Energy company gets 75-position console installation

Zetron recently participated in a major update of radio dispatch equipment for Washington State utility Puget Sound Energy (PSE). Located in western Washington, PSE provides electricity to more than a million customers and natural gas to 750,000 customers in a 15,500-square-kilometre area that comprises the largest metropolitan region north of San Francisco and west of Chicago.

As a result of the update, PSE now has a 75-position communications solution that combines Zetron’s Advanced Communications (AcomEVO) console system with Tait’s MPT 1327 trunked radio infrastructure. The solution meets narrowbanding requirements, supports PSE’s current operations and remote sites, and will allow PSE to expand as the need arises. It is also designed to support the rapid deployment of additional remote command-and-control operations if and when they’re ever needed.

The implementation was completed in four phases. The first involved installing a fully redundant AcomEVO system in the main communications centre - the Eastside Operations Office - and connecting it temporarily to PSE’s legacy radio infrastructure. Tait’s MPT infrastructure was also installed but not activated at this stage. For the second phase, a near-mirror image of the AcomEVO system installed in main centre was set up in PSE’s Backup Control Centre, and the new MPT infrastructure was brought online. During the third phase, 13 fully functional remotes were set up at PSE’s nine sites located throughout western Washington. During the fourth and final phase, eight consoles for PSE’s Gas Dispatch and Gas Control operations were brought online.

The project, which was completed 9 September 2013, has been hailed as a success by all of the parties involved. In addition to making PSE narrowbanding compliant, the AcomEVO system allows PSE to integrate additional resources onto the console screens and expand as the need arises.