Renewable energy supervision and real time production control in Spain

Abstract

The rapid growth of wind power, which has reached 13,908 MW at the end of 2007, along with the installation of other technologies like solar power, mini-hydraulic or cogeneration plants have lead to the consideration of special regime1 generation as another major fraction of the Spanish electrical generation mix. In order to supervise, control and integrate the Spanish TSO (Red Eléctrica de España) has launched in June 2006 the Control Centre for Renewable Energies (CECRE) which deals with the specific challenges of these technologies with the goal of maximizing their production without jeopardizing the security of the electric system.