Control Center Tour

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, it would be nice to have photos and videos from all the control center projects we conducted, from Bucharest to Da Nang, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, and from Managua and Ciudad de Guatemala to many other places in Europe, Latin America and the United States -- but we don't. Besides, there wouldn't be enough space to post all of them either, and so, for illustration purposes, we selected just a few from our most representative projects.

The videos below were recorded during our SCADA/EMS projects in Asunción (Paraguay), San José (Costa Rica) and Ciudad de Panamá (Panama), where we covered a full range of aspects -- and, in the case of ICE (Costa Rica) and ETESA (Panama), we participated in several cycles of system upgrade.

Also shown on this page are photos from the control rooms of the Independent System Operator in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sarajevo, Bosnia) and Transelectrica (Bucharest, Romania) where, in addition to SCADA/EMS consulting services, we contributed the power system stability software that helps monitor and track in real-time the risk of blackout.

 

National Dispatch Center of "La UT", El Salvador (Centro Nacional de Despacho de la Unidad de Transacciones)

The System Operator and Market Administrator (Operador del Sistema Eléctrico y Administrador del Mercado) of El Salvador (La Unidad de Transacciones), known abbreviately as "La UT", is upgrading its  National Dispatch Center. In March, 2019, "La UT" selected ECI to review the in-house written system specifications and assist during the statement of work. The project activities started on April 1st, 2019 with a kick-off meeting in the control center from Nuevo Cuscatlán, Departamento La Libertad, followed by Savu's visit to the control room. Here are two short videos recorded during these events.

 

National Dispatch Center of ANDE, Paraguay (Centro Nacional de Despacho de Cargas de la ANDE)

The Administración Nacional de Electricidad ANDE (National Electricity Administration), Asunción, Paraguay, started the upgrade of the National Dispatch Center in 2013 and selected Savu to assist in all the project phases, including system design, specifications, bidding, statement of work, and system implementation.

The project encompassed both the replacement of the earlier SCADA facilities with a modern, state-of-the-art SCADA/EMS, and the complete renovation of the control room and adjacent support facilities. Here are some short videos that illustrate key project steps.

 

National Control Center of ICE, Costa Rica (Centro Nacional de Control de Energia - CENCE)

In Costa Rica we provided power system consulting services to ICE almost on a continuing basis since the late 1970s till now (read more...). Our work included training workshops and seminars, cost benefit analysis, feasibility studies, system design and specifications, and assistance during project implementation. In addition, Savu delivered off-line and real-time software that predicts the risk of blackout due to instability.

In mid 2009, the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) retained Savu to provide consulting for the Design, Commissioning and Installation of the Primary-Backup SCADA/EMS Solution (Servicios para la Asesoría Proceso de Contratación de Diseño y Equipamiento SCADA/EMS) to be deployed at the new sites of the Centro Nacional de Control de Energia (CENCE). The new systems aimed at replacing the existing control center with a mirrored primary-backup control center architecture designed by Savu. Like any other undertaking conducted with funds from International Financing Institutions (IFIs), the project followed a long bureaucratic route. The bidding documents were published in December 2014 and, after further administrative delays, the project was successfully completed in 2017.

 

 

National Dispatch Center of ETESA, Panama (Centro Nacional de Despacho - CND)

ETESA (Empresa de Transmision S.A.) is the National Transmission Company in Panama. Its National Dispatch Center (Centro Nacional de Despacho - CND), located in the City of Panama.

In 1999, ETESA retained Savu C. Savulescu to assess the earlier SCADA system, identify technical, performance, availability, operational and implementation requirements, and design an integrated information architecture to accommodate both the system and the market operations. In addition, Savu developed technical specifications and bidding documents, and provided assistance during bid evaluation, statement of work and project implementation (read more...). Since May 2002 when it became operational, the system provided continuing support to CND's responsibilities with the control and monitoring of generation and transmission, including international interconnections, and the scheduling, economic operation, accounting and information handling within the Wholesale Electricity Market in Panama. Incremental upgrades maintained the system up-to-date and allowed ETESA to become a key player in the Central American electricity market as well -- but, in spite of its stellar performance, the existing SCADA/EMS reached the end of its useful life and is now scheduled for replacement.

In the summer of 2011, ETESA conducted an international competitive bidding process and selected ECI to provide assistance during the key phases of this important undertaking (read more...). After the consulting activities started in September 2011, Savu has been proudly working in close cooperation with an experienced Project Team lead by Ms. Mary Lozano Centella and integrated by a group of young, yet extremely knowledgeable engineers, as you can see from the video clips shut during the bid evaluation (September, 2011) Statement of Work (April, 2012) meetings in Panama and the Factory Acceptance Testing (May, 2013) in Sugar Land, TX.

 

Independent System Operator in Bosnia and Herzegovina (NOS BiH)

The Independent System Operator (NOS) in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has full dispatch responsibility and authority for the operation of the BiH power system and electricity market. NOS BiH is equipped with a Siemens Spectrum Power platform. The SCADA/EMS specifications were developed by Savu C. Savulescu between 1999 and 2002 on behalf of Elektrotek Concepts, Inc. in conjunction with the NOS BiH SCADA/EMS, RTU, Substation Automation Systems and Communications project (read more...)

The pictures illustrate the NOS BiH Control Room. The video wallboard (left top) and the first workstation (left below) display the industry-unique speedometer charts that allow the system operator to visualize how far is the system from a hypothetical state where voltages may collapse and generators may lose synchronism.

In the fall of 2009, NOS BiH hired ECI to design a two control center architecture aimed at replacing the existing SCADA/EMS (read more...) by using the same mirrored primary-backup concepts we had pioneered at ICE (read more...)

 

National Dispatch Center of Transelectrica, Romania

The dispatching of the electric power system and the operation of the electricity market in Romania are supported by a Hierarchical SCADA/EMS, located at, and operated by the National Dispatch Center (DEN), and a Balancing Market System, located at, and operated by the Commercial Operator (OPCOM). Transelectrica's SCADA/EMS was implemented by Alstom in 2003 by adhering to the design concepts and principles established in an earlier feasibility study (read more...).

The system encompasses an extended array of system dispatching support facilities, including the real-time stability assessment and monitoring application (QuickStab) which has been deployed at DEN in 2003. The lower-left corner of the video wallboard (left-top photo) displays linear speedometers that visualize the current distance to instability on a system basis and within network areas separated by stability constrained corridors. The screen capture shown on the left side of the photo on the left-below was taken directly from an operator workstation and depicts both the current stability conditions and the stability monitoring trending chart. The use of QuickStab at Transelectrica has been extensively documented in the technical literature (read more...).