DDS™ - The Proven Data Connectivity Standard for IoT™ Nov. 2016 | Page 15

DDS Powers Siemens
Wind Power
Siemens Wind Power, the world’s leading
manufacturer of wind turbines, standardized
on DDS-based messaging software for their
next-generation turbines to deliver resilient,
high-performance and scalable data distribution.
A wind farm may include hundreds of turbines, often installed in distant and hard-to-access locations at sea.
Like all power systems, the goal of the farm is to match generation to load. A farm with hundreds of turbines
must optimize that load by balancing the loading and generation across a wide geography. In a storm, the
farm must decide how to take energy out of gusts to generate constant power while managing the loading
and potential damage to a half-billion dollar installed asset. The wind farm thus needs to implement a highly
scalable and distributed control system, where reliability and performance are critical.
Siemens identified several fundamental requirements that led them to the selection of DDS. First, the control
systems within the giant turbine, itself a complex machine, required high-performance real-time networking.
Second, the farms produce copious amounts of data; a farm of 500 turbines may have up to a million data
points. Third, Siemens deploys wind power solutions in environments where network services may vary from
fast LAN to mid-range broadband to slow wireless or satellite communications. Fourth, the entire farm must
be controlled, managed, and maintained from remote monitoring stations.

SOLUTION
Siemens Wind Power uses DDS to build a scalable, high-performance operational network and integrate
it with business intelligence software. DDS-based messaging software can monitor and control wind farm
arrays with up to 500 wind turbines. The real-time messaging and quality of service features of DDS enable
Siemens to manage turbulence through the wind farm so that performance and wear is uniform in such a
highly distributed operational environment. Additionally, the ability of the standard to be integrated with
other systems, including business enterprise applications, allows Siemens to remotely monitor and troubleshoot the wind farm’s operations. The ability of the solution to run over a variety of different network
transports helps Siemens build large farms and intelligently integrate them over multiple heterogeneous
networks. In the future, the DDS system-of-systems flexibility and scalability will allow connecting multiple
farms and business systems.

BENEFITS
Real-time messaging and QoS features of DDS help control large wind farms and manage dynamic effects
like turbulence to optimize performance and wear. Integrating with on-shore business infrastructure allows
key efficiency benefits such as predictive maintenance. Overall, the unprecedented edge-to-enterprise
connectivity gives Siemens a competitive edge by combining the highest possible performance with ease of
control and business systems integration.

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CASE STUDIES

CHALLENGE