Power System Control Center Concepts

This paper presents the thinking behind the evolution of control center design at Control Data Corporation. Various aspects of the present day control center are discussed, together with the limitations and compromises that are needed to meet a complex set of requirements. The emphasis is on the present state of the art as represented by control centers that have been recently installed or are in production. Trends for the future are discussed as providing for the next decade may be the greatest problem in system design. The explosive growth in the number and complexity of functions performed in control centers has forced an evolution away from a single processor approach to distributed processing systems, which must be more responsive to the needs of applications programs, both from a development and real-time usage standpoint. In planning for the expected life of the computer systems, it is important that the system accom- modate horizontal growth -- more RTU's, CRT's, bigger data bases, etc., as well as vertical growth -- new functions which must be performed and which cannot be anticipated today.