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EVermont is a nonprofit R&D
organization working with engineering firms, energy companies
and vehicle manufacturers to spearhead design, development
and evaluation of new technologies and to integrate existing
technologies into alternatively fueled vehicles. Proton
Energy Systems and Northern Power, both wholly owned
subsidiaries of Distributed Energy Systems (Nasdaq: DESC),
were contracted by EVermont to build an advanced demonstration
hydrogen fueling station in Burlington, VT. The project
was partially funded through the U.S. Department of Energy's
Hydrogen Program.
The station was designed by Proton Energy and generates
hydrogen on site from electricity and water using their
H-Series electrolyzer (hydrogen generator). This customized
system is built to withstand Vermont's harsh
winters and uses a separate control system to start/stop
the system as well as maintain appropriate temperatures
within the hydrogen generator.
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The station monitors hydrogen production using Northern
Power's SmartView® monitoring and control
software. The SmartView software contains OPC client
capabilities to maximize interoperability with different
control systems and typically relies on Kepware's
OPC server to handle the device connectivity. For this
installation KEPServerEX was used to gather data from
both an Allen-Bradley controller and the hydrogen generator
itself, which has a proprietary controller with a Modbus
interface. According to Brendan Taylor of Northern
Power, "We already understood the benefits of
OPC and we have the capability of developing our own
OPC servers. However, we chose KEPServerEX because
it provides consistent access to a wide variety of
devices and control systems, and allows us to focus
resources on our core business - designing and installing
integrated power systems."
As the system neared completion, the controls engineers
wanted to develop a way for the A-B controller to command
the hydrogen generator to start. Dry contacts were
out of the question due to I/O constraints and other
connection methods were more complicated and expensive.
Since an OPC server was already connected to both
controllers it made sense to look for a way to link
data between these items in the OPC server. Proton
Energy downloaded Kepware's LinkMaster product
and in minutes they were able to implement their strategy.
The LinkMaster application links an OPC item in KEPServerEX
representing an output bit from the A-B controller,
to an OPC item representing the generator start bit
in the Modbus enabled controller. This method reliably
solved the connection problem and saved valuable time
(and money) on the project.
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