Jun 29, 2009
Open Systems International, Inc. (OSI) has been awarded a contract by southwest power cooperative Valley Electric Association, Inc. (VEA) to supply a comprehensive new SCADA system intended to serve a 6,800 square mile area along the Nevada-California border.
Encompassing a region of Nevada and California larger than the combined area of Rhode Island and Connecticut, VEA serves approximately 21,000 meters and has over 16,000 members.
Entering a sustained period of growth with transmission loads increasing due to newly built solar and wind generation plants, VEA has chosen to replace its outmoded ACS system with OSI's monarch™ (Multi-platform Open Network ARCHitecture) SCADA/Distribution Management System, citing the need for better functionality, increased versatility and reduced maintenance costs.
The system for Valley Electric Association is based on OSI's innovative monarch distributed open architecture and includes Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), OpenView Advanced Graphical User Interface based on the Microsoft .NET Framework, OpenHIS Historical Information System, OpenCalc Calculation Subsystem, OpenTrend Trending Subsystem and MultiSpeak interfaces to the Milsoft Windmil and DiSPatch systems.
"OSI's suite of products fit very well into VEA's vision of what an optimized Energy Management System should be. The combination of a highly secure working environment and a system that allows information to be easily shared as needed was exactly what we were looking for when we began our search for the new system," said Robby Hamlin, Manager of Engineering and Operations for VEA.
"We are very pleased to bring our high-performance monarch platform to Valley Electric Association. The reduced complexity, increased reliability and heightened security functionality of this system make it an excellent fit for the specific needs of community owned utilities such as Valley Electric Association," said Bahman Hoveida, President and CEO of OSI.
Incorporated in 1965, Valley Electric Association Inc. (www.vea.coop) is a nonprofit electric utility based in Pahrump, Nevada that serves approximately 16,000 members and 21,000 meters in southern Nevada, west of Las Vegas, in Nye, Esmeralda, Clark and Mineral Counties. VEA currently supplies more than 402,000 MWh annually and is dedicated to providing its members low-cost energy while pursuing renewable and emission free alternative energy sources, currently offering solar and wind energy options to its members.
OSI (www.osii.com) provides open, state-of-the-art, and high-performance automation solutions to utilities worldwide. These solutions include Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) Systems, Network Management Systems (NMS), Energy Management Systems (EMS), Distribution Management Systems (DMS) and Generation Management Systems (GMS), as well as individual software and hardware products and Smart Grid solutions for utility operations. OSI is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
For additional information regarding this news release please contact news@osii.com.
