The Challenge
Alternativa de Energia Renovable (AER) was looking for a software provider to support their existing portfolio of 16 hydro electric plants with a total capacity of 11.6 MW. They were looking for a partner with the ability to support additional growth and advanced functionality to manage their generation assets, a SCADA system that could perform load sharing control, voltage and power factor regulation and operate a small microgrid. The detailed technical requirements included:
- Global connectivity and improve system availability
- Visibility to field devices that used non-propreitary protocols and standard communication protocols with existing HMI and end devices
- Rich data acquisition capabilities and robust reporting, trend analysis, and the ability to share information with other systems and interfaces
- Support for extensive list of standard communication protocols, offering more choice of controllable devices, and easy to use interface to control those devices
- Performing installation or maintenance without a system shutdown since their system controlled multiple power plants simultaneously
The Solution
With Survalent’s software and support, PROA was able to commission multiple sites without any downtime to any of the sites. They had multiple engineers working redundantly, and were able to accomplish the transition to Survalent in 2-3 months. More importantly, the software solution met all AER’s functional requirements and was a cost-effective and reliable solution. Some of the specific functionality delivered included:
- A redundant system with connectivity across multiple plants
- Comprehensive data collection and alarm reporting for improved situational awareness
- Customizable screens providing easy access to information with better control of the process flow
- Quick and easy access to historical information with the ability to generate trend reports when needed, along with interoperability with MS Office applications
