Energy management system (EMS) on the Botswana Power Corporation electrical network

The increase in energy requirements in Botswana grew at an average annual rate of 8% in the 1985/86-1990/91 period from 680 GWh in 1985/86 to just over 1000 GWh in 1990/91. To cope with the growing complexity of system operations the Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) implemented a centralized computer control system at the National Control Centre based in Gaborone, the capital city of Botswana. The author describes the BPC EMS system with an emphasis on its major features such as production planning and control, the computer system configuration, the data acquisition subsystem, and the comunications and man-machine interface subsystem. Its functional overview is presented, and its high-performance, actual operating experience, and future system expansion possibilities are described