Solar energy is a growing segment of the energy sector, but actually executing a utility-scale solar power plant can present many challenges for a traditional SCADA system. A typical solar power plant contains thousands of connected devices from a variety of vendors dispersed across a large geographical area – which can be a potential nightmare for operations and maintenance to quickly identify and correct any issues.
Recently we partnered with DEPCOM Power to design and deploy a highly-polished solar power plant SCADA solution based on the Standard Ignition Architecture. This SCADA package is being used at five solar plants with a total generation capability of more than 200 MW.
Not only does the system have the technical functionality to monitor and control over 75,000 I/O tags, but we also went to extreme lengths in perfecting the user experience, creating a system that automatically aggregates large amounts of information and allows the user to quickly see the big picture. Plus, we provided intelligent data analysis and reporting from the hundreds or thousands of strings of solar panels in order to highlight the lowest performing equipment and prioritize the activities of the operations and maintenance team.
With the powerful and scalable SCADA solution created by Vertech, DEPCOM Power now has more data visibility, automatic site performance analysis, and an easy-to-use software interface that allows the staff to be more effective at identifying and troubleshooting problems. The system was also developed and commissioned in record time, allowing Vertech to meet schedules which would otherwise be impossible.
For more details on this application, read the full case study.