Beckhoff will present its PC- and EtherCAT-based automation solutions for wind turbines from September 18 to 22, 2012 at Husum WindEnergy, Germany, the world’s largest wind energy trade show. Beckhoff has automated 7,000 wind turbines with a total output of 11.2 GW in 2011 alone. Worldwide, more than 20,000 wind turbines are equipped with Beckhoff control technology – both on and offshore. The highlight of this year’s trade show presentation is the Beckhoff solution for ultra-high-speed wind farm networking on basis of EtherCAT.
Automation technology from Beckhoff has successfully proven itself in use worldwide in wind turbines up to a size of 5 MW. PC-based automation technology offers powerful controllers that unite all components of a wind turbine – such as operational management and control of pitch, generator, converter and brake, as well as Condition Monitoring and farm networking – on a single platform. Eliminating special hardware lowers the costs of the basic electrical equipment of the wind turbine and the costs of maintenance, while at the same time increasing the availability of the wind turbine.
The open, scalable automation software, TwinCAT forms the core of the Beckhoff PC-based control platform. Open interfaces permit the integration of third-party software, for SCADA, Condition Monitoring, obstruction lighting or foundation monitoring, for example. The hardware interfaces for these functions are integrated into the controller via standard EtherCAT Terminals. A large variety of interfaces enables the integration of lower-level fieldbuses such as CANopen, PROFIBUS and Ethernet TCP/IP as well as RS232/RS485. Relocating subsystems into the field considerably reduces infrastructure costs and simplifies communication.
Click 'Efficient control of wind turbines with PC- and EtherCAT-based control technology' to continue reading
Adidas NMD