SCADA System Applied To Micro Hydropower

Plant

Gilberto Schneider*, Vanessa F. de Lima*, Lucas G. Scherer*, Robinson F. de Camargo* and Claiton M. Franchi*
*Power Electronics and Control Group - GEPOC
Federal University of Santa Maria - UFSM
Santa Maria, Brazil
giba.schneider@gmail.com, vanessalima.fd@gmail.com, lgscherer@gmail.com, robinson.camargo@gmail.com,
claiton.franchi@gmail.com

Abstract—This paper proposes a simulation and emulation was chosen for the project because it is considered very robust,
system using Matlab and SCADA (supervisory control and with low cost and maintenance [6]. This is the natural choice
data acquisition). Matlab is used for micro hydropower plant because small hydropower plants require topologies with low
simulation. The emulation system is composed by a SEIG (self- cost [7].
excited induction generator) coupled to an electric motor drived
by frequency converter. The Modbus RTU (Remote terminal This paper also proposes the turbine dynamics simulation
unit) protocol connects SCADA with the frequency converter along with the emulation of the dynamics response and a
and OPC (object linking and embedding for process control) SCADA system to collect data. Using a SCADA system, it
links SCADA with the Matlab environment. Hydropower plants is possible to change some parameters of the simulated hy-
simulation systems requires integration of several components dropower, making possible an analysis of the system response
and for this purpose it was used a SCADA system to process
to several situations.
information and make it available to the operator in real time.
Keywords—Modeling, Hydropower, Simulation, Selfexcited In- II. P ROPOSED S YSTEM
duction Generator, SCADA.
The turbine and water simulation is done by Matlab and the
simulation results are transferred to SCADA system via OPC
I. I NTRODUCTION and sent to the frequency converter. Each item is detailed in
the next sections. The system overview is shown in Fig.1.
A new field of research was proposed based on the need of
diversification on the world energy matrix, showing an expan-
sion trend that needs decentralization of the power generation
system. The motivation for finding solutions in distributed
generation is the increase of energy cost obtained from fossil
fuels due the restriction of its production. An example is the
oil price increase in recent decades [1], [2].
To perform a feasibility study, it is necessary to model
all the components to simulate and emulate systems in micro
hydropower plants. To develop a system able to perform
simulations about installation points and generation capability
for new hydropower plants, as well as test the connection
system of this energy on the grid and its new topologies.
The communication system in this paper is similar to [3], Fig. 1. Overview of the emulation system.
where is proposed a SCADA system of a hydropower plant
using the OPC process system to improve the integration
between all devices without requirement for specific drivers The topology chosen for power generation employs an
for each pair of devices. The SCADA system provides an asynchronous generator that requires a constant rotation, which
easy access to real-time data [4]. Modbus network is used involves having a method of turbine speed controlling. In order
to connect the SCADA to the emulated power plant. The use to achieve this, a simplified model of the turbine is used as
of Modbus justified by its robustness and faster speed than well as all the rest of the modeling of the hydraulic system
the OPC servers, therefore being applied at points that require [6].
larger data stream [5].
The variables collected by the plant sensors are sent to the
The emulation process is done with an electric motor drived supervisory system via wireless Modbus network that connects
by frequency converter as a primary machine coupled to a self- the SCADA to a DSP, where the code was implemented for
excited induction generator (SEIG). The electric generator is this protocol. There is the need of using a RS-232/RS-485
done by an asynchronous electric induction machine which is converter for connection of most devices with wireless module,
generally applied as the electric motor. This type of generator since most of the equipment works with RS- 232 and the

978-1-4799-0224-8/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE 7205

wireless Modbus modules work with RS-485, that operates
with differential voltage [8], helping to make the system less dU ag
= − (H − Ho ) (3)
susceptible to noise in the communication. dt L
The proposed system is presented by Fig.2 and represents
a hydro turbine (induction motor), frequency converter, induc- Q = AU (4)
tion generator, excitation capacitor bank, (VSI) and SCADA.
Considering: Kp , Ku - Proportionally constant;
ag - Gravity acceleration;
G - Ideal open of the deflector;
H - Hydraulic head at gate;
L - Length of conduit;
Ho - Initial value of H;
P - Turbine power;
Q - Rate of water flow;
A - Cross section of the pipe;
In systems with large disturbances, the equations were
normalized and are now expressed in per unit value basis (pu).
Thus the following equations were obtained:

Fig. 2. Proposed system.

U = G(H) 2 (5)

III. H YDRAULIC S YSTEM M ODELING P = UH (6)

A hydropower generation system is composed of the ele-
ments shown in Fig.3. The deflector is responsible for the water
U 1
flow controlling. Where U is the water speed in the pipe. =− (7)
(H − Ho ) Tw S

Considering: Tw the starting time of the water in the

operating nominal condition, being established by the equation
(8), where r is the notation for nominal values.

LUr LQr
Tw = = (8)
ag Hr ag AHr

The mechanical torque equation of the turbine is:

wo 1
T mec = ( )P mec = (U − U N L )HP ru (9)
w w
Fig. 3. Basic scheme of a hydropower plant.

Where w the turbine speed in pu, P ru the turbine reference

A. Turbine Modeling power and P mec the generator nominal power.
For the turbine modeling it was chosen a nonlinear model Considering At as the turbine gain and being obtained by
of a simple hydraulic system. The use of a nonlinear model is the equation (10).
due to the fact of having an appropriate behavior for simulation
in the time domain with large variations of load and frequency 1
At = (10)
[9]. The model is ruled by the following hydrodynamics gF L − gN L
equations (1),(2), (3), (4).
Where g F L e g N L represent, respectively, the openings of
√ the deflector in pu at full load and no load. Considering steady
U = Ku G H (1)
state and no load conditions, are obtained:

P = Kp HU (2) U N L = At g N L (H o )1/2 (11)

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 The equations (8),(9), (10) and (11) fully describe the
characteristics of the water column and turbine, and may be
represented in block diagram form according to Fig.4.

Fig. 4. Nonlinear model of the hydraulic system (NMHS).

B. Flow Actuators Modeling

The set of actuators is responsible for the opening and

closing of the turbine deflector. The control system associated
with a dedicated is responsible for the control of active power
generated by the generation system and mechanical power
provided on its axis.

The control system consists of the following basic ele-

ments: a hydraulic servo valve and a servo motor. The servo
valve controlled by electrical signals from the DSP (Digital
signal processor), controls the direction and flow of hydraulic
fluid; the servo motor, according to this flow, directly controls
the deflector movements of the turbine.

The block diagram of the set of actuators is shown in Fig.5,

considering the constants parameters defined as follows [10]:

Ka : actuators gain;
1
s:transfer function (integrator) relating the servo motor Fig. 6. Block diagram of the simulation.
and servo valve positions;
1
s+sT g :
transfer function relating the opening of the deflec- The simulation receives the frequency and converts in
tor, g, with the servo motor position; angular velocity, then the angular velocity in pu value. This
value is compared to the frequency reference by the speed
TG : time constant of the servo motor; control system and generates a control signal to the hydraulic
system model. The response of Hydraulic System Model is
g: output signal corresponding to the actual opening of the a mechanical torque, based on parameters inserted by the
deflector (in pu); SCADA and the control signal provided by speed control. The
mechanical torque is converted to frequency using the response
u: control signal; of SEIG model. The frequency value is the feedback of the
simulation and achieves the frequency converter by OPC and
SCADA.
Using a SCADA system, it is possible to change some
parameters of the simulated hydropower, making possible an
analysis of the system response to several situations. The
Fig. 5. Block diagram of the turbine hydraulic actuators (THA). interconnection between the supervisory system and Simulink
is made by an OPC-DA(data acquisition), which is a con-
tinuous communication protocol widely used to transfer data
for HMI (Human machine interface), PLC (Programmable
IV. S IMULATION /E MULATION S YSTEM logic controller) and other industrial equipment. This protocol,
in particular, consists in collect equipment data using an
The hydraulic model presented previously was inserted object-oriented technology, and making available to customers,
into the MATLAB software, in the Simulink environment therefore, data is available in real time.
to perform the simulation of the model. Fig.6 shows the
simulation block diagram. The principal advantage of this type of communication is

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not necessary to use specific drivers for each device, because
all the interfacing among different devices is done by the OPC
server [11]. In Fig.7 is shown the screen that is used a SCADA.
Fig. 7. SCADA applied to micro hydropower plant.
The main advantage of using a SCADA system is the
friendly interface that allows easier data visualization, besides
having a historical system, making possible the further analysis
of the data collected during tests or real turbine operation [12].
The simulation generates a reference speed, which is the
expected speed in a real turbine with the same characteristics of
the turbine modeled, under the conditions previously inserted
into the SCADA system. Also are taken into consideration
frequency and voltage conditions of the electricity generated
by the system, collected via OPC by the SCADA system to
Simulink.
Using the Modbus protocol is possible to implement the
communication in two standards, the RTU (Remote terminal
unit) and TCP/IP (Transmission control protocol/internet pro-
tocol). In the RTU for each transmitted byte, two characters
are encoded for a serial transmission. The TCP/IP in which
the data are encapsulated for transmission via Ethernet [13].
The RTU standard was chosen due to its larger utilization in
the industrial area, because the standard TCP/IP protocol still
has a high encapsulation cost.
The Modbus is a master-slave protocol, therefore one of
the devices is responsible for requesting data on the network,
in the system presented the supervisory is the master and the
DSP is a slave. The structure message send by the master and
the slave response is shown in Fig.8.
The DSP is the responsible for direct actions relating to the
processing of the generated electricity, it acts on the plant mak-
ing sensor readings and performing the voltage compensation
through capacitors and a static reactive compensator.
One of the advantages of wireless communication between
these two devices is that the supervisory point of the simulation
does not need necessarily be close to the ambient where are
located the other devices that constitute the system.
The speed change drived by frequency converter simulates
the action of the water deflector of the real turbine, which is
responsible for the change in the water flow and therefore the
turbine speed. To connect the SCADA with frequency con-
verter is employed another wireless Modbus module, allowing
the data transfer between them. The wireless communication
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ensures in a plant the possibility of having the turbine in a
aggressive environment, allowing that all electronics control
be placed in another ambient with appropriate conditions for
such components. Modbus wireless modules have an open field
range up to one kilometer and withstand well to an ambient
with electromagnetic interference. These wireless devices fol-
low the IEEE 802.15.4 as the standard for wireless networking.
Fig. 8. Modbus protocol structure message [13].
V. C ONCLUSION
The SCADA system applied in a distributed generation
system provides a great tool for managing the distributed
generation. Likewise, the proposed system proved to be an
important resource, especially for testing of a new voltage
control topology without a real turbine.The hydropower plant
simulation/emulation interface with a SCADA system allows
real-time monitoring with a friendly interface, enable to change
simulation parameters to test different operations conditions
before installing the turbine. The responses stored by the
SCADA database allows analyze the system performance.
This resource helps in new technologies development with
lower cost due to the fact of not requiring the construction
of the primary machine prototype and allows tests before the
implementation of the real equipment.
Moreover, another advantage of using a system incorpo-
rating the supervisory is that the parameters are exposed in
a simple way, becoming easy to modify them. Therefore, the
friendly interface does not require an operator with a deep
knowledge in modeling and simulation to manage the system.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank CNPq and FAPERGS for
financial support.
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