More than 500 people work shifts 24 hours a day, 365 days a year in the company's control centres to ensure the power supply.
They work in shifts, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, managing thousands of assets to ensure that electricity reaches every corner. The more than 500 people working in Endesa's control centres perform thousands of remote operations every year to manage the generation, distribution, purchase and sale of energy. From their screens, they monitor the company's 450 electricity generation plants and thousands of kilometres of distribution networks to ensure their proper operation.
Control of generation plants
If the economic management of the electricity sold to the market is carried out from the energy management control centre, the actual remote control of the electricity production plants is carried out from the generation rooms. These are where power is switched on, shut down, controlled and manoeuvred for the different generation plants continuously. The electrical substations for the injection of energy are operated remotely and switching operations are undertaken with a view to performing maintenance tasks in safe conditions.
The level of activity carried out in Endesa's 20 generation control rooms is evident in the magnitude of the figures they handle: 26,000 wind turbine start-ups per year, more than 30,000 in hydroelectric power plants, 16,000 operations per year on the elements in more than 290 high-voltage substations, 77,000 calls received in the first eleven months of the year and nearly 27,000 calls made.
"We remotely monitor and operate Endesa's renewable generation fleet, including the electricity transmission infrastructure, to guarantee the generation of electricity with the maximum guarantees of safety and efficiency in all operations and to make sure that the power supply is restored in the shortest possible time in the event of any incident," says Belén Herrero, Head of the technical office that supports the three control rooms managed by the different territorial divisions: Peninsula, Balearic Islands, Ceuta and Melilla and the Canary Islands.
The 180 people who work 24X7 shifts in these control rooms, together with 17 people from the technical office, manage the operation of more than 2,500 wind turbines and 5,900 photovoltaic inverters that Enel Green Power España, Endesa's renewables subsidiary, has throughout Spain, as well as the 149 hydroelectric and thermal power plants. They work in three shifts so that there is always someone managing the operation of the plants in real time and coordinating with other areas of Endesa such as energy management, distributors, the electricity grid manager in Spain and other agents in the sector.
Progress made in recent years means that operations have become increasingly automated (as much as 99.9% in wind and solar plants) and it is also possible to control plants of different technologies from the same control centre, something which was unthinkable just a few years ago. The requirements to operate and ensure the stability of the system are also becoming more complex as the role of renewable energies increases, as well as environmental requirements and extreme weather events, which are becoming more frequent.
Distribution Control Centres: The Eyes of the Network
Monitoring and remote control of the distribution network is undertaken from the five electricity distribution control centres (CORE in Spanish) located in each of the areas managed by e-distribución, Endesa's network subsidiary: Andalusia and Extremadura, Aragon, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands and Catalonia. They employ 313 professionals with a technical profile. They are responsible for ensuring that the electricity reaches the end consumer after passing through the nearly 318,000 kilometres of power lines. This year, more than 1.6 million remote-controlled manoeuvres were made from this control centre, in addition to more than 247,000 operations performed automatically.
"The COREs are in service 24 hours a day so that there is no shortage of supply. It requires people who are active, with the ability to manage a number of tasks simultaneously, who have initiative and decision-making capacity, people who are able to solve problems, who work well under pressure," says Esther Pueyo, Head of Operations Management in the distribution area. She started working at the CORE when she was 26, more than 20 years ago, and has seen how the work performed in these centres multiplied as the digitalisation of the network progressed, which enables a growing number of operations to be performed remotely. To this end, remote controls are essential, of which there are already more than 37,000 operating in Endesa's medium-voltage network.
The distribution control centres manage the work scheduled on the network and also any unforeseen events resulting from extreme weather conditions, for example, which are becoming more and more frequent. To manage emergencies, Endesa's distribution network has main control centres and backup centres in each territory. Since 2020 there has been significant investment to strengthen these twin control centres and guarantee the continuity of operations in cases of emergency, such as the one experienced during the Covid pandemic.
In addition, these control centres are directly connected to Endesa's call centre and coordinate information to the technical services of local councils, emergency services and security forces in the management of possible emergencies. "Here we never close. This is 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to make everything work," says Pueyo.
Energy Management
The energy management area is responsible for the purchase and sale of energy raw materials for electricity generation and operations in wholesale markets. In its control centre located in Madrid, 24 people work in three shifts to cover 24 hours a day, every day of the year. All of them are engineers who are in charge of managing the market in real time. They use their screens to manage 750,000 offers per day with access to each of the 154 market sessions for each of Endesa's generation plants, including renewable, hydro, combined cycle and nuclear plants. As a result of extensive digitalisation, automation, optimisation and artificial intelligence processes are now available and which enable optimal programming.
The control centre analyses the data taken in the field for real-time monitoring of the plants, receiving some 35,000 signals every 4 seconds. Based on all this information, production plans are designed and interaction is carried out with the market operator (OMIE) and the system operator (Redeia in Spain and REN in Portugal). "We guarantee the electricity supply in all territories through optimal programming taking into account technical and economic criteria," says Marta Sánchez, head of the control centre located at Endesa's headquarters in Madrid.
About Endesa
Endesa is a leading electricity company in Spain and the second largest in Portugal. In addition, it is the second largest gas operator in the Spanish market. It undertakes end-to-end business including the generation, distribution and retailing of electricity. It also offers, through Endesa X, value-added services aimed at the electrification of energy uses in homes, companies, industries and public administrations, including electric mobility, where it is one of the main operators of charging points in Spain. Endesa is firmly committed to the United Nations' SDGs and, as such, is strongly promoting the development of renewable energies through Enel Green Power España, the digitalisation of networks through e-distribution, and Corporate Social Responsibility. The Endesa Foundation is also active in CSR. Our team totals around 9,260 employees. Endesa is part of Enel, Europe's largest electricity group.