Integral GIS
  • ENERGY & UTILITIES
  • REAL-TIME OPERATIONAL VISIBILITY
  • ENTERPISE CONTROL ROOM APPLICATION
  • DIGITAL TWIN

Upholding grid reliability with a unified control room solution for proactive decision-making at ERCOT

The ERCOT operators were operating across disparate, outdated systems and wanted to bring their awareness and decision making tools into a modern, unified system. They needed to guarantee a reliable transmission system in a secure environment leveraging a variety of data sources.

Integral worked with ERCOT personnel to design and develop an integrated system to serve as the visual and analytical focal point for decision making in the ERCOT control room for managing grid reliability and activity. This system provides the operators not only the actionable insights they need, but the ability to simulate the outcomes of their decisions and then execute them.

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12

critical reliability functions brought into 1 intuitive interface

90%

of the Texas power load covered

55,000

miles of transmission lines tracked

  1. Define the decision

    ERCOT is responsible for maintaining a secure, reliable, compliant, and efficient power grid powering 90% of the load of the entire state of Texas. Their control room operators, support staff, and training teams need to be able to view, simulate, and enact decisions to keep the grid online.

    Their considerations include:

    • Blackstart capability
    • Operations decisions
    • Cost and compliance impact across the grid
    • Safe threshold parameters of acceptable levels for various energy factors

  2. Design the system

    Integral worked with ERCOT control room operators, support staff, and training teams to devise a solution aligned to their needs.

    The system design focused on:

    • Providing real-time situational awareness
    • Consolidating network operations, real-time information, and historical reliability
    • Integrating real-time and predictive weather event information in a secure, air-gapped system
    • Calculating load-on-grid
    • Integrating historical reliability information
    • Simulating impacts of load distribution adjustments
    • Providing real-life training tools to operators
    Dynamic one-line diagrams with live SCADA data, so operators can see exactly how the system is connected and what is happening at every node in real time.

  3. Build the platform

    Integral designed and developed a uniquely custom on-prem solution for the RTO control room.

    Core platform components include:

    • On-prem environment complying to ERCOT security regulations
    • Unified database of spatial and non-spatial information built on Oracle
    • Upgrading from point-to-point data to accurate Transmission Line and Substation location data 
    • OSI PI/AVEVA PI feeding in real-time EMS data
    • Custom-built weather server integrating and processing DTN raw data
    • MapBox Atlas Server on-premise
    • React & Javascript front-end
    • Accessible, browser-based application
    Live weather data mapped against the grid, so operators can see developing conditions and implement contingencies before they become disruptions.

  4. Deliver the insight

    ERCOT has produced a first-of-its-kind solution in this space. No one else has as comprehensive and reliable of a tool. For the first time, control room operators, support staff, and training teams share a single, unified environment for viewing, simulating, and acting on grid conditions.

    This enabled:

    • Complex “what-if” analysis on current and historical states of the grid
    • Modernized, real-time visibility to control room operators
    • Just-in-time, live views of one-line diagrams and multi-station one lines
    • Streamlined congestion alleviation and outage management
    • Consolidated control room operations to a single screen
    Live weather data mapped against the grid, so operators can see developing conditions and implement contingencies before they become disruptions.

  5. Support real-world use

    GridGeo was a four-year engagement that evolved significantly from initial concept to operational reality. As ERCOT operators worked within the system, new ideas emerged like creating dynamic one-line diagrams. The system proved its value most clearly during hurricane season. For the first time, ERCOT operators could plan ahead with precision.

    The impact extended across the control room:

    • ERCOT established a durable operational platform built to grow with the grid
    • Weather-driven contingency planning became proactive not reactive
    • Operators consolidated from multiple disparate screens to a single unified interface
    A generator control panel simulation giving operators a real-world training environment to prepare for emergency scenarios, test contingency plans, and practice rerouting decisions without impacting the live grid.

    Led by operators' real-world needs, we developed a system that redefined grid operational awareness and elevated reliability.

Complex problems deserve purpose-built solutions.

Understanding your challenge is step one. Tell us what you're working on and discover how we can work together to figure out the right solution.

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