Dear Reader, The end of another financial year and unfortunately COVID is still causing issues and disruption to meetings and planned events globally. This edition of ITL summarises the work of three CIGRE working groups in which Australians have been involved and who have recently published their final Technical Brochure.
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TB 835 considers "Rural Electrification". This brochure provides a useful framework and relevant examples of innovative solutions for edge of grid and stand alone power supplies.
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TB 765 provides a comprehensive and valuable reference document on “Understanding and mitigating corrosion”. Inappropriate management of this issue can lead to very significant cost impacts on the industry.
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TB 819 gives a timely review of “IEC 61850 based substation automation systems – Users’ expectations and stakeholders’ interactions”. As the global standard, it is useful to understand how various parts of the world are progressing in terms of adoption.
It is unfortunate that in our 100th year, CIGRE has again been required to restructure the 2021 biennial Paris Session to an online virtual event. This year there are some changes with multiple streams being run from 'TV Studios' set up within the Palais du Congres which is aimed at providing a better viewing and participation experience for delegates. In regard to our own events, we too have been impacted with travel and gathering restrictions and this year offered our annual transformer workshop as a virtual online event which was well attended. We have had some requests to make the presentations from this available to non delegates, so we are working on an online system which will allow for the purchase and viewing of these and other CIGRE offerings from the comfort of your office or lounge chair. We are aiming to be be able to offer this service soon, so keep an eye on our latest news on the web or subscribe to our twitter/linked in to keep updated. We do have our CIDER (Conference on the Integration of Distributed Energy Resources) planned as a physical event (subject to any further Travel or COVID event restriction issues) in Adelaide Nov 2 and 3rd. Information on this event will be updated on our event website. Our popular annual presentations on the work of our technical panels will be held toward the end of November, preferrably as an in-person event, whilst our AGM this year will be held toward the end of September as an online event, similar to that of last year. Dates and information for both these events will be available over the next month or so. This month we are launching a new CIGRE Australia initiative - the NGN CIGRE Ambassador program. This program is aimed at supporting some of our NGN members who are moving out of the NGN (due to the NGN age limit) to be able to continue their involvement in CIGRE activities and aid in the promotion of CIGRE within their own organisations. Participants will undertake some basic training in social media marketing, project management and presentation and will be supported and provided with CIGRE information and resources. This is an exciting initiative with four CIGRE Australia members participating and helping to develop the pilot program. Matthew Zillmann (Energy Qld, Brisbane), Robert Li (Transgrid) Sydney, Tian Ting (AusNet Services) Melbourne and Bing Lin (Jacobs) Adelaide. So, whilst the COVID restrictions and lockdowns have meant that we have not been able to offer the physical events and meetings that we would normally offer, there is still plenty happening and CIGRE both regionally and internationally continues to promote the sharing of technical solutions. Thanks again for reading and your support and we look forward to seeing you and your colleagues participating in one of our events soon. Best Regards Terry Killen Chief Executive CIGRE Australia. Technical Editor - Phil Southwell ================
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