The North American power grid is the largest human-made machine in the world. At a cost of $3 trillion, it consists of more than 8,000 power plants and 450,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines that feed tens of thousands of substations connected to a web of last-mile distribution lines.
In Archuleta and La Plata counties, that machine serves about 43,000 customers with about 115 megawatts per day. It includes 3,600 miles of wire, 18,000 transformers and 31 substations.
That much infrastructure requires 24-hour monitoring, which is done at La Plata Electric Association’s dispatch center in Durango.
Until recently, being able to visualize everything occurring on this complex grid was a challenge. Dispatchers, managers and line crews had to huddle around one computer screen to identify problems and develop solutions to keep the grid buzzing at a happy voltage. For the larger picture, they relied on a static wall display that mapped the skeletal grid.
LPEA this year installed a 6-foot by 9-foot “live wall” that allows employees to share a visual representation of the grid in real time. If a meter goes out or voltage becomes too weak or too high, an alarm sounds and the problem area lights up on the gigantic display. Likewise, using GPS technology, dispatchers can keep track of work crews spread across the district.
It looks like a miniature version of NASA’s mission control center, with two dispatchers sitting behind computers sharing a common screen at the front of the room that tracks the grid’s vital signs. The $120,000 display consists of nine flat-screen televisions tiled together. A video mixer makes the TVs appear as one screen while taking input from up to eight computers at the same time.
An oversized display makes sense when considering everything dispatchers must keep an eye on, including weather, lightning strikes, video surveillance cameras, work crews in the field – not to mention the sprawling infrastructure, said Ron Meyer, LPEA manager of engineering and member relations.
“This is really about safety and operating the grid,” Meyer said. “We’re able to operate things a lot more safely and effectively because of technology and bringing it all together than we were in the past.”
While the live wall gives dispatchers a better visualization of what’s happening on the grid, it doesn’t allow them to see everything, including when a branch falls on a line or a raccoon meets its demise rooting around in a substation.
As security threats increase around the world, including cyber-attacks, dispatch centers such as LPEA’s will be placed on greater lockdown to protect the grid. Ten years ago, LPEA didn’t have locks on every door or gates to prevent vehicles from approaching some parts of the building in Bodo Industrial Park. But now it does; in fact, automatic locks were being placed on internal doors this week.
“If someone hacked and knocked down our computer systems, we could still operate the system without all of that, we just won’t have the visibility that we need to have,” Meyer said. “We can go get those lights put back on, it just takes a lot longer than what we’re able to do today.”
About 250,000 people in Ukraine were left in the dark on Dec. 23, 2015, when power companies came under a cyber-attack – what is suspected to be the first successful state-sponsored hack of a power distribution network.
“... We’re very conscious of the cyber side from a security point of view,” Meyer said.
shane@durangoherald.com
