New TwinCAT PLC library for IEC 61400-25 wind power plant communications standard

For the standardisation of plant communication in wind farms, Beckhoff“¸s TwinCAT automation software supports the IEC 61400-25 communication protocol. Using the „TwinCAT Telecontrol Configurator,“¸ the configuration of the complex IEC-61400-25 data model is possible without requiring specialised programming skills.

TwinCAT supports the IEC 61400-25 communication protocol with a PLC library for standardised communication in wind farms. Apart from the communication stack and the data types, IEC 61400-25 also defines a wind power-specific data model as a supplement to IEC 61850. This encompasses, for example, objects that describe a wind power plant generator or processes in wind turbine nacelles. The object-orientated standard is physically based on Ethernet technology.

With the „TwinCAT Telecontrol Configurator,“¸ the TwinCAT PLC library includes a convenient option to configure the IEC 61850 or IEC 61400-25 data model quickly and simply. The user has XML-based databases for IEC 61850 or IEC 61400-25 at their disposal as a basis for the creation of a configuration. Even without programming skills, a user who is familiar with the standard can create their own data model virtually at the push of a button.