The second remote control center comes into operation

16:47, 10/06/2022

In 2010, the SCADA Center was established on the 6th floor of the Green Power Building in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) for the initial function of remote controlling a few 110kV substations and SCADA-enabled equipment on the grid, as well as piloting automated connection of medium-voltage (MV) ring circuits with the SCADA/DAS software from Survalent.

The 2015 SCADA Center

In 2017, the Control Center was fully upgraded with the central SCADA system and software from Alsthom (France) by the HCMC Load Dispatch Center (EVNHCMC performed other remaining tasks).

Remote Control Center 1

The Load Dispatch Center has piloted and recognized Remote Control Center 1 as the first distribution grid control center of Vietnam Electricity (EVN) qualified for remote operation control of unmanned 110kV substations. This initiated the rollout of unmanned substations in EVN and enabled the High Voltage Power Grid Company to reduce over 300 stationed operators at substations.

Since 2017, as the power grid in HCMC continued to evolve, the Remote Control Center has maintained a highly effective operation, contributing to the overall improvement of power supply reliability in HCMC. Indexes have shown a positive trend, where SAIFI (average outage events) decreased from 3.02 in 2017 to 0.55 in 2021, and SAIDI (average outage time) from 232 minutes in 2017 to 40 minutes in 2021. The Smart Grid Index (SGI) of EVNHCMC for 2021, according to SP Group (Singapore), ranked 53 out of 86 evaluated utilities across 37 nations, and second in the ASEAN after Singapore Power, with 67.9/100 points.

Current data from the Remote Control Center shows:

The entire HCMC area grid is under remote monitoring; Remote control is implemented at 55 breaker stations and all 55 110kV substations, of which 48 are unmanned; 2,600 SCADA-enabled switchgears on the grid (reclosers, RMU, LBS) are also remotely controlled.
100% MV grid is remotely monitored and controlled under a mini SCADA system; over 96% of power failure cases were successfully rerouted under 5 minutes; over 99% of remote grid operations carried out were successful.
Over 50% MV grid of 22kV has DAS/DMS automation feature enabled, capable of automated fault isolation and power restoration in under 1 minute; DAS/DMS is expected to be enabled for the whole MV grid by the end of 2022.

Given the importance of grid monitoring and control, good practice among leading utilities has been establishing a second Control Center in parallel with the main one. With a strong grasp of technology trends and a technician crew of tremendous experience in system operation, EVNHCMC has been able to establish the second Remote Control Center. This is the first pair of MV grid control centers that operate concurrently in Vietnam. The joint effort of engineers and officers from HCMC Load Dispatch Center, EVNHCMC, the Informatic Technology Company, and the High Voltage Power Grid Company has been the driving force behind the project development, from design and planning to installation and configuration.

Remote Control Center 2

The Remote Control Center 2 was installed on the 9^th floor of the Tan Binh Power Company Building, No. 117 Pho Quang street, Tan Binh district. The location is geologically distanced from the Remote Control Center 1 to avoid disruptive events that may mutually affect both facilities.

To date, the project has completed:

Installing core software, developing database and grid display schema for the high voltage segment and mini SCADA area.
Developing the database on DAS Site 2
Developing the displayed schema for the MV grid based on the single-line diagram of the outage management system (OMS).
Testing the new schema in cooperation with the Power Companies, and developing test operation scenarios.
Connecting and performing tests with300,000 data points sent from substations, grid equipment to Control Center 2.

The project began in July 2021 and has been in safe and reliable testing operations since February 2022.

The Remote Control Center 2 was put into official operation on April 7, 2022, meeting the timeline and approved technical requirements, providing high reliability in monitoring and control of the HCMC power grid. The project has demonstrated a high level of technical proficiency of engineers and technicians from EVNHCMC and the Control Center. Positive results achieved through the operation of the facility have proved its political, social, economic, and social significance in the process of digitalization, smart grid development, and overall modernization of EVNHCMC.