GENEARTION CONTROL CENTRE the link to the national grid

The Generation Control Centre of the Institute of Technology and Renewable Energies (CCG-ITER) is the base from which the operation of 145 facilities for generating electricity from renewable sources, totalling more than 51MW, is monitored in real time.

CCG-ITER operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and manages data from 3 wind parks, 7 photovoltaic plants and more than 135 individual photovoltaic installations of different collectives.

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Renewable energies have certain unique characteristics, related mainly to the wide-ranging nature of this technology, the variability of its productivity according to varying environmental conditions, the uncertainty in predicting these, and the technology used in many of the generators. All these variables must be taken into account in order to meet the required standards of supply, including the correct balance between electricity output and consumption.

According to Royal Decree 413/2014, all facilities for generating power from renewable sources, cogeneration and waste, connected to grids outside the Spanish mainland, with an output exceeding 0.5MW (or as part of a collective of suppliers whose overall output exceeds 0.5MW), must operate through a generation control centre (CCG) and provide real-time output telemetry.

The high number of electricity producers connected to the national grid (REE) requires a safe and efficient dialogue between them and the REE, making it necessary for them to operate through a CCG. The CCG receives their output data, transmits these to the Renewable Energy Control Centre (CECRE) and, as appropriate, relays to each producer any instructions from CECRE as to how their energy output can be safely integrated into the grid.

Each CCG must be suitably connected to the REE’s control centre, meet appropriate standards for monitoring, controlling and managing the output they oversee, and meet appropriate staffing standards, so as to ensure safe and effective communication with the REE, 24 hours a day, every day of the year.