A historical peak in the demand for electrical energy was recorded in the country on May 4, reaching 2,031 MW for the first time, exactly at 2:17 in the afternoon, when a strong heat wave overwhelmed the territory national.
This May, the National Dispatch Center (CND) of the Electricity Transmission Company (ETESA), turned 55 years old and far from being a depleted or obsolete entity, today it is going through a modernization process where innovation through the acquisition and installation of systems and equipment, as well as the emphasis on meeting high quality standards, together with the determined commitment of its staff, make the CND at the forefront in terms of efficiency.
“The responsibility at the national level of the National Dispatch Center is to operate the National Interconnected System (SIN) and manage the Wholesale Electricity Market. Likewise, it coordinates with the Regional Operator Entity the management of energy exports and imports to and from Panama”, indicated the general manager of ETESA, Ing. Carlo Mosquera Castillo, who added that there are currently 589 large registered clients, which reflects greater participation and competition among agents; as well as a greater dynamism in the electricity market.
The last thousand days have been particularly significant in the process of modernizing the CND. In 2021, they recertified in the ISO 9001-2015 quality management standard, while moving towards obtaining the ISO 27001 certification in information security management systems.
The director of the CND, Eng. Víctor González, stated that the responsibility of the CND is to ensure that the four areas: generation, transmission, distribution and energy exchange with Central America are operating safely, correctly, reliably and in the most economical way. possible.
In order to maintain high quality standards, ETESA developed an important investment project in the CND in a sophisticated special protection system with remedial actions (SPEAR) to try to increase the reliability of the SIN.
Mr. González explained that when there is an event or disturbance in the main transmission system, remedial actions are automatically taken to prevent this incidence from continuing to grow and eventually a partial or total collapse. “That is avoided by taking remedial actions very quickly, which is usually: disconnect generation or disconnect load or disconnect both. This happens very quickly, because the main objective is to recover the system in the shortest time”, explained the director of the CND.
