Wind turbines are linked together for operation and energy monitoring. This establishes a unique set of challenges since a wind farm can span vast distances with typical locales possessing electrical interference, extreme temperatures, dust, moisture, and vibration. Especially in this project, since Dabancheng is located in the far northwest of China, all of the equipment needs to have the ability to boot up at extremely low environment temperatures under -40°C (-40°F).

It is imperative to utilize rugged networking devices that support long distance and reliable transmission capabilities. Keeping data protected while communicating from the base to the top of each wind turbine and between turbines, can best be achieved through fiber optic Ethernet connections. At the same time, topological requirements and limitations, which are acceptable for conventional networks, become intolerable when designing communications between wind turbines that span vast distances.

Kyland SICOM3000 managed industrial Ethernet switches with 2 fiber ports protects In and Out communications in the wind farm application and handles redundancy in a flexible ring topology via Kyland DT-Ring fast recovery ring protocol. Switches convert copper Ethernet to optical fiber for highly reliable, EMI immune data transmission. Several fiber rings connect all the windmills together with the control center realizing the integrated monitoring and control.

In this wind farm automation system, we need to monitor the working status of the wind turbine and the quality of the energy generated. This includes the direction of the wind turbine, the angle of the turbine blade, the vibration of the turbine tower, and the power of the energy. Kyland 5 port unmanaged KIEN1005 industrial Ethernet switches are used inside the wind turbine to collect all the data and send it out through one fiber port. In this project, another KIEN1005 is located in the cabinet under each windmill to convert the fiber to copper and connect with SICOM3000. Currently, Kyland offers several 3 fiber port models for wind farm
applications, such as KIEN7009/SICOM3009A, which can elimanate one KIEN1005 in each windmill.

The system has very strict requirements on wide temperature variation operation especially with the need for the device to boot up under -40°C (-40°F) environment temperature. Goldwind, the system integrator, finally select Kyland solution to form the communication network for its rugged design and outstanding performance in harsh environments including wide operating temperature of -40 to 85°C (-40 to 185°F), industrial level 4 EMC design for EMI resistance, solid aluminum housing with single ribbed surface for heat dissipation, redundant power inputs with over-current, over-voltage and EMC protection.

Operates in harsh industrial environment with EMC industrial level 4, wide operating temperature, dustproof, fanless design
Outstanding performance of booting up under -40°C (-40°F) extremely low temperature
Fast recovery DT-Ring protocol ensures the reliability of the network
Unified management software Kyvision3.0 for real-time network monitoring and easy management