In honor of its technological innovation, the jury has presented a special award to the Tecnatom company, represented by his CEO, Francisco Javier Guerra Saiz, and by Joaquín Sánchez Baptista, Deputy CEO of Energy Management of Endesa. Their voltage recovery simulators in electric islands have allowed for improved efficiency, increased availability and reduced costs, thanks to process simulation via digitalization.
In this specific case, process simulation of isolated power generation systems was carried out. These systems, due to their geographic characteristics, are not supported by the base grid (usually a mainland system) and problems arising in them tend to have greater social and economic impact as compared to interconnected systems that are supported by third parties. The use of industrial simulators reveals an increased availability of plants and a decrease in costs. Simulation in industrial processes offers numerous benefits, including faster and less expensive modifications to the design in the virtual copy, as compared to physically making said modifications to real-life processes. Furthermore, it is easier to revert the process in the case of design errors and the designs and equipment may be validated prior to their installation or purchase, selecting specific components, testing them virtually (without placing the actual equipment at risk) and anticipating any contingencies or reducing human errors through personnel training. Simulation also assists in the control and anticipation of production through the use of variables, constants and particularities of the productive cycle, allowing for the projection of production volumes or losses during an established period through the support of real data and experimentation. Ultimately, simulation is a powerful tool to assist in decision making.
