A rocket ship to the future of energy takes off from the control rooms in Mexico, Chile and Spain

The new Enel Green Power control room in Mexico City looks like something out of a science fiction movie. It’s like a space opera that chronicles the epic saga of humanity’s exploration of the galaxy, marked by cutting-edge technology, true grit, efficiency and courage. Behind the scenes, from this digitalized room covered in screens displaying colored numbers and a constant flow of curves and values, a real journey is being launched: the journey of the future of energy, of hydroelectric, solar, wind and geothermal power (and let’s not forget batteries!); and of course, green hydrogen and tidal energy. The control room (which was inaugurated just a few days ago) in Mexico City controls and operates one hundred per cent of the country’s power plants. Even South America is experiencing this shift, in Santiago in Chile, where a similar control room, in operation since 2018, has just been modernized. At least two operators are always on site at the Mexican control center, with additional backup teams available 24 hours a day. The Magdalena II solar plant in Tlaxcala, which is located approximately one hundred kilometers from the capital city, acts as backup center. Since this new control room is one-of-a-kind in Mexico, its construction and commission also required training employees to reach the necessary level of specialization, and to keep them up to speed on market trends, types of turbines and panels. “The new control room enables us to take on ever greater challenges and promotes clean energy production in a more efficient and sustainable way. With the information obtained, our team of engineers has developed an algorithm that complements our work, analyzing approximately 800,000 variables, predicting any potential errors more quickly and accurately.” Daniela Fuentes, Head of Control Room Mexico City Like an icebreaker “When people ask me how I envision the control room of the future, I picture an icebreaker ship clearing the way for more innovation.” Carlos Saa, Head of Renewable Maintenance and Technical Services Chile On June 6th, the new Next Generation Control Room in Chile finally incorporated the remote-control functionalities for the Cerro Pabellón geothermal power plant. The name of the game is flexibility: the control room can help develop hybrid strategies, like using wind and solar farms together with battery systems, when needed. On the other hand, in the event of serious issues related to safety, there is a SIL3-type emergency button, like the one currently found in modern nuclear power plants. “I envision the future of the control room being increasingly linked to digital instruments. The virtualization of our current operational elements will be essential and unavoidable. The use of virtual assistants will facilitate processing large amounts of data, and aid in the decision-making processes in times of greater complexity.” Juan Ignacio Molina, Head of Control Room in Santiago, Chile The integration of Cerro Pabellón and the three Chilean geothermal units, located at an altitude of over 4,800 meters, in the midst of the pandemic, required an enormous technical and human effort, even on the part of contractors. But ensuring high quality and reliable remote-control service for the different technologies we work with, and for those coming in the future, like green hydrogen or tidal energy, is a challenge we face every day in our Control Rooms. Despite the volcano June 6th was also an important date on the other side of the Atlantic, in Spain. On that day, in Las Palmas, Grand Canary Island, the new Control Centers of Endesa's distribution and generation network in the Canary Islands were inaugurated. They were equipped with cutting-edge technologies that even control the operations needed to balance electrical supply and demand at the Gorona del Viento hydro-wind power plant (on El Hierro island), the thermal power plants and other renewable energy plants. Furthermore, if there’s an emergency, a twin control center, which complements the first and is fitted with exactly the same equipment, is ready to go at any moment. Thanks to our technology and committed staff, we are prepared to face unexpected events, like the eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano, on the island of La Palma. Despite the magnitude of the catastrophe, there were no blackouts on La Palma. Still in Spain, a feasibility study was started in 2020, on the integration of the entire remote operation of generation assets for Enel Group Iberia: 7,779 thermal MW and 8,508 renewable MW (data as of the closing of June 2022 without including coal plants). As a result of this project, the Remote Operation unit was created in July 2021. Its aim is to optimize the operation of these assets and to serve as a platform for just transition between thermal and renewable generation assets. According to the head of the unit, José Angel Fernández Arias, "This enables us to install renewable operation positions in the control rooms of thermal power plants with low utilization, and schedule technical training for operators favoring the transition of personnel to renewable technologies without needing to relocate staff. Unlike competitors that centralize the operation in a single room, we leverage the existing thermal generation infrastructures and their personnel to support the growth in renewables.” This marks another important step toward the digitalization of energy, to make our plants and services more sustainable and resilient.

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A rocket ship to the future of energy takes off from the control rooms in Mexico, Chile and Spain

A rocket ship to the future of energy takes off from the control rooms in Mexico, Chile and Spain

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