Renewable energy control center (CECOER)

It supervises the operation of electrical production facilities managed by ACCIONA Group, totalling near 14,000 MW in 19 countries

The Control Center of Renewable Energy (CECOER) is one of the largest control centers of renewable energies in the world. ACCIONA Energy's Renewables Control Center (CECOER) carries out real-time monitoring of the operation of renewable energy plants managed by the ACCIONA Group with 13,689  MW in total. Located in the Energy Division at Sarriguren (Navarra, Spain), with delegations in Mexico City and Chicago,  it manages data from more than 400 renewable facilities in five technologies: wind, photovoltaic, concentrating solar power, hydropower, and biomass  owned by the Group or by third parties. They are spread over 19 countries in five continents. It also controls 268 transformer substations.

The CECOER records around 500,000 incidents a year in the plants monitored. Of these, around 60% are solved by remote control, while the rest are solved through close coordination with the company's maintenance services in the field.

The CECOER has a direct impact on achieving the high availability rates of the installations operated by the Group and the low deviation rates between real and programmed production that are communicated to the electric system operators. The CECOER is manned by a skilled team of 80 people and it operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Main functions

Real-time supervision and control The Renewables Control Center supervises the operation of electricity generation installations of five different technologies in real time (wind, hydropower, biomass, photovoltaic, and CSP) across five continents.

Dealing with incidents: It detects -in real time- incidents that occur in any installation. This speeds up their correction, either remotely or in coordination with local services, and achieves high availability rates for installations. 

Electric power management: Based on in-house prediction models, the center sends the system operator (REE) thousands of production programs every year.

Interaction with the system operator: The CECOER sends the system operator real-time date on each generation facility, which enables it to calculate the electric power production that can be sent to the grid and maximize the contribution of renewables to the system.

Data recording, analysis: The center records and analyses operational information to optimize the availability and efficiency of the installations, and it operates substations and HV lines to guarantee the delivery of the energy generated.

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