The history and philosophy of supervisory control of TVA hydro plants

The first eight hydroelectric generating stations built by TVA were staffed with both electrical operators and hydraulic operators and operating costs were high. After successful operation of two single unit plants via supervisory control, it was decided for economic reasons that new plants would be either supervisory controlled or certain features would be provided so only electrical operators would be required. Also existing stations were to be converted to one of these types of control. As a result, TVA now has 4 plants which were converted to supervisory control, 8 plants built equipped for supervisory control, 2 plants built to require only electrical operators, and 13 plants which were modified to eliminate the need for hydraulic operators. After many years of successful operation of these control systems, design work has now begun, in the interest of system efficiency and economy, on system-wide supervisory control from five area dispatch control centers. Initially, four existing hydro plants and a new pumped-storage plant will be incorporated into this control system.