For the majority of wind turbines operating throughout the world there is little need for control systems outside of the turbine to manage the flow of energy into that system. On weaker systems this changes as the wind turbines can not only affect the voltages and power flows on that network, but can seriously damage other generation equipment as well. Under such circumstances a control system is required to manage the turbine input and maximise its contribution.
D&WS offers control technology for its projects aimed at maximising the contribution from the 
wind turbines and maintaining the system it is connected to within acceptable voltage, frequency amd outage number/duration values. Primarily this is accomplished using a suite of technologies from Powercorp Pty Ltd, being;
- Master Controller: The highest level computer control which makes decisions about plant scheduling, load management and emergency response based on inputs sent to it from equipment elsewhere in the power system. It is the brains behind our product and is where external information is passed through for remote SCADA and asset management functions to be realised; and
- Generator Controllers and Feeder Controllers: These peripheral devices manage the individual fossil fuel generators and system feeders respectively, passing on information to and acting on advice from the Master Controller. This allows for such functions as plant scheduling and load rejection.
This is automatic, state of the art computer control specifically designed for this task - this is not PLC based equipment. It is designed to operate for twenty years in the most harsh of conditions, and has been used in more than fifty sites from the frozen Antarctica to the tropics of Malaysia.
More details about these Powercorp products can be found on the Powercorp website: www.pcorp.com.au
D&WS also requires sophisticated communications between the wind farm and the Master Controller, and to do this uses the expertise of Western Power's own communications section. Based on the experience of running a utility scale SCADA and protection comms system, this group supplies equipment to D&WS of the highest security and reliability. Our projects have used digital and analogue communications, including radio and fibre optic networks.
The control and communications systems are critical components to D&WS projects and absolutely required for high wind energy penetration. All projects completed by D&WS have used these products, either as retrofits to existing power systems or as new equipment on green field sites.