Kings Mountain’s New SCADA System Increases Reliability and Lowers System Costs

7/20/2010 3:24:47 PM

When a squirrel caused a third of Kings Mountain customers to lose power, electric director Nick Hendricks knew exactly which substation was down and the customers affected before the first customer called. This moment was just one time Hendricks was thankful for King’s Mountain new SCADA (supervisor control and data advisory) system, which the city upgraded earlier this year. The new system allows Hendricks and his staff to monitor voltage, amps and other vital components within the City’s electrical system. The new SCADA also provides a link to constant communications software that provides an immediate paging system for staff for events such as outages and voltage fluctuations.  All substations and delivery points are monitored 24 hours a day, including camera systems at all locations to allow the SCADA operators constant surveillance.

 

The need for the system was more urgent after Kings Mountain’s recent wholesale contract with Duke Energy was signed. The new contract includes a once annual coincident peak rate, meaning Kings Mountain staff must hit the annual peak through peak generation with 100 percent accuracy for a period of one hour per year.

 

“Missing the annual peak translates to significant increased wholesale costs for us,” said Hendricks.

 

Hendricks also noted that the new system allows Kings Mountain to increase reliability. While power blinks and momentary interruptions were expected several years ago, customers now have more sophisticated electronics in their homes and power interruptions, no matter how short, are seen as outages.

 

“Managing and evaluating all electrical interruptions on our electrical system is a top priority,” said Hendricks. “Reliability is expected today, and we always want to exceed our customers’ expectations.”
Kings Mountain’s City Manager, Mayor and Council have played a huge role in supporting the needs in Kings Mountain’s electrical department.