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Session 1
Network Componenets

Scope

Session 1 deals with all aspects related to the components used in the electricity distribution networks. Many electricity distribution network assets are expensive and built to provide service over a long life span. There is increasing focus on the optimisation of the use of these assets throughout their complete life cycle from design through installation, operation and maintenance to end of life management. The components include; cables, overhead lines, primary and secondary substations, transformers, switchgear plus their control, protection and monitoring systems. Also included are new active power electronics devices. The session is also intended to cover standardisation, environmental aspects, ergonomics, component reliability and the safety of both operating staff and third parties. The session will also provide an overview of the state of the art component design and proposals for future components.

Both the manufacturing and the maintenance of network components is a major issue for suppliers, electricity distribution companies and major energy users. This session is an opportunity for these parties and manufacturers to share their objectives.

Subjects of special emphasis

• Design and technology innovation
• Modelling
• New technologies and new materials
• New types of components (storage)
• Evolution of standards
• Ergonomics

Product testing

• Balance between testing and modelling
• Confirming component performance and quality level throughout the manufacturing process

Flexibility, adaptability and upgradeability

• Users’ requirements to meet the anticipated evolution from passive to active, smart networks
• Specific requirements to help accommodate distributed generation

Component safety, reliability, product life time, diagnosis and maintenance strategy

• Component lifetime extension
• Maintenance and renewal strategies
• Feedback from field experience on failure modes and aging phenomena
• Specific contributions of insulated cables to quality and supply security of urban areas
• Renewal of old cables in urban areas and intensive use of cable in rural areas
• Internal arc withstand and service continuity in the event of fault

Environmental and sustainability issues

• Impact and eco-design, raw materials consumption, life cycle analysis
• Waste management
• Energy consumption for manufacturing and during operation (reduction of losses) Hazardous substances
• Visual, noise impact
• End of life management

Session 2
Power Quality & EMC

Scope
Session 2 deals with Power Quality, with the more general concept of Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) and with some related safety problems. Power Quality comprises quality of supply, often referred to as voltage continuity, supply reliability or problem of outages and voltage quality including conducted LF disturbances. Safety issues include electrical safety and related concerns such as lightning, step, touch and transferred voltages. The session also deals with electric and magnetic fields (EMF) issues.

These are very detailed technical issues, but the session is targeted at both specialists and generalists with the intention of summarising current best practice and likely future trends in both technical and non-technical matters.

Subjects of special emphasis

Power Quality: Technical issues

• Voltage continuity, voltage profile, voltage dips and swells, flicker, harmonics and interharmonics, overvoltages and transient phenomena, conducted disturbances between 2 and 9 kHz, unbalance
• Measurement and identification methods, classification techniques
• Practical use of PQ measurement results towards problems solving or equipment diagnostic applications
• Modelling and simulation (e.g. predictive techniques for the widespread introduction of potentially disturbing loads, including DER, CFL etc.)
• Equipment immunity
• Disturbance mitigation
• Standardisation issues
• Case studies (e.g. related to industrial loads, such as traction systems etc.)

Power Quality: Regulatory issues

• Regulation, quality indices and objectives (existing and future), emission limits
• PQ monitoring and reporting (current and alternative or future techniques, e.g. use of smart meters), benchmarking
• Contractual aspects of PQ

Power Quality: Economical issues

• Costs on the consumer’s side, costs of mitigation techniques, costs of improving the supply performance
• Practical use of quality indices for economical decision making
• Economic analysis tools and methods

EMF - Electric and magnetic fields

• Characterisation (measurements, indices…)
• Standardisation and regulation
• Mitigation (techniques and economical aspects)
• Electromagnetic interferences issues (EMI)

Safety issues

• Lightning overvoltages & lightning protection
• Ground potential rise and neutral grounding practices, step, touch and transferred voltages
  

Session 3
Operation, Control and Protection

Scope
Session 3 deals with the operation of networks, including network control and system protection. This brings together the relevant technical and economic aspects of electricity distribution companies, the needs and expectations of customers plus manufacturers product and solution strategies.

The session highlights the requirements of distribution system operators and major energy users in this area, as well as the tools and products of manufacturers. Furthermore both recent practical experiences and the results from research as the basis of future developments are welcomed for review.

Subjects of special emphasis

Operation

• Workforce management tools and techniques to improve operation efficiency
  Maintenance strategies
• Data demand, data management and sense of more or less detailed documentation
• Expected and provided quality levels
• Strategies and responsibilities for outsourced network operators or service companies
• Certification of network operations (national and international standards)
  Impact of decentralised generation and virtual power plants on network operation

Network control and communication

• Concepts for planning of SCADA systems in a merging environment
• Security aspects of information access and information exchange
• Communication standards and interoperability standards for IT-integration
• Communication techniques and protocols for smart grids and smart metering
• Emergency management to handle local failures as well as large black outs
• Condition monitoring and resulting assessment
• Latest level of distribution automation driven by regulators requirements
• Network control in a market driven environment

Protection

• New protection schemes for up-to-date network structures
• Performance of voltage and current transducers and their impact on relay performance
• Protection simulation models and tools
• Refurbishment strategies for protection systems
• Impact of distributed generation on traditional protection systems
• Protection management considering remote access and IT security
• Management of software versions, set files and disturbance records
• From single feeder relay to centralised wide area survey

Session 4
Distributed Energy Resources and Efficient Utilisation of Electricity

Scope
Session 4 deals with the challenges surrounding the integration of distributed energy resources (including distributed generation, storage systems and responsive load) within distribution networks and also with opportunities for more efficient management and utilisation of electricity.

Experiences of integrating generation and distributed energy resources within distribution networks will be welcome contributions as will examples of solutions to technical, commercial and regulatory issues created by distributed energy resources. Papers describing developments in renewable and low carbon generation technologies that will connect to distribution networks will also be included in this session as will techniques for improving energy efficiency in delivering and using electricity. Contributions from private (industrial, commercial, residential) distribution network operators will also be welcome.

Subjects of special emphasis

• Distributed energy resources
• Developments in small, medium and larger-scale generation connected to distribution networks
• Experiences and studies concerned with integrating high levels of intermittent generation into distribution networks
• Innovations in electrical storage technologies and systems
• Novel network designs to accommodate high penetrations of DER
• Policies and standards for connecting distributed generation, including interface protection

Operation of smart networks with DER

• Power flow, voltage and fault level management of distribution networks with significant DER
• Autonomous regional networks, including self-managed micro-grids
• Real time optimisation of networks to maximise network access to DER and minimise losses
• Research, development and deployment of techniques for integrating DER into distribution networks, including demonstration networks
• System balancing of distribution networks with intermittent generation to improve network utilisation and load factor

Energy efficiency

• Techniques for improving network utilisation and reducing losses
• Applications of micro-generation, storage and smart metering to facilitate demand side energy management
• Experiences of Energy Service Companies and integrated energy network solutions
• Management of commercial and industrial (including offshore) distribution networks
• Techniques for improving operational management and utilisation of electrical energy
  

Session 5
Power Distribution System Development

Scope
Session 5 deals with all aspects related to the short and long term development of high, medium and low voltage distribution networks, with reference to the changing requirements for electricity distribution including, but not limited to, present and future customer quality of supply requirements, optimum asset utilization techniques and strategies, and network developments to meet the demands of Distributed Energy Resources (DER).

There is increasing interest in strategies designed to face the rapidly changing level of demand in both rural and urban areas, the extension of electrification in rural areas requiring a high quality of supply, and development strategies intended to mitigate against low probability high risks extreme events.

Subjects of special emphasis

Demand needs and forecast

• Evolution of the demand characteristics
• Methodologies for demand forecast in an assigned area

Performance requirements, results and benchmarking

• Economical versus technical performance
• System reliability and degree of adequacy
• Methods for performance assessment
• Results of performance evaluation and benchmarking
• Satisfaction of customers and stakeholders

Network schemes, design criteria and practice

• Advanced network schemes for the best exploitation of distributed generation
• Design of active networks and smartgrids
• Distribution systems for off-shore wind farms
• Enhanced design criteria making best use of new technologies
• Reduction of losses
• Dependence on local environment
• Co-existence and synergy with other infrastructures
• Distribution network design criteria to accommodate low probability high risk extreme events
• The extension of electrification in low load density areas, including quality of supply issues

Investment strategies

• Least cost investment plans
• Financial planning and cash flow for investment
• Network ageing
• Risk analysis & asset management implications

Session 6
Distribution Network as Electricity Market Place and Impact of Regulation

Scope
This session deals with changes in the role of the electricity distribution companies. The electricity distribution network can provide a common marketplace for consumers and small-scale power producers. Such a market may call for intelligent demand response actions based on market price, energy saving, and efficiency goals. These processes will involve new business models as well as new technical solutions and include new organisational structures and administrative routines, new solutions for customer gateway, automatic meter management systems and commercial IT system tools.

The regulation principles and models are issues of great importance and will influence, inter alia, the pricing of the distribution service, the quality of supply, and commercial quality. The changes in the business environment include enhanced asset management strategies, organisational restructuring, and consequential improvements in operating efficiency.

In addition, there are many new management issues that arise from the rapid change in focus from technology to business development. This session provides an opportunity to compare recent practices and review future directions.

Subjects of special emphasis

Distribution networks as a marketplace for European Energy Retail Markets

• The role of distribution system operators (DSO) in the electricity market
  and relationships to transmission system operators
• Methods and IT systems for billing and customer switching management
• Structures and models for the pricing of distribution
• The impact of distributed generation on transfer fees (tariffs)
• Management of the quality of commercial services (“grid codes”)
• Energy services and requirements for a customer gateway

Service providers and new activities in the distribution business

• Models and experience of unbundling and outsourcing
• Functioning of service markets in different countries
• Capability needs for human resources, skills and knowledge

Automatic Meter Management (AMM) service development

• Experience from large-scale implementation, cost-benefit
  evaluations and demands on the open market
• Energy efficiency services based on AMM
• Experience of the development of customer satisfaction
• Integration of AMM with billing and customer switching systems
  and other IT systems

Experiences of regulation

• Regulation models and responsibility of the regulator focused on the effects
  on the economical development and quality of supply
• Experience of regulation impacts on the electricity distribution business
• The period of regulatory review compared with the lifetime of the network
• Regulation of parallel infrastructures e.g. electricity, gas, district heating
• The role of regulation in giving incentives for a sustainable and
  environmentally friendly development of the total energy system
• The impact of European Commission directives on national regulations

Decision-making and benchmarking methods

• Tools and methods available to carry out the analysis and synthesis necessary
• New and better methods related to asset management
• Methods to promote reduction of cost and to improve quality