Application of Ethernet Switches in Energy Management: How to Unify Monitoring of Distributed Devices?
In the wave of transformation and upgrading in the energy industry, distributed energy systems are reshaping the industrial landscape with their characteristics of "zero carbon, intelligence, and decentralization." From photovoltaic power stations in the northwest deserts to wind farms along the southeast coast, from energy storage systems in urban buildings to integrated energy stations in industrial parks, tens of thousands of distributed devices constitute the "nerve endings" of the new power system. However, with these devices scattered across geographical areas spanning hundreds of square kilometers, achieving unified monitoring, intelligent scheduling, and efficient operation and maintenance has become a core challenge in the construction of energy management platforms. Ethernet switches, with their industrial-grade design, highly reliable network architecture, and intelligent data transmission capabilities, are becoming the key technological foundation for solving this problem.
The typical characteristics of distributed energy systems are wide device distribution and complex environments. For example, a large photovoltaic power station covers an area of 50 square kilometers, including 200,000 photovoltaic modules, 500 inverters, and supporting meteorological monitoring equipment; the wind turbines in a wind farm are scattered across mountainous or marine areas within a 30-kilometer radius. Traditional monitoring solutions rely on manual inspections or independent monitoring systems, which are not only inefficient but also suffer from issues such as data collection delays and misjudgment of equipment status. A wind power enterprise once failed to promptly detect abnormal oil temperatures in a wind turbine gearbox, resulting in a three-day equipment shutdown for maintenance and direct losses exceeding one million yuan.
Distributed energy devices involve more than ten types of terminals, including PLCs, sensors, inverters, and electricity meters, with over 20 communication protocol standards such as Modbus RTU, IEC 61850, Profinet, and DL/T 645. In the energy management system of a chemical enterprise, the power monitoring alone required compatibility with six protocols, resulting in data parsing time accounting for 40% of the system response time and a protocol conversion equipment failure rate of up to 15% per year. This "seven nations, eight systems" protocol ecosystem severely restricts data interconnection and value.
Distributed energy devices often face extreme environmental challenges: photovoltaic power stations in the northwest must withstand temperatures as low as -40°C and sandstorms, wind farms along the coast must resist salt spray corrosion and typhoons, and underground energy storage systems must cope with high humidity and electromagnetic interference. The energy management network of a steel enterprise once experienced a threefold increase in switch failure rates due to high summer temperatures, directly causing production interruptions; the communication equipment in an offshore wind farm had an average mean time between failures (MTBF) of less than one-third that of traditional equipment due to salt spray corrosion.
Ethernet switches break through environmental limitations through three core technologies:
Wide Temperature Operating Capability: Utilizing fanless cooling designs and industrial-grade chips, they support extreme temperatures ranging from -40°C to 85°C. For example, the USR-ISG series switches have operated stably for over three years in an environment of -35°C at a photovoltaic power station in Inner Mongolia, with a failure rate one-fifth that of commercial switches.
High Protection Level: With all-metal casings and IP40 protection designs, they can resist dust, moisture, and electromagnetic interference. An offshore wind farm adopted Yutai Technology's UT-63424G series switches, achieving five years of zero failures in an environment with salt spray concentrations three times the standard.
Redundant Power Supply Design: Supporting dual power inputs and automatic switching, they ensure "uninterrupted power" for the network. The energy management network of a steel enterprise utilized the redundant power supply function of the USR-ISG to achieve a 0.2-second switchover in the event of a main power failure, avoiding production accidents.
Ethernet switches achieve protocol interoperability through three technologies:
Multi-Protocol Conversion Engine: Built-in protocol parsing libraries support transparent transmission of mainstream protocols such as Modbus TCP/RTU, IEC 61850, and Profinet. A distributed photovoltaic power station used USR-ISG switches to uniformly convert 12 types of device protocols into the MQTT format, improving data parsing efficiency by 80%.
VLAN Isolation Technology: By dividing virtual local area networks, it isolates the data streams of different protocols to avoid protocol conflicts. A chemical enterprise utilized VLAN technology to independently transmit power monitoring, process control, and safety alarm data, reducing network packet loss rates to 0.001%.
Edge Computing Capability: Some high-end switches (such as the USR-ISG Pro series) support Python/C++ script programming, enabling local data cleaning, protocol conversion, and preliminary analysis. A wind farm reduced the preprocessing time for wind turbine vibration data from 2 seconds to 200 milliseconds through edge computing, providing real-time support for fault prediction.
Ethernet switches ensure network stability through four mechanisms:
Ring Network Redundancy Technology: Adopting the IEEE 802.1Qbv Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) protocol, it constructs millisecond-level self-healing ring networks. The energy management network of a steel enterprise utilized the HSR ring network redundancy function of the USR-ISG to achieve a 300-millisecond switchover in the event of a link failure, ten times faster than traditional STP protocols.
Link Aggregation Technology: Bundling multiple physical links into logical links improves bandwidth and redundancy. A distributed photovoltaic power station increased its data transmission bandwidth from 1Gbps to 8Gbps through the 8-port link aggregation of the USR-ISG, meeting the demands of high-definition video monitoring and big data analysis.
QoS Quality of Service Guarantee: Through 802.1p priority marking and traffic shaping, it ensures real-time transmission of critical control instructions. A smart grid project stabilized the transmission delay of relay protection signals within 50 microseconds through QoS strategies, meeting power system safety standards.
Remote Management Function: Supporting multiple management methods such as SNMP, Web, and CLI, it enables device status monitoring, firmware upgrades, and fault diagnosis. An energy enterprise shortened its equipment inspection cycle from one week to one day through the remote management platform of the USR-ISG, reducing operation and maintenance costs by 60%.
Project Background: A 500MW photovoltaic power station is equipped with a 100MW/200MWh energy storage system, with devices distributed across an area of 80 square kilometers, including 200,000 photovoltaic modules, 500 inverters, 200 groups of energy storage batteries, and 10 sets of meteorological monitoring stations.
Solution:
Network Architecture: Adopting a "core-aggregation-access" three-layer architecture, the core layer deploys 2 USR-ISG Pro series 10-gigabit switches, the aggregation layer deploys 10 USR-ISG gigabit switches, and the access layer deploys 200 USR-ISG 100-megabit switches, constructing a dual-ring network redundancy network.
Protocol Unification: Through the protocol conversion function of the USR-ISG, protocols such as Modbus TCP from photovoltaic inverters, IEC 61850 from energy storage systems, and SNMP from meteorological instruments are uniformly converted into the MQTT format and uploaded to the energy management platform.
Real-Time Monitoring: Utilizing the edge computing capability of the USR-ISG, local completion of photovoltaic power prediction, energy storage state of charge (SOC) estimation, and equipment status diagnosis is achieved, controlling key data transmission delays within 100 milliseconds.
Implementation Effects:
System availability increased to 99.99%, with annual failure time reduced from 72 hours to 0.5 hours;
Operation and maintenance costs decreased by 65%, with manual inspection frequency reduced from twice a week to once a month;
Photovoltaic power generation efficiency increased by 3%, and energy storage system charging and discharging efficiency increased by 5%.
Project Background: A 300MW offshore wind farm is equipped with a 50MW/100MWh energy storage system, with wind turbines distributed across a radius of 15 kilometers, requiring resistance to salt spray corrosion, typhoon impacts, and electromagnetic interference.
Solution:
Device Selection: Adopting Yutai Technology's UT-63424G series 10-gigabit three-layer managed switches, supporting wide temperature operation from -40°C to 75°C, IP40 protection level, and 6kV surge protection.
Network Topology: Constructing a hybrid network of "optical fiber ring network + wireless backup," with wind turbine nacelles and tower bases connected through optical fiber ring networks, and offshore platforms and onshore control centers connected through 5G wireless backup.
Data Isolation: Utilizing VLAN technology to isolate and transmit wind turbine control data, energy storage monitoring data, and video monitoring data to avoid data conflicts.
Implementation Effects:
Network MTBF increased to 100,000 hours, five times higher than traditional equipment;
During Typhoon Muifa in 2024, the network maintained zero interruptions, ensuring the safe operation of the wind farm;
The response speed of the energy storage system increased to 200 milliseconds, meeting grid frequency regulation requirements.
Service: Free Network Assessment
Submission Content: Click the button to fill in the enterprise name, contact person, contact information, project type (photovoltaic/wind power/energy storage, etc.), scale (installed capacity/number of devices), and existing network architecture diagram.
Output Results: Provide a "Distributed Energy Network Assessment Report" within five working days, including:
Network topology optimization suggestions;
Device selection list (including USR-ISG series switch configurations);
ROI calculation (investment return period ≤ 2 years);
Protocol compatibility analysis and conversion plan.
At the intersection of the energy revolution and the digital revolution, Ethernet switches have upgraded from "data transmission tools" to "energy management brains." The USR-ISG series Ethernet switches, with their industrial-grade design, protocol compatibility, and highly reliable network architecture, are helping energy enterprises achieve a leap from "device monitoring" to "system optimization" and from "passive response" to "active prediction."
