Experiences at the electricity control centers in El Salvador and Nicaragua in the frame of the Electricity Industry Reforms

This paper gives a brief description of the concepts and goals of the electricity industry reforms process with some references about the Central America context. It presents a brief description of the operation of the electricity control centers in the competitive market as a result of such electricity industry reforms, where two main functions are treated, the system operation and the power exchange administration. Two Central American countries, El Salvador and Nicaragua, are specifically treated in this paper. The electricity industry organisation is given as context for both countries. The electricity control center operation is explained for each of these countries. The operations of the electricity control center in each country are presented using a novel functional model, based in intuitive graphical representation of the information flow. With this model approach the functions change under demands, because the reforms, can be added, placed, linked and documented. Some conclusions about the induced changes at the electricity control centers in El Salvador and Nicaragua are considered.