Managing the grids that take electricity into homes and factories is an essential task. It’s what we do at Iberdrola´s Distribution Operations Centre (COD) in Toledo, where we manage the electricity grid from the interconnections between the transmission lines and generators to the power sockets located in people’s homes, companies and factories.
Along the way, we have to make sure that the energy flows unobstructed and coordinate that flow with the necessary maintenance work to be carried out on the grid, as well as troubleshooting faults and exceptions. We also provide information to consumers and to public administrations regarding possible power cuts, both scheduled and unforeseen.
In this daily work, the priorities for a distribution operation centre (COD) like the one in Toledo are ensuring the safety of people, the environment and the facilities, in that order. There are a huge number of operations in the grid on any given day. It is therefore essential for there to be a centre to coordinate these measures, one that is always alert and able to respond quickly and efficiently to unforeseen events.
If we look back over the years, we will see that there has been considerable technological progress at these centres run by Iberdrola. We have gone from a situation where the equipment was operated by local personnel, to one in which virtually the entire grid is subject to remote control. There are also several elements, such as substations and transformer stations, that are supervised and operated solely from COD. Years ago, we used to have panels on the walls depicting the grid and we would complete status updates with drawing pins and adhesive tape. Nowadays, we are equipped with the modern remote control system known as Spectrum, which streamlines the grid and the remote control, recording exceptions in graphic form with information on the exact points of supply that are affected by a fault.
However, that is not the only area where technological evolution is apparent. Iberdrola is in the process of rolling out remote meter management for all of the points of supply it services, increasing the supervision and control over many medium voltage installations. This means that it is considerably expanding the number of elements that may be operated remotely from COD. There has also been exponential development in the information on what is happening in the grid.
The staff of these centres have to face the challenge of ongoing technological evolution on a daily basis. The grid used to be purely for consumption purposes but now it is a grid that includes distributed generation. This means it has to meet the needs of this generation which does not always match consumption. We have transitioned from a grid where the provision of reactive power was essential for maintaining voltage levels to one in which there is a surplus of reactive power; one where special attention and a very professional service is required in order to maintain its parameters at times when demand is low, such as night-times, weekends and holiday periods. This highlights the very important work of coordination undertaken by the distribution operation centres (COD) and the system operator, the various generation control centres and the producers that are connected to the distribution grid.
Iberdrola’s distribution operation centres – such as this facility in Toledo – have a staff of about 35 employees for managing the grid and the information that is required on a 7/24/365 basis. They are experts at managing the distribution grid, in terms of the safety of people and the safety of supply, optimising and leveraging the best technologies added to the grid. This makes Iberdrola one of the electric utilities with the best continuity of supply rates in Spain.
