A control system for a hydroelectric generating unit

Abstract

The present application belongs to the technical field of hydropower station control, and discloses a control system for a hydroelectric generating set, comprising: a local control unit; a plurality of IO-LINK master station modules, each IO-LINK master station module being deployed in a field device area in a region; a plurality of IO-LINK slave station modules, each IO-LINK slave station module being arranged in the region of a sensing device or / and an executing device in each field device area; each field sensor and each field actuator being connected to the proximal IO-LINK slave station module, each IO-LINK slave station module being connected to the IO-LINK master station module in the corresponding area through a bus cable, and each IO-LINK master station module being connected to the local control unit. The present application can greatly reduce the field wiring amount in the control scene of a small and medium capacity hydroelectric generating set, and effectively solve the problem of serious signal attenuation in long distance transmission.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention belongs to the field of hydropower station control technology, and in particular relates to a control system for a hydro-generator unit. Background Technology

[0002] Hydropower is a power generation technology that uses water conservancy projects to concentrate the gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy of water bodies and convert water energy into rotational mechanical energy and electrical energy in sequence. It is one of the most mature and flexible forms of power generation in the field of clean and renewable energy.

[0003] A complete hydropower station mainly consists of four core parts: water-retaining structures, spillway structures, water intake system, and power plant. The water-retaining structures are mainly dams, which raise the water level by impounding river water to form the working head and storage capacity required for power generation. The spillway structures include facilities such as spillways and flood discharge tunnels, which undertake the functions of flood discharge during the flood season and water level regulation in the reservoir area. They are key facilities to ensure the safety of the dam and the normal operation of the project. The water intake system consists of intake, water intake tunnel, pressure pipeline and tailrace, which smoothly introduces water from the reservoir area into the power plant to provide a stable power source for the generating units. The water after power generation is discharged back into the river through the tailrace system. The power plant houses the turbine generator units, as well as supporting speed control devices, excitation devices, monitoring and protection systems and other core electromechanical and control equipment. It is the core place for converting water energy into electrical energy. The control system for the turbine generator units directly undertakes the core functions of unit start-up and shutdown control, output regulation, operating condition switching and fault protection. Its architecture and performance directly determine the power station's power generation efficiency, operational stability and grid response capability.

[0004] According to my country's hydropower project classification standards, hydropower stations are divided into different scale levels based on their installed capacity: 300,000 kilowatts and above are large hydropower stations, with 1,200,000 kilowatts and above classified as Large Type I, and 300,000 to 1,200,000 kilowatts as Large Type II; 50,000 to 300,000 kilowatts are medium-sized hydropower stations; and 100,000 to 50,000 kilowatts are small hydropower stations, with 10,000 to 50,000 kilowatts classified as Small Type I, and 100,000 to 10,000 kilowatts as Small Type II. Within the industry, medium-sized and small hydropower stations with an installed capacity below 300,000 kilowatts are generally referred to as small and medium-sized hydropower stations. These stations offer flexible site selection, short construction periods, and are often scattered along county tributaries and mountain streams.

[0005] my country has a wide distribution of small and medium-sized hydropower resources, with a total installed capacity of over 100 million kilowatts. It is an important component of the clean and renewable energy system and plays a vital role in county-level energy supply, grid peak shaving, and renewable energy consumption.

[0006] Currently, most operational and newly built small and medium-sized hydropower stations generally adopt traditional distributed design schemes for their turbine generator units' control systems, which have many pain points. For example, redundant hardware resources significantly increase construction costs; complex and cumbersome wiring within cabinets makes troubleshooting and maintenance difficult; it is difficult to achieve centralized analysis and remote collaborative management of the entire unit's operating data, failing to meet the "unmanned or minimally staffed" operation requirements of modern hydropower stations; traditional small and medium-sized hydropower control systems mostly use a single-bus star network architecture, where a single link or node failure can cause a communication interruption of the entire system, easily leading to unplanned unit shutdowns and affecting power generation revenue and grid stability; the amount of on-site wiring is large, and long-distance signal transmission suffers severe attenuation; it cannot flexibly adapt to the personalized needs of different power stations, nor can it meet the requirements of subsequent intelligent upgrades of power stations; and so on.

[0007] In the prior art, Chinese patent document CN116708278A discloses a method for upgrading a hydropower station network based on redundancy technology, including: upgrading the internal control network of the hydropower station to a 100 Mbps redundant fiber optic ring network and configuring the MRP sub-ring redundancy protocol; establishing a Hiper-Ring gigabit redundant fiber optic ring network between the cascade hydropower station basins and enabling Layer 3 routing and VRRP functions; using Hirschmann Layer 3 switches for data transmission between the remote control center and the hydropower station; adopting link aggregation technology to add a Layer 2 aggregation device between the dam LCU switch and the basin switch RSPE30; and conducting functional testing.

[0008] The above solution achieves communication link redundancy at the hydropower station and basin backbone network levels by configuring MRP sub-ring redundancy protocol and establishing Hiper-Ring gigabit redundant fiber optic ring network. However, this solution still has shortcomings and cannot solve problems such as large on-site cabling workload and severe signal attenuation over long distances in the control scenarios of small and medium capacity hydro-turbine generator units. Summary of the Invention

[0009] This invention provides a control system for hydro-generator sets, which can significantly reduce the amount of on-site wiring in control scenarios of small and medium-capacity hydro-generator sets, while effectively solving the problem of severe signal attenuation during long-distance transmission.

[0010] To achieve the above objectives, the basic solution of the present invention provides a control system for a hydro-generator set, comprising: a local control unit; a plurality of IO-LINK master modules, each IO-LINK master module being deployed in a different area within the field equipment area; a plurality of IO-LINK slave modules, each IO-LINK slave module being arranged nearby in the sensing device and / or actuator area of ​​each field equipment area; each field sensor and each field actuator being connected to a nearby IO-LINK slave module, each IO-LINK slave module being connected to the corresponding area's IO-LINK master module via a bus cable, and each IO-LINK master module being connected to the local control unit.

[0011] In the field of small and medium-sized hydropower control, traditional solutions require separate wiring for all sensors and actuators to the local control cabinet, resulting in a large amount of wiring work and severe signal attenuation over long distances. This solution adopts distributed IO-LINK slave modules deployed nearby. Traditional sensors and actuators at each site are directly connected to the nearest IO-LINK slave module. After the IO-LINK slave modules aggregate the field-collected data and control feedback signals, they are transmitted to the IO-LINK master module in the corresponding area's main control cabinet via a single bus, significantly reducing the amount of field wiring. These areas include integrated hydraulic stations, bearing lubrication systems, and dam level devices. At the same time, IO-LINK digital communication has strong anti-interference capabilities, and no signal distortion occurs during long-distance transmission, ensuring the accuracy of operating parameter acquisition. In addition, IO-LINK communication supports online fault diagnosis, which can directly locate specific sensor component faults, improving fault diagnosis efficiency by 80% compared to traditional centralized wiring, and reducing the difficulty of subsequent unit operation and maintenance.

[0012] Preferably, the control system also includes several IO-LINK sensors deployed in the field, each IO-LINK sensor connected to the IO-LINK master station module of its corresponding area. In this preferred embodiment, IO-LINK sensors are directly deployed in areas where data needs to be collected but where traditional sensors are not yet installed, further reducing the amount of on-site wiring.

[0013] Preferably, each IO-LINK master station module is connected to the local control unit via an MRP media redundancy ring network. In this preferred scheme, the ring network architecture has a fully automatic self-healing function, ensuring stable and reliable data transmission. In the event of a single link or single node failure, the network reconstruction and self-healing time does not exceed 200ms, which is far superior to the industry standard requirements. After the fault is repaired, the original network structure can be automatically restored. The equipment maintenance process does not require unit shutdown, significantly improving system availability, ensuring uninterrupted data transmission, reducing downtime losses, and improving reliability by an order of magnitude compared to traditional single-bus networks. This solves the long-standing pain point of unstable control communication for small and medium-sized hydropower units.

[0014] Preferably, the control system further includes a supervisory control unit, and the local control unit and the supervisory control unit communicate using a PRP redundant network or a dual-star redundant network.

[0015] Preferably, the local control unit integrates speed control, excitation control, relay protection, water inlet valve control, auxiliary machine control, and electrical energy acquisition functions based on the same PLC platform. This preferred solution integrates the traditionally distributed systems into a single hardware system, achieving integrated control of the entire unit process. This reduces redundant hardware configuration and complex wiring, reducing the number of cabinets by more than 60% compared to traditional solutions, and reducing the overall installation space occupied by at least 50%. It can reduce the overall construction cost of the control system by 15%-25%, and reduce the wiring length in the control cabinet by more than 30%. This reduces wiring costs and potential wiring faults such as poor contact, while simplifying the troubleshooting process and reducing the difficulty and cost of later maintenance.

[0016] Preferably, the local control unit is also connected to a backup IO-LINK master module via an MRP media redundancy ring network. In this preferred embodiment, the local control unit is also connected to a backup IO-LINK master module via an MRP media redundancy ring network, which allows for flexible addition or removal of IO-LINK slave modules according to unit capacity and power plant requirements, i.e., flexible addition or removal of functional modules, resulting in strong versatility.

[0017] Preferably, the PLC platform also integrates a communication processing module, which is configured to communicate with external heterogeneous devices and has a built-in hardware protocol conversion kernel. This preferred solution enables interconnection and interoperability between devices of different manufacturers and models, solving the data silo problem in traditional systems.

[0018] Preferably, the upper-level monitoring unit includes a data acquisition module for acquiring unit operating parameters from the local control unit.

[0019] Preferably, the upper-level monitoring unit further includes a storage and management module for storing and managing the unit operating parameters acquired by the data acquisition module.

[0020] Preferably, the upper-level monitoring unit further includes an external communication module for data interaction with external systems.

[0021] Preferably, the data acquisition frequency of the data acquisition module is not less than 10Hz.

[0022] Preferably, the local storage capacity of the storage and management module is not less than 1TB, and it can be expanded to cloud storage. This preferred solution enables larger-scale data retention.

[0023] Compared with the prior art, the beneficial effects of the present invention are: (1) The present invention adopts distributed IO-LINK slave modules to be arranged nearby. Each field sensor and each field actuator is directly connected to the nearby IO-LINK slave module. After each IO-LINK slave module collects the field data and control feedback signals, it transmits them to the IO-LINK master module in the main control cabinet of the corresponding area through only one bus. IO-LINK sensors are directly arranged in places where data needs to be collected but where traditional sensors are not set up, which greatly reduces the amount of field wiring. At the same time, IO-LINK digital communication has strong anti-interference ability and will not produce signal distortion during long-distance transmission, ensuring the accuracy of operating parameter collection. In addition, IO-LINK communication supports online fault diagnosis, which can directly locate the fault of specific sensing element, improving the fault diagnosis efficiency by 80% compared with traditional centralized wiring, and reducing the difficulty of later unit operation and maintenance.

[0024] (2) The I0-LINK master station module is connected to the local control unit through the MRP medium redundancy ring network. The ring network architecture has a fully automatic self-healing function, ensuring stable and reliable data transmission. When a single link or a single node fails, the network reconstruction self-healing time does not exceed 200ms, which is far superior to the industry standard requirements. After the fault is repaired, the original network structure can be automatically restored. The equipment maintenance process does not require the unit to be shut down, which significantly improves the system availability, ensures uninterrupted data transmission, and reduces the loss of fault downtime. Compared with the traditional single bus network, the reliability is improved by an order of magnitude, which improves the stability of unit operation and solves the long-standing pain point of unstable control communication of small and medium-sized hydropower units.

[0025] (3) This invention integrates the traditionally distributed systems into a single hardware system, realizing integrated control of the entire process of the unit. It reduces redundant hardware configuration and complex wiring. Compared with the traditional solution, it reduces the number of cabinets by more than 60%, and the overall installation space occupied is reduced by at least 50%. It can reduce the overall construction cost of the control system by 15%-25%, and reduce the wiring length in the control cabinet by more than 30%. This not only reduces wiring costs, but also reduces the potential for wiring faults such as poor contact. At the same time, it simplifies the fault diagnosis process and reduces the difficulty and cost of later maintenance.

[0026] (4) The present invention can also flexibly add or remove functional modules according to the unit capacity and power station requirements. It has strong versatility and can be adapted to different types and capacities of hydro-generator units. It can also meet the expansion needs of power station intelligent upgrading and transformation in the later stage.

[0027] (5) This invention can realize the interconnection and interoperability of equipment from different manufacturers and different models, and solve the problem of data silos in traditional systems.

[0028] (6) Realize data sharing across the entire power station, providing a data foundation for remote centralized management and control and intelligent fault analysis, helping small and medium-sized hydropower stations achieve intelligent operation with "no one on duty and fewer people on duty", and improving the operating efficiency of the power station. Attached Figure Description

[0029] Figure 1 This is a system diagram of Embodiment 1 of the present invention. Detailed Implementation

[0030] The present invention will be further described below with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments, but this is not intended to limit the present invention. Any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, etc., made within the spirit and principles of the present invention should be included within the protection scope of the present invention.

[0031] Currently, most operational and newly built small and medium-sized hydropower stations generally adopt the traditional distributed design scheme for their turbine generator unit control systems, which has many drawbacks: First, the high cost and difficult maintenance: redundant hardware configuration significantly increases construction costs, complex and cumbersome wiring within the cabinets makes troubleshooting and maintenance difficult in the later stages. The reason for this problem is the decentralized configuration of hardware; functional subsystems such as speed regulation, excitation, protection, and water inlet valves are provided by different manufacturers, each with its own independently configured hardware control cabinet.

[0032] Secondly, the problem of data silos is prominent: it is difficult to achieve centralized analysis and remote collaborative management of all unit operation data, failing to meet the operational requirements of modern hydropower stations for "unmanned operation and minimal staffing." This problem stems from inconsistent communication protocols; different brands of equipment use proprietary or different standard communication protocols, making data exchange between subsystems impossible.

[0033] Third, the reliability of the network architecture is insufficient: Traditional small and medium-sized hydropower control systems mostly adopt a single-bus star network architecture without redundancy mechanisms. A single link or a single node failure can cause a communication interruption of the entire system, which can easily lead to unplanned shutdowns of the units, affecting the power plant's power generation revenue and the stability of the power grid operation.

[0034] Fourth, it has poor scalability: it cannot flexibly adapt to the personalized needs of different power plants, nor can it meet the requirements of subsequent intelligent upgrades of power plants. The reason for this problem is the rigidity of software functions. Traditional control system software is mostly developed in a customized and rigid manner, making it difficult to trim, upgrade, and modify functions.

[0035] Fifth, the on-site cabling work is extensive, and signal attenuation is severe over long distances.

[0036] To address the aforementioned problems, this invention provides a control system for a hydro-generator unit, comprising: a local control unit; a plurality of IO-LINK master modules, each IO-LINK master module being deployed in a regional manner within the field equipment area; a plurality of IO-LINK slave modules, each IO-LINK slave module being arranged nearby in the sensing device and / or actuator area of ​​each field equipment area; each field sensor and each field actuator being connected to a nearby IO-LINK slave module, each IO-LINK slave module being connected to the corresponding IO-LINK master module via a bus cable, and each IO-LINK master module being connected to the local control unit.

[0037] Preferably, the control system also includes several IO-LINK sensors arranged in the field, and each IO-LINK sensor is connected to the IO-LINK master station module of the corresponding area.

[0038] Preferably, each IO-LINK master station module is connected to the local control unit via an MRP media redundancy ring network.

[0039] Preferably, the control system further includes a supervisory control unit, and the local control unit and the supervisory control unit communicate using a PRP redundant network or a dual-star redundant network.

[0040] Preferably, the local control unit integrates speed control, excitation control, relay protection, water inlet valve control, auxiliary machine control, and electrical energy acquisition functions based on the same PLC platform.

[0041] Preferably, the local control unit is also connected to a backup IO-LINK master station module via an MRP media redundancy ring network.

[0042] Preferably, the PLC platform also integrates a communication processing module, which is configured to communicate with external heterogeneous devices and has a built-in hardware protocol conversion kernel.

[0043] Preferably, the upper-level monitoring unit includes a data acquisition module for acquiring unit operating parameters from the local control unit.

[0044] Preferably, the upper-level monitoring unit further includes a storage and management module for storing and managing the unit operating parameters acquired by the data acquisition module.

[0045] Preferably, the upper-level monitoring unit further includes an external communication module for data interaction with external systems.

[0046] Preferably, the data acquisition frequency of the data acquisition module is not less than 10Hz.

[0047] Preferably, the local storage capacity of the storage and management module is not less than 1TB, and it can be expanded to cloud storage.

[0048] Example 1: This embodiment describes a control system for hydro-generator sets, which addresses the problems of large on-site wiring work and severe signal attenuation during long-distance transmission in control scenarios for small and medium-capacity hydro-generator sets.

[0049] like Figure 1 As shown, this embodiment includes: a local control unit; several IO-LINK master modules, each IO-LINK master module being deployed in different areas of the field equipment area; several IO-LINK slave modules, each IO-LINK slave module being arranged nearby in the sensing device and / or actuator area of ​​each field equipment area; each field sensor and each field actuator is connected to the nearest IO-LINK slave module, each IO-LINK slave module is connected to the corresponding area's IO-LINK master module via a bus cable, and each IO-LINK master module is connected to the local control unit.

[0050] The control system also includes several IO-LINK sensors deployed in the field, with each IO-LINK sensor connected to the corresponding IO-LINK master station module.

[0051] Each IO-LINK master station module is connected to the local control unit through an MRP media redundancy ring network. The MRP media redundancy ring network conforms to the IEC62439-2 standard. The backbone data transmission rate of the MRP media redundancy ring network is not less than 100Mbps and supports gigabit expansion.

[0052] The control system also includes a supervisory control unit, and the local control unit and the supervisory control unit communicate using a PRP redundant network or a dual-star redundant network.

[0053] The local control unit integrates speed control, excitation control, relay protection, water inlet valve control, auxiliary machine control, and electrical energy acquisition functions based on the same PLC platform. The PLC platform is configured with 8 channels of 16-bit analog input, 4 channels of analog output, 128 channels of digital input, 48 channels of digital output, and is further configured with 32 channels of high-speed sequence event record (SOE) input.

[0054] The PLC platform is also connected to a backup IO-LINK master station module through an MRP media redundancy ring network. The standard configuration of the control system has sufficient IO margin. When adding monitoring points or expanding functions in the future, only the IO-LINK slave station module needs to be added. There is no need to replace the main controller or modify the cabinet. It is compatible with different capacity units of small and medium-sized hydropower stations and the renovation needs of existing power stations, and the renovation period is shortened by more than 70%.

[0055] The PLC platform also integrates a communication processing module, which is configured to communicate with external heterogeneous devices and has a built-in hardware protocol conversion kernel. The hardware protocol conversion kernel supports bidirectional conversion of various mainstream industrial communication protocols, including Modbus RTU / TCP, PROFIbus-DP, PROFINET, and TCP / IP. It can adapt to existing and newly added equipment from different manufacturers and models, and unify the data of scattered heterogeneous devices into a standard format to access the centralized management and control platform. This fundamentally solves the data silo problem of traditional small hydropower control systems and realizes interconnection and data interaction of all equipment in the entire power station.

[0056] The upper-level monitoring unit includes a data acquisition module for acquiring unit operating parameters from the local control unit. These parameters include voltage, current, frequency, guide vane opening, unit speed, reservoir water level, downstream tailrace water level, bearing temperature at various locations, stator temperature, unit vibration, unit swing, and oil tank pressure. The upper-level monitoring unit also includes a storage and management module for storing and managing the unit operating parameters acquired by the data acquisition module. The local storage capacity of the storage and management module is no less than 1TB and can be expanded to cloud storage. The storage and management module includes multi-dimensional analysis functions, visualization functions, hierarchical alarm functions, and remote control functions. It supports historical data storage and retrieval for a period of at least one year, dynamic curve plotting of core operating parameters, and automatic generation and export of intelligent fault diagnosis reports. This embodiment achieves larger-scale data retention, breaks the traditional data silos between subsystems, realizes data sharing across the entire unit and cross-module collaborative analysis, and provides complete data support for unit operation optimization and fault prediction.

[0057] The upper-level monitoring unit also includes an external communication module for data interaction with external systems; the external communication module supports direct access to the local power grid dispatching system and the basin-level hydropower centralized management and control platform, meeting the operational requirements of modern small and medium-sized hydropower stations for "unmanned operation and minimal staffing".

[0058] The data acquisition frequency of the data acquisition module is not less than 10Hz.

[0059] The above descriptions are merely embodiments of the present invention. Commonly known structures and characteristics are not described in detail here. Those skilled in the art are aware of all common technical knowledge in the field prior to the application date or priority date, are aware of all existing technologies in that field, and have the ability to apply conventional experimental methods prior to that date. Those skilled in the art can, under the guidance of this application, improve and implement this solution in combination with their own capabilities. Some typical known structures or methods should not be obstacles for those skilled in the art to implement this application. It should be noted that those skilled in the art can make several modifications and improvements without departing from the structure of the present invention. These should also be considered within the scope of protection of the present invention, and will not affect the effectiveness of the implementation of the present invention or the practicality of the patent. The scope of protection claimed in this application should be determined by the content of its claims, and the specific embodiments described in the specification can be used to interpret the content of the claims.

Claims

1. A control system for a hydro-generator set, characterized in that, include: Local control unit; Several IO-LINK master station modules are deployed in different areas of the field equipment area; Several IO-LINK slave modules are arranged in the sensor and / or actuator areas of each field device area; Each field sensor and each field actuator is connected to the nearest IO-LINK slave module. Each IO-LINK slave module is connected to the corresponding IO-LINK master module via a bus cable. Each IO-LINK master module is connected to the local control unit.

2. The control system for a hydro-generator unit according to claim 1, characterized in that, The control system also includes several IO-LINK sensors deployed in the field, with each IO-LINK sensor connected to the corresponding IO-LINK master station module.

3. The control system for a hydro-generator unit according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, Each IO-LINK master station module is connected to the local control unit via an MRP media redundancy ring network.

4. The control system for a hydro-generator unit according to claim 3, characterized in that, The control system also includes a higher-level monitoring unit, and the local control unit and the higher-level monitoring unit communicate using a PRP redundant network or a dual-star redundant network.

5. The control system for a hydro-generator unit according to any one of claims 1, 2, and 4, characterized in that, The local control unit integrates speed control, excitation control, relay protection, water inlet valve control, auxiliary machine control, and electrical energy acquisition functions based on the same PLC platform.

6. The control system for a hydro-generator unit according to claim 5, characterized in that, The local control unit is also connected to the backup IO-LINK master station module via an MRP media redundancy ring network.

7. The control system for a hydro-generator unit according to claim 6, characterized in that, The PLC platform also integrates a communication processing module, which is configured to communicate with external heterogeneous devices and has a built-in hardware protocol conversion kernel.

8. The control system for a hydro-generator unit according to any one of claims 4, 6, and 7, characterized in that, The upper-level monitoring unit includes a data acquisition module, which is used to acquire unit operating parameters from the local control unit.

9. The control system for a hydro-generator unit according to claim 8, characterized in that, The upper-level monitoring unit also includes a storage and management module for storing and managing the unit operating parameters acquired by the data acquisition module.

10. The control system for a hydro-generator unit according to any one of claims 4, 6, 7, and 9, characterized in that, The upper-level monitoring unit also includes an external communication module for data interaction with external systems.

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