Boost Real-Time Monitoring in Energy Storage Systems

March 18, 2024

Sponsored Story

SCADA, or supervisory control and data acquisition systems, are key components of modern industrial operations, designed to monitor, control, and manage various processes and equipment in industries such as manufacturing, energy storage, water treatment, transportation, and telecommunications.

1. While SCADA systems are not new to the industrial and automation sectors, they are now being used to control, monitor, and analyze data retrieved from energy storage systems.

Specific to energy storage, SCADA has gained wide acceptance, where they have introduced the concept of "intelligent data collector," which can significantly reduce the load on SCADA software and increase the real-time capability of energy storage monitoring systems. By providing real-time visibility over the state of assets and operations, SCADA helps business owners and operators make smarter decisions, improve efficiency, and minimize downtime.

At the core of SCADA systems is a centralized hardware-software platform that gathers data from sensors, meters, and other devices installed in the field. These sensors collect information on parameters such as temperature, pressure, flow rate, and voltage, among others. The data is transmitted via communication networks, which could be wired or wireless, to the central SCADA system.

A key component of that SCADA system is the "intelligent data collector," which can significantly reduce the load on SCADA software and increase the real-time capability of energy storage monitoring systems.

SCADA’s Role in Energy Storage and Management

In the energy storage and management sector, SCADA systems play a pivotal role in ensuring efficient and reliable operation of various components within the energy infrastructure. The SCADA systems contribute through various means, including:

• Continuously monitoring the performance and health of the energy storage systems, including its various subsystems;
• Dynamic remote control and optimization;
• Seamless integration with renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind, into the grid, which also helps stabilize the grid;
• Data analysis and reporting through collection of vast amounts of data, letting operators identify trends, forecast future performance, and optimize maintenance schedules.

To make these items a reality, an intelligent gateway is needed to help monitor and optimize everything from traffic light patterns to public power consumption. For example, when a city is able to see spikes in resource usage, it can quickly respond and optimize operations to account for trends or anticipated heavy loads on the various municipal systems. In addition, the city can purchase resources, like electricity, at times when the costs are lower. And it can optimize the lighting and HVAC within its buildings, all through the use of intelligent gateway systems.

The SCADA system, which can be thought of as a “front-end data collector,” serves as the gateway to the rest of the larger system, including the connection to the Internet, where a far wider reach can be achieved. When selecting front-end data collectors, the following factors are typically considered:

• The "energy storage module" is comprised of numerous batteries connected in parallel. Each energy storage cabinet/box, depending on its capacity, is stacked, and connected in parallel by tens or hundreds of modules.
• All the modules inside the cabinet/box have their charging and discharging process data, such as temperature, voltage, and current, regularly recorded to ensure the safety of the energy storage device, maintain the efficiency of the modules, and intelligently predict the timing of module maintenance to shorten maintenance downtime.
• SCADA software can directly collect data from hundreds of modules sequentially. Alternatively, an intermediate intelligent data collector, such as the Matrix-700/Matrix-710 from Artila, can be introduced as a proxy for data collection. The SCADA software only needs to access the proxy one time to retrieve data from all the modules, which significantly reduces the load on the SCADA software.

The Artila Solutions

Artila's Matrix-700 and Matrix-710 Arm-based embedded Linux computers can an ideal choice for front-end data collectors in the industrial IoT architecture, thanks to their lightweight, compact, and reliable characteristics. They have been widely deployed in various energy monitoring systems, including convenience stores, supermarkets, restaurants, commercial office spaces, medium-sized photovoltaic sites, and smart power dispatching fields.

2. The Artila Matrix-710 is ready made to operate as the front end of a SCADA platform that is optimized for energy storage and management.

From a technical perspective, the Linux-ready Matrix-710 is designed with a 536-MHz Atmel ATSAMA5D35 Cortex-A5 CPU. Supporting a node-red user interface, the platform can support up to 512 Mbytes of LPDDR2 SDRAM, 16 Gbytes of eMMC flash memory, and 8 Mbytes of DataFlash for system backup. Software development is handled through the use of the gcc 9.3.0 + glibc 2.31 tool chain.

I/O for the Matrix-710 comes through one 1-Gbit/s Ethernet port and one 10/100 Mbit/s Ethernet port to support an RF module, four USB host ports, eight RS-485 serial ports (four isolated), and two CAN ports that can connect to more than 100 energy storage modules.

Like the Matrix-710, the Matrix-700 supports Linux kernel 5.10.x or up. The biggest difference between the two platforms is that the Matrix-700 supports two USB host ports and four RS-232/RS-485 serial ports.

Data Collection Made Simple

 

3. PLACEHOLDER FIGURE Artila’s web-based configuration tool simplifies the data collection and analysis process as it supports data collection from Modbus/RTU devices and sensors.

A key feature of both the Matrix-710 and Matrix-700 is Artila’s ready to use front-end data collection app that supports data collection from Modbus/RTU devices and sensors. Through the web-based configuration tool/utility, users can quickly set up a front-end data collector that caters to most application scenarios. The data acquisition software that comes bundled with either platform can also perform linear operations on individual data or perform collective calculations on group data.

Artila remains at the forefront of technology when it comes to applications like SCADA-based energy storage systems. To its credit, the global company envisions a future where computing becomes a natural part of the environment, with data and information available everywhere, at any time. To achieve this, Artila is working to simplify the connection process for all computing systems. To learn more, contact the company today.