PHOENIX CONTACT | Customer Magazine UPDATE 3/11

In Amaraleja, Portugal, a solar farm comprising 2,520 solar trackers generates up to 45.8 MW of electrical power. ILC 150 ETH compact controllers from Phoenix Contact collect the solar panels’ operating data and prepare them for further processing. A large PV system distributed over a wide area is very challenging as regards intelligent error management and the continuous monitoring of operating or process data. At the Amaraleja facility, the ILC 150 ETH compact controller from Phoenix Contact takes care of these tasks.What made the decision-makers choose this compact PLC for collecting and pre-processing operating data of the individual solar panel strings is the modular, flexible, and scalable I/O system of Phoenix Contact’s Inline range, which also complies with protection class IP 20. In addition, the compact controller comes with an Ethernet interface, greatly facilitating networking. Cost-Efficient Monitoring The large Amaraleja facility combines single- string monitoring on the direct current side and inverter monitoring on the alternating current side.This is complemented by sensors that collect environmental measuring data at various select locations. A shunt resistor or a Hall-effect sensor and a Rogowski coil are used to measure the string current. Both measuring transducers are part of the Phoenix Contact product line. On the feed-in side, inverters are used and their operating parameters must be monitored as well. Depending on the type of inverter, the data is either directly downloaded from the device via the serial interface and Modbus/RTU or, if modern components are used, via Ethernet and Modbus/TCP. As Inline controllers of the 100-type performance class from Phoenix Contact are factory equipped with an Ethernet interface, Modbus/TCP devices can be connected to the PLC with ease. Owing to pre-built communication libraries for the PC Worx engineering environment, programming becomes a simple task. Michael Gulsch Reaching for the Sun Solar Power Plant Automation with ILC 150 ETH The Amaraleja facility combines 2,520 solar trackers comprising a total of 262,080 photovoltaic modules. The ILC 150 ETH Inline controller and the connected I/O modules serve as a central unit for collecting all operating data. Signal transducer for conditioning the analog input signals. On Site10 UPDATE 3|11