Estudo de caso de um centro de controle de sistema elétrico de potência: uma abordagem tridimensional

Abstract

The electric power companies have carried out the operation of the Electric Power Systems in the last decades, from a control center. It has been observed since then that the evolution of these centers has usually been processed by two main factors: changes in the way the electric sector works and advances in the technology, especially in the areas of information technology and telecommunications. Reforms of the electric sector in Brazil and in the world, and the technological revolutions that have occurred in recent years have placed the control centers in a different and more complex context than what was known until then. This new context is characterized by the insertion of electric power companies,taking control centers with them, in a competitive environment and under pressure from strong environmental and financial constraints, and by a new operational hierarchy, where new actors evaluate and penalize their performance. Technological development, on the one hand, brings more powerful resources, on the other, intensifies the difficulty of the operators by the diversity of protagonists, and the growth of the power system, increasingly interconnected. From a human perspective, new skills are required of the control center operators to deal with this environment, and the younger ones, due to organizational and technological changes, have presented themselves in an atypical way, with a new profile, requiringinnovations in their management. The above mentioned facts motivated the realization of this thesis about power system control centers. The main objective was to answer the question: did the last reform of the electric sector bring risks to the reliability of the systems, due to its unfolding in the control centers? In order to do this, we sought to analyze the control centers of the electric power system, to investigate the impacts of the changes on these centers, and to present proposals to mitigate the problems encountered. Another objective was to leave a brief historical record of the transformations that occurred in the electric sector for future generations. For the development of the work, a socio-technical methodological orientation was used, since the control centers fall under the category of complex systems and it was seen the need to analyze this complexity in parts, to better understand the whole. This approach is not much used in the area of Electrical Engineering, in relation to controlcenters, since technocentrism has traditionally been employed in these studies, limiting its space of problems and solutions. Non-technical factors were also considered, since they extend this space, showing it more comprehensively. Thus, the research addressed three dimensions of control centers, here called: socioorganizational, human and technological. As a methodology, qualitative research was used, focusing on a case study of a Brazilian control center. The aim was to analyze the control centers from the perspective of their main actors, the operators.The theoretical basis was a bibliographical review. To support the development of this thesis, the integration of academic experience and practices obtained in the area of operation of power systems and production engineering was utilized.