Method for controlling a grid of plants

A grid of plants, each plant having a distributed control system with operation and monitoring functionality, said grid of plants being controlled by:

• interconnecting the distributed control systems via a network;
• providing a hierarchical tree structure having at least two levels for said network;
• assigning each distributed control system to a node of the hierarchical tree structure;
• receiving a data request at a parent node control system;
• determining whether the received data request is resolvable by said parent node control system;
• sending a reply to the data request, if the data request is resolvable by said parent node control system;
• and
• forwarding the data request to at least one child nodes of said parent node control system, if the data request is unresolvable by said parent node control system.

A distributed control system comprising:

• at least one of (i) a parent node interface and (ii) a child node interface, and
• means for enabling the distributed control system to operate by:
• interconnecting distributed control systems via a network;
• providing a hierarchical tree structure having at least two levels for said network;
• assigning each distributed control system to a node of the hierarchical tree structure;
• receiving a data request at a parent node control system;
• determining whether the received data request is resolvable by said parent node control system;
• sending a reply to the data request, if the data request is resolvable by said parent node control system;
• and
• forwarding the data request to at least one child nodes of said parent node control system, if the data request is unresolvable by said parent node control system.

A grid of plants comprising:

• at least one plant including a distributed control system comprising:
• at least one of (i) a parent node interface and (ii) a child node interface, and
• means for enabling the distributed control system to operate by:
• interconnecting distributed control systems via a network;
• providing a hierarchical tree structure having at least two levels for said network;
• assigning each distributed control system to a node of the hierarchical tree structure;
• receiving a data request at a parent node control system;
• determining whether the received data request is resolvable by said parent node control system;
• sending a reply to the data request, if the data request is resolvable by said parent node control system;
• and
• forwarding the data request to at least one child nodes of said parent node control system, if the data request is unresolvable by said parent node control system;
• and
• at least one virtual control system comprising:
• a child node interface, and
• means for enabling the virtual control system to operate by assigning the virtual control system to a parent node control system having a number of child nodes.