Design And Implementation Of External Communication Function Platform In Hydropower Station

As a clean and renewable energy, hydropower can satisfy the demand in power of our society. The monitoring system, featuring "nobody or little on duty" and supporting the remote controlling of power stations, constitutes the core of stations.The author of this paper has been in charge of developing and debugging the external communications of the monitoring system on the Shenxigou hydropower station in Sichuan Province. The external communication has a variety of widely distributed equipment, with various communication protocols. This new function platform of the external communications is designed based on these features.This platform could cater to various hydropower stations and support the external communications in other industries. The platform can communicate with multiply third-party nodes for data collection, transmission and exchange. The platform is also installed with self-developed software to ensure a stable operation of the whole platform. Besides, the highly reliable and stable hardware also enables the platform to work in poor conditions.This paper introduces the features of the external communications of the monitoring system in hydropower stations, analyzes the demands for the platform, and presents a framework for the design of the platform. The design of the platform for Shenxigou Hydropower Station is consisted of two parts:1) the communication with scheduling system by IEC 60870-5-101 protocol and 2) the communication with controlled equipment by Modbus protocol. The paper elaborates the major procedure of designing and difficulties in developing the two protocols, and discusses the platform's actual application in the station. Finally, the paper ends with a reflection of the project and an implication of the platform in other fields.