What Does SCADA Connect on a Utility-Scale Solar Project? 

On a utility-scale solar project, SCADA connects three distinct parts of the system: the PV equipment, the substation, and the utility. Each layer often speaks a different protocol, and understanding how they fit together is foundational to working with these systems at any level.

In this short clip, Connor Krening walks through what SCADA actually connects on a utility-scale solar project and which communication protocols handle each part of the network.

Connor came to SCADA with almost no background in it. He was working at a small company that needed someone to own it, said he’d figure it out, and spent the next six years building his expertise through on-the-job experience and a lot of questions asked at the right time. Today he makes all SCADA integration decisions at his company. The SCADA Communication Systems for Utility-Scale Solar course he built with Andy Nyce on HeatSpring is the structured foundation he wishes had existed when he was starting out.

The short answer is that SCADA speaks to three distinct parts of a solar project: the PV system itself (inverters, combiner boxes, and battery storage if present), the substation protection devices and relays, and the utility, which sets its own requirements for power quality and export limits.

The protocols that handle all that communication vary by layer. Modbus is common for low-level edge devices like weather sensors. DNP3 is typically used for substation and utility communication. Ethernet handles most of the network-level computing – the same protocol you use when you plug a laptop into a router, just applied to data loggers and network switches instead.

If any of this is new territory, that’s exactly the gap Connor and Andy built this course to fill. Connor spent years piecing this together through on-the-job experience, vendor conversations, and a lot of questions asked at the right time. The course is the structured foundation he wishes had existed when he was starting out.

Enroll in SCADA Communication Systems for Utility-Scale Solar on HeatSpring.