Elering to invest 3.1 million euros in renewing the electricity system’s technical control system

On Monday, 26 September, Elering AS and the US company GE Energy Management Services LLC (GE) signed a procurement contract to develop and ship a new SCADA/EMS control system and a respective training simulator for the electricity system. The cost of the contract is 3.1 million euros.

“In addition to updating the main functions, the new control system allows us to increase the readiness of a vital infrastructure to manage the dangers that originate from cyberspace,” remarked Chairman of the Elering Board, Taavi Veskimägi.

Elering primarily uses the control system to observe and manage the functions of the electricity system. A simulator to train dispatchers will be added to the system as a new functionality, said Veskimägi.

The procurable system includes servers, workstations and other necessary hardware as well as all of the software that is going to be used to monitor, visualise, analyse, remote control and train the functioning of the electricity system. In addition, the control system includes databases to record and archive the data collected about the electricity system in real time.

Within the framework of the procurement, GE will ship a total of 20 control system workstations for Elering. According to the plan, building the system will last 20 months and has to be completely finished by the spring of 2018.

The new system will also enable Elering to fulfil the requirements of the European Network of Transmission System Operators, ENTSO-E, which will be applied in the short term.

Even now, Elering is using a GE control system that will have been operational for almost 11 years by the time the new system will be activated. It is a high life span considering the specifics of the control system.

Initially, five companies showed interest in the public procurement. 

Chairman of the Elering Board, Taavi Veskimägi, and a representative of General Electric, Marc Lamey.

Photo: Ain Köster