Vista - welcome to the big time

For several years now Acres Productive Technologies'Vista Decision Support System has been expanding its user base. Slowly, but steadily. The product has grown more powerful and comprehensive, our designers have learned more about user needs, the strength and versatility of the system has been proven again and again - and the word has been spreading.

At the beginning of 2002, we had seven systems installed and fully operational, with a total capacity close to 3,000 MW. We are in the process of installing Vista DSS at six new locations, one of them our biggest yet, the Bonneville Power Administration, which schedules all Federal hydroelectric projects on the Columbia River. When these current projects are operational, total capacity supported by Vista will be in the region of 50,000 MW. Meanwhile, enquiries are flooding in not only from North America, but from Central and South America, and this year we are anticipating our first orders from Europe.

If you aren't familiar with Vista and its achievements, here is an executive summary.

Vista DSS is a modeling system which gives access to detailed and timely information about all important aspects of a hydropower facility as an aid to more efficient operation. Operations, water managers, power marketers and system planners all benefit.

Vista DSS is a suite of linked software programs. Among them are Data Vista which hosts all system and facility information, and RT Data Vista which gathers data and makes it available to other modules. LT Vista supports long term decisions, estimating resources, applying constraints, and modeling future conditions in steps averaging one to four weeks. ST Vista works short term, in one-hour intervals. It maximizes value of reservoir releases and power generation within a one to two-week period, taking account of all physical and operational constraints. Inflow Vista predicts inflow to the water system; over a two-week period for ST Vista, and over a two-year period for LT Vista. Load Vista provides forecasts and monitors capabilities regarding system loads; Xchange Vista helps optimize the buying and selling of power; and Report Vista produces Management Information System (MIS) standard production reports.

All these modules operate on-line. There is also an off-line tool, AUTO Vista, which uses information and algorithms from the main system to re-create hypothetical simulations as an aid to strategy development.

At this point in time Vista DSS has proven its ability to create significant profitability improvements for systems large and small, and is superior in every respect to competitive commercial solutions, and to all known private systems. It is flexible, being adaptable to all types of water resources, including pumped storage facilities, and to related methods of generation such as thermal and diesel power. With experience, installation time is being shortened - for example, Vista for Canada's third largest hydropower company, Manitoba Hydro, will be operational within six months of contract signing.

If you manage a hydropower facility and are interested in cutting costs, raising profitability and simplifying management procedures - and who isn't? - take a trip to the APT website, www.vistadss.com. Or contact Stu Bridgeman at: Tel: (905) 374-0701; Fax: (905) 357-6997; or Email: sbridgeman@AcresProTech.com.

Visit us at www.acres.com.