Conference report

The European conference of transmission and distribution networks was organised on 11-13th March 2008, in Amsterdam representing 400 participants from 30 countries, inclusive the expert of Geometria. The event hosted, in addition to the conference, a trade show of some 30 exhibitors from IT and consultation companies.

Main topics of the conference were the following:

• Politics and regulation, financing and proprietary / ownership,
• Asset management, long term planning,
• “smart grid” (intelligent network), renewaling and distributed energy production,
• Information technology support, information management, integration.

There was a dominant emphasis on the topic: network of the future, construction, management, operation of the “smart grid”, relating network developments, IT support. The European Union is actively analysing this topic, the initial statements, regulating proposals are available: http://www.smartgrids.eu/.

Along with putting down the principles, there were some reports on practical experiments, e.g. FENIX project (Flexible Electricity Networks to Integrate the eXpected ‘energy evolution’) in Spain, or the intelligent control on the distribution network of DONG Energy in Denmark.

At the control of the “smart grid”, the sharing of information in supporting information systems, the realization of high level, online integration between the systems is of main importance. It is based on the common data model, see as standardised solution e.g. CIM (Common Information Model) by IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission).

Beyond integration, intelligent networks’ operation needs in addition to traditional systems (SCADA, DMS, GIS, WFMS) new, special, intelligent online controlling systems, and communication channels providing the information transfer (perceived volumes, signals, orders).