Independent, distributed protection and safety system with fiber optic communication for wind turbines
AssigneeClipper Windpower, LLC
InventorKevin L. Cousineau
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A safety system and method for monitoring the safety of a windmill turbine is disclosed. A protection safety master (PSM) controller is coupled to one or more input/output modules via an optic conductor. Safety components are individually coupled to and monitored by the modules. The modules are distributed throughout a wind turbine tower and provide status information about the safety components to the PSM controller. Based on data received, the PSM controller independently determines whether a fail-safe reaction should be initiated and initiates the fail-safe reaction accordingly.
Claims23
A safety system for an energy producing device comprising:
- an input/output module connected to one or more safety components that determines a status of each of the one or more safety components for a safety reaction of the energy producing device;
- a protection system master (PSM) controller coupled to the input/output module that monitors the status of the safety components, including a master processor that is configured to couple each of the one or more safety components into a safety loop circuit that is fail-safe and initiates an Emergency Feather Shutdown of the device;
- and
- a control unit of the associated energy producing device, wherein the PSM controller includes a control communication link that provides a status of the safety loop circuit to the control unit.
A fiber optic safety system for an energy producing device comprising:
- a plurality of digital input modules located at different vertical regions of an associated tower, each module comprising at least one slave processor configured to monitor safety components that are independently and separately connected to the digital input module, the at least one slave processor determining a status of each of the safety components;
- a protection safety master (PSM) controller including a master processor that controls each slave processor and is configured to receive the status of the safety components from the plurality of digital input modules and to control a safety loop circuit for initiating a fail-safe reaction to be taken by the energy producing device based on the status of the safety components.
A method of monitoring safety and initiating a fail-safe reaction in an energy producing device having a safety loop circuit, the method comprising:
- communicating a status of safety components via a first communication pathway from one or more separate digital input modules to a protection safety master (PSM) controller;
- determining whether a fail-safe reaction should be signalled by the PSM controller based on the status of a predetermined combination of the safety components;
- upon the PSM controller determining that at least one predetermined combination of safety components has a failed status, initiating the fail-safe reaction of the safety loop circuit connected to the PSM controller via a second communication pathway from the PSM controller.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.