The system for recording agricultural activities, known as SELA® for short, is a solution for automatically recording agricultural activities in the vicinity of wind turbines. According to the laws on nature and environmental protection, wind turbines must be switched off under certain conditions during and after field work in order not to endanger endangered bird species with the rotating rotor blades.

With the help of Red Lion’s automation solutions, the company ATEG Automation GmbH has developed the SELA® system, which detects agricultural activities and switches the wind turbine to spin mode, which is safe for birds. The main elements of the SELA® system are the infrared cameras mounted on the tower of the wind turbine, as well as the Advanced IIoT Gateway DA70A from the FlexEdge® series including the Crimson® 3.2 automation software from Red Lion. The infrared measuring technology independently detects vehicles during agricultural activities and sends this information to the DA70A FlexEdge in the control cabinet of the SELA® controller. The programs created with the Crimson programming software control the operating times based on the requirements and switch the wind turbine to safe spin mode accordingly. The operator is also notified of the shutdown by email. The operator checks the activities in the field using the infrared images sent, assesses the reason for the shutdown or releases the system again if the shutdown reason is irrelevant.
According to an implemented twilight calendar, the system also distinguishes between night and day mode, since shutdown is only required during the day. Manual switching on and off between dusk and dawn is no longer necessary. In the wind turbine on site, data and reasons for stopping can also be entered, qualified or called up manually using the CR3000 HMI operator device.