Renewable Energy
Location: USA
Project Introduction:
Wind power generation systems are always installed in very harsh environments with extreme temperatures (for example, offshore environments might be below -10°C), with an abundance of dust and vibration. Under these circumstances, applying an IPC with a fan as the host platform will result in reliability problems and system crashes. One of our customers aimed to design a reliable power generation monitoring system, and they were looking for a compact platform that could be easily installed to replace their traditional IPC system.
System Requirements:
The customer was looking to replace their traditional IPC system with a compact, reliable platform.
This led to the following requirements:
Compact size
- Fanless architecture
- Windows-based
- Abundant I/O interfaces
- Can communicate with legacy devices
Project Implementation:
| UNO-2170 |
Intel Celeron M UNO with 2 x LAN, 4 x COM, PC/104 |
System Diagram:
System Description:
UNO-2170 works as a remote monitoring system that controls and checks functions/conditions of the turbine signals from legacy PLC, and stores information in a small database based on local SCADA node. In the first phase, the system was installed with Windows 2000, which required a high performance CPU and HDD. In the second phase, the customer switched the operating system to XP Embedded with industrial CompactFlash to increase system reliability. UNO-2170 series integrates 3rd party PLCs and Fieldbus devices through its PC/104 expansion interfaces, thus taking care of the wind power generation system, with the ability to provide feedback to the Energy Management Center through an Ethernet network.
Conclusion:
The wind power generation monitoring system is a dedicated application based on Windows 2000/XP. It needed a high performance platform rather than a general platform for Windows CE. Equipped with an Intel Celeron M 600 MHz or Celeron M 1.0 GHz CPU and Onboard 512 KB battery-backup SRAM, UNO-2170 is a powerful model that provides Windows CE 5.0 & 6.0, Windows XP Embedded, and Linux ready solutions.
In addition to monitoring the generator's working status, many devices had to be integrated with this wind power generation monitoring system. The UNO-2170 provided abundant interfaces for the network integration. The customer may link the UNO-2170 with a PLC system via its Ethernet interface, and the PC/104 expansion interface can be equipped with a Fieldbus Card to communicate with field equipment when needed.