The King Island power station is load-controlled and fully automated, using Rockwell’s RSView operator interface and an Allen Bradley PLC control system.

The two new wind turbines use Vestas’ proprietary control system, Vestas Online, which enables the remote control of small and large wind farms from a central point, with control, monitoring and historical functions.

Internally, all communications between the Vestas server and the turbines is performed using OPC (object linking and embedding for process control). Rockwell’s RSLinx can operate as an OPC server, making OPC the natural choice to link the proprietary Vestas server with the power stations’ Rockwell controllers.

Hydro Tasmania then discovered that although the two networks were physically connected, it was not possible to logically link the two systems due to domain and DCOM issues.

Hydro Tasmania Consulting chose to take the problem to Matrikon, based on its experiences with Matrikon’s implementation of OPC Explorer during an earlier phase of the Vestas installation, ultimately choosing MatrikonOPC Tunneller to resolve the DCOM issues and automatically bridge the two OPC systems.

“MatrikonOPC Tunneller was literally plug and play,” said Simon van der Aa, control systems engineer with Hydro Tasmania Consulting. “Once we installed it and followed the simple configuration instructions, we haven’t had to touch it. Since it was installed, MatrikonOPC Tunneller has been pretty much transparent.”

Using Tunneller, Hydro Tasmania can now remotely control the Vestas turbines using the Rockwell control system used at the central power station, thus integrating the turbines into the system.

The station controller can also log many parameters of the station and wind turbine operation, allowing the operators to quickly locate and troubleshoot faults that may occur.

Matrikon claims that Tunneller can transfer approximately 20 parameters every second between the two systems.