Bachmann electronic GmbH is a traditional high-tech company. With a work force of 300 employees Bachmann is among those innovative and quality conscious companies which have made it their goal to offer complete system solutions in highly specialized areas of automation technology. The operation of modern wind energy plants poses high demands to the automation technology. Bachmann electronic is offering an optimal solution for the complex tasks of the branch with its open and modularly designed M1 platform. With increasing power the complexity of the equipment is also rising, and further tasks in the field of data processing, measurement technique and regulation add to pure control tasks. The original programmable logic controller must become a process computer that partially performs control tasks. One of these tasks is, for example, to quickly and smoothly adapt the position of the rotor blade to the wind conditions and - in full-load operation - to the power requirements of the electric power companies. In a parallel way the environmental conditions, temperatures and hydraulic values, rotational speeds and oscillations are monitored in order to be able to quickly respond to critical values, if necessary. Apart from its real-time capability the M1 system is also marked by an innovative networking concept. Bachmann Electronic has developed its own FAST-bus, which guarantees, on the one hand, the decentralization of components in real-time on the basis of fi ber optic cables, and on the other hand, maximum interference stability and transmission distances of 150 meters for each sub-station. Standard fi eld bus systems like, for example, CANopen, DeviceNet or Profi-bus can also be used. An integrated Ethernet interface serves the purpose of communicating with a super-ordinate wind-energy plant main computer and allows remote diagnosis and maintenance.