RWE is making its power station control system fit for the future by adopting a new technology. Optime, a new SCADA system based on Siemens Spectrum Power, gives RWE a uniform control technology.
By connecting numerous small units, RWE aims to create a virtual power plant in order to advance the energy transition.
SCADA stands for ‘Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition’ – in other words monitoring and managing technical processes using a computer system. Previously, there were two separate systems: one for power plants in Germany and another for the Netherlands and Belgium. The new solution combines the two, while integrating RWE’s renewable energy assets in Europe. It can also accommodate additional units such as battery storage systems and diesel-powered backup generators.
Known as Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk AG till 1990, RWE AG is German electric utilities company based in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia.
The new technology will be used in the RWE Supply & Trading Dispatch Centre on Europe’s largest trading floor, which is located in Essen. This is where the central command and control operations of all RWE plants in Europe are located. A wall of monitors several metres high and wide shows in real time which RWE power stations are feeding power into the grid, the feed-in levels, and which plants are being ramped up or down. Engineers sit in front of the screens and optimise all of RWE’s conventional power generation assets around the clock. A powerful command and control system is crucial to this task.
By connecting numerous small units, RWE aims to create a virtual power plant in order to advance the energy transition. The conventional power stations and pumped-storage plants offset the volatility of renewables, and thanks to state-of-the-art technology, can be controlled down to the second. Even the requirements of transmission system operators with respect to system services, grid disturbances and minimisation of balancing energy are optimally met.
The RWE control team keeps constant watch over developments as they unfold because power supply and demand can deviate from projections.
The RWE control team keeps constant watch over developments as they unfold because power supply and demand can deviate from projections, for example in the event of unusual weather conditions or major events. In such cases, the engineers working in the Dispatch Centre must respond quickly. This program determines the most economical use of all power plant units and machines and uses that data to create current target schedules. These are then transmitted via Optime as a target figure to the corresponding unit or machine control system of each power plant location.
Featured photograph sourced from Siemens
