Executive Summary
NEP Solar, Ultimo, NSW, Australia
NEP Solar developed, manufactures, and supplies the PolyTrough, a patented parabolic trough solar collector. NEP Solar also provides consulting services and delivers projects from conceptual design through to turnkey supply of solar thermal systems. Industrial heating is NEP Solar's key market where heat, normally generated by burning fossil fuels, is replaced with heat captured from the sun. The typical temperature is up to 250° C, although higher temperatures are possible.
The Urban Power Station, as NEP Solar and EnergyAE have dubbed it, is a first-of-its-kind solar thermal tri-generation system which has been installed in a new building for the Faculty of Engineering and IT (FEIT) at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). The system comprises four PolyTrough 1200 parabolic trough solar collectors, a thermal storage tank, a 10 kWe organic Rankine cycle (ORC) turbine and a 19 kWr absorption chiller, heat exchangers, pumps, instruments, and a control system. The system can deliver electrical power, chilled water, lower temperature hot water (from the chiller and ORC condenser, for use in household hot water tanks), and higher temperature hot water.
System overview
Given that this system operates with water at high temperatures and pressure levels, and is located in a building used for teaching, it was essential to have a control system that would be able to safely control the process while allowing researchers to change the configuration and test conditions without having to stop the process. An added requirement was for the researchers to have local and remote access to all process data.
To meet these needs, NEP Solar turned once again to a Yokogawa FAST/TOOLS supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) solution. Its functions include a data historian that allows the development team to compare results from the entire testing period and evaluate modifications, thus improving the learning aspect of the project. Yokogawa HXS10 solar tracking controllers are used to keep the solar collectors aligned with the sun and to monitor environmental parameters, and a single Yokogawa STARDOM FCN controller is used for the overall control of both the solar array and all key system equipment including the ORC, chiller, pumps, three-way valves, flow meters, and temperature and pressure sensors.
NEP Solar and UTS plan also to use a collaboration center that incorporates live video feeds to demonstrate this system to other researchers around the world.
The Challenges and the Solutions
The NEP Solar development team had prior experience with the Yokogawa systems, so they continued the partnership with Yokogawa and relied on their local engineering expertise to understand the challenges and supply a flexible, cost effective, and workable control solution.
The development team worked very closely with the Yokogawa engineering team, drawing on the core competencies of both companies to develop solutions for the unexpected challenges that were encountered during the project. The NEP Solar team developed the control strategy and the Yokogawa engineers programmed the controller accordingly.
The use of a single STARDOM controller for the integrated control of the solar field, ORC, chiller, and balance of plant (BOP) facilities enabled significant savings in both space and cost. The FAST/TOOLS SCADA provided an all-in-one monitoring, alarm, data historian, trending, and reporting solution, and enabled easy remote access for offsite use.
The FAST/TOOLS software could be installed on the notebook PCs used by the development team, eliminating the need for costly dedicated servers.
Plant room
Customer Satisfaction
With its advanced capabilities, the integrated Yokogawa control solution provides an ideal and highly flexible solution that can easily be customized as the plant evolves.
Johan Dreyer, NEP Solar's Managing Director, said, "The FAST/TOOLS STARDOM solution was perfect for this system as it offered us the flexibility needed to control the system well with plenty of scope for future optimization by the faculty. This system is a first of its kind and is used as a technical demonstrator of a commercially possible solution as well as a learning platform for research and development by the faculty at UTS."
PolyTrough collectors on the roof
Johan Dreyer recently commented, “We are pleased to announce that NEP Solar has
just been awarded the Denis Joseph Award for Innovative Use of Solar Energy in HVAC
and Refrigeration category at the 2014 AIRAH Awards.”
업종
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신재생에너지
신재생에너지의 사용은 환경을 보호하고 사회와 산업 모두를 지속 가능한 사회를 만드는 목표를 달성하는 데 도움이 됩니다. 그러나 기존의 에너지원에 비해 생산 원가 상승과 그리드 전력 공급 불안정과 같은 급속한 채택에 직면하는 특정 문제가 있습니다. Yokogawa는 제어 및 계장 사업의 선도 기업으로서 다양한 산업 분야의 고객이 안정적인 운영을 달성하고 공장의 생산성을 향상시키도록 항상 노력해 왔습니다. 운영 효율성을 달성하기 위한 VigilantPlant 개념을 기반으로 우리는 신재생 에너지원의 사용 방법을 제시하는 솔루션을 제공하고 있습니다.
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전력
1970년대 중반, Yokogawa는 EBS 전기 제어 시스템 (EBS Electric Control System)의 출시와 함께 전력 사업에 진출했습니다. 그 이후로 Yokogawa는 전 세계 고객에게 최상의 서비스와 솔루션을 제공하기 위한 기술과 역량의 개발을 꾸준히 지속해 왔습니다.
Yokogawa는 역동적인 글로벌 전력 시장에서 더욱 적극적인 역할을 수행하기 위해 글로벌 전력 솔루션 네트워크를 운영했습니다. 이로 인해 Yokogawa 내에서 보다 긴밀한 팀워크가 가능해져서 글로벌 리소스와 업계 노하우를 하나로 모았습니다. Yokogawa의 전력 산업 전문가들은 각 고객에게 정교한 요구 사항에 가장 적합한 솔루션을 제공하기 위해 협력합니다.
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태양광 발전
태양은 무한의 청정에너지원이며 인간은 이를 여러 가지 방법으로 오랫동안 사용해 왔습니다. 오늘날, 태양광 발전은 태양 열에너지의 대규모 활용을 위한 가장 효율적이고 비용 대비 고효율 수단 중 하나이기 때문에 상당한 관심의 대상입니다. Yokogawa는 전 세계적으로 1,300개 이상의 발전소 프로젝트 실행을 통해 습득한 경험 및 태양광 발전을 지원하는 지식과 전문 인력을 보유하고 있으므로 태양광 발전소를 효율적이고 안전하게 운영하는 것을 지원하고 있습니다.
Related Products & Solutions
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FA-M3
초고속, 안정된 제어, 링크 기능 및 향상된 네트워크 성능을 특징으로하는 FA-M3V 컨트롤러는 모든면을 개선하여 최고 속도로 안정적인 제어를 제공함으로써 만들어졌습니다.
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FAST/TOOLS
FAST(Flexible Advanced System Techniques) 프로젝트로 시작된 FAST/TOOLS는 포괄적인 완전 통합형 SCADA 애플리케이션 제품군입니다. 강력하고 유연한 FAST/TOOLS는 50포인트 단위공정에서 수천 마일이상 확장되는 수백만 포인트 규모의 offshore 생산 및 Pipeline 시스템에 이르는 설비를 제공합니다.
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FCJ All-in-one PLC/RTU
The brick type model FCJ autonomous controller fulfills the basic requirements of the utility control. It also provides the reliability for the SCADA communication with network redundant capability.
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Process Control PLC/RTU
프로세스 공장에서 원격 위치에 이르기까지 당사의 공정제어 PLC 및 원격 터미널 장치 (RTU)는 사용자가 운영의 우수성을 극대화하도록 돕습니다.