Tech: Small devices. Big improvements

Small devices. BIG improvements.

You can trust us to stay at the forefront of technology to keep your power reliable and affordable!

Cass County Electric Cooperative (CCEC) provides service to more than 53,000 accounts, serves 10 counties, and monitors 5,723 miles of overhead and underground power lines. We strive to deliver safe and reliable power to our members, and SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) technology plays a significant role.

SCADA systems help us monitor and detect real-time issues, solve power outages quicker, and identify potential outages before they occur – this means safer, more reliable electricity for you, the cooperative member.

Cass County Electric Cooperative integrated SCADA in all 41 of its substations and strategically placed 28 SCADA devices in locations outside the substations.

If a problem occurs in the field, our power control center receives notification within 8-10 seconds of SCADA finding an issue. When the alerts come in, the power control team analyzes and determines whether the issue is urgent or can wait. The data collected by SCADA helps isolate and narrow down problems before they become significant issues.

“If we see an issue, we try to find it before it becomes a big issue and knocks numerous members out of power,” said Tony Tasa, CCEC’s SCADA and relay technician.

Not only does SCADA provide a tool to help prevent power outages from occurring, but it also saves the cooperative time and resources. The power control team can dispatch crews more efficiently in response to the data they receive — in many cases knowing the approximate location and possible cause of the issue before the crew leaves the shop.
Since the data is supplied in near real-time, these systems are beneficial for delivering safe and reliable power to our members with minimal downtime.

Pictured: Tony Tasa