CASE STUDY: Bomen Solar Farm
Image: Spark Renewables
Representing a $188 million investment in construction and employment in NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA, the Bomen Solar Farm project was completed on time and on budget by its contractor, Beon Energy Solutions.
With Bomen generating enough power to meet the needs of around 36,000 Australian homes, this the largest solar farm project that AZZO has been a part of to-date.
THE CHALLENGE
Throughout this project, AZZO ‘thought like owners’ – to ensure the solar farm’s control system would be straightforward to manage and not distract from any normal operations.
This required us to provide a proactive response to a number of challenges, which meant utilizing each of AZZO’s 4 core solutions at different stages throughout the project. This included the integration of equipment from various manufacturers, under very tight timeframes – one more example of AZZO bringing technology together.
THE SOLUTION
Full robust and redundant network configuration utilizing Ring Management protocols and redundant Hot Standby PLC’s
Full integration of 33kV HV Bomen Collector Sub-Station SCADA , mimicking all control and monitoring functions within Power SCADA Operations (PSO) and ION7400 for Power Quality Measurement (PQM) at Point of Connection (POC) meter
Detailed assistance with various stakeholders for Hold Point Testing with NSP (Transgrid)
Enhancements for AEMO Dispatch engine, incorporating AEMO compliance FTP processing and integration into PSO
Full secure dedicated VPN and remote access to PME Historian DB and PSO Live data integration for 3rd Party ODBC & OPC access
Extensive active and reactive power control methodology & implementation expanded scope
ION9000 POC meter at 132kV with SMA PPC utilizing High Speed Registers for closed loop control integration
Performance Ratio calculated daily, monthly, annually
Detailed Nextracker Control Unit Monitoring & Control processing of ~40K data points
Advanced Reporting and Dashboards (PME)
RESULTS
AZZO was at the forefront of implementing new functions in the control system to help make the Bomen Solar Farm more reliable in the electrical network. This meant implementing functions for AEMO that no other solar farm (that we know of) has introduced.
Bomen Solar Farm is a 100MWac and 120MWdc solar farm consisting of approximately 309,000 Photo Voltaic Modules mounted in a 3,900 row single axis Nextracker tracking system
Communications algorithms to ensure reliable and high-speed real time and data capturing
There is a single operations and maintenance building, a 132kV/33kV Bomen collector substation, 22 SMA medium voltage power station units and 3 weather stations
The Bomen Solar Farm project included deployment of a Communications Network and a SCADA system
These integrate the key system components, including the interconnecting 132kV/33kV substation switchboard, SMA power plant controller (PPC), medium voltage power stations units (MVPS), Nextracker tracking systems, meteorological stations and power quality metering
The SCADA system integrates the above key components into a single Power Control and Monitoring system for the power plant owner, Spark, and the operation and maintenance provider, Beon ES.
Access has also been provided for ongoing maintenance by key suppliers – SMA for inverters and Nextracker for the tracking system
