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Advanced
Control Systems Expedites Deliveries for ERCOT Mock Market
Advanced Control Systems expedited delivery of power marketing and web communications systems to aid two Texas customers in their preparations for deregulation by January 1, 2002. South Texas Electric Cooperative (STEC) and Bryan Texas Utilities (BTU) were among the first ERCOT participants to be ready for initial Mock Market testing. The Mock Market is a preparedness program for Texas generation and transmission utilities, testing the compatibility of their procedures and technology with the ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) energy market solution. The five-week series of increasingly complex scenarios is designed to assess utility responses to market conditions: weather, load fluctuations and outages, both planned and unplanned. ERCOT qualification also entails a battery of technical communications and capability tests to ensure reliable transactions between ERCOT and the utility. Advanced Control Systems developed, installed and successfully tested fully-compatible systems for both customers prior to the mandated deadline. BTU installed a complete PRISM system, including SCADA, to replace the existing Ilex system. They also added WebPortal and Altra Power software, and purchased a Network Terminal Gateway (NTG) -- a new type of Advanced Control Systems network terminal unit (NTU). The system components were manufactured and delivered in less than three weeks, allowing BTU to begin the initial ERCOT test well in advance of other participants. STEC, a long-standing customer, is made up of six member cooperatives covering parts of 24 Texas counties, with 360 MW of generating capacity. STEC upgraded its SCADA/EMS system to PRISM Release 6, supplemented it with Altra Power software, and added six full-SCADA NTUs and 27 NTU-7510s, bringing the total number of RTUs being polled to 86. Both BTU and STEC use Altra Power software to handle energy accounting, and to exchange transactions and schedules with ERCOT and other utilities. Altra Power, from Altra Energy Technologies, records commodity trades between electricity providers, suppliers, the scheduler, and other key players in the interconnected electricity grid. Advanced Control Systems employs an exclusive interface that integrates Altra Power with the PRISM/EMS system, allowing automatic generation control directly from the scheduler. WebPortal allows BTU and STEC to exchange customized reports and graphs with ERCOT in near real-time. WebPortal uses a comprehensive array of content management tools, reporting and graphing capabilities, network operation views, and flexible broadcasting features to assemble a customizable, personal web page incorporating graphics, data and analysis extracted from internal and external sources. It uses existing hardware and software infrastructures to probe structured data, unstructured data, and legacy databases. The NTG polls data from the master station, converts it to DNP, and sends it to another master station through DNP protocol. This allows real-time data to be exchanged with ERCOT, which can then return real-time data -- such as setpoints -- to the sender. A DNP3 interface delivers test data from the PRISM master to the ERCOT master over redundant leased telephone lines. The combination of relatively inexpensive frame relay technology and the traffic control capability of Ethernet allows uninterrupted data flow. A DNP3 link, which refreshes every two seconds, was added to enhance the existing ICCP link, which refreshes every ten seconds. |
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| Contents © 2008 Advanced Control Systems, Inc.
All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. This site last updated: 30 September 2008. |