The Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) layout modules provides a global view of the plant efficiency and of the real-time status of the plant devices.
The SCADA Layout module uses color-coded cells to represent the performance of the devices. Each cell represents one element, and the cell size depends on the position of the element in the hierarchy. The performance of devices is calculated using the value of the best performing device as a reference and then expressed in percentage. The reference device can either be the best performing device of the same type or the best performing sibling device. The SCADA Layout also offers tools to analyze a single device and to compare multiple devices.
This module has three modes to analyze efficiency:
Power: performance is calculated by comparing the device performance against a reference device for each device type. The reference is the latest and highest normalized power value for each device type.
Energy: performance is calculated by comparing the device performance against a reference device for each device type. The reference is the highest daily normalized energy value for each device type.
Alarms: each device is colored with the color of its most representative alarm that is active at the time. There is no comparison between devices in this mode.
The device used as a reference to calculate the performance of other devices.
Green
The device is performing above the highest threshold.
Yellow
The device is performing between the lowest and highest thresholds.
Red
The device is performing below the lowest threshold.
White
The device is not communicating with the system and data cannot be retrieved.
Main Menu
The main menu is where you can change the SCADA Layout mode, customize the threshold for device comparison, see the active alarms, and see the plant weather and the latest total power or energy produced by the plant.
Note: The options available on the user interface vary depending on the mode that you select.
Figure 2. Main menu
Mode selector: click to switch between Power, Energy and Alarms.
Slider bar: click and drag the sliders to define the thresholds for performance. Click the icon to display the legend.
Note: The slider bar is only available in Power and Energy modes.
OR:
Active alarms: displays a count of the active alarms, divided by type. Click the icon to display the legend.
Note: This is only available in Alarm mode.
Plant information: displays general information about the plant. The information depends on the selected mode:
Power: total plant irradiance, plant weather, and total plant power.
Energy: total plant insolation, plant weather, and total plant energy.
Alarms: available peak power percentage and the number of dataloggers currently communicating with the system.
Element Hierarchy
The Element Hierarchy is a visual representation of the plant production hierarchy with parent sets of elements on top, followed by child sets of elements. For example, inverters are on the top lines, followed by string boxes, which in turn are followed by string.
Figure 3. Element hierarchy
Plant units: displays the high-level hierarchy by units. For every unit, you can see the number of levels and use the color-coding to understand the general performance of each level. The last hierarchical level can be customized to condense all the information of its devices in a single cell. This cell is filled proportionally with the device performance color coding.
Click a unit to display its devices in the Plant elements area.
Note: We recommend activating the Plant Units area for plants with a high number of devices, when it is needed to divide the plant in smaller units.
Plant elements: displays the devices and their granular hierarchy. Click a device to display its details in the Device Details area or to add it to the Device Comparison areas. The selected device is highlighted with a dotted line and its parent and child devices with a full line.
Note: Switches cannot be compared and have only two possible statuses:
The switch is open.
The switch is closed.
Element Analysis
The Device Analysis area consists of two tabs where you can see the device details and compare devices between them:
Element details
Element comparison
Figure 4. Element details
Selected element: displays the selected element as a cell. Its efficiency is expressed by the color-coding and by the value on the right side of the cell.
Child elements: the first level of child elements for the selected element are displayed as cells. Their efficiency is represented by the color-coding and by the value on the right side of the cell.
Performance unit: the unit used to express the element performance.
Figure 5. Element comparison
Element count: displays the number of selected elements.
Comparison table: displays selected elements. You can click any header to sort the table by that column.
Click a column header to sort the table by the values of that column. Rearrange columns by dragging and dropping the headers. Click the icon on any column header for advanced filtering. For further information, see Advanced Filtering.
Group actions: click to open and compare the selected elements in other modules:
Live Viewer
Element Viewer
Data Viewer
Linear Chart Viewer
Click the icon to delete all elements from the table.
Element actions: click to open the element in other modules:
Live Viewer
Element Viewer
Data Viewer
Linear Chart Viewer
Click the icon to delete all elements from the table.
