In March 2006, Hawaiian Electric Co. Inc went live with its new US$23 million dispatch center and energy management system (EMS). The project involved the installation of a 12,000-sq-ft (1100-sq-m) facility with a spacious control room and redundant infrastructure. The control room has a dynamic 8-ft by 48-ft (2.4-m by 14.6-m) video wallboard and a secondary 8-ft by 16-ft (2.4-m by 4.9-m) dynamic video wallboard. The new EMS came complete with a dispatch training simulator, web console and backup EMS.

A MODERN SYSTEM

Hawaiian Electric Co. Inc. (HECO) is the sole utility serving the island of Oahu and controls the entire electrical grid, from the 138-kV transmission system down to the distribution voltage levels including generation from HECO-owned units and independent power producers. The existing dispatch center housed a 7-ft by 52-ft (2-m by 16-m) magnetic wallboard, which provided a static representation of HECO's 138-kV transmission and 46-kV subtransmission system, which contains more than 3000 breakers and switches.

When HECO evaluated its existing EMS and dispatch center facility, which was about 20 years old, the utility came to the predictable conclusion that they were reaching the end of their useful lives. Among key concerns were that hardware and communication interfaces were either obsolete or getting there. Scan rates slower than industry norms and channel capacity limitations also needed attention. The existing center also had many shortcomings: obstructed views of the wallboard, compromised area access security and a lack of space to accommodate new dispatch computer systems. Futhermore, as a mission-essential vulnerability asset site, the existing dispatch center was in close proximity to a highly traveled roadway.

After receiving approval from the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission to move forward in August 2004, HECO broke ground in November 2004 for the new dispatch center and proceeded with the two projects in parallel. The process of requesting bids for the EMS began earlier in 2004. HECO solidified its bid evaluation methodology, which included an evaluation of the technical merits of the bid, the cost of the EMS and an evaluation of the risk involved, prior to receiving bids from vendors. This comprehensive evaluation included travel to mainland customer sites to observe firsthand how each EMS operated in the field. In February 2005, HECO and Siemens signed a contract to install the Siemens Power TG EMS.

SYSTEM DISPLAY

HECO needed a modern version of its existing static magnetic board single-line diagram. Just using the EMS graphical tools proved difficult because of the high number of breakers and switches on the transmission and subtransmission system. Working with Intergraph Corp., HECO created a new application for the dynamic video wallboard.

The innovative application projects an electronic version of the 138-kV and 46-kV single-line diagram anywhere on the new dynamic video wallboard. The dispatchers dictate the shape and size. If several dispatchers are performing switching operations, several windows may be opened and sized to display different parts of the system. The new application allows dispatchers to place electronic pins representing an abnormal status for the non-SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) devices in the field. It also allows for placing electronic Post-it Notes on the wallboard.

One of the unique features, in line with HECO's vision of interoperability, is automatic updating of the wallboard if any SCADA devices change state. Using the Inter-Ccontrol Center Communications Protocol, the status of the SCADA devices are automatically transferred to the wallboard, and the new application contains logic to determine the normal state of the device and will place the proper electronic pin (either open or close) on the wallboard's single-line diagram.

CUTOVER

From January 2006 to March 2006, HECO tested the new EMS, completed development of the wallboard application and provided training to its dispatchers. The testing period proved valuable because it allowed cutover of the substations one at a time. This allowed a thorough connectivity check of the remote terminal units and EMS communication system.

Problems encountered during the testing period were resolved prior to the cutover to the new EMS, which took place as planned at the end of March 2006 over a three-day period. HECO dispatchers moved into the new building on March 31, 2006.

LESSONS LEARNED

Although the cutover went smoothly, there were several lessons learned from the project.

The first lesson was the need to coordinate the EMS hardware environments. While performing the EMS database conversion, one development environment was installed, providing hardware for development tasks and training tasks. Then, because of unexpected development work requiring dedicated use of the hardware, HECO was faced with a situation where some of the training sessions had to be postponed.

The second lesson included coordination of HECO resources and Siemens resources. In order to maintain the project schedule as planned, HECO divided the skill sets of the EMS staff and delegated specialized tasks to each person, because it was inefficient for several people to perform the same tasks. At times this caused a few setbacks due to illness and vacation schedules, which had to be made up for later. Now that the project is installed, EMS staff members will cross-train each other in order to provide adequate coverage for EMS support. On the Siemens side, HECO managed support from the vendor through a HECO and Siemens executive biweekly conference call. These calls provided the necessary attention and manpower from the vendor in order to stay on the project's schedule.

The third lesson learned involved training. After the cutover, the need to provide more scenario training to the dispatchers was recognized. Core training on SCADA and automatic generation control (AGC) functions were followed by five to six refresher training sessions. The training sessions provided information on how to perform certain functions without simulating disturbance situations, which would have exposed the dispatchers to what the alarm lists look like, how the new EMS alarms sound, and where to find SCADA and AGC displays quickly. HECO's plan was to schedule several EMS staff members, who were familiar with the methodology of how the alarms were programmed and the location of various displays, on different shifts over the weekend and the week after the cutover. As a result, despite the lack of additional scenario training, the team of dispatchers and EMS staff were able to manage the disturbances well. HECO is now in the process of developing a training program for the EMS using the dispatch training simulator.

The installation of the new dispatch center and EMS was the first step toward HECO's vision of EMS-OMS-CIS integration. The utility is now in the process of installing its new outage management system, which is expected to be on-line in 2007.

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Shari Ishikawa received her BSEE degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology and an MBA degree from the University of Hawaii, Manoa. As director of the new dispatch project for Hawaiian Electric Co. Inc. (HECO), she is responsible for installing the new dispatch center, energy management system-outage management system (EMS-OMS). Ishikawa started her career at HECO in August 1997 and has held positions in the Generation and Transmission Planning divisions. Prior to joining HECO, she worked as a tech staff engineer for Commonwealth Edison's Southern division in Joliet, Illinois. She is a licensed professional engineer in the state of Hawaii. shari.ishikawa@heco.com