Young Engineers at the Paris Session

This year also saw a high quality field with the  2016 successful applicants being Emma Rogers of Energex and Matthew Ridgely of Ergon.   This year we were also able to offer some financial assistance to other young engineers who were keen to attend the Session in order to advance their understanding and career networks.  Other members that we were able to support were Stephen Sproul, Beer Opatsuwan, Alexandria Price and Tara-Lee MacCarthur. 

The article below has been provided by our scholarship winners, Emma Rogers and Matthew Ridgley and is a short comment on the event from our scholarship winners point of view.  Both scholarship winners are required to write a detailed report on the event which is presented at our Annual General Meeting in November.

Australian NGN members from left: Stephen Sproul, Beer Opatsuwan, Emma Rogers (Scholarship winner), Alexandria Price, Matthew Ridgley (Scholarship Winner), Tara-Lee MacCarthur. 

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The 46^th CIGRE Paris Session was run between 22^nd and 26^th of August, 2016. This is a meeting of industry experts from all over the world to congregate and discuss the current and future issues facing the electricity industry. At the CIGRE Paris Sessions:

• Attendees can participate in Group Discussion Meetings to discuss the latest developments, trends and problems in the industry.
• Attendees can have personal discussions with paper authors at the Poster Sessions
• There are large exhibitions where manufacturers, product providers, contractors, etc. can provide information on their products and services.

• Working groups have a convenient location to hold meetings to discuss their topics.
• Study Committee’s meet to report on the previous 2 years of work and discuss the upcoming challenges in their section.

The two NGN scholarship recipients presented at their respective Group Discussion Meetings.

Matt Ridgley presented at the B3 Substations Group Discussion Meeting about Ergon Energy’s NOMAD (fault response transformer bay), SKID’s (pre-fabricated, transportable substations) and PEGAUS (distributed generation units) assets. This tied into the B3 preferential subject on fast deployment, modular and transportable substation solutions. 

Emma Rogers presented at the B5 Protection Group Discussion Meeting about Disconnecting Transformers causing an Overvoltage at Multi-transformer Sites using Reactive Power Flow Methods in Modern Differential Relays. This tied into the B5 preferential subject PS1 Protection Automation and Control System (PACS) Optimization and Lifetime Asset Management.

 There was a Young Members Forum where young CIGRE members from across the globe discussed their contributions, successes and issues. Alexandra Price the NGN Co-chair presented at this session on the structure of the Australian NGN group, the progress of our memberships and the activities the we run. It was clear to see that all young member groups were run differently based on their national committee and those supporting the programs. Many other national groups were envious of the support the ANC provide in giving free membership up to age 35. There was particular interest from the United States Young members at how they could utilise a similar webinar structure for sharing content across their members and we also discussed the possibility of opening webinars up for international participation.

Throughout the young member session and at the young members booth, discussions were focused on how NGN members can be more actively involved in CIGRE activities such as working groups or national panels, how to increase membership levels and how to assist the transition between retiring members and new replacements.

Thank you to Robert Alcaro for all his efforts leading up to the conference in arranging the young member booth and the site visit. The booth provided a central meeting place for all the young members and those from international committees to enquire on how they can get more young people involved. One example was that we were able to, as an international collective NGN group, share the best practice guide on the inclusion of young members in CIGRE to many countries including the CIGRE committee from the Gulf Central States (incl Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia). We look forward to hearing how they progress in the creation of a NGN group at the Paris 2018 Sessions.

The young members also attended a site visit to a central Paris 220kV/20kV substation – La Muette, which provided insights on the challenges of Power distribution in the heart of the city. Of particular note was their strong emphasis on blending into the surrounding architecture, fitting the equipment over 5 levels and the implementation of effective sound attention strategies, including directing exhaust through baffling and sound proofing to minimise the impact on adjacent residents.

A number of tutorials were run at the session which was a new concept. These tutorials were based on recently completed technical brochures which were developed as part of working group’s Terms of Reference. These were found to be very well run and received. CIGRE tutorials and workshops are highly recommended to any that can attend them.

A large amount of emphasis was placed on the current wave of disruptive technology in the distributed generation and storage of electricity. CIGRE has traditionally been more heavily focused on the generation and transmission of electricity with distribution taking care of itself. Due to these new distributed technologies, distribution networks are affecting many of the traditional mechanisms used to provide safe, reliable, affordable and predicable electricity.

The International NGN representatives on the Technical Tour