Energetica India Magazine October-November 2021

Smart SCADA and the Use of Digital Twins in Renewable Energy Plants RENEWABLE POWER The more sophisticated the renewable energy asset, the more sophisticated system you need to support it. Get it right and you can save significant time, resource and money. 14 energetica INDIA- Oct-Nov_2021 As the installation of renewable energy projects grows, so too does the need for smart SCADA tools – the control sys- tems behind the infrastructure – to man- age day-to-day operations and optimise performance. These tools must meet the needs of everyone involved. They must be com- prehensive, digital tools that create a full coverage suite, working with real-time data as well as supporting O&M and strategic management decisions. Suc- cessful integration into a single product is key in solving the most complex oper- ational challenges. Each renewable energy project has unique characteristics down to the en- vironmental features and topography of that location. Each asset owner faces different challenges, depending on its mix of assets and systems. There is no one-size-fits-all system; customization is essential. Digital twins are one of a SCADA solutions most important tools. These advanced analytical models solve prob- lems arising from the management of renewable energy plants to improve performance and extend their life. They use data to gain important insights into assets’ health and performance and so support decision making. Under- standing the performance, identifying underperformance and taking correc- tive maintenance creates genuine value through extending asset lifetimes. Using a data-driven digital twin: a case study This focuses on data-driven digital twin based on real-time SCADA data using INGETEAM’s INGESYSTM Smart SCA- DA product. Asset owners can easily an- alyze this SCADA data using Ingeteam’s analytics tool suite. There are a number of benefits to using this strategy. An asset owner in Latin America, with a portfolio spanning four countries, in- cluding wind farms and photovoltaics plants, needed to unify the data its wind and solar assets generated to create value. The real challenge was to build a central SCADA platform to optimise its O&M decisions across different technol- ogies and countries. Available data integrated into the IN- GESYSTM Smart SCADA to build the digital twin. This was performed by: • Detecting key component behavior changes and trends. KPIs monitor the operational performance of each plant in the portfolio, providing an overview of the health and performance of each unit. The system creates KPIs automat- ically and uses them across the organi- sation to measure and direct O&M. • Integrating machine learning algo- rithms to detect anomalies. Modules use machine learning models for each key component in the wind farms and solar plants. These learn the normal behavior of the components and continuously track performance, raising alerts to de- viations, meaning technicians can focus resource in the right areas. • Applying visual analytics. Time is a scarce resource for field technicians. Visual analytic tools allow technicians to explore the huge amount of data and identify performance issues without needing data scientist skills. • Analysis of performance and pow- er curves. Asset performance is a key factor that must be closely watched. Jorge Acedo R&D Control Systems Director, Ingeteam Wind Energy