SCADA integration for two 80MW photo voltaic (PV) solar farms in Florida built with a new OEM’s solar inverters and requiring OrionLX Remote Terminal Unit configuration.

Background

Affinity Energy partnered with the world’s largest generator of renewable energy in the United States to implement SCADA and PLC controls at two 80MW utility-scale solar farms in Florida. With more than 33 solar farms generating over 2,000MW, the American premier clean energy provider develops, constructs, and operates power projects.

What Our Clients Say About Us

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Affinity Energy has successfully completed multiple PV solar projects and SCADA integrations for our company since 2017. As the world’s largest generator of renewable energy, we recognize Affinity Energy as a highly technical, professional, and customer-focused company; we recognize them as our extended technical team and key partner for engineering and construction for new projects.

Nischal Patel, P.E.

Lead Professional – Engineering & Construction at American Premier Clean Energy Provider

Challenge

In 2018, the American premier clean energy provider made a significant design change to their PV plants. Prior to 2018, General Electric central inverters were part of the standard design. Due to several factors, they decided to specify Power Electronics, an OEM based in Spain, as the basis of design. Although Affinity Energy has provided SCADA and PLC controls on 2017 PV projects, incorporating the new inverter required significant changes to the PLC code and the SCADA HMI.

Not only did integration of a new OEM’s inverters within the Schneider Electric Modicon PLC present a challenge, but so did the current HMI template used by most of the renewable energy provider’s solar portfolio. The new inverter provided a much richer data set of parameters to be monitored for operations and maintenance purposes. Creating a user interface (UI) that allowed the user to access this additional information while keeping the experience streamlined and efficient was important.

Lastly, due to the requirements related to allow remote control of the PV plant and cyber security, the customer implements a unique design using NovaTech’s dual Orion LX remote terminal units. In past projects, the remote terminal units were programmed by the customer. Moving forward, Affinity Energy would be responsible for programming one of the Orion LX RTUs; thus, making the configuration and commissioning more streamlined.

This customer needed a solar SCADA and controls integration expert.

Solution

The clean energy provider had previously worked with Affinity Energy on two projects in 2017. Because of Affinity Energy’s SCADA, instrumentation, and Wonderware expertise in PV solar, they were awarded the Sunshine Gateway (Columbia County, FL) and Pioneer Trail (Volusia County, FL) projects in August 2018.

Affinity Energy engineers began with the Wonderware System Platform InTouch HMI and Modicon M340 PLC control program they previously implemented on past solar projects and customized it to the specific needs of this project.

Affinity Energy had to make modifications within the PLC and SCADA platform to properly incorporate this new inverter which had not been integrated into any of the customer’s previous solar farms. As the OEM modified their inverter and firmware in real time, Affinity Energy was able to incorporate it successfully into the HMI. The Wonderware HMI integration of Power Electronics inverters had double the diagnostic information when compared to the GE inverters used on all of the customer’s other solar sites. Affinity Energy’s team took the existing GE inverter HMI template and redesigned it to incorporate the additional helpful diagnostic information it in a way that was not distracting to the operators.

Two entities needed to monitor and control the new PV plants. Affinity Energy took on additional scope to configure one of the OrionLX remote terminal units, which is part of the utility-scale PV architecture for interfacing with the plant. Successful integration allowed not only both entities to interface to the system but also allowed them to do so in a way that was NERC (North American Electric Reliability Corporation) CIP (Critical Infrastructure Protection) compliant.

Through the Wonderware System Platform, the customer’s operators could control modes of operation such as manual, Active Power Control (APC), and Automatic Voltage Regulation (AVR). Lastly, Affinity Energy worked with DLL Solutions to ensure that all information needed from the field equipment could be properly accessed from the TopServer OPC server and integrated to the OSISoft PI Historian and ProcessBook. These tools are used for performance analytics and metric tracking purposes.

Results

Affinity Energy completed Sunshine Gateway in Q4 2018 and Pioneer Trail in Q1 2019. The field startup activities, while challenging due to new inverters and site support personnel, were ultimately successful. For both projects, Affinity Energy provided field support for both the initial startup activities, the first block of inverter and control testing, and final commissioning. Subsequent blocks were remotely tested after the initial block and prior to final commissioning via secure remote access.

Affinity Energy took the initiative based on its knowledge and experience of how solar customers work with inverters and organized that information in a way that was beneficial and not distracting. Our customer was very pleased with the results. In fact, Affinity Energy’s HMI is now the template for any of the American premier clean energy provider’s future solar farms utilizing Power Electronics inverters.

As a result of Affinity Energy’s exceptional performance, the company will be awarded four utility-scale solar projects with this customer in 2019.