RemoteFlash - Renewable
Energy Sources
Wind energy plants are
constructed to apply an varitey of cooperating
electronic control units that meter, control,
diagnose and manage a total system. These
controllers are networked devices that exchange
data among eachother. In wind energy plants such
controllers are part of the operating, run time
control, security system, and recording monitoring
data.
Measurements
of meteorological environment data like wind
direction and speed is performed by the module for
recording the operation data - hence, electronic
controller units are involved. If the wind
conditions change this may require changes to the
operating mode/program of the whole plant, which
includes rotor blade toeing executed by
controllers again (here: at the control modul).
Wind energy plants and wind farms are built as
complex and modular extendable networks of
independently working - but interworking -
controller units. Keeping this control unit
network operational all the time is - besides
rotor blades, pitch system, gear unit and
generator - the most critical component in terms
of operation expenses. Therefore, the maintenance
of built-in controller units must be considered as
most important for cost-effective operation
and prevention of downtimes. Some examples for
such controller units show their importance:
- Steering the electrical network supplies via
regen-capable mains inverters
- electrical load absorption,
- battery charge regulation,
- ice detection,
- heating control,
- gael-force wind brakes and
- active extinguisher for vibration absorption.
If service technicians have to come on-site for
checks and updates of the electronical controller
units, this is a costly experience. Especially in
wind energy plant installations one will find long
drive times because of the stand-alone character of
the geographically spread operations.
Solar energy
generating systems and photovoltaics systems
are defined as a collection of components which work
in cooperation based on an ernergy profile of all
interconnected electrical appliances. The various
components herein are harmonized and undergo
permanent monitoring and on-the-fly tuning in order
to achieve maximum rate of capacity utilisation.
This holds even more for the late so-called
grid-coupled systems.
The meaning of electronic controller units and their
orderly operation is quite obvious.
Following the regulations of the "Einspeisegesetz"
from 2009 on-demand control of the generated input
to the electric supply network is defined. This
means, all generating systems with more than 100 KW
peak load have to reduce their ouput power during
network overload times.
Beside providing power to the electric supply
network batteries are used as energy storage. Their
charging status is monitored and adjusted by charge
controllers. Indepently, dynamic inverter modules
are applied for controlling conventional alternating
current.
An aspect that becomes more and more importance is
theft prevention. Contact surveillances and alarming
can be added here.
Typically, such installations are geographically
distributed and can only be reached after a longer
drive. Thus, technical services on-site generate
high costs. The mission-critical operation guarantee
for the integrated controller units can be
accomplished in a more efficient and less expensive
way through remote centralized management.
Biogas /
fermentation gas plants are "Oil Ignition -
Gas Injection" (OIGI) systems that inject natural
gas and diesel for ignition. A complex controller
system monitors and directs not only the gas
injection but all variables of the diesel-fed
system. The state variables that are
considered for this purpose are amon others nozzle
pressure, cooling water temperature and pressure,
pedal position, gas temperature and pressure. Only
the full picture of the system status will generate
the best diesel efficiency.
Continuous monitoring and accordingly immediate
adjustments receive increasing regard at the
operators of biogas plants. Local as well as central
observation and documentation of the overall
production process from the fermentation process to
the gas synthesis are the necessary basis for
optimizing control procedures. Especially in modern
installations with multiple mixers the complexity of
the control procedures is very high:
- position of the mixers,
- centerline determination, and
- height adjustment
serve for optimized spreading of the stirring waves,
and finally speeding up the fermenting process..
The freely programmable controls for optimized fuel
consumption and emission values are technically very
close to the on-board devices used in car monitoring
and diagnostics. Thus, they are well-suited for
applying RemoteFlash in order to optimize operations
and minimize maintenance efforts.
Earth energy
systems / ground source heat pumps work
like a ground heat exchanger. Cold liquid on the
inlet gets heated up from the earth while flowing
through a tube system. Again, controller units are
applied to adjust the effect depending on
temperatures of the air or liquid before and behind
the heat exchanger.
The pump will be activated if the temperature
shortfalls the defined bottom limit. Then the air
will be (pre-) heated in order to prevent the
condenser water in the air ventilation from
freezing.
If the upper temperature limit is exceeded the pump
is activated as well. During summer operation mode
the heat pump extracts heat from the
enviroment/building and transfers it to cooler
spaces in the ground.
Controller unit tune the performance of the pumps by
adjusting the pulse duration modulation depending on
the current power requirements. Controllers do
as well handle the safety relief valves in cases of
exceeded pressure in the system.
The functionality as well as the efficiency of such
pumps can be implemented by means of dynamic control
units. The chance to react on changed conditions
whenever it is desirable needs to be guaranteed.
RemoteFlash can support the operation of such
installations by reducing the number of deployments
of technical service staff and faster reaction on
changed operation conditions as well as attuning the
controllers to eachother for smooth interworking
from some central service point. |
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The adisoft solution has been developed during an
R&D project called carflash (which
has been supported by the German Ministry for
Commerce and Technology based on a decision of the
German Bundestag). It enables mobile software
distribution to real-time controller networks by
means of a special and secure wireless data
transmission mechanism.
Concurrent and "silent" software updates can be run
and controlled by a central backoffice update unit
for all concerned controller devices. No technical
service is required on-site any more. The delivery
of the software updates is carried out via some
available wide-area network, e.g. available cable
networks and/or mobile and wireless networks like
WiFi, WiMAX, UMTS/HSDPA, GPRS, CDMA2000 or
GSM.
The design of this innovative remote maintenance
solution based on mobile networks covers all
specific requirements from highly secured data
transfer up to real-time flash updates and roll-back
to earlier software releases in case of errors
during automatic system checks. Optimize your
maintenance activities and profit from significant
cost reductions.
Tell us how we can assist and support your plans.
There is no difference whether we talk about
long-term future ideas and currently executed
projects. We would be happy to answer your enquiries.
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