Titus Crabb Fri Oct 20

Vertech Solar SCADA System is Recognized in Inductive Discover Gallery

Vertech's project submission titled "Creating the Ultimate SCADA System for Solar Energy," was recognized as one of the 18 best projects of the year by Inductive Automation at their 2017 Inductive Community Conference. The project used Ignition to remotely monitor and control five utility scale solar power plants with combined generating capacity of more than 200MW.

Solar energy is a growing industry, but utility-scale solar power plants can present many challenges for a traditional SCADA system. A typical solar power plant contains thousands of connected devices from a variety of vendors dispersed across a large geographical area. A robust, scalable SCADA architecture which can be quickly rolled out as new power plants are built requires a lot of forethought. From an operations and maintenance perspective, the amount of data can quickly become overwhelming, clouding the ability to quickly identify and correct any issues. In addition to answering these challenges, Vertech also strives to build a solution which is highly polished, both technically and graphically.

The project demonstrated world class user interface (UI) design, intelligent reporting, and the ability to filter cascaded alarm conditions in the runtime environment. The five sites have more than 500 inverters and other devices with a combined total of more than 75,000 data tags, 50,000 alarms, and 10,000 historized data points.

The system vastly improves upon the status quo in the industry, and the customer now has more data available in an easy to use interface, allowing operations and maintenance teams to be more effective when identifying and troubleshooting issues. The analysis of site performance data, which used to be a manual task, is now automated so any site performance issues are quickly brought to the attention of the appropriate people. The system can also be developed and commissioned in record time, allowing Vertech to meet schedules which would otherwise be impossible.

ICC discover gallery archives - Vertech

ICC Discover Gallery Archives - Vertech

 

Learn more about Vertech's UI design philosophy and how it can improve your operations.

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Titus Crabb

As President of Vertech, Titus is responsible for building and maintaining corporate culture, high-level direction and financial stability, overseeing operations. He earned a BSEE from LeTourneau University in 1993, and he is a registered professional engineer in Arizona. He holds an C-11 contractor’s license in Arizona as well. He has worked in the automation industry his entire career starting as a controls engineer developing projects in a variety of industries including semiconductor, municipal water treatment, food and beverage, durable goods manufacturing, and baggage handling. Outside of the office Titus is an avid scuba diver, traveler, and outdoorsman. He channels his inner geek as a licensed ham radio operator with the call sign AF7MI and as a lover of science fiction.

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