Application of Serial to Ethernet Convertor in the New Energy Industry: How to Achieve Energy Management?

In today's booming new energy industry, the scale of photovoltaic power stations, wind farms, and energy storage systems is growing exponentially. However, when operation and maintenance personnel are faced with hundreds or thousands of inverters, electricity meters, and sensors, a practical problem emerges: How can these "silent devices" scattered across gobi deserts, plateaus, and islands be made to "speak"? The answer lies in the seemingly unremarkable Serial to Ethernet Convertor—a device the size of a palm that is redefining the "nerve endings" of new energy systems.

1. Core Pain Points in New Energy Management: From "Data Islands" to "Global Awareness"

A photovoltaic power station in northwest China once encountered such a dilemma: In a 200 MW power station, 3,000 inverters were connected via an RS-485 bus, but the traditional monitoring system could only display general data such as "total power generation." When the power generation efficiency in a certain area suddenly dropped by 20%, the operation and maintenance team had to carry laptops to investigate each unit across a 40-square-kilometer area, taking 72 hours to locate a group of photovoltaic panels covered in sand and dust.

This scenario exposes three major contradictions in new energy management:

• Fragmented device protocols: Coexistence of protocols such as Modbus RTU, DL/T645, and IEC 61850, as well as vendor-defined "black box protocols."
• Limited communication distance: The theoretical transmission distance of an RS-485 bus is only 1,200 meters, and in practical engineering, repeaters are required beyond 800 meters.
• Poor environmental adaptability: The large temperature differences in gobi deserts, salt spray corrosion along coasts, and strong ultraviolet radiation on plateaus make it difficult for ordinary communication devices to operate stably.

A case from a wind farm is even more representative: Its SCADA system connects 200 wind turbine generators via optical fiber, but when the gearbox temperature of a certain unit becomes abnormal, the system can only trigger a "temperature too high" alarm without providing in-depth diagnostic information such as "which specific bearing lacks lubrication." This "knowing the what but not the why" monitoring mode is restricting the intelligent upgrading of new energy systems.

2. Technological Breakthroughs of Serial to Ethernet Convertor: From "Protocol Conversion" to "Edge Intelligence"

2.1 Protocol Compatibility: Solving the "Dialect" Problem

Modern Serial to Ethernet Convertors have broken through the limitations of traditional devices that only support Modbus RTU/TCP. Taking Acrel's APort100 as an example, its built-in protocol parsing engine can simultaneously handle:

• Power standards: DL/T645, IEC 60870-5-104
• Industrial protocols: Profibus-DP, CANopen
• Vendor-specific protocols: Custom communication protocols for Huawei's SUN2000 inverters

The practice at an energy storage power station is highly enlightening: By deploying a Serial to Ethernet Convertor that supports Lua scripting, the operation and maintenance team completed protocol adaptation for 12 different brands of BMS (Battery Management Systems) in just three days, reducing the data collection cycle from 15 minutes to 3 seconds.

2.2 Environmental Adaptability: "Triple Protection" of Industrial Design

The reliability requirements for devices in new energy scenarios are extremely stringent:

• Explosion-proof certification: Photovoltaic power stations in coal mines require devices to pass Ex d IIB T4 certification.
• Electromagnetic compatibility: Wind farms need to meet IEC 61000-4-6 Class III immunity (10 V/m field strength).
• Wide temperature operation: Devices inside energy storage containers need to operate stably within a temperature range of -40°C to 70°C.

A case from an offshore wind farm is typical: The selected Serial to Ethernet Convertor features an IP68-rated enclosure, a fanless cooling design, and conformal coating on the circuit board. During Typhoon Dusurui in 2023, the device was able to transmit data normally after being immersed in seawater for 48 hours, providing critical support for rapid post-disaster recovery.

2.3 Edge Computing: From "Data Movers" to "Decision-Making Brains"

New-generation Serial to Ethernet Convertors already possess lightweight AI processing capabilities. Taking Inocontrol's ESU-1F-5130 as an example, its RK3588 processor can run:

• Real-time threshold analysis: Automatically triggers cooling instructions when the temperature of photovoltaic modules exceeds 85°C.
• Anomaly pattern recognition: Detects vibration spectrum anomalies in wind turbine gearboxes using LSTM algorithms.
• Predictive maintenance: Predicts the SOH (State of Health) of batteries based on their charge-discharge curves.

The practice in a microgrid project shows that by deploying edge AI models on Serial to Ethernet Convertors, the system predicted the capacity degradation trend of energy storage batteries 72 hours in advance, avoiding a battery pack replacement incident worth 2 million yuan.

3. Typical Application Scenarios: From "Single-Point Breakthroughs" to "System Reconstruction"

Scenario 1: "Digital Twins" in Photovoltaic Power Stations

In a 500 MW photovoltaic power station in Qinghai, Serial to Ethernet Convertors have constructed a three-tier communication architecture:

• Field layer: Each inverter is connected to a Serial to Ethernet Convertor via RS-485.
• Aggregation layer: 48 Serial to Ethernet Convertors are connected to an industrial switch using a ring topology.
• Cloud layer: Data is transmitted to an energy management platform via a dedicated 5G network.

This architecture has achieved three major breakthroughs:

• Millisecond-level response: When the irradiance in a certain area suddenly changes, the system completes the issuance of power adjustment instructions within 200 ms.
• Full lifecycle management: Records 25 years of power generation data for each photovoltaic module, providing a basis for degradation rate analysis.
• Virtual commissioning: Simulates the communication network topology in advance using digital twin technology when building new power stations.

Scenario 2: "Predictive Operation and Maintenance" in Wind Farms

A wind farm in Inner Mongolia has deployed Serial to Ethernet Convertors that support dual-mode communication:

• Wired mode: Connects the pitch system and yaw system inside the tower tube via optical fiber.
• Wireless mode: Uses LoRa expansion modules to collect data from blade stress sensors.

After one year of operation, the system has achieved:

• Fault prediction accuracy: Increased from 62% to 89%.
• Unplanned downtime: Reduced by 73%.
• Operation and maintenance costs: Decreased by 41% (saving 2.8 million yuan in spare parts inventory costs).

Scenario 3: "Energy Routers" in Energy Storage Systems

A commercial and industrial energy storage project in Jiangsu creatively uses Serial to Ethernet Convertors as the "energy scheduling hub":

• Data collection: Connects 12 types of devices including BMS, PCS, electricity meters, and environmental sensors.
• Protocol conversion: Enables interoperability between Modbus TCP and IEC 61850.
• Strategy execution: Completes the switching of charge-discharge modes within 100 ms according to grid demand response instructions.

During the peak electricity consumption period in the summer of 2024, the system saved the enterprise 1.27 million yuan in electricity costs through peak-valley arbitrage while receiving 430,000 yuan in subsidies for participating in grid frequency regulation.

4. Technological Evolution Trends: From "Connection Tools" to "Industrial Cornerstones"

4.1 AIoT Integration: Making Devices "Think"

Future Serial to Ethernet Convertors will integrate TinyML frameworks to run locally:

• Device health assessment models: Comprehensively judge device status through parameters such as vibration, temperature, and current.
• Power generation efficiency optimization models: Dynamically adjust the tracking angle of photovoltaic modules.
• Energy management strategy models: Automatically switch the charge-discharge modes of energy storage systems according to electricity price fluctuations.

Test data from a research and development team shows that a Serial to Ethernet Convertor equipped with an AI module can improve the overall efficiency of new energy systems by 3.7%.

4.2 Digital Twins: Building "Virtual Power Stations"

Through the OPC UA over TLS protocol, Serial to Ethernet Convertors are becoming bridges connecting physical devices and digital twins. In a virtual power plant project, the system achieves:

• Real-time mapping: Each parameter change of physical devices is synchronized to the digital model within 1 second.
• Simulation and deduction: Predicts the impact of equipment failures on power generation 72 hours in advance.
• Remote debugging: Completes 90% of parameter adjustments through the digital twin.

4.3 Green and Energy-Efficient: Fulfilling the "Dual Carbon" Mission

New-generation Serial to Ethernet Convertors adopt low-power designs:

• Dynamic power management: Automatically adjusts CPU frequency according to data traffic.
• Solar power supply: Deploys photovoltaic power supply modules in remote areas.
• Energy efficiency monitoring: Built-in power meters display device energy consumption in real time.

The practice at a desert photovoltaic power station shows that after adopting energy-efficient Serial to Ethernet Convertors, the energy consumption of the monitoring system itself decreased by 68%, equivalent to reducing CO₂ emissions by 12 tons per year.

5. Industry Insights: When Technology Returns to Its Essence

In the new energy industry, the value of a Serial to Ethernet Convertor lies not in its technological complexity but in its ability to solve the most fundamental problems: making devices speak a "common language," enabling data to "flow," and providing a basis for decision-making. When the operation and maintenance supervisor of a photovoltaic power station told me, "Now I can smell the scent of the photovoltaic panels on the gobi desert from my office," I deeply realized that the best technology often makes complex problems simple and remote devices feel close.

This "silent but transformative" change is reshaping the competitive landscape of the new energy industry. Enterprises that take the lead in building efficient communication networks not only gain an advantage in operation and maintenance costs but also win ahead in terms of data asset accumulation and business model innovation. As the CTO of an energy group said, "A Serial to Ethernet Convertor is not just a communication device; it is the 'nerve synapse' of the new energy system, determining the reaction speed and intelligence level of the entire organism."

In this era of the Internet of Everything, perhaps we will eventually forget the existence of Serial to Ethernet Convertors—just as we do not consciously perceive the beating of our hearts, but it is this "imperceptible" stable operation that supports the new energy system's evolution toward higher efficiency, lower costs, and greater sustainability.