Green Book - Electricity Supply Systems of the Future & Handbook of Power Systems

The release of two important texts in 2020 and 2021 provides a comprehensive explanation of all the components of power systems and how they interact and offers a look into the future of how power systems will need to evolve to accommodate the rapid changes that are occurring to deal with climate change.  They both provide essential reading for all those involved in the operation and future development of power systems.

The first book offers a vision of the future of electricity supply systems and CIGRE’s views on the know-how that will be needed to manage the transition toward them. 

A variety of factors are driving a transition of electricity supply systems to new supply models, in particular the increasing use of renewable sources, environmental factors and developments in ICT technologies. These factors suggest that there are two possible models for power network development, and that those models are not necessarily exclusive: 

• An increasing importance of large networks for bulk transmission capable of interconnecting load regions and large centralized renewable generation resources. This includes offshore generation as well as the need to provide more interconnections between the various countries and energy markets. 
• An emergence of clusters of small, largely self-contained distribution networks, which include decentralized local generation, energy storage and active customer participation. These must be intelligently managed so that they operate as active networks providing local active and reactive support. 

The electricity supply systems of the future will likely include a combination of the above two models, since additional bulk connections and active distribution networks are needed in order to reach ambitious environmental, economic and security-reliability targets. This concise yet comprehensive reference resource on technological developments for future electrical systems has been written and reviewed by experts and the Chairs of the sixteen Study Committees that form the Technical Council of CIGRE.

Australian contributors to this work were Les Brand (DC Systems), Alex Cruickshank (Markets) and Phil Southwell (Power System Development).

Individual CIGRE Members can get a 40% discount coupon code for the printed or digital version of this Green Book through CIGRE. This discount is not available for Collective Members.

The second book provides a comprehensive resource for electrical power professionals. The Springer Handbook of Power Systems, which is endorsed by CIGRE, covers all elementary topics related to the design, development and management of power systems and provides insights from worldwide key players in the electrical power systems industry.  Australian contributions were from Terry Krieg for the Substations chapter and Phil Southwell, Greg Thorpe and Alex Cruickshank for the Markets chapter.  

This Springer Handbook provides a state-of-the-art, one-stop reference that covers all aspects of modern power systems and includes a distillation of a wide range of information from industry standards and global regulations.  Chapters covering fundamentals are authored by eminent professors from leading institutions. Several chapters also provide supplementary online material, including exercises and examples that provide further insights. According to Rob Stephen, former president of CIGRE (2016-2020), this book “provides an excellent overview of the entire industry in one place, which is unique.”

The book is available in print and various electronic formats and can be purchased from the publisher’s website. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-32-9938-2