Power grid automation
The Project on SCADA development for power grid connection has been performed by EVNSPS since 2012 under the finance of the World Bank with the total investment cost of VND 15.3 million. The project is composed of one main SCADA system, one grid connected standby system, substations in 21 cities and provinces, being put into officially operation since May 2017.
SCADA Control Center of EVNSPC
Mr. Ho Quang Ai – Vice President of EVNSPC said: "The operation of SCADA Control Center is of special significance to the effective management, operation and development of SCADA system of the Corporation”.
The SCADA Control Center of EVNSPC will connect SCADA system with power companies under EVNSPC, which then enables the power system to be operated, failures in the power system to be prevented and remedied in a more effective manner than the conventional operation management method.
The development of SCADA system is an inevitable trend, in line with the roadmap of modernization and automation of the power sector. In particular, with the SCADA system, EVNSPC is operating remotely 164 110 kV substations and one 110 kV switching station (Tan Thanh, Long An province). It is envisaged that by the end of 2017, the Corporation will remotely control 100% of the 110 kV substations.
At the same time, the SCADA system will be synchronized with the Southern Regional Load Dispatch Center (A2) in order to share data and do dispatching activities as remotely requested by A2.
Reducing time for remedying power failures
EVNSPC manages around 200 110kV substations with thousands of km long transmission and distribution power lines. In the past, when failures occurred in the power grid, technicians had to rely on customers’ information or manual detection/exploration to identify causes and locations of failures. At present, with SCADA control system, dispatchers are likely to promptly discover or warn about failures, via alarm system of the control software, which helps lessen failure handling duration and quickly resume electricity supply to customers, secure safe, uninterrupted, reliable and economical operation of the power system.
Furthermore, in unfavorable weather conditions such as rains, winds, storms, floods, etc., the SCADA system is used to cut off power supply in power lines and recover power supply to customers more rapidly, prevent threat of widespread failure which can lead to severe damages to people and equipment.
When monitoring via computer system, staff on duty can know the actual operation status of voltage, current, capacity, etc. in the power grid in order to operate generation sources in the most stable and appropriate way. Currently, situations when parameters exceed their allowable limits no longer persist as previously, contributing to improvement of power system management and operation and power loss reduction, etc.
According to EVNSPC, comparing with the previous operation management method (around 10 operators per each substation), only two operators are required for each substation thanks to the SCADA system. This scheme is a fundamental step to come up to unmanned substations and an effective solution for improving labor productivity.