Power station with distributed computers and centralized supervision

A telecontrol system for the telephone exchange of the telecommunication network managed by ASST has been operative for one year. The power station is located in Formia, while the teleoperation unit for telecontrol remote control has been installed in Rome, about 100 km away. Field testing allowed for the solution of numerous problems concerning the practical aspects of remote control. This has led to a new project for the design of such a system, based primarily on the basic criteria adopted in the original project but with part of the criteria changed to almost eliminate maintenance, to improve the availability of the power supply, and to reduce the costs. These objectives have been reached, developing the following concepts: a better modularity and easier operation of the system to benefit both the economic and reliability aspects; an efficient redundancy without cost penalty; and a concept according to which the managerial staff should have a centralized operative system with decentralized intelligent units, so as to avoid involving the entire power system with the fault of a single unit, and so that the computerization of a great quantity of data would not cause financial problems.<
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