PLC Circuit Breaker Question

Hey guys,

My team and I are working on a PLC-controlled autonomous standalone solar charging station for a research project. The idea being that the power generated from the solar panel would be used to charge a device or vehicle that the user accessing the station needs to charge.

A component that I have had trouble finding any tangible information on is the circuit breakers and their interconnection with the PLC. The reason being that most online searches return info on breakers that are for much larger-scale operation, whereas our project is of the 0-150 Amp range with 24VDC batteries.

My question is this: What type of circuit breakers will work with a PLC?
Also, can I use the control signal from the PLC to double the breaker as a remote switch?

The objective is that the circuit breaker allows the programmer the ability to switch it on and off when desired in addition to its overcurrent protection capabilities. For example, the CB trips due to a short circuit. I want to have the ability to switch it back on remotely.

Any help/advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. And I apologize in advance if I did not make myself clear enough.

Welcome to the forum!

Your circuit breaker or overload is usually for protection purposes, and not switching from PLCs. You should be looking at something called a "Contactor", which is basically a large solenoid driven relay. There are also Solid State Contactors, but at ~150A, these would cost a fair bit more than a mechanical one.

Search for mineature circuit breakers. You should find items in the range you are looking for. To remotely open a circuit breaker you should look for a shunt trip. This is not for everyday switching use but emergency shutdown as I believe it does what is says and shunts the breaker output to ground in order to trip it. I have never actually used one of these so there could be other nuances to it.

Since it is solar you may also want to look for breakers specific to solar applications.

Hope this helps.

My first thought was that you can't get a breaker that will allow you to turn it on remotely, but a quick look at the all knowing Google proved me wrong. I have never used one of these, but they are available. And it seems most major manufactures have their own version.

http://www.eaton.com/Eaton/Products...ers/RemoteControlledCircuitBreakers/index.htm

Will.

Ok, you have a few misconceptions here. A circuit breaker is first and foremost a protection device, not a control device. You will not find a reference to a "PLC interface" for a circuit breaker, because in its primary role as a protection device, there is no need to have it interface with a PLC, except in maybe having the PLC check its status.

So as mentioned, this is a task better accomplished with a "contactor", protected by a circuit breaker. That said, if a breaker trips and nobody is there to reset it, your system doesn't work. On the other hand again if a breaker trips, it's not a good idea to reset it without someone checking into WHY it tripped. That's all but impossible to do remotely with any reasonable level of safety.

Still, if you insist on pursuing this, you will need to look for a "motor operated circuit breaker" or a motor operator FOR a Molded Case Circuit Breaker. The ones in the link above are a version of that typically used for remote control of lighting circuits, but they only go to 30A. For 150A it's a much bigger breaker and the motor operator mechanism is comparatively huge. It will also cost you several multiples of the cost of the circuit breaker itself, the motor operator is usually a big bulky machine that attaches to the front of the breaker. All of the large breaker manufacturers make them, you need only ask the right person on an office near you. ABB, Siemens and Schneider are all big multinational manufacturers who will have offices where you are. Start there.

And get money out of the bank, you will need it...