DDS Powers Siemens Wind Power
CHALLENGE
Siemens Wind Power , the world ’ s leading manufacturer of wind turbines , standardized on DDS-based messaging software for their next-generation turbines to deliver resilient , high-performance and scalable data distribution .
A wind farm may include hundreds of turbines , often installed in distant and hard-to-access locations at sea . Like all power systems , the goal of the farm is to match generation to load . A farm with hundreds of turbines must optimize that load by balancing the loading and generation across a wide geography . In a storm , the farm must decide how to take energy out of gusts to generate constant power while managing the loading and potential damage to a half-billion dollar installed asset . The wind farm thus needs to implement a highly scalable and distributed control system , where reliability and performance are critical .
CASE STUDIES
Siemens identified several fundamental requirements that led them to the selection of DDS . First , the control systems within the giant turbine , itself a complex machine , required high-performance real-time networking . Second , the farms produce copious amounts of data ; a farm of 500 turbines may have up to a million data points . Third , Siemens deploys wind power solutions in environments where network services may vary from fast LAN to mid-range broadband to slow wireless or satellite communications . Fourth , the entire farm must be controlled , managed , and maintained from remote monitoring stations .
SOLUTION
Siemens Wind Power uses DDS to build a scalable , high-performance operational network and integrate it with business intelligence software . DDS-based messaging software can monitor and control wind farm arrays with up to 500 wind turbines . The real-time messaging and quality of service features of DDS enable Siemens to manage turbulence through the wind farm so that performance and wear is uniform in such a highly distributed operational environment . Additionally , the ability of the standard to be integrated with other systems , including business enterprise applications , allows Siemens to remotely monitor and troubleshoot the wind farm ’ s operations . The ability of the solution to run over a variety of different network transports helps Siemens build large farms and intelligently integrate them over multiple heterogeneous networks . In the future , the DDS system-of-systems flexibility and scalability will allow connecting multiple farms and business systems .
BENEFITS
Real-time messaging and QoS features of DDS help control large wind farms and manage dynamic effects like turbulence to optimize performance and wear . Integrating with on-shore business infrastructure allows key efficiency benefits such as predictive maintenance . Overall , the unprecedented edge-to-enterprise connectivity gives Siemens a competitive edge by combining the highest possible performance with ease of control and business systems integration .
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