Siemens has completed a contract from Electricity of Vietnam Southern Power Corporation (EVN SPC) to design, develop and build the facilities in the main control centre in Ho Chi Minh City.
The main control centre will enable EVN to remotely monitor and control the medium- and low-voltage grids in 21 provinces in the southern part of the country.
The project is expected to improve the availability and efficiency of distribution grid in the region and reduce power outages.
The control centre technology provided by Siemens is based on its Spectrum Power system platform for network control centres, which will be put to use in Vietnam as a Supervisor Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and distribution management system (DMS).
This control centre will not only be used for remote monitoring and control of distribution grids with capacities of 110kV and below, but it can also work with transmission grid of 220kV and above in order to minimise losses and down times.
With this technology, Vietnam’s state-run energy is also planning to deploy 110kV transformer substations for unmanned operation in the future.
Siemens Energy Management Division Business Unit Digital Grid CEO Thomas Zimmermann said: "EVN's new network control center enables it to respond flexibly and cost-efficiently to the current and future challenges of ensuring reliable network operation.
“For EVN, that means an improvement in both its operational efficiency and quality of service."
Vietnam Southern Power Corporation Electricity President and CEO Nguyen Van Hop said: "We are very excited with the opening of the main control center SCADA DMS in Ho Chi Minh City.
“Equipped by Siemens most advanced technology in the power distribution industry the center will help us to remarkably improve the efficiency and reliability of the distribution network in 21 provinces and cities in the southern region of Vietnam.
“We will be able to create sustainable values not only for the region but also our company through higher productivity and significant cost savings."
Siemens’ SCADA systems are used to operate, observe, control and monitor power grids. The system helps grid operators in controlling the grid management system and the energy flow. This system can be operated locally or remotely due to its web-based architecture.
Image: Siemens to build grid control centre for Electricity of Vietnam Southern Power Corporation. Photo: Courtesy of Siemens AG.