Conrad Dalton, Chief Technical Officer
Innovation is the mainstay of the Technology department. We make every effort to stay abreast of improvements and advances in the technologies deployed. This includes protective devices in the field, control systems for those devices, communication systems for devices, business software systems and the computers that run these systems. This also includes providing improved ser-vices to linemen in the field and support staff at the area offices. We work hard every day to increase efficiency from the technologies placed in service.
One additional substation was brought online in Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) along with several downstream SCADA devices, several new feeder meters with expanded capabilities were installed, the Fort Stockton office moved to a new office complex, we upgraded the El Paso office training room, increased wireless network speed and made several improvements to cyber-security. All of these improvements will help provide Rio Grande and its membership an increased level of service.
On the substation technology front, one additional substation was added and several downstream SCADA devices to the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system. SCADA allows real-time monitoring and control from an easy-to-use graphical interface. Dispatch monitors the substations and is able identify any issues with the SCADA enabled substations. If problems occur, Dis-patch can see what is happening and quickly relay this information to the line crews. Real-time information about substation issues allows the crews to resolve substation problems and outages as quickly as possible.
With substation metering, several substation feeder meters were upgraded to Ion 7400 meters. These meters provide many features of the higher end 8650 meters at a significantly reduced price point. These include color displays, which shows an easily identifiable phasor diagram. This helps quickly identify any phasing issues. The Ion 7400 meters also include many power quality functions, which were not previously available on the older meters.
The new Fort Stockton office is an amazing 30+ acres with several buildings. We incorporated the campus into RGEC’s enterprise communications infrastructure. A badge-based door access system was installed, and upgrades were conducted to the security cameras. The training room was upgraded for presentations and video conferencing.
Cybersecurity is always a focus for the Technology department. We worked with the Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Security Administration (CISA) to incorporate weekly cyber hygiene testing and scanning. This provides us with a weekly status report of any known system vulnerabilities. We made significant improvements to our wireless network to uti-lize 802.11ac and 802.11ax for speed increases and better wireless security. We also made network improvements to further segment and separate network traffic.
Steady progression in equipping our sub-stations with SCADA, upgrading substation meters, incorporating the new Fort Stockton office campus, increasing our wireless capabilities and increasing cybersecurity are just a few examples of our unwavering commitment to provide our membership and ever-increasing level of service.
