Key highlights:
- Depcom’s choice of Ignition SCADA highlights the importance of scalable platforms with unlimited licensing, allowing engineers to add tags, clients and projects without incurring additional costs.
- Ignition’s fast development tools and flexibility enable quick rollout of customized applications.
To design, build and run its utility-scale solar equipment and power plants, Depcom Power discovered about 10 years ago that it needed a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) that users could scale quickly and easily over the long-term—and do it cost-effectively. Its quest prompted system integrator Vertech to suggest adopting Inductive Automation’s web-based Ignition software with unlimited licensing that would allow Depcom to add tags, clients and projects without added expenses.
Located in Scottsdale, Ariz., Depcom is a Koch Engineered Solutions company that’s developed several Ignition projects with Phoenix-based Vertech in recent years. Depcom uses Ignition to monitor and control multiple solar-power plants, as well as perform data analysis, troubleshooting, design and reporting functions (Figure 1). Analyzing historical data via Ignition lets users continually improve plant performance and efficiency.
“Seven of the nine power plants we operate and maintain are on Ignition,” says Jimmy Hood, plant operations director at Depcom. “It’s is a big improvement in SCADA integration. Other platforms can run up costs and headaches in a hurry, while Ignition is user-friendly and easy to integrate with every data type, connection and platform.”
Depcom reports that it also appreciates Ignition’s quick development tools and flexibility in integrating with other platforms. This is helpful because Depcom rolls out solar-power sites quickly, and Ignition lets it create customized applications in a hurry. Its stakeholders and customer include its own operators, independent engineers, banks, utilities, plant owners and independent power producers.
“Tasks that took two or three weeks before, now take two hours,” adds Hood.
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Because it must process increasing amounts of data as its operations expand, Depcom reports it’s also benefitting from Ignition’s ability to quickly generate information and reports. “Ignition helps us trend data on a daily basis,” explains Hood. “We can troubleshoot the ins and outs of the power plants from trackers to the inverters to the substation.”
Immediate data access also helps Depcom’s operators solve some problems independently. They can pull up details for issues needing further study, view the data, and begin identifying root causes. Ignition can accelerate the process by automating some data analyses, give Depcom greater trust in its information quality, and reach solutions and decisions faster.
“We also picked Ignition to help us design our new Fleet View system to integrate and monitor all plants using one platform,” adds Hood. “From it, we can remote access each individual project, and further evaluate them. We’re planning to integrate all future projects with Ignition. We already have customers requesting it on our second and third projects with them.”
