Precisely controlled stress tests increase availability
Beckhoff automates test bench for wind turbines
Online fault diagnostics improve wind turbine availability
Goldwind, China
On the basis of the PC-based control and EtherCAT technology, Beckhoff makes system solutions available for wind turbines that have been tried and tested worldwide: more than 125,000 wind turbines all over the world up to a size of 16 MW have been automated using Beckhoff technology. In this respect, our control architecture is perfectly suited to the requirement profile of the industry: openness and scalability, flexibility in the design of the controller and a high degree of integration. All processes, from the operational management and control of pitch, converter, gearbox and brakes through to wind farm networking, are executed in software on an industrial PC. Safety technology and condition monitoring are integrated seamlessly into the terminal segment via corresponding I/O modules. A separate CPU can thus be dispensed with. The real-time Ethernet system EtherCAT offers full Ethernet compatibility and outstanding real-time characteristics. Beyond that, it is characterized by flexible topology and simple handling. In the new TwinCAT 3 Wind Framework, the turbine manufacturer has a software tool at its disposal that gives it optimum assistance in the programming of its facilities and ports the Industrie 4.0 approach to wind energy. Another advantage: Lower-level fieldbuses such as CANopen, PROFIBUS and Ethernet TCP/IP can be relocated to the field via fieldbus master or slave terminals for the control of subsystems. Software libraries and hardware components specially developed for the wind power industry round out Beckhoff’s wide range of solutions.
The expertise acquired over more than 20 years of collaboration with turbine manufacturers in the wind energy industry makes Beckhoff a reliable partner with high solution competence. Together with the international Beckhoff subsidiaries, our expertise team in Lübeck offers worldwide support for all areas of wind turbine control: The services offered range from developing application-specific software libraries to support during the commissioning phase and control cabinet construction. According to the customer’s specifications, the Beckhoff engineering department takes on the complete control cabinet construction, starting with wiring diagram design through to prototype or serial production.
Operational management and pitch control
PC-based control is a universal control solution for the operational management and pitch control of wind turbines.
Condition monitoring
High-end measuring technology ensures transparency in wind turbine operation.
Beckhoff technology highlights for wind turbines
Universal control platform for wind turbines
The Beckhoff control architecture is perfectly suited to the requirement profile of the wind energy industry: openness and scalability, flexibility in the design of the controller and a high degree of integration. For all product ranges, from the industrial and embedded PCs, control panels and I/O components to the automation software, we offer modular solutions with precisely scalable performance. Interfaces for all common fieldbuses and the large signal variety of the Beckhoff I/O modules cover all types of signals and fieldbus systems that are relevant to wind power. You can configure a performance-related controller for a specific wind turbine using Beckhoff standard components. Subsequent extensions and modifications are also possible at no great cost thanks to the modularity of this solution. The integrated PC-based control platform eliminates the black boxes of hardware-based safety or monitoring solutions and ensures the efficient interaction of all system components. The advantages are the increased availability and thus the higher efficiency of the wind turbines as well as a reduction in hardware and engineering costs. In addition, the smooth interaction of the Beckhoff technology with industrial communication standards such as IEC 61400-25, Ethernet TCP/IP and OPC guarantees a high investment security.
With PC-based control, you benefit from:
- a universal control platform for operational management, pitch control, farm networking and yaw system
- high flexibility when it comes to controller design
- performance-related scalability
- modular expandability
- reduced hardware and engineering costs
- increased efficiency and cost-effectiveness
- improved competitiveness
EtherCAT: The fieldbus for the wind industry
As a fieldbus system, EtherCAT has all of the necessary and desired properties for networking in the wind turbine and the wind farm. On account of its high bandwidth, EtherCAT not only takes care of processing all standard signals, but also high-precision measurement technology and safety technology. Fieldbus masters from standard fieldbuses can be easily implemented in the field. The system can also be set up with cable redundancy. EtherCAT can even be found in subsystems that make the highest demands on speed and time synchronicity, such as in converters.
XFC: The basis for condition monitoring and network diagnostics
The Beckhoff measurement technology, condition monitoring and network diagnostics terminals use oversampling technology to transfer raw data from the measurement directly into the CPU with up to 100 kHz. There is no pre-processing of the data and no associated loss of data in the terminal, allowing the user to utilize all of the data for the diagnostics and to make use of the software tools of their choice. The distributed clocks function of the EtherCAT Terminals allows all the data in the wind turbine or also in the wind farm to be synchronized to a timeframe much smaller than 1 µs.
Beckhoff product highlights for wind turbines
Control cabinet-free automation with the MX-System
For the first time, the MX-System enables completely control cabinet-free automation solutions in machine and system engineering. The combination of baseplate and function modules resulting from the modular system combines all the tasks and features of a control cabinet: power supply, fuse protection and distribution, generation and monitoring of auxiliary voltages, sequence control with inputs and outputs, control of motors and actuators, and the connection level for the field devices. The full system integration of all machine functionalities is achieved via freely selectable IPC, coupler, I/O, drive, relay, and system modules, which can be configured and combined according to the specific application.
The consistently systemic approach of comprehensively coordinated assemblies, certified to international standards, enormously reduces the effort required for planning, assembly, machine installation, and maintenance. Since considerably fewer components are required than in traditional control cabinet design to implement the same requirements, the entire MX-System is significantly more compact than previous solutions. The system footprint is reduced, and system availability and flexibility are also increased. In each life cycle phase of a control system, the MX-System offers significant advantages over the classic control cabinet.
TwinCAT 3 Wind enables the implementation of Industrie 4.0 concepts in wind energy
With the increasing importance of wind energy and the installation of large wind farms, the demands on the availability and diagnostic capability of wind turbines and fast grid response times are also increasing. Industrie 4.0 technologies can be used for the direct benefit of system manufacturers, electricity producers, consumers and grid operators.
With TwinCAT 3 Wind, the new software framework for the automation of wind turbines, we pick up on the ideas and methods of Industrie 4.0 and make them available to you in the form of secure vertical and horizontal communication, big data applications and integrated engineering. More than 100 man-years of experience have gone into the creation of this framework.
Powerful, reliable and flexibly extendable: Embedded PC series for control tasks in wind turbines
The compact DIN rail PCs from the CX series with a directly connectable I/O level offer a space-saving industrial controller in the control cabinet. Our extensive range of embedded controllers includes a device tailored to the budget, performance class and complexity of the control task for each application. In addition to the CPU, the individual devices from the CX series differ by the available system interfaces and power supply variants and can be plugged together and extended as a modular control system depending on the task in the wind turbine controller.
The CX family includes several basic CPU modules with different processors for adaption of the performance to suit the respective control task. For equipping a standard wind turbine, the CPUs from the Embedded PC series CX51xx have proven themselves in thousands of applications. For high-performance applications, which include measurement technology for example, the CX2030 can be used as a fanless version. The CX family of the Arm® series is often used as pitch controller in the hub.
EtherCAT plug-in modules reduce installation space and wiring effort for wind turbines
The EtherCAT plug-in modules provide you with a prefabricated I/O system which, with its highly compact design, considerably reduces both installation space and wiring effort. This is particularly important when it comes to the control of wind turbines, as there is often very little space available.
The EtherCAT I/O plug-in modules are based electronically on the well-known EtherCAT Terminals and offer the same broad variety of signals. Their electromechanical design enables them to be plugged directly into an application-specific signal distribution board, from which the wiring is continued via connectors with pre-assembled cables. Many of the other components that would otherwise be installed in the control cabinet are housed as plug-in modules on the board, e.g. relays, fuses or surge voltage protection equipment. In this way, the space requirement can be reduced while simultaneously lowering costs, even in series production with high quantities. This represents significant progress in the automation of wind turbines.
EtherCAT Terminals integrate network monitoring and power measurement in the control system
For the purpose of independent power measurement and network diagnostics, we offer a very powerful and cost-effective variant:
- The EL3453 measures galvanically isolated 3-phase current (up to 5 A) and 3-phase voltage (up to 690 V). The resulting average values, such as power, frequency, cos φ, etc. and of course current and voltage, are transferred to the CPU after every half a mains period (10 ms).
- The EL3783, which is equipped with the same physical properties as the EL3453, measures current and voltage with a frequency of 20 kHz. From this raw data, all average values can be calculated on the CPU (e.g., with the help of the TwinCAT power monitoring library TF3650). It is thereby possible to perform a grid analysis up to the 110th harmonic.
Space-saving and powerful: Controlling wind turbines and wind farms with the C65xx
The highest fanless performance is provided by the C65xx series in the equipment version with an Intel® Core™ i7 processor. The industrial PC series is designed to be installed in the panels of the control cabinet or in the rear panel of a control housing or console housing. The heat sink of the industrial PC is fed to the outside through a suitable cutout in the control cabinet or housing panel; the power dissipation from the processor and chipset is thus given off directly to the surroundings. Integrated seals provide for an IP65 closure. This enables high thermal stability and at the same time fanless operation. Industrial PCs of type C65xx can hence be constructed completely without rotating parts.
In many wind turbines, also offshore, and in wind farms, this industrial PC series demonstrates its high performance in the turbine’s or wind farm’s control system.
Standardized protocols simplify the communication with wind turbines
With the growth of renewable energies worldwide, it has become necessary for power generators and grid operators to acquire a way of controlling these “power stations”. For this purpose, we have developed standardized telecontrol protocols, which are available as libraries in the TwinCAT automation system.