Isle Of Muck: Power Supply

ISLE OF MUCK: POWER SUPPLY

Background To The Project


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Background To The Project

Since 2000, the Isle of Muck had not connected to the mainland grid and its electricity had been provided by a power system comprising of two Vergnet 20kW wind turbines and a back-up diesel generator. Although this scheme had been well maintained, it had encountered ongoing problems with reliability and output. It consistently required a high level of manual intervention. By 2011, both wind turbines had become inoperable due to problems with the batteries, inverters and chargers. As a result the diesel generator became the only source of electricity supply on the island and was operated for limited hours from 7.30am to 11.30am and 4pm to 11.30pm.

In 2013, the SSE approached Coldcurve to be partners in the installation of a new, reliable 24-hour power system.

The system was comprised of four solar PV arrays and six wind turbines which generate a surplus of energy. Coldcurve created a dump load system which allowed the distribution of any surplus power straight back to the community.
  • System Design

    PLC & Telemetry System - Isle of Muck Dump Load PLC System


    The system comprises of wind generation and PV generation with battery storage. It is required to power the community centre, school and local housing. The community centre and the school have priority of the surplus generated power with the excess supplying the houses.


    Each house receives an equal portion of the generated power to creating a fair system

  • Outline Of System:

    The PLC system is to control the demand and sequencing of the individual system dump loads (excess generated power).


    This system is controlled by a Mitsubishi FX3 PLC accessed through a Mitsubishi HMI. The system uses the existing radio telemetry system for distributed control to the individual control panels installed in the properties around the island.


    A Socomec multifunction meter with Modbus communication monitors the mains supply incoming frequency (Hz). This is communicated to the PLC and ran through the designed algorithms to determine the quantity and duration of dump loads required to be delivered to the individual properties.


    A PLC & HMI based system allows for a flexible and adaptable system which can, with ease, incorporate future additions and alterations to the system.


    The new system incorporates remote telemetry IO station in each area connected through radio signals to the master PLC.  All required data acquisition and control aspects are handled by the remote IO stations and sent to the master PLC system. The master PLC analyses the data and runs it through the algorithms designed by Coldcurve. The master PLC system and remote IO stations controlled by the bespoke PLC system is designed for the Isle of Muck.

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