“The grid is changing, and we are monitoring every moment"

With the signing of the Coronavirus decree-law, on 8 March this year, a portion of Italian manufacturing was subject to a forced shutdown. To slow the spread of the epidemic, workers in various sectors were required to stop working or to continue working from home. This did not include Davide Rampazzo, shift manager of the Scorzè control room in the province of Venice, a nerve centre for Terna's electricity dispatching activity in the North East of Italy. From here, Mr Rampazzo and his colleagues continue to manage the high-voltage grid for the Triveneto area and also for Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany.

“Management of the high-voltage grid has various aspects. Firstly, we make sure that the grid is always running under safe conditions, guaranteeing that the characteristics of current passing through lines ensures optimal operating conditions. Secondly, we are responsible for guaranteeing that power is issued to satisfy all loads, starting with large industrial customers (such as steelworks and factories) down to all the primary stations, i.e. the smaller substations that distribute electricity to a certain number of municipalities., We also manage relationships with distributors and producers. Switching of electricity falls within the responsibilities of the former, and we are regularly communicating with them. Regarding the latter, exchanges cover all generation from the various types of power stations in the area, such as hydroelectric, thermal and geothermal” specifies the 32-year-old electrical engineer.

This is a series of activities that are essential for proper functioning of the electricity grid, which begins right here in the control room. This is where the team led by David works and where he is constantly focused on a multitude of different monitors. There are eight workstations and each operator has multiple monitors because there is a lot of grid to control, spanning five regions. Depending on his or her role, each operator focuses on a specific area, also geographically. We also have one huge screen, around thirty metres by ten: a video wall that displays important information that we have chosen to monitor, so that they are right there if we need them, as they are essential in the case of an outage. “These graphs and values are constantly updated, notifying us immediately if something is wrong”.

The team is composed of eight people, including Mr Rampazzo, who is responsible for everything that happens in the control room during the shift. “Each person has specific duties to perform on the basis of their professional role”, he explains. “At the macro level, for example, there is a division between the Triveneto areas and the Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna areas. There is then a distinction between who actually controls the grid, managing current flows, voltage values and recovery of service following faults, and those who manage operation of systems, performing actual actions such as opening and closing circuit breakers and isolating lines for performance of works”.

The computers are never turned off, and shifts continue all year, including weekends and public holidays. And naturally, activities proceed without interruption also in this complicated period. In the event of an outage, the control-room operators are the first to take action: “We always know what is happening, what can be done and what cannot”. As Mr Rampazzo sums up, the main objective is that the service is down for the minimum possible time, therefore “we aim to recover power immediately. If this is not possible due to a permanent failure, we try to coordinate with the distributor to find other routes to supply the primary substation in question and in the meantime activate our teams in the field to inspect the site. We have relatively strict procedures for recovery times, we are working with only minutes available. You need to keep a cool head”. Nevertheless, no one is completely free from upheaval in this period and there have been two notable changes in the Scorzè control room.

The first regards the changes triggered by the emergency in people's daily lives, in addition to the country's manufacturing sector. These changes have had an impact on power demand. This has forced Rampazzo and his colleagues to manage a “grid state” very similar to that seen during holiday periods, but ongoing. “During holiday periods, for us the grid is transformed. When loads are high, grid voltage is lower. When loads are low, like now, voltages are instead very high and can damage components of electrical substations, which are designed to stand up to levels of stress that are usually lower. We therefore have the task of ensuring that voltages at grid nodes remain within acceptable levels, using tools such as reactors and generator groups. This low-load grid situation usually only occurs for a few days each year, while it has now been like this for 15 days and who knows how much longer it may continue”.

However, the biggest change regards a very different aspect, but one that is equally important: personal relationships with colleagues. “Before the emergency, the various shift lines rotated each day. Basically, your colleagues changed everyday to allow greater uniformity in our work and our relationships. But now, shift lines are fixed to reduce unnecessary contact, and they alternate between the site in Dolo (normally operational only if the Scorzè site is not accessible) and our own. For the same reason, shift handovers occur remotely. This alternation initially worried us, because the shift handover is a delicate moment for the incoming colleagues that have to take over the situation and any problems”.

But everything has a positive side: “We have had to learn to use new tools and share our work using technology. It’s a shame not to be able to see certain colleagues for a month and a half, but the new shift line created has become like a family”. In this situation, not being able to work from home has become an advantage, concludes Rampazzo, as “it’s nice to find yourself each day with a group of people with whom you can share this situation and much more. Sometimes the small things make all the difference, like sharing an activity to keep your children occupied. We are pleased that we can continue working, but above all we are proud of the environment and closer relationships established between us".