Alstom Grid Management Systems Selected by the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC)

  • Posted on: 7 December 2011
  • By: chw staff

Alstom Grid, the global expert in electrical grid management systems, has been selected by the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC), to supply smart grid synchrophasor software applications for its Western Interconnection SynchroPhasor Program (WISP). Synchrophasor technology provides unprecedented, sub-second, real-time grid performance data to operators, thus strongly enhancing the capability for increased grid reliability and efficiency.

Mark Maher, WECC CEO stated: “Having received the largest Smart Grid Investment Grant (SGIG) under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA), we selected Alstom Grid’s wide area situational awareness applications for our reliability coordination centers. When complete, the WISP project will involve 18 utility participants deploying over 340 Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) in a footprint covering all or part of 14 western U.S. states, 2 Canadian provinces, and a portion of the Baja Peninsula in Mexico. We look forward to the successful deployment and integration of the applications of this transformational technology within WECC’s control rooms.”

Alstom Grid will be supplying key components in the application area of the WISP project, including e-terravision (for wide area situational monitoring display) and PhasorPoint (by Psymetrix, global experts for phasor-based wide area monitoring system) for phasor display and historical archiving.

Jean-Michel Cornille, Senior Vice-President, Alstom Grid Power Electronics and Automation said, "We are honored to be selected for such an important project. This illustrates our combined capabilities with Psymetrix in wide area situation awareness (WASA) projects, allowing utility System Operators to efficiently visualize, monitor and control grid security and stability, including real-time, pertinent information and the impact of renewable energy.”

The WISP efforts are already underway and the project is scheduled to be completed March 31, 2013.

topics: 
smart grid