Enel Green Power has launched its remote control center for the operation of all its solar, wind and hydroelectric plants in Mexico.
With this, Enel becomes the first private company to have a multi-technology control center in the country, based in Mexico City, with an investment of $1 million, according to BNamericas.
Pablo Blanco, Enel ‘s Director of Operation and Maintenance in Mexico, explained that this control center will optimize and improve the operation processes of its renewable energy plants, which are controlled remotely and in real time. Centralization of its operations will also allow it to provide a better service to the National Energy Control Center (Cenace).
This room will be used to monitor and control its 19 plants in Mexico (12 wind, four solar and three hydroelectric), representing a total capacity of 2.8 GW. The three small hydro plants, in western Mexico, are 14 MW Chilatan on the Corongoros River, 30 MW El Gallo on the Cutzmala River, and 8.5 MW Trojes on the Barreras River.
For this center, Enel developed a series of technological tools and algorithms that make its operation more efficient. For example, it can anticipate failures that will reduce its energy generation and not impact its income. It can also schedule maintenance or take advantage of data for market analysis.
Daniela Fuentes, head of Enel Mexico’s control center, said the origin of this project was only monitoring but later moved to a stage of remote control of the plants, something that took several years, as it began in 2016 and in 2018 became something “more formal.”
Also, to guarantee 24/7 operations of its plants, Enel Green Power has installed an alternate control center at its Magdalena II solar plant in Tlaxcala, in case of any eventuality that may arise at the Mexico City facility.
One of the biggest challenges for Enel in this project is the training of human talent, as each technology has its particularities and this center requires a high level of specialization in multi-technologies.
The company pointed out that the data obtained from the monitoring is used to prepare analyses that provide greater certainty and security to the National Electric System.
