Suite of applications for solar plants automation
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Harness the sun's potential with a world-class automation software platform
In the wake of increasing energy supply with distributed energy resources, photovoltaic plants represent a promising venture for various stakeholders involved in financial investments, construction, operation, or maintenance. The successful outcome of this effort is fundamentally determined by choosing the right technology for operational monitoring and control, as well as continuously optimizing performance.
Use the zenon software platform for efficient and safe operation of utility-scale photovoltaic plants – locally or remotely. The system can integrate any type of asset into a seamless operations management solution being used to automate from single units to solar farms:
Application Set for Solar Plants
The solar plant application library is a complete package with all the information, components, and templates you need to set up a comprehensive SCADA application easily and out of the box. Create projects faster by leveraging the platform’s full range of features. With zenon, the easy integration of all plant assets maximizes the efficiency of your installations and optimizes the overall automation of your Solar PV plant.
With the Solar PV SCADA application set you have:
- Efficient integration of solar PV assets
- SunSpec/MODBUS Compatible Interfaces
- Integration of ancillary processes such as distribution yards and substations
- Powerful integration of diverse assets with multiple protocols
- Easy integration with web-based services and communication
- Performance monitoring, control, and analysis
- Comprehensive visualization tailored to individual specifications
- Access to flexible dashboards focused on the most relevant KPIs
- React quickly to deviations and follow up on problems quickly and accurately
- Optimizing long-term solar performance with advanced analytics (IEC 61724)
- Rapid design with ready-to-use engineering components
- Predefined screens and functions, easy to configure for any need and/or specification.
- Solar PV Project Templates and Process Object Library
- Focus on safety for your solar automation
Build your own solution from a rich set of functions
- Application set for zenon solar plants: integrates all assets such as panels, trackers, combiner boxes, inverters or weather stations. Access to the system can be dynamically granted to multiple stakeholders at a local, regional, or global level.
- Integration of ancillary assets such as distribution yards or electrical substations
- Advanced Reporting and Analytics for Continuous Process Optimization
- Integration of higher-level systems such as microgrids, virtual power plants or energy data services and exchange with grid service operators
Features and Key Benefits
- String heatmap
- Real-time KPIs and Dashboards
- Detailed views of Inverter/Tracker/Weather Stations
- Vendor-agnostic device connectivity (e.g., Sunspec MODBUS)
- Alarm Management
- Sequence of Events (SoE)
- Built-in historian for long-term data archives
- Dynamic Analytics & Reporting
- Seamless process server redundancy
- Programmable Flexible Logic (SoftPLC) in IEC 61131-3
- Mobile event notification (email, SMS, VoIP)
- Role-based access control
- Secure Remote Access
- IoT gateway for cloud integration
- Web Preview Service (HTML5)
What zenon has to offer you
- Highest performance and scalability, supporting local plant management as well as control center integration and cloud-based solutions
- Hardware independence through support of all relevant communication standards
- Effective operations management through intuitive HMI and comprehensive asset integration
- Engineering simplicity through configurable functions, templates, and automated engineering
- Strong cybersecurity methods and IEC 62443-4-1 compliant Secure Development Lifecycle (SDL) process
Your benefits
- Keep your assets at peak production and react quickly to any issues
- Gain advanced insight into the process and simply drill down into the details if needed
- Evaluate your solar PV performance, identify benchmarks, and implement potential for improvement continuously (IEC 61724)
- Provide access to information, for multiple stakeholders from different domains
Start with the essentials and simply scale your solution step-by-step, whenever needed.
Connectivity & Networking
If the goal is an integrated operation of your solar plants, no component can be left out. Small details can be crucial for efficient operation. Therefore, the zenon platform provides a unique, all-native, collection of protocol drivers and network interfaces. This allows you to directly connect your assets or simply establish connectivity with adjacent applications and stakeholders.
In total, zenon supports more than 300 native communication protocols. Here’s a small sample of drivers related to power systems:
Generic Automation Protocols
- OPC UA
- Modbus
- Profinet
- Profibus
- Ethernet/IP
- Can/CanOpen
Power & Infrastructure Protocols
- IEC 61850 Client/Server and GOOSE
- IEC 61850 Edition 2 (certified by DNV GL)
- IEC 60870-5 (101/103/104)
- ICCP – LEVEL.2
- DNP3 Master and Outstation
- IEC 62056-21 (Energy Meter)
Proprietary Manufacturer Protocols
- ABB
- Siemens
- Beckhoff
- B&R
- Rockwell / Allen Bradley
- Straton
Interfaces IT and IIoT
- Azure IoT Hub, Event Hub, Service Bus Queue
- REST Webservices (independent of host platform provider)
- Custom protocol extension via .NET driver API (custom MQTT, AMQP implementations, etc.)
- SNMP v3
- Syslog
Standards and tools for rapid project completion
Modern automation engineering is supported by standards and tools that enable simple combination of solution components. The zenon platform offers powerful methods for creating templates with comprehensive functional content and precisely adjustable interfaces. For example, the Solar Plant Application Library in zenon supports the simple integration of devices such as solar inverters, combiner boxes or metrology stations, based on the Modbus SunSpec standard. The SunSpec standard defines a rigorous but simple-to-apply data model for solar PV-related devices. Several device manufacturers support the standard. Integrating these devices into zenon is therefore very easy.
Ensuring maximum performance
Cost-effective operation is crucial to achieving the desired return on investment. Operating your equipment effectively requires constant monitoring of all assets involved, but also ancillary data such as environmental and weather conditions. Generating capacity as well as generation targets need to be reliably balanced. The zenon software platform allows you to track any aspect of the performance of your solar PV installation. Real-time data, as well as long-term historical archives and forecasted values, can be flexibly incorporated into an effective performance appraisal system. The storage of process data in open formats and the flexible exchange of files via open interfaces or cloud-based storage media allows you to configure an adaptable solution. As a result, performance management systems according to standards such as IEC 61724 for Performance Monitoring of Photovoltaic Systems can be easily built and constantly improved.
Safety
Ensuring the confidentiality and strict integrity of your solution becomes a key concern in modern power applications. The zenon platform seamlessly connects to any environment, incorporating OT best practices as well as IT security. Various features such as central user authentication and authorization, protocol encryption, central logging, or file tamper recognition can be utilized in this context. In addition, zenon is perfectly suited to work in combination with state-of-the-art security tools.
