The Haitian electric utility company E-Power S.A. began construction of a 30 Megawatt power facility for Port-au-Prince in 2008. While under construction the 2010 magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck. Along with immense loss of life and mental wel-being for the people, the electric infrastructure of Haiti was irreparably damaged. Recovery was in danger.
“So much was destroyed in 2010 that we had no way for Hyundai to unload the equipment for the new plant near Port-au-Prince,” says Ludwig von Lignau, operations manager at E-Power. “There was also no bridge from the Dominican Republic that could handle this equipment, and so the U.S. Army agreed to build a makeshift dock near the site.”
E-Power’s facility was commissioned to run outdated software as their control system, but in order to better aid with the recovery endeavors leaders implemented a custom controls system redesign. By adapting non standard implementations and culling excessive operator interactions the plant is now providing 35% of the local power with unimaginable reaction time.
“We’re able to respond very fast to changing electricity demand because we can start units in just 10 minutes. We can react quickly to high-frequency requirements.” -von Lignau
Click here to reed the full article by Jim Montague.