painlessly, and any technical problems were quickly overcome with technical assistance from Matrikon Australia.

"MatrikonOPC Tunneller was literally Plug and Play," says Simon van der Aa, Control Systems Engineer with Hydro Tasmania Consulting. "Once we installed it and followed the simple configuration instructions, we haven't had to touch it. Since it was installed, MatrikonOPC Tunneller has been pretty much transparent."

通过此OPC连接，电台控制器可以控制风力涡轮机，从而使它们被无缝集成到整体站控制理念中。该电台能够运行无人操作，并根据客户的加载和风条件进行安排和加载发电机。电台控制器还可以记录站的许多参数和风力涡轮机操作，从而使操作员可以快速找到和故障排除可能发生的故障。每秒两个系统之间大约20个参数被传输。

For more information on OPC solutions from MatrikonOPC, visitwww.matrikonopc.com.