PRESENTATION
2018 - PI World - San Francisco - Transmission & Distribution
New Approach to SCADA at Solar Farms
In 2017 Sempra Renewables added a 200 MW solar facility in Fresno County, CA to their portfolio. Known as Great Valley Solar, the project is made up of 4 unique sites that tie into a common point of interconnection (POI). The existing SCADA for the site consists of PLCs and an HMI. It controls eighty-two (82) 2500kW inverters for the 4 independent solar sites with 5 sets of SCADA. The SCADA was initially designed for 4 independent sites which are physically separate from one another. The challenge was to converge all sites as one. Trying to control voltage at the POI requires a unique understanding of voltage interaction among the 4 sites; without a good understanding, the site risked circular Var flow from site to site and would not affect the POI as desired. The solution was to leverage the OSIsoft PI System and PXiSE, an advanced grid control technology, to deploy a solar advanced-SCADA platform.
Industry
- Transmission & Distribution
Company
Sempra Renewables
Speaker
David Jeon
David Jeon is currently the Fleet Technical Manager for Sempra Renewables. He has been with Sempra since May of 2004 working on everything from combined cycle plants to the Renewables plants. He has over 15 years of experience in the power industry.
Prior to coming to Sempra, David worked for Black and Veatch.
David graduated from North Carolina State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering. His background is in controls but ever since joining Sempra, he decided to dive into the renewables arena back in 2008 and had to diversify and work on all aspects of the projects, starting from overall design to operations. He has extensive knowledge in solar, wind and energy storage.