Real-Time Data & Custom Drivers Allow Power Supplier to Anticipate Demand

Project Summary:

First Gen is one of the oldest and largest conglomerates in the Philippines that has an interest in power generation and power distribution. While Energy Development Corporation is a diversified renewable energy company, both are under the First Philippine Holdings Corporation – A Lopez Group of Companies, who constantly strive to meet the needs of its customers.

In June 2021, the Enhanced Wholesale Electricity Spot Market Design Operations (EWDO) was launched. This officially started the new regulations for shortening of the dispatch interval: instead of a per-hour basis, it was transitioned to a five-minute interval. First Gen and Energy Development Corporation (EDC) have adapted the five-minute interval in their Central Dispatch Operations (CDO).

This new regulation was addressed by installing multiple Ignition gateways for faster data monitoring, collection, and secured control of power generation across more than 30+ power plants (and counting).

Controtek developed customized drivers to get the real-time dispatch setpoints from the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) to meet the demands of the operations and compliance with the new regulation of the EWDO.

Problem:

The Energy Development Corporation was facing several challenges in monitoring and controlling power generation across multiple sites. They tried multiple softwares, but none were able to meet expectations, especially for the response rate of data collection from remote sites to central dispatch. In addition, the manual processes not solved by these softwares were prone to errors, delays in report generations, and penalties due to compliance issues from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM). 

The demand load setpoint from the WESM had to be downloaded manually and cross-referenced against available power generation at EDC power plant sites, making it difficult to track performance and identify underperforming plants.

The new five-minute load setpoint interval needed an enormous amount of resources if an automation solution could not be implemented. 

Solution:

First, to connect the real-time data acquisition to IEMOP, Controtek established a central SCADA gateway in the Central Dispatch Office (CDO). Controtek developed a custom driver that interfaced with IEMOP to obtain five-minute real-time dispatch and hourly demand data projections from WESM.

Second, Controtek designed a network, grouping the power plants per area. From each area, Controtek installed an area control center with an Ignition SCADA gateway to connect and integrate the existing DCS and PLC via multiple protocols like DNP3, IEC 61850, IEC 60870, or Modbus RTU to TCP/IP using fiber-optic connections.

Controtek established four Area Control Centers (ACC) in the Visayas region and one ACC in Mindanao. All ACCs are then connected to the central SCADA gateway via Ignition’s Enterprise Administration Module (EAM). The EAM Module was utilized to monitor and control multiple sites under EDC, enabling easy data acquisition and demand output monitoring from each power plant. The EAM Module also facilitated automated backup and recovery from a central SCADA system to area control centers.

Controtek developed multiple dashboards to monitor each plant connected to the central SCADA, providing real-time visibility into faults, alarms and events, diagnostics, and performance of each power plant. 

The Reporting Module generates reports based on WESM’s demands, with options to select different time spans for analysis and other aggregated data like power generation data on a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly basis. 

Controtek used Tamaki Control’s Plant Replay Module to review historical data and status of devices per plant to fast track troubleshooting and identification of faults and issues in the operation. 

The Kymera Map Panel Module was used to show the location of each power plant, power flow data analysis, load distributions, and provides an overview of the energy generation efficiency.

Result:

The implementation of the Ignition-based solutions yielded several positive results for FGEN and EDC. Now EDC can ensure that the demands from WESM are met and anticipate situations where demand cannot be met with the current configuration, allowing for preventive measures to be taken. 

The Plant Replay Module has made troubleshooting SLDs (Single Line Diagrams) easier, as historical data and switchgear status are easily viewable, enabling quicker problem identification and resolution. The Kymera Map Panel Module provides a visual representation of plant locations and performance, allowing EDC to identify underperforming plants and take corrective actions.

The Reporting Module enables easy generation of reports and analysis to assess performance and demand fulfillment, helping EDC track key metrics and make informed decisions based on historical data. Overall, the implementation of the Ignition platform has empowered EDC.

Deploy Date: December 2022

Project Scope:

Tags: 21,484

Screens: 101

Clients: 38

Alarms: 2,210

Devices used: 6 PLCs, 5 RTUs per site

Architectures used: Enterprise with EAM

Databases used: Microsoft SQL Server, 5 per gateway

Historical data logged: 17,266 tags, 6,736,188,784 rows