Digital Communications in Electrical Generation Systems
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WHITE PAPER Digital Communications in Electrical Generation Systems By Bill Gross Senior Staff Engineer – Electronics Software KOHLER Power Systems and Nicole Dierksheide Product Manager – Controls & ATS KOHLER Power Systems oday, electrical generation systems are rarely used as isolated, of the hardware as the physical devices – things you can touch – Tstand alone systems. More often, they need to communicate and the protocol as the software that allows data to flow between with peripheral devices, other generation systems, building man- the hardware. agement systems or remote monitors. As a result, there are a num- ber of technologies used to enable communication between elec- trical generation systems and other equipment. If you’re involved in specifying, installing or maintaining electrical generation sys- PROTOCOL tems, you’ll find it helpful to understand how these communica- Language tion technologies work to meet your needs and the requirements of the building. HARDWARE It’s important to involve all stakeholders when you discuss Air integrating the existing systems with the electrical generation HARDWARE HARDWARE system. Mutual agreement on the needs and desired functional- Human 1 Human 2 ity will ensure a system that operates as required. Specifying the Figure 1. Human Communication Model correct communication technologies at the beginning can save you and your clients hours of frustration as you try to make mis- In a human model, the hardware elements are the people and matched systems work or have installation delayed while you the protocol is the language. (Figure 1.) Usually, the communi- order the correct parts. cation challenge for humans is the potential for differences in language. Each person must follow certain grammatical rules for The Stakeholder Team Should Ask These Questions: the communication to be meaningful. Speed can also be a factor. • Who needs to be part of this discussion? Participants Most of us have experienced listening to someone who is hard to could include information technology, building mainte- follow because they talk too fast, or someone else who tries our nance, production management and energy management patience because they talk so dreadfully slow. Similarly, com- personnel. munication networks can experience similar issues that are like • What existing systems need to communicate with the a conversation being interrupted by others, or the person you’re electrical generation system? talking with going off on a tangent and losing the main point of • What information/status indication do you need to gath- the conversation. Additionally, if there is great enough distance er from the electrical generation system? What exact data between humans, then additional hardware is required and if do you need communicated? the hardware cannot connect, such as through a telephone, the • Where does this data need to be sent? How long is the language cannot be transmitted. These are the standards in hu- distance from electrical generation system to end device? man communication. • What is the communication hardware and protocol em- Communication between electronic devices is like communi- ployed by the building management system devices (or cation between people – with similar complexities and issues. other systems) that will connect to the electrical gen- In a communication system, the hardware is composed of digital eration system? What hardware and protocol should be circuitry, which meets precise timing and power requirements specified to operate with the existing systems? put forth by an international standards committee. Because of this standardization, the hardware component of the communi- This paper provides information on digital communication cation system tends to be straightforward. An everyday example systems used in electrical generation systems that will help you of communication hardware would be a USB (Universal Serial understand why the answers to these questions are so impor- Bus) cable and connectors between a PC and a printer. tant. When the stakeholder team incorporates this knowledge The protocol, or language, used to communicate over hard- and answers the questions, they’ll be able to develop a compre- ware is open to a much greater degree of variation. There can hensive, well-thought-out electrical generation system specifica- be multiple protocols that communicate through a given type of tion, and avoid pitfalls during installation and use. hardware. Additionally, some protocols are created as industry standards. Similar to the hardware standards referenced above, What Comprises a Communication System Within an protocol standards define the manner in which the language is Electrical Generation System? composed, so two devices connected through the hardware can A communication system consists of two separate, indepen- talk to each other if using the same protocol. If a protocol is dent components: the hardware and the protocol. You can think not defined by an industry standard, then it is considered pro- Powerline • September/October 2013 www.EGSA.org 23 WHITE PAPER prietary. Information about proprietary protocols is not usually cable selection. RS-485 does not define widely shared. Only other developers who know its details can the physical characteristics of the con- develop products that will be able to communicate through the nection points on each end. A Euroblock proprietary protocol. connector (Figure 2) is typically used on The use of a USB memory stick is an example of a standard KOHLER generation systems. A Eurob- protocol. Think of plugging in a memory stick from one com- lock connector is a pluggable terminal Figure 2. puter to another. Each computer can recognize it because it ad- block that uses screw terminals to clamp Euroblock Connector heres to a standard. An example of a proprietary protocol is the connecting wires. It provides a quick, in-vehicle communication system used by mechanics’ diagnostic convenient way to connect and disconnect electronic devices. computers to service your automobile. The communication be- An important characteristic of RS-485 is the need for a ter- tween the engine computer and the other car components is via minating resistor. Without a terminating resistor, messages can proprietary protocols unique to each auto manufacturer. interfere with each other. A terminating resistor ensures that the While preparing an electrical generation system specification, communicated message stops at the last device rather than re- it is vital to gather communication hardware and protocol infor- flecting or bouncing back and interfering with the next message mation for each device or system that must communicate with sent. The generation system specification must detail the special the new electrical generation system. steps required to ensure proper operation when employing an The collection of this hardware and protocol data will assure RS-485 serial network. appropriate system functionality. It is also important to identify any adapters that may be necessary to convert from one hard- RS-485 Considerations ware and/or protocol to another. The following sections describe • RS-485 can be a lower-cost hardware choice compared common communication hardware/networks and protocols to other options if the distance is not significant. Because used in electrical generation systems. RS-485 requires a twisted-pair cable, it can become cost- ly to run the cable great distances, especially if it needs to be encased in conduit. Communications Hardware and Protocols Used in Electrical Generation Systems • RS-485 can function in distances up to Hardware Protocol Connector Cable Common Applications 1200 meters/4000 feet. Modbus Twisted-Pair Generation system con- • RS-485 works well in electrically noisy RS-485 Euroblock Rbus (Belden) troller to external systems environments. • RS-485 offers relatively lower communi- J1939 Engine to generator cation speeds compared to other choices. ADEC/MDEC 9-pin Cable with connec- controller, generator to CAN This is not an issue in most situations, but SmartCraft D-subminiature tor on end external devices (guages, could become noticeable if large amounts NMEA 2000 I/O, etc.) of data are being transferred. IP Modbus TCP Cable with RJ-45 Modbus RTU (Protocol) RJ-45 Building management Ethernet SNMP plug and Cat 5 recepticle systems Modbus RTU (remote terminal unit) is a BACnet cable serial communication protocol developed in LonWorks the late 1970s. It communicates over the RS- Genertaor to PC for 485 hardware layer and is the most common Cable with Type Device Mode Type B receptical configuration or data implementation of Modbus. It can be used B plug USB download to communicate with building management Cable with Type Genertaor to flash drive to systems, such as SCADA, and other systems Host Mode Type A receptical A plug download or upload data that support the protocol. The Modbus RTU protocol specifies that an individual device on the network must be RS-485 the primary (master) device while all other devices are second- RS-485 Serial Networks (Hardware) ary (slave). The primary is the only device that can initiate com- munication activity. All secondary devices react according to the The RS-485 standard defines a physical connection for se- initiation of the primary. rial networks. It should not be confused with RS-232, another serial network standard that was typically deployed on comput- Rbus (Protocol) ers in the past. Developed in the early 1970s, RS-485 is still Rbus is a KOHLER® proprietary protocol developed primar- extremely popular in industrial communication products today. ily for use with residential and light commercial products. It The RS-485 standard defines the physical manner in which the communicates over the RS-485 hardware layer and creates a devices are connected as twisted-pair with a specific configu- holistic solution among KOHLER generators, transfer switches, ration of what is transmitted on each connection point. When programmable interface module, load control modules and simi- selecting the cabling, it must be defined as RS-485 twisted-pair. lar devices. Because it is proprietary, it does not allow commu- KOHLER® Power Systems recommends Belden as a high-quality nication with non-proprietary systems.