Wind power PLC library

Beckhoff has announced a PLC library for its automation suite, TwinCAT PLC IEC 61400-25. The IEC 61400-25 standard defines communication for monitoring and controlling wind turbines. Its integration in TwinCAT is designed to simplify the control of heterogeneous wind farms.

Regenerative energies are on the advance. More and more wind turbines are being installed worldwide, both onshore and offshore; most of them are organised into wind farms. In wind farms with wind turbines made by different manufacturers, the IEC 61400-25 communication standard is intended to make communication possible. It is based on the IEC 61850 basic standard and will be available from mid-2009 as a PLC library as one of the TwinCAT supplementary products.

Like IEC 61850, IEC 61400-25 is object-oriented. This approach allows particularly simple configuration, diagnosis and maintenance of communications. In addition to the IEC 61850 basic standard, the IEC 61400-25 contains descriptions for wind power-specific objects. However, the same communication services are used, as a result of which TwinCAT users can also access IEC 61850 data objects. The basic standard defines a general transmission protocol for protective and control equipment in medium- and high-voltage electrical substations.

The communication is physically based on ethernet technology. TCP/IP and the Manufacturing Message Specification (MMS) have been implemented as protocols in TwinCAT PLC. The hierarchical data objects are communicated between a master control station and a wind turbine via MMS as the application layer.