Re: Help for electrical system for a small renewable power plant

[José Díez]

Hi,

What actuators would this control system manage? Reading values from sensors is easy enough, but if you need to control valves/motors you will need some kind of control loop such as a PID controller. 

I'm just trying to figure out the scope of your project. Do you just need a dashboard with some cool graphs, or an active system that controls some physical device?

I'd be happy to discuss your project a bit more (feel free to contact me off-list: m...@jdiez.me). I'm an embedded software engineer.

On Monday, February 1, 2016 at 10:19:56 PM UTC, off...@alp-technologies.com wrote:

Hi all,

We are a start up in London and we are building a prototype of a small power plant. It would be great to get some advice how to build the electric system, because I myself am a mechanical engineer.

So far the electrical system requires to read sensors signals such as temperature, pressure, level and flow. The flow sensor needs a voltage control, because it measures the flow with help of a hot wire. The level sensor measures the distance and sends/receives signals at the same time. Additional some motors need to be manual controlled as well. At this step of the project, the system does not need to run automated.

That is just a brief explanation and I would be really happy to discuss my project further.

So can somebody help me with defining the problem more specific or know somebody who could? I attached a sketch of the power plant to give a better overview.

[Henry Best]

Hi there.

Inverters change Direct Current (like from a battery) into Alternating Current (like the mains).

As you appear to be supplying mains (AC) to the system, what you need are rectifiers to convert the mains AC to DC for your blower and motor.

Before we could design the electrical circuits we would need to know:-

1) What voltage and current the blower uses.

2) What voltage and current the motor uses. (The stall current is the important one for this.)

3) What current the cycle pump uses (I assume it's 240V AC mains) ...How many Amps?

4) What current the fan uses (Again, I assume it's 240V AC mains).....How many Amps?

[Nick Johnson]

It sounds like you need a PLC. There are a variety of reasonably affordable options for small ones, they accept and generate standardised control signals, and they're the default solution for industrial control applications like this, being hardened and high reliability.

On Tue, 2 Feb 2016 11:19  <off...@alp-technologies.com> wrote:

Hi all,

We are a start up in London and we are building a prototype of a small power plant. It would be great to get some advice how to build the electric system, because I myself am a mechanical engineer.

So far the electrical system requires to read sensors signals such as temperature, pressure, level and flow. The flow sensor needs a voltage control, because it measures the flow with help of a hot wire. The level sensor measures the distance and sends/receives signals at the same time. Additional some motors need to be manual controlled as well. At this step of the project, the system does not need to run automated.

That is just a brief explanation and I would be really happy to discuss my project further.

So can somebody help me with defining the problem more specific or know somebody who could? I attached a sketch of the power plant to give a better overview.

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[Ken Boak]

Hi Dario

You could consider the PCU from All Power Labs - this is a fully integrated gasifier and generator control system, which is firmware compatible with Arduino MEGA.

Up to 16 thermocouples

Up to 6 gas pressure senors

8 relay channels for motors, actuators blower fans etc

LCD and user interface

02 Oxygen (Lambda sensor) interface

PID control for engine governor, and air/fuel mix servo

Up to 16 general purpose driver outputs for additional relays, SSRs  etc

ADC inputs for oil and water temperature, oil pressure

Current sensing

Compatible with Open Energy Monitor's 3 phase electricity monitor - for output monitoring

Open source, easily maintained & modified

http://www.allpowerlabs.com/support/support-pcu

The cost is about £1000, but I can probably get you one cheaper.

Hope this might be of interest.

Ken