Company Reports - SONI (System Operation Northern Ireland Ltd)
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SONI (System Operation Northern Ireland Ltd)
Preparing for a renewable future
Written by Darrel Moore & Produced by Craig Daniels
SONI is the independent transmission system operator for Northern Ireland and has provided system operator and market operator functions to facilitate the Single Electricity Market implemented on the island of Ireland since November 2007.
Recently sold by Northern Ireland Electricity and bought by EirGrid plc — who is the independent transmission systems operator in Ireland — SONI has been a key player in delivering the significant changes made within the energy sector.
“We’ve been working in conjunction with EirGrid to operate on an all-island basis,” explains General Manager of SONI, Robin McCormick. “We’re now established under our new parent company. One of the things we’re doing is looking at how best we can integrate into that new group of companies.”
Based in Belfast, SONI ensures the safe, secure, reliable and economic operation of the transmission grid in Northern Ireland and in cooperation with EirGrid colleagues is also responsible for running the all-island wholesale market for electricity.
“As a regulated business in Northern Ireland we’re currently preparing our five year business plan to submit to the Northern Ireland Utility Regulator for approval,” says McCormick. “We’re proposing quite significant changes to allow us to meet the challenges that we believe face us over the next five years.”
PIONEERING WIND ENERGY
SONI faces the potential for the increase of renewable generation which could mean that by 2020 we could be operating with around 1,500 MW (megawatt) of installed wind farm generation. EirGrid and in the Republic of Ireland the figure could reach 4,500MW. That’s a total of 6,000MW on a small island system with a peak demand of ~8,000MW. This is what is required to meet a target of 40 percent for consumption from renewable sources on the island.
“What that means is the island of Ireland will be a world leader in managing the integration of high penetration levels of wind onto an island system,” McCormick says.
“The potential increase in renewables, particularly wind generation on the island of Ireland, is probably one of the most significant challenges we face and is the one which will have the greatest impact right across all aspects of the company.”
Wind farm locations are usually quite remote, and on the island of Ireland they tend to be located along the west coast and the north coast — the Atlantic facing coastline — which is recognised as one of the best areas in the world for harvesting the potential of wind generation.
“If you took a map of the island of Ireland and compared it with the transmission grid, you’d be able to see where we can expect to see the highest levels of wind generation the grid deficiency which needs to be addressed,” explains McCormick.
SONI therefore faces a double challenge; to operate the system while there is a significant infrastructure build to accommodate the new wind generation and the second is “to find ways to ensure that there is the maximum utilisation of wind power. We are studying the technical limitations, and are assessing the mitigation actions that we can take to resolve those issues,” says McCormick.
TECHNO UPGRADING
The remote locations of the wind farms also pose problems on the communications side of things. One of our proposals is to utilise satellite communication. “We’re developing a proposal to use satellite communications for wind farm locations,” explains McCormick. “Given the remoteness of the sites it is often difficult to utilise hardwired communication or even the use of mobile phone technology, so we’re assessing the viability of satellite communications to provide these important links.”
In preparation for the increase in the number of wind farms and the more complex nature of system operation in the future SONI recently procured a £4.5 million energy management system from Areva and also sourced remote terminal units, which are located in each of the generation and transmission substations, from Siemens.
“We refurbished our control room and we successfully commissioned our energy management system around September last year,” says McCormick. “We had a formal opening ceremony of the control room which the Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment in Northern Ireland, Arlene Foster, officiated — we’re very pleased with it.” Expanding into future generations.
Due to the specialist nature of their work and the need to plan for the future, SONI is working closely with the local universities, Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Ulster, in order to raise the profile of the company and create awareness of the job opportunities that exist for graduates both at undergraduate and postgraduate level.
“We’ve recognised over the past couple of years that it is difficult to recruit from the job market, individuals with the qualifications and in particular the experience of systems operation, which tends to be a specialised area of expertise,” says McCormick.
“We have successfully used student placements and graduate engineers and are developing the ability to train in-house. To enable us to make this happen we’ve developed links with the local universities.”
EUROPEAN MARKET
SONI is participating in ENTSO (the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity) which is committed to developing greater cooperation across the European transmission networks, greater regionalisation of markets and also to find common solutions to some of the issues that will arise as the renewable sources in Europe increase.
“The 10-Year Network Development Plan is a European initiative which we support,” explains McCormick. This is to ensure that there is coordinated approach to ensuring that development plans for each TSO collectively support the achievement of European targets.
“For example, in 2012 there will be a HVDC interconnector, commissioned by EirGrid, which will link the Dublin area in Ireland to North Wales in Great Britain. This will impact on the operation of the all-island transmission system, the Single Electricity Market and there will be a need to find a means of interfacing efficiently the market on the island with the market in Great Britain.
“So there are a lot of common areas of challenge and we believe that working together with our parent company EirGrid in Dublin we have the expertise to develop the solutions.”
In five years time SONI says it will need to be in a position where it has found solutions to the operational and technical issues that they have identified in recent studies into the impact of greater penetrations of wind.
“Given the transition we’re going through, one of our primary objectives for the next five years will be to maintain organisational capability,” says McCormick. “We need to have staff trained and tools developed to optimise the operation of the transmission system and to develop the market arrangements to cater for the increase in interconnection and high levels of wind generation.”
SONI, with EirGrid, is set to pioneer integrating high levels of renewable wind energy into an island system, and the eyes of all Europe will no doubt be looking on, wondering whether to make the same economically conscious leap.
Recently sold by Northern Ireland Electricity and bought by EirGrid plc — who is the independent transmission systems operator in Ireland — SONI has been a key player in delivering the significant changes made within the energy sector.
“We’ve been working in conjunction with EirGrid to operate on an all-island basis,” explains General Manager of SONI, Robin McCormick. “We’re now established under our new parent company. One of the things we’re doing is looking at how best we can integrate into that new group of companies.”
Based in Belfast, SONI ensures the safe, secure, reliable and economic operation of the transmission grid in Northern Ireland and in cooperation with EirGrid colleagues is also responsible for running the all-island wholesale market for electricity.
“As a regulated business in Northern Ireland we’re currently preparing our five year business plan to submit to the Northern Ireland Utility Regulator for approval,” says McCormick. “We’re proposing quite significant changes to allow us to meet the challenges that we believe face us over the next five years.”
PIONEERING WIND ENERGY
SONI faces the potential for the increase of renewable generation which could mean that by 2020 we could be operating with around 1,500 MW (megawatt) of installed wind farm generation. EirGrid and in the Republic of Ireland the figure could reach 4,500MW. That’s a total of 6,000MW on a small island system with a peak demand of ~8,000MW. This is what is required to meet a target of 40 percent for consumption from renewable sources on the island.
“What that means is the island of Ireland will be a world leader in managing the integration of high penetration levels of wind onto an island system,” McCormick says.
“The potential increase in renewables, particularly wind generation on the island of Ireland, is probably one of the most significant challenges we face and is the one which will have the greatest impact right across all aspects of the company.”
Wind farm locations are usually quite remote, and on the island of Ireland they tend to be located along the west coast and the north coast — the Atlantic facing coastline — which is recognised as one of the best areas in the world for harvesting the potential of wind generation.
“If you took a map of the island of Ireland and compared it with the transmission grid, you’d be able to see where we can expect to see the highest levels of wind generation the grid deficiency which needs to be addressed,” explains McCormick.
SONI therefore faces a double challenge; to operate the system while there is a significant infrastructure build to accommodate the new wind generation and the second is “to find ways to ensure that there is the maximum utilisation of wind power. We are studying the technical limitations, and are assessing the mitigation actions that we can take to resolve those issues,” says McCormick.
TECHNO UPGRADING
The remote locations of the wind farms also pose problems on the communications side of things. One of our proposals is to utilise satellite communication. “We’re developing a proposal to use satellite communications for wind farm locations,” explains McCormick. “Given the remoteness of the sites it is often difficult to utilise hardwired communication or even the use of mobile phone technology, so we’re assessing the viability of satellite communications to provide these important links.”
In preparation for the increase in the number of wind farms and the more complex nature of system operation in the future SONI recently procured a £4.5 million energy management system from Areva and also sourced remote terminal units, which are located in each of the generation and transmission substations, from Siemens.
“We refurbished our control room and we successfully commissioned our energy management system around September last year,” says McCormick. “We had a formal opening ceremony of the control room which the Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment in Northern Ireland, Arlene Foster, officiated — we’re very pleased with it.” Expanding into future generations.
Due to the specialist nature of their work and the need to plan for the future, SONI is working closely with the local universities, Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Ulster, in order to raise the profile of the company and create awareness of the job opportunities that exist for graduates both at undergraduate and postgraduate level.
“We’ve recognised over the past couple of years that it is difficult to recruit from the job market, individuals with the qualifications and in particular the experience of systems operation, which tends to be a specialised area of expertise,” says McCormick.
“We have successfully used student placements and graduate engineers and are developing the ability to train in-house. To enable us to make this happen we’ve developed links with the local universities.”
EUROPEAN MARKET
SONI is participating in ENTSO (the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity) which is committed to developing greater cooperation across the European transmission networks, greater regionalisation of markets and also to find common solutions to some of the issues that will arise as the renewable sources in Europe increase.
“The 10-Year Network Development Plan is a European initiative which we support,” explains McCormick. This is to ensure that there is coordinated approach to ensuring that development plans for each TSO collectively support the achievement of European targets.
“For example, in 2012 there will be a HVDC interconnector, commissioned by EirGrid, which will link the Dublin area in Ireland to North Wales in Great Britain. This will impact on the operation of the all-island transmission system, the Single Electricity Market and there will be a need to find a means of interfacing efficiently the market on the island with the market in Great Britain.
“So there are a lot of common areas of challenge and we believe that working together with our parent company EirGrid in Dublin we have the expertise to develop the solutions.”
In five years time SONI says it will need to be in a position where it has found solutions to the operational and technical issues that they have identified in recent studies into the impact of greater penetrations of wind.
“Given the transition we’re going through, one of our primary objectives for the next five years will be to maintain organisational capability,” says McCormick. “We need to have staff trained and tools developed to optimise the operation of the transmission system and to develop the market arrangements to cater for the increase in interconnection and high levels of wind generation.”
SONI, with EirGrid, is set to pioneer integrating high levels of renewable wind energy into an island system, and the eyes of all Europe will no doubt be looking on, wondering whether to make the same economically conscious leap.
