CIGRE Events and Seminars

Over Recent Months, CIGRE Australia has hosted several events over a range of topic areas and with various partners - the summary of these is below.

SEAPAC 2015 - South East Asia Protection and Automation Conference

17 – 18th March: Sydney

This was the 5th edition of SEAPAC and the conference is fast establishing itself as a must-attend event to discuss and discover best practice on protection and automation issues in the region.

This years conference saw 125 delegates enjoy two days of presentations and discussions on a wide range of subjects covering traditional protection issues through to evolving technology deployment such as IEC 61850.

As well as attracting several international speakers and well known industry sponsors and exhibitors, this year’s key note speaker was Mr Ian McLeod – Chief Executive Officer of Ergon Energy – a Queensland Government owned distribution business.

Mr Mcleod gave a very interesting presentation discussing some of the significant changes in the industry and the value drivers and what the future may hold.

CIGRE Technical Seminar
18th March: Brisbane

CIGRE Australia partnered with Engineers Australia to present this seminar on the Design, Testing and Condition Monitoring of Transmission and Distribution Switchgear.
The one day seminar attracted over 40 delegates who heard from a group of International Experts in Switchgear Design, Testing and Condition Monitoring from the CIGRE WG A3.32, and had the opportunity to discuss current technical issues and broaden their technical networks.

CIGRE Tutorials
20th April: Sydney

The CIGRE Transformer and Switchgear tutorial provided an overview of the detailed information contained in CIGRE Technical Brochures, which are developed by a Working Group of experts from around the world. Each Tutorial is developed by the Working Group and is normally presented by one of the members of the Group.   During the day, six tutorials were presented by experts working on the respective working groups.

The seminar, which was run in conjunction with TechCon 2015, provided a unique opportunity for attendees to gain insight into some of the significant work that CIGRE is involved in on a global basis; and to discuss the work with an expert from the Working Group.

This tutorial attracted over 100 delegates – a report by the event convenor, Mr Peter Cole is attached here.

NGN Next Generation Network Seminar
3rd July: Brisbane

The CIGRE Australia NGN and Professor Richard Taylor of QUT partnered to offer a one day Seminar.

The seminar spent the morning looking at and demonstrating some elements of Superconductivity. The afternoon was coordinated by the NGN and involved presentations from David Bones (GHD) and Lyndall Josey (Powerlink) followed by some interesting analysis and discussion by those in attendance.

Conference on Integration of Distributed Energy Resources (CIDER)

The inaugural Conference on Integration of Distributed Energy Resources (CIDER) is to be held in Brisbane on 19th and 20th August.

CIDER already has 80+ delegates registered and features a morning tutorial run by staff from QUT/UQ, a visit by BMW displaying their new electric car of the year the i3 and a raft of expert and experienced presenters.   See here for the program.

Given the popularity of this year’s inaugural event, it is planned to look at running CIDER on an annual basis as its subject matter is likely to remain topical for a few years yet.

I urge you to have a look at the program, and although online registrations have closed, if you contact our office we can arrange last minute registration for you. (07 3310 8838) Email the CIGRE Office

AGM

Technical Meeting - 19th November 1230 – 5 pm: Transgrid offices - Sydney

AGM 20th - November: Ausgrid Silverwater complex Sydney

Free transport will be available from the Sydney CBD to the AGM and return on the Friday.
Following canvassing of the technical group and feedback from last year, no technical tour will be run this year.
Details are on the the website and further details will be posted and emailed to members when available.