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Solution for segment control

Back to Park management: Automation and controlling

Overview

Park management: monitor and control

The profitable operation of large photovoltaic systems requires continuous monitoring and control at segment level.
With Array Control from Phoenix Contact, planners and system operators have a tried-and-tested, reliable solution for acquiring all accumulated data and making it available for efficient park management.
The solution is installation-friendly and can be easily integrated into large-scale photovoltaics systems.

Application

Array Control switchgear and controlgear assembly

In order to operate large-scale photovoltaics systems efficiently, ongoing monitoring and control is required.

A solar system in the order of 10 MW is composed of some 2500 strings for every 20 solar panels. It thereby consists of a variety of string combiner boxes, inverters, and additional monitoring components such as reference sensors, weather stations or energy meters.

A myriad of measurement data must be acquired and processed further, inverters must be controlled, and the system status must be transmitted to a higher-level data management system.

Solution

Since the accumulated data volume is very large, the photovoltaic park is divided into individual segments called arrays. The Array Control switchgear and controlgear assembly from Phoenix Contact has a controller. This receives measuring data from the inverters, data loggers, and energy meters in an array according to a uniform data model and forwards these to a higher-level SCADA system in the central control room.

Preprogrammed function blocks simplify the connection of individual components to the Array Control. If there is a network overload, the Array Control controls the inverter in order to reduce the power. Furthermore, the Array Control takes on numerous diagnostic functions, e.g., in the event of drop in performance in a string. Status messages, e.g., for anti-theft protection or device failures, supplement the values recorded. All data is archived for a period of up to 25 years.

As a building block of the Park Management system from Phoenix Contact, Array Control makes efficient management of large-scale photovoltaics systems possible.

Monitoring and controlling large-scale photovoltaics systems

Array Control – for efficient operation of large-scale photovoltaic systems

Your advantages

Low engineering and operating costs, thanks to intelligent automation solutions
Basic application for acquiring all relevant data at segment level with a uniform data model
Easy integration of various inverters, DC meters, and monitoring components, based on preprogrammed function block libraries
Scalable, for growing requirements in terms of data processing and quantities