User manual/Examples

Example: hydroelectric plant

How to start and operate CH Valdearenas, the complete SCADA of a two-unit Francis plant with a simulated PLC.

2 min read

CH Valdearenas (examples/hydro) is a complete project for a dam-toe hydroelectric plant. It has two 10 MW Francis units and a 66 kV substation, plus a simulated PLC with the plant's physics so you can operate it without hardware.

Overview

Start

  1. Open abscada.exe and pick Central hidroeléctrica · CH Valdearenas on the start screen.
  2. Keep Arrancar también su PLC simulado (also start its simulated PLC) ticked: the program starts the plant's simulated PLCs for you.
  3. When Studio opens, click Abrir runtime (open runtime).

If you close the simulator, start it again from Herramientas → Simuladores de PLC… (Tools → PLC simulators).

Communications

Connection Protocol Port Contents
PLC_G1 S7 1102 Unit 1: commands, sequence, measurements and protections
PLC_G2 S7 1103 Unit 2, same memory map
PLC_SSCC S7 1104 Reservoir, spillway, substation and auxiliaries
Contador_66kV Modbus TCP 1502 Revenue meter: P, Q, U, f and energy

Without the simulator every signal shows bad quality and the header shows COM in red.

Starting a unit

With the unit in REMOTE and Ready to start lit, press ARRANCAR (start) on the unit screen. The PLC walks the steps:

  1. Auxiliaries start: cooling, oil pressure unit, brakes released.
  2. Main inlet valve opening.
  3. Acceleration with the wicket gate at 15 % up to 100 % speed.
  4. Excitation up to 6.3 kV.
  5. Synchronisation and 52G closing.
  6. On load: the governor follows the power setpoint.

PARAR (stop) unloads the unit, opens 52G and closes the gate and valve. The emergency stop asks for confirmation and locks the unit out (86) until REARME 86 (reset) is pressed.

Unit 1 on load

Alarms and protections

Signal Alarm Trip
Guide bearing 70 °C 80 °C
Thrust bearing 75 °C 85 °C
Stator 110 °C 130 °C
Vibration 4.5 mm/s 7.1 mm/s
Oil pressure 52 bar 45 bar

There are 43 alarms in 6 categories. Each unit screen includes its own filtered viewer.

Exercises

Open Simulación (instructor) in the menu to inject faults:

  • Bearing overheating: alarm, then trip.
  • Cooling failure: every temperature rises.
  • Grid loss: load rejection, unit trips and diesel start. Recover by closing 52L on the single-line.
  • Flood: the spillway opens automatically.

Alarm and trip

Teaching example

Timings are compressed and the reservoir reacts about 200 times faster than reality. A real plant's protections live in relays and PLCs, never in the SCADA.

More detail on the case study page and in examples/hydro/README.md.

Example: hydroelectric plant · abSCADA