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ELECTRA N°329

August 2023

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 1


Table of Contents

Editorial

Global Connections
Electricity storage in Greece: State-of-play & near-term outlook

From the ‘duck’ to the ‘dachshund dog’ curve

Energy technology solutions for Africa’s just energy transition

HVDC Technology for Renewable Energy Dominated Power Systems

Technology E2E
Visualized Reconstruction of Treeing Defects in Power Cable Based on
Electromagnetic Tomography

Life of Association
CIGRE Science & Engineering (CSE) - The technical magazine of choice

New Green Book: Accessories for HV and EHV Extruded Cables - A long story

CIGRE West Africa – Report of the June 2023 Kick-Off meeting for the election of
Study Committee representatives

CIGRE Women In Energy : Discussion with Maria del Socorro Gómez Pérez

CIGRE NGN: Discussion with Pedro Lozada

In Memoriam - Jerzy LEPECKI

15th DEMSEE annual Congress Report

CIGRE General Assembly 2023 Report

Thanking our sponsors for their valued support!

CIGRE NGN at the Sendai 2023 International Symposium

CIGRE NGN at the Cairns 2023 International Symposium

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 2


Annual Reports
SC C1 > Power system development and economics

SC C2 > Power system operation and control

SC C3 > Power system environmental performance

Technical Brochures
TB 905 WG B2.68 Sustainability of OHL conductors and ttings – Conductor condition

assessment and life extension – Vol. 1

TB 906 WG C6.36 Distributed Energy Resource Benchmark Models for Quasi-Static


Time-Series Power Flow Simulations

TB 907 WG B3.41 Mobile substations incorporating HV GIS

TB 908 WG B1.64 Losses in Armoured Three Core Power Cables

TB 909 JWG C4/B4.52 Guidelines for Subsynchronous Oscillation Studies in Power

Electronics Dominated Power Systems

TB 910 WG C1.43 Business Requirements for Asset Performance Management

This edition is sponsored by

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 3


EDITO

Editorial
By Michel Augonnet
President of CIGRE

Dear CIGRE Friends and Colleagues,


Welcome to another edition of ELECTRA!

This month’s articles visit several parts of the globe on varied energy transition
programs, and we can each very easily visualize the different options available for
distinctive climates and levels of economic development. This is a CIGRE advantage:
we share the information freely so that all may learn and prosper. Equally important
to read are the articles discussing ‘equipment life’ whether it be power electronics
hardware or, being carefully looked at in this edition, the aging – or ‘treeing’ – of
transmission cables.

Another interesting article concerns net load stability being seen with the increased
levels of Renewable Energy Sources (RES), particularly in islanded power systems.
The ‘Cyprus Dachshund Dog Curve’ is a new way to show power system operating
curves for peak hours.

Advertising, continue reading below

As always, climate change is in the news around the world. Major heat waves are
affecting the Northern Hemisphere this year as well as massive rainfall in regions
that would not normally see such heavy saturation. Greece and Canada are suffering
from important wild res as well. These wide-ranging climate issues have severe
consequences for power systems and physical infrastructure, roads, railways, etc. As
power system experts, we must all be prepared for any and all types of
meteorological variations; the normal weather patterns experienced around the
world are no longer valid.

I would like to introduce you to a new section within the ‘Life of the Association’.
Since the creation of Next Generation Network and Women in Engineering groups, it
is now time to begin introducing some of the members. There are Q&A interviews
with a member of each group in which they give their perspective on CIGRE

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 4


membership as well as where they are in their career goals. These members are our
future, they will lead the way once many of us have retired. Sharing knowledge and
knowing how it is being used, and modernized, is so vital to who we are.

I wish you all good reading,


Best regards,

Michel Augonnet

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 5


GLOBAL CONNECTIONS

Electricity storage in Greece: State-of-play


& near-term outlook
Even though electricity storage is recognized as a prerequisite for the
decarbonization of the power sector, the development of storage
facilities is still facing legal/regulatory barriers and investment
feasibility concerns. This article highlights key steps recently taken by
the Greek State as regards the legal/regulatory framework and
appropriate State aid schemes, to kickstart electricity storage activity
and allow for an ef cient and timely development of facilities.

By Apostolos Papakonstantinou

Storage facilities in operation & anticipated


needs
Currently there are four (4) storage plants operating in Greece, two open-loop
pumped-hydro storage (PHS) stations in the mainland (700 ΜW in total) and two
small hybrid RES-storage stations in non-interconnected islands (just 3 MW).

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 6


The updated target for a renewable energy source (RES) share of ~80% in the
electricity sector, set in the National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) that is currently
being revised, cannot be met without substantially increasing the storage capacity of
the system. Considering the energy arbitrage and exibility needs of the Greek
power system, a mix of short (~2 MWh/MW) and longer (>6 MWh/MW) duration
storages has been identi ed as optimal. In the short run, storage is primarily needed
for balancing services and to a smaller degree for limited energy arbitrage. Long-
term storage needs, on the other hand, are driven by the fast rising RES penetration
levels, to provide energy arbitrage on a daily and multi-day cycle, as well as to
contribute to system adequacy. Estimates vary, but a total storage capacity of at least
4 GW and 15-20 GWh is considered appropriate to support system needs over the
next decade.

Currently there is a growing interest for investments in storage facilities in Greece.


Licensed projects mostly consist of Li-ion battery energy storage systems (BESS),
either stand-alone or integrated in PVs, as well as PHS facilities [1].

Regulatory advances & State aid schemes


In January 2021, the Greek Ministry of Environment and Energy established a
“Storage Task Force”, entrusted with the task to propose a strategy, an action plan
and speci c institutional measures to enable the development, integration and
effective market participation of storages. In July 2021, the Storage Task Force
concluded its proposal, establishing the directions for amendments of framework
around electricity storage [2]. The foreseen prioritization of use cases and
functionalities of storage are:

1. Grid-scale, front-of-the-meter (FtM) storage (market participation, PPAs,


congestion relief),
2. Behind-the-meter (BtM) storage in RES plants (RES energy time-shift, mitigation
of curtailments, imbalance charges minimization, balancing services provision),
3. Small-scale storage in consumer (prosumer) premises (cost reduction, peak
shaving, enhanced exploitation of embedded generation, network congestion
relief).

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In 2022 major interventions took place in the legal framework to establish the
activity of electricity storage, with law 4951/2022 introducing the following:

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Typology of storage -FtM facilities and BtM storage in RES plants and prosumers.
Streamlining of licensing procedure.
Participation in all electricity markets.
Grid access: Storage enjoys precedence to RES, subject to operating restrictions,
as discussed below.
Regulated tariffs and avoidance of double charging.

Ministerial Decision 84014/7123, issued in the same year, established grid access
priority rules for FtM storage facilities and for RES plants with integrated storage.

An amendment introduced in Law 4920/2022 enables granting of State aid to


storage, in order to bridge the funding gap of investments and enhance their
bankability. Financial support is available either through participation in
competitive tenders or directly to individual projects, in the form of investment
subsidies and/or annual operating aid. The Greek authorities have been successful in
having 4 storage support schemes approved by the European Commission. The
following table summarizes the main characteristics of the 3 schemes that involve
open tender processes [3-5].

The 1st (out of 3) bidding process of the FtM grid-storage scheme (SA.64736) was
successfully conducted in July 2023, for a total of 400 MW. The remaining 2 rounds
will be completed in 2023. All projects are scheduled to enter operation before 2026.
In addition, individual aid to the 680MW/6-h Am lochia PHS Project has also been
approved (SA.57473), aiming to support high RES penetration through arbitrage and
curtailment mitigation, as well as contribute to resource adequacy. The aid
comprises both an investment grant and a 2-way CfD [6].

RES hosting capacity & storage – operating


restrictions
Network congestion is a major limitation in achieving decarbonization targets, in
Greece and elsewhere, with RES hosting capacity of the grid being exhausted.
Ministerial Decision 53563/1556, issued in May 2023, established operating
restrictions applicable to RES and storage facilities, intended to mitigate network

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 8


congestion and improve utilization of available RES hosting capacity. Initially, time-
window static limitations will be imposed to storages operating in PV-congested
networks, as shown below. Static restrictions will be gradually superseded by
adaptive/dynamic limitations, applicable depending on prevailing conditions, based
on market or out-of-market mechanisms.

Static limitations are also foreseen for RES plants, initially in the form of output
power caps, principally for PVs. Combined with BtM batteries, such restrictions are
very effective in reducing occupation of available hosting capacity, while maintaining
energy ef ciency (i.e. minimizing rejected energy). At the same time, the market
value of available solar generation is increased through time-shifting towards high
demand and market price intervals. As an example, the average daily grid export
pro le is shown below for a PV plant capped at 50% of its installed capacity, without
embedded storage and with a small (0.5 h duration) of BtM batteries.

Open issues & next steps


Important steps for the immediate future, to maintain the momentum in electricity
storage development in the country, include the organization of tenders for hybrid
plants in the islands, the introduction of support schemes for storage in customer
premises and the promotion of BtM storage in RES facilities. The latter is key for the
integration of RES generation, as it will allow imposing operating restrictions to
accommodate a high RES capacity in congested areas of the networks, as well as to
more effectively manage the increasing level of market curtailments faced by RES
stations.

References

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1. Licensing registry for storage facilities in Greece: https://www.rae.gr/mitroo-
adeion-ilektrikis-energeias/
2. Storage Task Force proposal: https://ypen.gov.gr/wp-
content/uploads/2021/07/Eisigisi_ODE_Apothikeysis-xwris-FEK-kai-praktika.pdf
3. Approval of State Aid scheme SA.64736: https://competition-
cases.ec.europa.eu/cases/SA.64736
4. Approval of State Aid scheme SA.60064: https://competition-
cases.ec.europa.eu/cases/SA.60064
5. Approval of State Aid scheme SA.58482: https://competition-
cases.ec.europa.eu/cases/SA.58482
6. Approval of State Aid scheme SA.57473: https://competition-
cases.ec.europa.eu/cases/SA.57473

Thumbnail & banner credit: George Desipris on Unsplash

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 10


GLOBAL CONNECTIONS

From the ‘duck’ to the ‘dachshund dog’


curve
The penetration of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) has increased
dramatically over the last decades. Photovoltaic (PV) systems are
among the most preferable RES technologies, especially in countries
with high solar irradiation.

By Phivos Therapontos, Dimitris Afxentiou, Rogiros Tapakis,


Petros Aristidou and Mathaios Panteli

Introduction
The increased energy generation from PV systems has already signi cantly reduced
the net-load demand (the load satis ed only by conventional units) during mid-day,
creating the well-known ‘duck’ curve [1].

The signi cant net load reduction during mid-day has introduced several new
challenges to system operators worldwide, such as frequency stability issues and
reduced short-circuit levels due to the reduced number of synchronous generators
necessary to supply the net load. Power systems operating with a small number of
synchronised units are more vulnerable to frequency and voltage stability problems
during outages. At the same time, the ramp rate requirements of conventional
generation units are increased to satisfy the evening peak demand when the net load
is restored due to the PV generation reduction [2].

Renewable Energy Generation Curtailments

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 11


The massive PV penetration in power systems where the load demand is relatively
low forces system operators to perform RES curtailments during peak PV generation
hours to balance generation and demand. This undesirable situation has a higher
impact on islanded systems where exporting the excess power is impossible. At the
same time, in low-inertia systems, the system operators set a strict requirement on
the minimum number of synchronised units (or, equivalently, on the minimum
system inertia) to ensure the system’s frequency security. This requirement
increases the RES energy curtailments during low-loading conditions to satisfy the
minimum technical limits of the synchronised units (also called minimum stable
generation limit).

For example, Figure 1 depicts the generation pro le of a low-demand period in the
Spring of 2023 for the islanded Cyprus power system. When the net load reduces
below the minimum stable generation limit of the synchronised thermal units (black
dotted line), RES curtailments (shown in red) are performed to balance the system
and ensure its stable and secure operation. This phenomenon repeats on multiple
days during low- demand periods, and the frequency has gradually increased in
Cyprus over the last few years.

The generation/demand imbalance will increase even more in the coming years
since government policies, especially in the EU, continuously push for increased RES
penetration. In contrast, a noticeable change in load demand during the problematic
period (mid-day) is not likely within the decade. It is worth noting that the amount of
RES curtailments is proportional to the number of synchronous generators (or, more
speci cally, their minimum stable generation limit) and RES installed capacity and
inverse to the system load demand.

Figure 1 - RES Curtailments

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 12


The Dachshund Dog Curve
As explained above, in low-inertia, islanded, power systems (like Cyprus’ system),
RES curtailments during peak sunlight hours (see the red area in Figure 1) lead to a
constant net load of the system, equal to the minimum stable generation limit
(MSGL) of the synchronised units. Consequently, the combination of low demand,
high RES penetration, and the MSGLs, leads to the ‘duck’ curve being transformed
into the ‘dachshund dog’ curve (see Figure 2).

The new curve is inspired by the basic characteristics of the dachshund dog. This dog
bread has a very long straight main body and very short legs compared to its size.
The latter represents the low demand of the system, which affects the amount of RES
curtailment requirements. The long straight body represents the duration of the RES
curtailments, which is directly related to the installed capacity of RES and the
daylight hours. In addition, the dog’s head and tail can be similar to the net load
evening and morning peak demand, respectively.

It should be noted that this silhouette of the net load curve occurs regularly in
Cypres’ power system (and other systems with similar features) since the energy
from the installed PV systems on the island is substantial compared to the system
demand. This is evident from Figure 2, where the average net load curve for the rst
four months of 2023 is presented. It is shown that the average curve has been
attened in the mid-day because of the regular RES curtailments.

Figure 2 - The Dachshund Dog Curve

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 13


The ‘dachshund dog’ curve introduces additional challenges in the power system
operation compared to the ‘duck’ curve. Primarily, RES curtailments can only be
applied to controllable RES systems (i.e., that can receive remote active and reactive
set point instructions from the SCADA system). Therefore, it is necessary to have an
adequate percentage of controllable RES systems to ensure that the required
curtailments can be applied. However, in many countries (including Cyprus), only the
large RES units are controllable, while the smaller units (such as rooftop PVs) are not.
In turn, the number of uncontrolled PVs should be limited or investments to control
such units should be made (e.g., through ripple control or IoT devices). It should be
noted that in Cyprus, the limit of uncontrollable RES has already been reached. As a
result, all new RES installations, irrespectively of their installed capacity, must be
controlled. Another critical issue is fairness: the curtailments must be distributed
fairly among RES producers. Unfair RES curtailments will unavoidably result in a
signi cant loss of income for some producers.

It should be noted that the curtailments and the issues mentioned above can be
avoided with the use of energy storage devices. That is, the curtailed energy (see red
area in Figure 1) can be stored and retrieved later to provide peak shaving (see
hours 19:00- 21:00 in Figure 1). However, this requires signi cant investments (with
limited usage) on behalf of the system operators and consumers and would not
change the silhouette of the curve.

On the other hand, with the proper planning and operation of the system, the
situation can improve and the challenges can be addressed without costly
investments. For example, the energy curtailed from RES can be used to provide
frequency support (virtual inertia, frequency containment reserves, etc.) during
under-frequency events [3]. This support can allow for avoiding the synchronisation of
conventional units for small demand increases and thus decrease the MSGLs.
Furthermore, traditional problems associated with RES penetration, especially
during low-loading conditions, can also be mitigated. Network congestion due to
excessive reverse power conditions can be avoided and voltage issues can be
mitigated. These bene ts can potentially increase the hosting capacity of RES, since
hosting capacity is mainly limited by the worst-case operation conditions that
appear during low loading conditions.

While the proposed curve is currently prevailing only in low-inertia, islanded power
systems, as the PV penetration increases in many countries, the net load in the mid-
day will unavoidably reduce. RES curtailments might be avoided in interconnected
power systems with the ability to export energy. However, the planned massive RES
capacity increase will force future power systems to operate with fewer synchronised
units close to their MSGLs, leading to RES curtailment and similar net-load
silhouettes as in Figure 2.

Conclusions
The massive PV penetration has forced system operators to perform RES
curtailments to balance generation and demand during low-demand / high-RES
conditions. These curtailments have changed the basic characteristics of the well-
known ‘duck’ curve and resulted in the ‘dachshund dog’ curve. While this effect is
dominant in islanded systems, it is expected to gradually become commonplace in
most RES-dominated systems.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 14


On the one hand, this new variation of the net load curve creates additional
challenges to the system operation, including increased controllability requirements
and loss of RES generation. On the other hand, it offers some bene ts by mitigating
problems that usually occur during low-demand / high-RES conditions.

Thumbnail & banner credit: Erda Estremera on Unsplash

[1] P. Denholm, M. O'Connell, G. Brinkman, J. Jorgenson, ‘Overgeneration from Solar


Energy in California: A Field Guide to the Duck Chart’, National Renewable Energy
Laboratory, November 2015.
[2] P. Therapontos, R. Tapakis, A. Nikolaidis, P. Aristidou, ‘Increasing RES penetration

in the Cyprus Power System: Current and Future Challenges’, MEDPOWER 2022,
October 2022.
[3] P. Therapontos, R. Tapakis, P. Aristidou, ‘Assessing the Impact of Primary

Frequency Support from IBRs in Low Inertia Isolates Power Systems’, IEEE General
Meeting 2023, July 2023.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 15


GLOBAL CONNECTIONS

Energy technology solutions for Africa’s


just energy transition
There is currently a global phenomenon of climate change due to
increasing global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from extraction
and combustion of fossil fuels indiscriminately in pursuit of economic
growth and higher standards of living. Africa is endowed with fossil
fuels, especially in the South and this has led to South Africa being
the 12th largest GHG emitter in the world as well as the country that
is responsible for signi cant exports of coal for global electricity
production.

By Aradhna Pandarum, Council for scienti c and industrial


research – Acting Research Group Leader (South Africa)

Background
However, the African continent only contributes to 3% of the global emissions but
loses 5-15% in GDP each year due to climate change impacts [1]. Although the
African continent contributes insigni cantly to climate change via GHG emissions, it

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 16


warms twice as fast as everywhere else with 108-116 million people expected to be
exposed to sea level rise risk by 2030 if the globe continues on its current trajectory
[2].

According to an analysis completed by the World Resource Institute, in 2020, the


electricity sector contributes to 42% of global emissions whilst the entire energy
sector contributes to 73.2%. These facts highlight the severe need for the globe to
transition from a carbon-based economy to one that is based on low carbon energy
technologies. This article provides insight into the possible low carbon energy
technologies and energy sector developments that are to be considered for Africa’s
just energy transition. A just transition requires signi cant consideration of social
and economic imperatives for technologies and pathways that are to be selected.
Some of these imperatives include job losses/gains, economic growth, skills required,
small, medium, and micro- enterprise development, community inclusion, health
impacts and community ownership. South Africa itself grapples with the triple
challenge of unemployment, inequality and poverty, having the highest
unemployment rate and inequality rate globally. It is believed that the green
economy can assist with these challenges and offer more opportunities to strengthen
the African economy at large. However, there are still some barriers that hinder
these developments. The major barriers are access to funding, skills shortages, and
the lag of enabling policies and regulations. The challenge of funding has been
realized by developed countries to some extent and South Africa has been fortunate
to receive various pledges at the conference of parties (COP) 26 from France, UK,
Germany, EU, and US for a total of USD8.5bn in the country’s efforts to decarbonize
the energy sector. This partnership is referred to as the Just Energy Transition
Partnership (JETP). Recently, the Spanish government had pledged a further
USD2.3bn to this initiative. Although this indicates a good appetite from developed
countries to South Africa, such countries have seemed to leave out other African
countries that require funding for their transition. Further investigation is required
as to why this is so.

Review of future energy technologies


Africa’s current power generation is dominated by fossil fuels representing 71% as
evident in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1 - Africa's power generation mix [3]

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 17


The globe has realized that the easiest and most low-cost decarbonization solution
(in terms of levelized cost of electricity (LCOE)) for the electricity sector emanates
from solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind technologies. This is visible in the current
global developments as well as the future expansions proposed. IRENA predicts that
renewables will cater for a 25% reduction in GHG emissions. This is followed by
energy ef ciency interventions catering for 25%, electri cation of other sectors –
20%, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) – 14%, hydrogen – 10%
and lastly, carbon capture and storage (CCS) – 6% [4]. This is in line with the future
South African energy landscape which is envisaged to take the form in Figure 2
below. This can be extended to the African energy landscape as many synergies do
exist.

Figure 2 - CSIR Analysis on future South African energy landscape 1 (CSIR, flaticon.com)
1 Full sector modelling still to be completed for South African energy sector decarbonization pathway/s

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 18


Figure 3 - Global Electricity decarbonisation pathway for 1.5⁰ C scenario [4]

High level analysis of the key energy future technologies to be considered is


provided in the subsections below.

Renewable Energy technologies


These technologies consist of solar PV (rooftop and ground mounted), wind (offshore
and onshore), hydro, concentrated solar and bioenergy.

Solar PV technology consists of solar PV modules which generate DC power from the
energy radiated by the sun. This power is generally transmitted to an inverter, which
converts DC to AC, and is then transmitted to the power grid. This can be rooftop
mounted or ground mounted installations which can also be behind-the-meter or
directly connected to LV, MV or very rarely (HV) grid depending on the installed
capacity. Africa is leading the globe in solar resource potential and this coupled with
the abundant land availability, provides signi cant advantages for deployment.

Wind technologies consists of wind turbines which generate electricity using the
wind and are either installed onshore (i.e. on land) or offshore (i.e. in the sea). The
turbines are connected to a generator which is then connected to a converter then to
the internal reticulation system and transformer and this is then connected to the
grid. Most plants are onshore since offshore is still nascent in the market with higher
LCOE. However, where land is becoming a hinderance, offshore solutions are being
encouraged.

Hydropower consists of turbines immersed in water which turn with moving water
and is connected to a generator that generates electricity. This concept can be
coupled with dams that have an elevation difference to allow for storing of electricity
– generally referred to as pumped storage. Since water is a scarce resource and most

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 19


parts of Africa is dry, hydro is generally not feasible. Furthermore, there is a long
lead time and intensive CAPEX and OPEX to be considered. However, the Nile River is
being considered for hydropower use at the moment.

Concentrated solar power (CSP) technology differs from solar PV technology in that it
uses mirrors to concentrate solar energy to a single source and produce heat that
can be converted into electricity. It also has thermal energy storage which is
considered advantageous over other renewables. However, the LCOE of this
technology is still high and is not considered for deployment.

Bioenergy involves the combustion of various feedstocks including organic waste


residue, wood residues, and crop residues to generate electricity instead of the
combustion of coal. This technology is considered advantageous when considering
the repurposing of coal red power stations as much of the existing equipment and
skills can be conserved. However, the source of feedstock is concerning as it may lead
to deforestation and thus increase in GHG emissions. Nevertheless, it can be coupled
with carbon capture technologies for this purpose. This will further aid in the value
chains for decarbonizing hard-to-abate sectors with green hydrogen.

Energy storage
With the increase of variable renewable energy in the grid, energy storage is
becoming more important to maintain grid stability, provide ancillary services,
provide energy arbitrage and avoid system blackout. This coupled with renewables
can also electrify customers that are located far away from a grid point of connection.
Microgrids using this concept is becoming popular for this purpose. However, where
grid expansion can be done, the feasibility of microgrids is incomparable. Currently,
pumped hydro and Lithium Ion based battery storage is leading in the globe. Second
life batteries from electric vehicles are also becoming popular in behind the meter
solar PV and storage solutions.

Conclusion
This article re ects on key energy technologies that are to be considered for the just
energy transition in Africa. Aspects relating to social and economic imperatives for
such technologies must be considered when selecting pathways for the transition to
be just. There are many regulatory barriers that were not touched on which should
be considered. Furthermore, other developments such as establishment of energy
markets, system operators, aggregators and wheeling of electricity should be
considered. It is also envisaged that the development of green hydrogen solutions for
decarbonization of hard-to-abate local and export markets is going to become a
gamechanger in the African continent.

Banner & Thumbnail credit: nattrass on iStock

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 20


GLOBAL CONNECTIONS

HVDC Technology for Renewable Energy


Dominated Power Systems
For more than a century, AC power transmission has played a
dominating role in power systems and DC technology has mainly been
used for high voltage (HVDC) bulk power transmission from one point
to another in an AC power system due to lower cost.

by Mohamed Rashwan, Mojtaba Mohaddes, Chandana


Karawita, and Hiranya Suriyaarachchi, TransGrid Solutions,
Winnipeg, Canada

Today, two major variants of HVDC are available, which differ in the AC to DC
conversion technology. Line Commutated Converter (LCC) HVDC is based on
thyristor technology. In early schemes, the power generated from large-scale
hydropower generating stations was transferred via HVDC systems using LCC-HVDC
technology. Nelson River HVDC system (Canada), HVDC Itaipu (Brazil), and Cahora-
Bassa HVDC system (Mozambique-South Africa) are a few examples of LCC-HVDC
systems.

The second variant is Voltage Source Converter (VSC) technology which was
introduced early 21st century. VSC converters utilize Insulated Gate Bipolar
Transistors (IGBT) as the switching device, and they are arranged in a modular
format. These converters are also known as modular multi-level (MMC) VSC
converters. Unlike thyristors, which can be turned on through a gate pulse but not
turned off, an IGBT can be turned on and turned off, thereby providing VSC
technology with superior controllability compared to LCC technology. A VSC
converter is shown in Figure 1.

VSC technology offers many features that are suitable for the integration of
renewable energy generation such as Wind and Solar, and, with their small footprint,
the VSC is very attractive for the integration of offshore wind. With the rapid
development of VSC technology and offshore wind generation technology, HVDC
systems are being widely used to interconnect offshore wind generation into AC
networks. After the completion of the rst HVDC system connecting offshore wind
power plant “BorWin1” in 2012, numerous schemes have been put in service and

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 21


many are under development or being planned. All the offshore HVDC projects that
are already in service are symmetrical monopole systems with most of them rated at
320 kV and 900 MW.

Since the offshore HVDC converters are being entirely fed by wind generation, the
offshore converters are operated in “islanded mode,” and they control the frequency
and AC voltage at the point of connection. Since the offshore converter is operated in
islanded mode, the onshore converter needs to be operated in DC voltage control.
Most of these VSC HVDC systems can provide services such as frequency support,
emergency power control, dynamic voltage/reactive power support, etc. Another
important aspect is the self start-up of the system known as “black start.” The
existing offshore systems cannot be black started from the offshore side since the
wind farms are not capable of black starting themselves. Therefore, the onshore
HVDC converter is rst energized from the onshore AC grid that is already energized,
and then, the offshore AC terminal is energized by the offshore HVDC converter.
Finally, the wind turbines are connected one by one to the HVDC terminal.

Figure 1 - MMC VSC converter - courtesy of Siemens

At present, to facilitate the energy transition initiatives, many projects integrating


offshore wind are being developed based on a standard building block consisting of a
+/- 525 kV 2GW bipole system. Although these are bipole systems, at present they
are being developed to operate decoupled in the offshore AC connections. i.e., the
two offshore DC poles are operated in islanded mode connected to a dedicated wind
power plant. This is mainly because the control and protection are simple in islanded
mode compared to the grid forming control mode.

In addition to being developed to transfer offshore wind generation, at present there


are several HVDC projects being developed to transfer the power generated from
onshore wind and solar power plants. These HVDC systems are mainly operated in

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 22


heavily inverter-based generation-dominated weak AC systems. The SunZia
project [1] in the USA, the Ariadne Interconnection [2] in Greece and the Euro-Asia
project [3] connecting Greece, Cypress, and Israel are a few examples of such projects.
HVDC systems operating in a very weak AC networks need to be operated in “grid
forming control” mode, which is similar to a synchronous generator with the
capabilities of frequency and voltage control and active and reactive power sharing
based on the droop characteristics. Compared to the HVDC systems connected to
offshore wind farms, some of these HVDC systems (e.g., Ariadne Interconnector) are
required to be operated in parallel with AC connections.

Today, VSC HVDC systems are more popular than LCC HVDC systems because of
their superior capabilities. However, due to unique requirements, such as long
distances and high power transfer, LCC-HVDC systems are also being considered for
some projects. The HVDC project Kimal-Lo Aguirre in Chile is one such example.

Many offshore wind farms are being developed in Europe and North America. To
provide higher transmission exibility and reliability, many of the new wind farms
will be connected to the onshore networks through offshore energy hubs or “energy
islands.” The electric power produced by several wind farms is brought to an energy
island, which is connected to multiple onshore energy markets via HVDC or AC
connections. Some of the examples are “VindØ” – wind island [4] connected to
Denmark, “North Sea Wind Power Hub” project [5] connected to Germany,
Netherlands, and Denmark, “MOG2-Nautilus-Triton project” [6] connected to Belgium,
UK, and Denmark, and “Bornholm Energy Island” [7] connected to Denmark and
Germany. As described in the North Sea Wind Power Hub project website, by 2050
the North Sea energy islands will interconnect many countries as shown in Figure 2.
And in the USA, there is more than 16 GW of wind capacity planned for the Atlantic
Coast.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 23


Figure 2 - 2050 scenario of North Sea Energy Islands (Source: North Sea Wind Power Hub Project [5])

Multi-terminal VSC HVDC systems with many onshore and offshore converters will
be utilized in these projects. The offshore HVDC converters will be operated in
islanded or grid forming control modes. At the offshore terminals, multiple grid
forming converters may be tightly connected (zero or very low impedance between
them) and the grid forming control techniques need to be carefully designed to avoid
interactions among them and to properly share the active and reactive power among
the converters. Similar to synchronous generators, frequency droop characteristics
can be used to share the active power and AC voltage control with a reactive power
droop can be used to share the reactive power without interactions. Compared to the
synchronous generators which transiently can supply large short circuit currents,
VSC HVDC converters have limited short circuit current handling capability, mainly
due to the IGBT current limits. Therefore, the converter current during transients
needs to be controlled to remain within the maximum current limit. At the same
time, proper recovery after a system fault (AC or DC) needs to be achieved. Therefore,
the fault-ride-through design of offshore HVDC converters needs special attention.

Furthermore, the controllers of the wind farms need to be coordinated with the HVDC
controllers to achieve the required performance. In these projects, a close
collaboration between the HVDC manufacturers and wind farm manufacturers is
necessary to ensure these requirements are met. Onshore HVDC converters are
required to maintain the DC voltage of the multi-terminal DC system, while
maintaining required power injections to the onshore grids. Therefore, a exible
system using a DC voltage droop control would be the proper choice as many
converters are contributing to regulate the DC voltage. The power injection at each

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 24


terminal may deviate from the setpoints due to the power mismatches and
contingencies in the system. After a contingency such as a converter outage or a
wind farm outage, it is necessary to readjust the setpoints to achieve the required
power ow. This can be achieved by having a high-level master controller
overlooking the entire multi-terminal system.

If the HVDC systems are connected from the DC side, it is necessary to have fast DC
breakers to isolate the faulty sections during a DC fault while keeping the rest of the
system running. Several fast-acting DC breakers have been introduced to the market.
As part of the PROMOTioN project [8], which evaluated the feasibility of the offshore
energy islands, some of the DC breakers have been already tested. However, more
work still needs to be done to increase the fault current interruption capability.

Another major concern is temporary load rejections such as onshore AC faults. The
power generated by the wind farms needs to be absorbed by some means to keep the
offshore converters running during the fault. In the existing offshore HVDC systems,
a “DC chopper” connected in parallel with the onshore converter is used. It is
fundamentally a resistive load connected through a fast-acting switch, typically an
MMC VSC valve. The energy delivered to the onshore converter is diverted and
absorbed by the resistor until the fault is cleared. Some of the HVDC projects being
planned are considering an “AC chopper” connected at the offshore AC terminal to
get the same support. This is a relatively cheaper solution, mainly because it utilizes
thyristor valves instead of IGBT valves. Furthermore, the AC chopper may be utilized
to keep the system running during a DC line fault as well. In a multi-terminal system,
this would be an added advantage, as fewer wind farms would need to be tripped
during a DC line fault. The main constraint in offshore applications is the space
availability on the offshore platforms for the installation of the AC chopper.
Innovative solutions are necessary to solve such limitations.

In the future, many VSC HVDC systems will bring the power generated from isolated
renewable energy sources (onshore/offshore wind/solar) to the AC grids. As the
amount of renewable generation increases, the conventional fossil-fuel based
generation will be retired.

Therefore, these HVDC converters will be connected to weak AC grids with low
synchronous generation. Since the recti ers connected to the renewable generation
are already operating in grid forming control, the inverters connected to the weak AC
grids need to be operated in grid following control to regulate the DC voltage. If the
AC system is very weak, it may be necessary to consider additional supporting
devices at the HVDC terminal. Synchronous condensers can be used to provide
increased short circuit strength, inertia, and voltage support. This is a well-known
technology already used in many LCC-HVDC systems connected to weak AC grids.
There are high ef ciency, high inertia synchronous condensers now available for
these purposes. Battery storage can also be used to get some inertia and frequency
support. If it is necessary to keep the HVDC converter current capacity for active
power transfer, the reactive power support can be obtained from other devices such
as STATCOMs. It is necessary to perform detailed planning studies using suitable
models and considering expected critical operating conditions to determine the most
suitable and cost-effective solutions. The TSOs, manufacturers and consultants need
to collaborate to achieve the future targets of 100% renewable energy-based power
systems.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 25


[1]
patternenergy.com/projects/sunzia-transmission
[2] www.ariadne-interconnection.gr/en
[3] euroasia-interconnector.com
[4] www.windisland.dk
[5] northseawindpowerhub.eu/explore-the-future-energy-highways
[6]
www.elia.be/-/media/project/elia/elia-site/users-
group/ug/workshop/2022/20221014/workshop_mog_2_grid_design_14102022_veli
a.pdf
[7] ens.dk/en/our-responsibilities/wind-power/ongoing-offshore-wind-tenders/energy-

island-bornholm-owf
[8] www.promotion-offshore.net/about_promotion/the_project/

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 26


TECHNOLOGY E2E

Visualized Reconstruction of Treeing


Defects in Power Cable Based on
Electromagnetic Tomography
Defects in High Voltage XLPE shielded power cable are normally hard
to observed due to its unique structure. Electrical tomography (EMT)
technology might be a solution to visualize the defects inside the
power cable and to prevent unplanned power outage.

by Yingqiang Shang

Background
XLPE cables are prone to insulation aging faults such as water trees and electrical
trees during long-term operation. Once treeing defects occur, they could lead to
discharge or breakdown in XLPE cable, seriously threaten the security and reliability
of the power transmission network [1]. Non-destructive testing methods can achieve
online monitoring of cable internal faults to a certain extent, however, existing cable
non-destructive testing methods such as X-ray, ultrasonic-imaging and Terahertz-
tomography have different disadvantages, including radiation risks, relying on
couplant and dif culties in penetrating metallic materials [2]. Electrical tomography
(EMT) is an imaging technique based on the principle of electromagnetic induction
which was rst developed in the 80s of the 20th century. EMT technology is known
for its unique advantages of non-invasive, non-contact, and permeable through
metal media [3]. It is particularly good at visualizing 3-D reconstruction of low-
conductivity objects, which is promising in non-destructive testing of electrical and
water tree faults in XLPE cables.

Recently, Beijing electric power company in China proposes a trial project in


adopting EMT tomography for non-contact detection of treeing defects in 35 kV and
110 kV XLPE cables. The working principle for the EMT system is shown in Fig. 1.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 27


Figure 1 - Working Principle of EMT system in treeing fault detection

The hardware of the EMIT system includes 8-way sensor array, coil excitation and
signal measurement circuit, data acquisition card, DC power supply and FPGA board,
and the software is embedded in LabVIEW program. EMT adopts the working mode of
coil excitation and receiving measurement, and the measured target, i.e., XLPE
cable, does not need to contact with the measurement system directly, eliminating
the in uence of electrode contact. In order to obtain more independent
measurement values as much as possible, the system generally adopts the
measurement mode of multi-excitation and multi-detection, and arranges multiple
sensors around the measurement area to form an array mode. Alternating current is
applied to the excitation coil to generate parallel or sector excitation magnetic eld
in the measurement space. The secondary magnetic eld modulated by the
measured object is detected through the receiving coil, and the medium distribution
in the measurement space is reconstructed after data inversion.

Methodology
Typical measurement case of EMT technology is shown in Fig. 2.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 28


Figure 2 - Typical measurement case of EMT technology

It is indicated that the application of EMT technology in treeing detection of XLPE


cable has the following advantages:

1. Non-destructive testing
EMT does not damage the internal structure of the cable, therefore the introduction
of impurities and other risks to damage the safe operation of cable equipment can be
avoided. Whereas there is no radiation risk to personnel compared with other non-
destructive testing technology. In addition, electromagnetic tomography can achieve
more excellent non-destructive testing with low cost and ease of use.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 29


Advertising, continue reading below

2. Accurate imaging
In the trial project, the imaging reconstruction error of cable internal defects is
reduced by using a self-developed algorithm of fusion deep neural network, and the
response speed of defect identi cation and the precision reconstruction of low
conductivity area are further improved. It is expected that micro discharge channels
with the sizes of micrometers can be detected by EMT technology.

3. Synchronous detections of defects in insulation and


metal layers
EMT technology generates an exciting magnetic eld in the measurement space by
applying alternating current to the excitation coil installed around the measurement
object. Multiple receiving coils located in different directions are used to detect the
secondary magnetic eld generated by the object to be measured. After inversion
calculation, the spatial medium distribution is reconstructed. By adopting coaxial
differential sensor arrays, the effects of primary magnetic eld can be eliminated,
which makes the synchronous detections of discharge microchannels in insulation
layer with low-conductivity and metal corrosion/damage with high-conductivity
become possible.

Challenges
It is noteworthy that the Assessment of EMT technology by Beijing electric power
company is a demonstration program, looking forward to the desire for applying EMT
technology in power transmission projects with XLPE cable rated 110 kV and above,
technical challenges remain in terms of system design and inverse algorithm
improvement:

1. Optimization of sensor array designs


The alternating magnetic eld generated by the excitation of the electromagnetic
eld sensor is generally divergent and has poor directivity. This results in a limited
measurement distance and a nonlinear spatial sensitivity of the sensor. It is desired
to design novel electromagnetic eld sensors with strong directivity and focusing

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 30


characteristics through theoretical analysis or simulation calculation, the spatial
sensitivity performance of the electromagnetic eld sensor can be improved
fundamentally from the sensitivity mechanism as well.

2. Dynamic architecture of EMT system


In order to ensure the high precision and stability of the EMT measurement signal
during practical operation of XLPE cables, further improvements in the
measurement speed of the hardware system should be achieved. Since imaging
requires high measurement accuracy, stability and accuracy are inevitably sacri ced
when frame rate is increased. How to design a dynamic EMT system with high
precision and high frame rate is a challenge to the design the top structure of EMT
system.

3. Developing high-dimensional nonlinear imaging


algorithms
At present, the research of imaging algorithms mainly focuses on the reconstruction
of 2-D images, and the system model is also linearized matrix operation. However,
considering the 3-D and nonlinear properties of the electromagnetic eld
distribution, more complex high-dimensional solutions can be further considered in
the inversion calculation, and more abundant spatial distribution information can be
obtained. However, the complexity of physical eld calculation and the scale of
system matrix would increase dramatically. How to develop a more ef cient inverse
problem solving framework should be considered for further implementation of EMT
system.

Conclusion
EMT technology offers a high-precision non-destructive testing and reconstruction
method for observing treeing defects in XLPE cables, which can locate and imaging
the treeing defects in insulation layers with high accuracy. In addition, the operation
of the EMT device is safer than that of X-ray detection, with other advantages
including low cost, portability, non-contact, anti-electromagnetic interference. It is
expected that the application of EMT technology could guarantee the security and
reliability of XLPE cable powered transmission tunnels.

Acknowledgement
The author would like to express his sincere appreciate for advises from Prof. Wu Lu
from Shanghai University of Electric Power. Also to 3 engineers who provide helps
during the trial project, They are: Shiling Wei, Qing liu and Yang Zhao

About the author

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 31


Yingqiang Shang was born on 13th April
1990 in China. He received the PhD
degree from The University of
Manchester in Electrical and Electronic
Engineering in 2019. Afterwards, he has
been working at SGCC Beijing power
cable company as a senior engineer to
innovate new technology and
equipment used for HV power cables.

He has joined CIGRE as a Working


Group young member since 2023.

Thumbnail credit: Artur Nichiporenko on iStock

[1]
X. Chen, Y. Xu, X. Cao, S. J. Dodd and L. A. Dissado, “Effect of tree channel
conductivity on electrical tree shape and breakdown in XLPE cable insulation
samples,” in IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation, vol. 18, no. 3,
pp. 847-860, 2011.
[2] Z. W. Zhang, J. Xu, R. Jia, Y. H. Wu, H. Guan, S. Y. Han, C. L. Zhang and Y. J. Zhao,

“Terahertz Non-Destructive Testing and Imaging of High-Voltage Cables”, in


Frontiers in Physics, vol. 10, 2022.
[3] J. Xiang, Y. Dong, and Y. Yang, “Multi-frequency electromagnetic tomography for

acute stroke detection using frequency-constrained sparse bayesian learning”. in


IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, vol. 39, pp 4102-4112, 2020

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 32


LIFE OF THE ASSOCIATION

CIGRE Science & Engineering (CSE) - The


technical magazine of choice

By Rob Stephen, Editor in Chief of CSE


CIGRE provides a premier digital magazine, CIGRE Science and Engineering (CSE).
Interested authors are encouraged to publish in this (Scopus registered) magazine.

This Scopus registered (E-ISSN 2426-1335) magazine provides the


following bene ts:

1. Free publication – no nancial obligation to authors.


2. Free download – maximum exposure for authors’ work
3. Rigorous review – reviewers are selected from the most knowledgeable experts
globally by the Study Committee chairpersons.
4. Rapid publication – the time from submission to publication can be from 6-9
months depending on the revisions required and availability in the CSE edition.
5. Open access to all interested parties. Free download to all (you do not have to be
a CIGRE member)
6. Advertising of the most pertinent papers on LinkedIn and Twitter

The details as to the Scopus registration and the current rating of CSE are given
below:

“CIGRE Science and Engineering, ISSN:2426-1335”. The journal is active and


indexed in Scopus.

If you would like to publish in this prestigious, Scopus registered, magazine please
email rob.stephen((@))cigre.org .

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 33


All information on how to go about publishing can be found at cse.cigre.org

CSE 29 available on cse.cigre.org 


CSE Archives available on e-cigre

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 34


LIFE OF THE ASSOCIATION

New Green Book: Accessories for HV and


EHV Extruded Cables - A long story
The editors are pleased to dedicate this Green Book to the memory of
their friend Pierre Argaut, who was the father of this subject at CIGRE
Insulated Cables Committee. Pierre was in the nal stage of
publication of this volume when he passed away in May 2022. For my
friend, I decided to nish the edition of this book.

by Yves Maugain – Green Book Chief Editor, past TC and SC B1


Secretary

SC B1 “Insulated Cables” has always been at the forefront to disseminate its


knowledge through Green Books. In 2014, CIGRE launched a new publication
collection with two books, one on “Overhead lines”, the other one on “Cable
accessories for HV Extruded Cables”. In 2015, cooperation with Springer allowed
CIGRE to publish the Green Book on Overhead Lines again as a “Major Reference
Work” distributed through the vast network of this well-known international
publisher.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 35


Since then, the original book on Accessories was updated and published by Springer
as a “Major Reference Work” in 2021 “Accessories for HV and EHV Extruded Cables –
Components” named as Volume 1 (Electra 317 – August 2021) and now Volume 2
“Accessories for HV and EHV Extruded Cables – Land and Submarine AC/DC
Applications” also as a “Major Reference Work” in 2023.

Advertising, continue reading below

To make it simple, cable systems are composed of cables, joints to connect two cable
lengths and terminations to connect the cable system to the grid – overhead lines
(OHL), transformers, air or gas insulated substations. Joints and terminations are
called accessories. Their speci city is that most of them are mounted on site even if
they are manufactured in a factory. This is an important factor in the reliability of the
total cable system. It is the reason why the cable community dedicates a lot of time
to reach the high reliability requested to be included in the grid.

It is essential to select the accessories to be exactly compatible with both the cables
and the network elements to which they are connected and also with their place in
the grid.

This publication is divided into two Volumes covering land and submarine
applications, HVAC and HVDC systems, transitions from lapped cable systems to
extruded cable systems, from OHL to underground cables, and from cables to
substations. It provides the reader with recommendations for testing, installation,
maintenance and remaining life management. The rst Volume of the Book,
dedicated to components, provides information regarding Recommendations and
Guidelines from CIGRE for Design, Workmanship and Testing of Accessories for AC
extruded cables only. The second Volume is dedicated to Land and Submarine AC/DC
Applications, it includes accessories for HVDC extruded cables and for submarine
applications.

Chapter 1 - Accessories in Underground Cable Systems


and in Transitions from Overhead to Underground
The goal of this chapter is to provide basics for the various topics to be addressed in
the process of selection of the accessories. It covers requirements and basic
concepts, design and construction issues, laying, installation commissioning and
operation. Two sections are dedicated to the speci c item: transition from
underground to overhead.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 36


Chapter 2 - Safe Work Under Induced Voltages or Currents
During several phases of a cable system life
(installation/maintenance/testing/upgrading/removal), it can be necessary to work
under voltages or currents induced by an energized system.

As hazardous conditions could occur, it is important to provide all parties that could
be involved (utilities, manufacturers, installers, testing institutes. . .) with guidelines
for safe work on cable systems, including a clear terminology.

In this chapter, different types of cable arrangements and installation are covered.
Tunnels, open trench, ducts, Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD), ploughing and
offshore installations are considered. Special safety precautions and appropriate
equipment are indicated for different setups.

Chapter 3 - Long AC Extruded Submarine Cables:


Recommendations for Testing Cables and Accessories
The application of the submarine cables is increasing due to the development of
offshore windfarms, offshore oil platforms, interconnection of islands and the
interconnection of power systems. As the length of the submarine cables is
increasing, it was identi ed that recommendations for testing long AC submarine
with extruded insulation up to 500 kV were needed.

Chapter 4 - Basics on Construction and Installation


Methods
One of the key factors for a reliable cable system is its construction and installation.
This chapter focuses on land cable systems and will address the different techniques
to create the cable route, the cable design related to the chosen construction
technique and all the cable installation techniques, pulling, back lling and xing the
cable and its consequence on the design of the accessories.

Chapter 5 - Recommendations for Mechanical Testing of


Submarine Cables (and Their Accessories)
Submarine cables are subjected to numerous mechanical stresses during loading,
transportation, laying, their operation like for dynamic cables and during repair.
Their application areas are diversifying – offshore wind farms, oating platforms, etc.
and the maximum installation depth is increasing. This chapter will describe the
recommendations for the mechanical tests of submarine cables and their
accessories. It is applicable to AC, DC, extruded, mass-impregnated and uid- lled
cables.

Chapter 6 - Recommendations for Testing DC Extruded


Cable Systems for Power Transmission at a Rated Voltage
up to 500 kV

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 37


The voltage at which DC extruded cables will be designed and operated is expected
to increase. This chapter recommends a series of tests on the cable system to cover
voltages up to 500 kV. It addresses both prequali cation tests and type tests as well
as routine and sample tests. Test de nitions are in line with existing IEC standards.

Chapter 7 - Recommendations for Testing DC Transition


Joints for Power Transmission at a Rated Voltage up to
500 kV
Several types of insulation can be used for DC cable systems. At the connection of two
different insulation types, transition joints are needed. This chapter is dedicated to
the testing of DC transition joints up to 500 kV. It gives recommendations for all the
tests needed: development, routine, sample, prequali cation, after laying.

Chapter 8 - Sheath Bonding Equipment for AC


Transmission Cable Systems
One optimum way to transfer electrical energy in AC cable systems is the use of
bonding systems. After some basic information, this chapter gives inputs on the
design of bonding systems and the way to test and maintain them.

Chapter 9 - Maintenance and Remaining Life


This chapter is dedicated to the Maintenance Strategies on AC and DC, land and
submarine cable systems. This includes cables, joints, terminations and all the
equipment around the cable system. The monitoring and diagnostics help to de ne
the maintenance policies, the remaining life as well as the spare parts policy.

The book compiles the results of the work achieved by several Working Groups and
Task Forces of CIGRE Study Committee 21/B1 (Insulated Cables), and Joint Working
Groups and Joint Task Forces with other Study Committees. Many experts from Study
Committees 21/B1, 15/D1 (Materials and Emerging Test Techniques), 33/ B3
(Substations), C3 (System Environmental Performance), and C4 (System Technical
Performance) have participated in this work in the last 30 years in order to offer
comprehensive, continuous, and consistent outputs.

In name of Pierre Argaut, I would like to gratefully acknowledge the contributions of


all of the chapter authors and the WG members without whom this work would not
have been possible.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 38


The Green Book is available for
purchase on our partner's
website Springer .

If you are an Individual CIGRE Member,


please contact us to bene t from a 40%
discount on your purchase (please
indicate your individual active member
number and your National Committee in
your message).

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 39


LIFE OF THE ASSOCIATION

CIGRE West Africa – Report of the June


2023 Kick-Off meeting for the election of
Study Committee representatives
As part of the West African Power Pool General Assembly held in
November 2019 in Abuja, Nigeria, the Constitutive General Assembly
of the CIGRE West African National Committee (WA NC) was
organised. This marked the of cial establishment and signing of the
statutes by the members present at the meeting.

Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire


14 - 16 June 2023

by the West African CIGRE National Committee


M Sylla CIGRE West Africa NC, S Nguefeu Secretary SC B3, and K
Dedekind, Chair SC C6

Introduction
In accordance with the statutory provisions of the CIGRE WA NC, the body was
required to nominate and elect 16 Study Committee (SC) members to represent the
region in the respective International CIGRE structure.

The kick-off meeting was arranged in June 2023 by the West African Power Pool
Secretariat, with support from the World Bank, to enlighten the prospective SC
members of the role that would be expected from them. Their responsibility to
facilitate the communication and participation between regional West African
experts and the respective CIGRE Study Committees was highlighted. The session

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 40


culminated with the election of the regional Study Committee members. The elected
members will initially be included as Observer Members in each of the respective 16
Study Committees.

Meeting Program
The meeting venue was in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire at a venue linked to the Mövenpick
Hotel. The sessions over the three days were facilitated and hosted by the CIGRE
West African National Committee. The opening ceremony was followed by several
presentations relating to the expected responsibilities and roles that are expected
from the elected Study Committee members. This was followed by a more detailed
breakdown of the scope of work and related activities of each of the 16 CIGRE Study
Committees. An overview of the platforms used by CIGRE, such as the KMS platform
and gaining maximum bene t from the e-CIGRE site, concluded the formal
presentations at the session. The election of the respective Study Committee
members to represent the West African National Committee and region followed.

Advertising, continue reading below

The meeting commenced with a welcome address by Mr Siengui A.KI, Secretary


General of the West African Power Pool (WAPP), and the Secretary General of CIGRE
WA NC. He expressed his gratitude to the member utilities for allowing their experts
to take part in the CIGRE activities and emphasised the importance attached to the
responsibility of the Study Committee members in the functioning of the regional WA
NC. He also expressed his gratitude to the World Bank for their ongoing nancial
support.

In his opening address, Mr Paul Assie’ KOUANDE, Advisor to the Director General of
CI-ENERGIES emphasised the role that the CIGRE WA NC will play in the evolution of
their electricity sector. He noted that there is an expectation that as experts in the
electricity sector, that the various Study Committees will transform the challenges
facing the region into opportunities for development of a technically and nancially
viable electricity system.

The meeting was chaired by Abdulkadir Gwaram ADAMU from Nigeria. 60 Experts
from 12 Collective WA NC members were present at the meeting, together with
representatives from the WAPP Secretariat and the WA NC. Kurt Dedekind,
representing the CIGRE Africa WG at the meeting, and Samuel Nguefeu from SC B3,
facilitated the CIGRE related presentations and discussions during the rst two days.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 41


The sessions in progress facilitated by Mamadou Sylla, Samuel Nguefeu and Kurt Dedekind

The kick-off meeting concluded with the election of the 16 Study Committee
members that will be representing the West African National Committee as their
regional representatives. Each of the elected Study Committee Regional Activity
Groups that were also established at the session, were then able to highlight some of
the immediate challenges facing the region. These topics of interest will be shared
with the respective international Study Committee Chairs for their consideration.
The members will initially be absorbed by each of the CIGRE Study Committees as
Observer members.

We wish the newly constituted West African National Committee much success in its
journey towards becoming a major contributor to the CIGRE family and its workings.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 42


LIFE OF THE ASSOCIATION

CIGRE Women In Energy : Discussion with


Maria del Socorro Gómez Pérez
CIGRE would like to introduce a new section in Life of the Association:
Interviews from Women in Engineering and Next Generation Network.
A lot of focus is given to senior CIGRE members and these interviews
will present younger members and let them explain what CIGRE
means to them. These Q&A interviews are short but allow us to have a
new, younger perspective on CIGRE membership; they tell us what
interests them in their work, as well as what their projects and goals
are. These are the voices of our industry’s future. Please share with
young people on your teams and encourage their membership in
CIGRE!

Maria del Socorro Gómez Pérez from


Colombia, is an Electrical Engineer with
12 years in the industry. Her current
position is a Maintenance Management
Analyst and she belongs to the CIGRE
WG B2 and WiE.

What lead you to your present career or job?


Gómez: Several factors led me to my present career as an electrical engineer: my
fascination with technology, its impact on the world, and the diverse applications of
electrical engineering played a signi cant role. I was driven by my natural
inclination for problem-solving, strong aptitude in mathematics and physics, and the
desire to make a positive difference in society through sustainable energy solutions,
innovative electronics, and advanced communication systems. Supportive mentors
and role models also played a crucial part in shaping my career choice.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 43


What are you working on now that would interest
ELECTRAreaders?
G.: I am currently working on addressing a signi cant challenge in the eld of
transmission lines, which is corrosion. Corrosion has a detrimental effect on the
components of both the transmission lines and substations, leading to degradation
and reduced lifespan. To combat this issue, I am actively involved in developing
strategies and implementing solutions to mitigate corrosion effects.

Additionally, I am focusing on digitalization efforts to automate and integrate


corrosion concepts into the asset lifecycle. By leveraging digital technologies, we aim
to enhance monitoring, early detection, and preventive maintenance practices to
minimize the impact of corrosion and ensure the longevity of the infrastructure.

My work revolves around nding innovative approaches to tackle corrosion-related


issues and utilizing digital tools to optimize asset management processes. It is an
exciting endeavor that combines the expertise of corrosion control with the
transformative power of digitalization in the transmission industry.

What has been the biggest challenge with your work?


G.: The biggest challenge in my work has been effectively managing and mitigating
the impact of corrosion on transmission lines and substations. Corrosion poses a
persistent threat to the integrity and reliability of the infrastructure, requiring
ongoing monitoring, maintenance, and implementation of preventive measures. The
complex nature of corrosion, coupled with the diverse environmental conditions and
varying materials used in transmission systems, presents a signi cant challenge. It
requires continuous research, collaboration with experts, and the development of
innovative strategies to combat corrosion effectively. Additionally, integrating
digitalization into corrosion management processes has introduced its own set of
challenges, including data integration, cybersecurity, and ensuring the seamless
integration of corrosion-related information into asset management systems.
Overcoming these challenges requires a multidisciplinary approach and a
commitment to staying abreast of emerging technologies and industry best
practices.

At a personal level, my biggest challenge has been preparing myself technically to be


heard and respected in the same way as men in a eld that is predominantly male.
Facing gender stereotypes and biases has been a constant struggle, but I have
dedicated myself to acquiring strong knowledge and outstanding technical skills to
earn respect and recognition in my eld. Along the way, I have had to overcome
obstacles and repeatedly prove my worth and ability to challenge gender
expectations. This has been a signi cant personal challenge, but it has allowed me to
grow and pave the way for other women in this industry.

What has been your biggest challenge balancing work and


personal life?
G.: The biggest challenge I have faced in balancing work and personal life is nding
a harmonious integration between the two. Establishing clear boundaries, managing
stress, and avoiding burnout have been signi cant hurdles. Effective time

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 44


management, prioritizing tasks, and engaging in activities that bring me joy and
ful llment outside of work are key. Open communication and support both in the
professional and personal spheres are crucial in nding that balance. While
achieving work-life balance is an ongoing effort, I strive to prioritize self-care and
create a ful lling and balanced existence.

How did you get involved in CIGRE?


G.: I got to know about CIGRE through highly experienced colleagues who told me
about the association's event organization, and what I liked the most was the
integration between academia and industry.

What do you feel is cigre’s ‘added value’?


G.: Getting involved in CIGRE can be achieved through professional networking,
industry engagement, and attending relevant conferences and events. By staying
updated on industry advancements and showcasing expertise in the energy sector,
opportunities for collaboration and participation in CIGRE's activities can arise, such
as joining working groups or research projects. Additionally, recognition for
contributions to the eld or recommendations from colleagues can also lead to
invitations to be involved in CIGRE. Overall, proactive engagement, networking, and
a genuine commitment to CIGRE's mission are key to getting involved in the
organization

Why would you recommend CIGRE membership to others?


G.: I recommend CIGRE membership to others for its extensive professional
network, opportunities for active involvement in shaping the industry, access to
cutting-edge research, and the platform it provides for collaboration between
academia and industry. Being a member offers the chance to collaborate with
experts worldwide, stay updated on advancements, contribute to industry
development, attend conferences, access valuable publications, and foster
innovation through the integration of academia and industry. CIGRE membership is
a valuable resource for professionals in the electrical power sector, providing
knowledge, networking, and opportunities to contribute to the industry's progress

Where do you see yourself in 15 years?


G.: In 15 years, I envision myself in a leadership position within the electrical
engineering eld. I strive to have made signi cant contributions to the industry,
whether through innovative projects, research advancements, or in uential
publications. I also see myself actively involved in organizations like CIGRE, where I
can continue to foster collaboration and drive progress in the energy sector.
Additionally, I aspire to be a mentor and advocate for diversity and inclusion in the
eld, particularly for women in energy. Overall, my goal is to continue growing
professionally, making a positive impact, and inspiring others in the industry.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 45


Do you have one major goal or do you have a bucket list?
Are you willing to share this information?
G.: Yes, I have both a major goal and a bucket list. My major goal is to make a
signi cant impact in the eld of renewable energy and contribute to the transition
towards a more sustainable and environmentally friendly energy system. I am
passionate about developing innovative technologies and solutions that can help
address climate change and promote a cleaner future.

As for my bucket list, it includes various personal and professional aspirations. Some
of the items on my list include traveling to different countries and experiencing
diverse cultures, participating in international conferences and presenting my
research, completing a postgraduate degree in a specialized area of energy, and
actively engaging in volunteer work related to energy access in underserved
communities.

I believe that sharing these goals and aspirations helps to solidify them and keeps
me motivated and focused on achieving them.

What would you like to see change in our industry in the


future?
G.: In the future, I would like to see several changes in our industry. Firstly, a greater
adoption of renewable energy sources and a signi cant reduction in dependence on
fossil fuels. I also hope for advancements in energy storage technologies to overcome
the challenges of intermittency in renewable sources.

Additionally, promoting diversity and inclusion in the energy sector is crucial.


Furthermore, collaboration between industry, academia, and government can
accelerate research and development of innovative energy solutions. Lastly,
emphasizing energy ef ciency and conservation for responsible consumption is
necessary. These changes would contribute to a more sustainable, resilient, and
equitable energy industry in the future.

If you are a WiE or NGN member and wish to be featured in an upcoming ELECTRA
edition, please contact ELECTRA Editorial Team. If you are reading these and wish to
join CIGRE, please visit this page .

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 46


LIFE OF THE ASSOCIATION

CIGRE NGN: Discussion with Pedro Lozada


CIGRE would like to introduce a new section in Life of the Association:
Interviews from Women in Engineering and Next Generation Network.
A lot of focus is given to senior CIGRE members and these interviews
will present younger members and let them explain what CIGRE
means to them. These Q&A interviews are short but allow us to have a
new, younger perspective on CIGRE membership; they tell us what
interests them in their work, as well as what their projects and goals
are. These are the voices of our industry’s future. Please share with
young people on your teams and encourage their membership in
CIGRE!

Pedro Lozada from Colombia is an


Electrical Engineer with more than ten
years in our industry. He is an
Innovation Specialist at ISA as well as
Chairman of CIGRE Colombia’s Next
Generation Network WG.

What lead you to your present career or job?

Lozada: I have been at ISA for more than 10 years, all the way from the internship I
completed while in college to the position I have today as an Innovation Specialist.
The main driver throughout all these years and the several jobs I have had has been
the desire to have a profound impact on the lives of the millions of people we serve in
Latin America by proving sustainable, affordable, and reliable electric energy to
them.

What are you working on now that would interest


ELECTRA readers?

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 47


L.: Currently, I am part of the innovation team at ISA, the largest transmission grid
operator in Latin America. We operate power grids in Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Chile,
and Bolivia. We constantly assess, pilot, and implement novel technologies which
improve the transmission network.

What has been the biggest challenge with your work?


L.: Working at a large corporation has many challenges. I was part of the
Maintenance Department and the Operations Department prior to moving into the
Innovation Department. In my current position, I believe the biggest challenge is to
successfully prepare the people and the grid to be the enablers of a just energy
transition in the countries we connect.

What has been your biggest challenge balancing work and


personal life?
L.: I think this question became more relevant after the pandemic of COVID-19. The
rapid change we made to adapt to the new reality we lived in 2020 and after was very
radical. I enjoy being an active member of the different organizations I belong to and
that also led me to establish the NGN group in Colombia back in late 2020. The
biggest challenge has been to set the proper boundaries while working fully remote,
so I have time to work and also take time for my personal life.

How did you get involved in CIGRE?


L.: My rst contact with CIGRE was while I was pursuing a master´s degree in
electrical engineering at TU Delft in the Netherlands. There was an ambassador at
the university, and he would promote CIGRE and Young CIGRE among the students. I
got involved in several activities and even won a contest to participate in the Paris
Session in 2018 sponsored by CIGRE Netherlands.

What do you feel is CIGRE’s ‘added value’?


L.: There are many ways in which the added value can be experienced. I have used
the CIGRE network to nd experts who helped me with my master´s thesis, to be
sponsored to attend a conference, to get to know people with the same professional
interests, to access the latest knowledge on an industry topic through e-CIGRE, and
even to create the NGN group in Colombia so young engineers and professionals can
take advantage of all the amazing opportunities CIGRE offers. It is really up to you
how you make the most out of your membership.

Why would you recommend CIGRE membership to others?


L.: The membership is the key to the world of CIGRE and on top of the added value I
have just mentioned, I would include the bene ts to co-create and collaborate in a
truly international environment with experts trying to nd the right answers for the
major challenges the power industry faces today. We make a positive impact on
society and nature on a global scale!

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 48


Where do you see yourself in 15 years?
L.: It is a hard question to answer. The brisk pace at which technology is evolving
today makes guessing what will happen even one year from now a very dif cult task.
But what I am sure of is that I will be putting all my efforts into materializing the
most optimistic Net Zero scenario possible so people can have access to sustainable,
affordable, reliable, and modern energy that powers their lives and allows them to
thrive.

Do you have one major goal or do you have a bucket list?


Are you willing to share this information?
L.: Professionally speaking, at ISA our motto is to create connections that inspire. We
have a shared dream to offer electricity to all the people in the area of in uence of
our infrastructure who live off the grid in rural territories. And we are working to
make it come true!

What would you like to see change in our industry in the


future?
L.: We really need to face the fact that time is against us, and important decisions
cannot be postponed anymore. We already know that there is no transition without
transmission, so action is the only way forward. I would like to see a change in the
speed that decision makers move, as tackling climate change on time will determine
the future of our planet and species.

As a last note, I would like to invite any CIGRE community startups and companies to
drop me a line here if they have great solutions to make operations safer, the grid
more exible and resilient, and electric power more reliable and more economical.
This is what CIGRE is all about: sharing information to improve networks worldwide.

If you are a WiE or NGN member and wish to be featured in an upcoming ELECTRA
edition, please contact ELECTRA Editorial Team. If you are reading these and wish to
join CIGRE, please visit this page .

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 49


LIFE OF THE ASSOCIATION

In Memoriam - Jerzy LEPECKI

Jerzy LEPECKI died at the age of 94, in


the early hours of Monday, July 3, after
10 days in hospital.

Last year, Lepecki was honored on the


48th anniversary of the founding of the
Electric Energy Research Center (Cepel),
an institution of which he was one of the
founders and general director, and also
by the National Academy with a plaque
of appreciation for the services
rendered to the entity.

Honorary member of CIGRE-Brasil and


CIGRE’s president of the Brazilian
National Committee from 1983-1987
and president of CIGRE International
from 1990-1996, being active in CIGRE
since 1970.

Jerzy LEPECKI arrived in Brazil in 1939, at the age of 10. He came with his family in
search of a new life away from the war. Initially, the LEPECKIs went to Curitiba (PR)
where there was a large concentration of Polish immigrants and then to Belo
Horizonte (MG), where the family rebuilt their lives. In the capital of Minas Gerais
State, he graduated in Civil Engineering from UFMG and began his engineering
career as an intern at Centrais Elétricas de Minas Gerais (Cemig). He did three
specializations in the United States. At Cemig, Lepecki became head of the Electrical
Calculations and System Planning Sector.

Upon leaving the company, LEPECKI founded a company for building distribution
networks and another for designing high-voltage electrical power installations. Later
he worked at Centrais Elétricas do Pará (Celpa), where he held the positions of
Technical Director and President. Subsequently, he assumed, in sequence, the
functions of Director of Operations, Technical Director and Member of the Board of
Centrais Elétricas de São Paulo (Cesp).

Throughout his career, he received several decorations, such as Fellow of the


Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), IEEE Centennial Medal, Santos
Dumont Medal of Merit (Aeronautics), Order of Scienti c Merit (Comendador), Victory
Medal (former combatants Poles in Brazil), Gold Cross of the Order of Merit (Polish
Government).

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 50


LIFE OF THE ASSOCIATION

15th DEMSEE annual Congress Report

Opening DEMSEE 2023 by Prof Papazoglou

Iraklio - Crete
27 June 2023

By Professor Thales M. PAPAZOGLOU, PhD

The 15th DEMSEE Congress was a notable success this year, on 27 of June, in Iraklio,
Crete. Initially, it was scheduled for the 26-27 of June, but the Greek elections on the
25th resulted in the cancellation of the initial starting day. More than 35 delegates
were present during the program – many of whom Cigreans. Focus was on the
Electric Power System (EPS) of Crete which: (a) is interconnected with the mainland
system via the World’s longest AC undersea cable at 150 kV which can provide up to
34% of the maximum power demand in Crete, and (b) incorporates FACTS devices,
namely: STATCOM of total rating ± 64 MVAr located at the 150/20 kV Substation
“Iraklio III”. The chosen Focus Theme for the conference was “Future Smart Grids
and Markets”.

For the AC interconnection with mainland power grid, two undersea triplex cables,
each with capacity 200 MVA, XLPE insulation, and 132 km length Peloponeese –
Crete 980m max depth, connected with ground cables on both sides of 42 km total
added length. Each cable was manufactured in 4 segments (3X630 mm2 Cu-stranded
conductors), so there are 3 undersea cable joints, for each cable, that were installed
at a maximum depth of 450 m. A temperature-monitoring system, using optical
bbers has been incorporated. Total project investment: 356 Meuro.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 51


There are two identical STATCOM devices operating in parallel as one master and
one slave with normally equal loading. Each STATCOM has 42 IGBT (Insulated-Gate
Bipolar Transistor) Semiconductor Valves/phase controlled by means of
programmable digital controllers. The STATCOM is shunt connected to the
transmission line via its coupling transformer (three-phase) and one tie reactor per
phase, which connect the Voltage-Sourced Converter (VSC). The selected mode of
operation for the STATCOM in the EPS of Crete is the Automatic Voltage Control Mode
and therefore, it supports Voltage and VAr in the System [1]. The coupling
transformer has a ratio of 150/20 kV. Windings Wye-to-Delta connected. Has one part
of the connection reactance. The tie reactors are arranged outside in two rows of 3 +
3 (see picture 2). Connect each one phase of AC for each STATCOM. The tie reactors
complement the coupling reactance of the coupling transformer between the
converter and the AC line and protect valves against short circuits. The two dry-type
air-cored reactor banks are shown in picture 2.

Picture 2 - STATCOM Tie Reactors

The Quality of the power supply by the EPS in Crete has been remarkably upgraded
and is now up to the standards of the Greek mainland System. The serious power-
supply quality problems that consumers were faced with in previous decades are
now gone for good. Considerable operational savings have been achieved so far! And,
with the expected operation of the HVDC bi-pole (± 500 kV) 1 GW undersea cable
Attica-Crete interconnection, at the end of 2024, the EPS of Crete will serve as a hub
for a high penetration of RES, plus the quality of power supply will reach the very top
European Standards. The undersea cables for HVDC, each with length 335 km from
Korakia (Crete) to Pachi – Megara, weight: 40 kg/m (total ca 14 ktonnes). With
additional ground cables, the total interconnection length is 400 km, with maximum
sea depth 1200 m. Voltage-Sourced Converters (VSCs) rated each at 500 MW.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 52


In the Greek System the Renewable Energy Sources (RES) in operation are now more
than 10 GW, with more than half of which the photovoltaic, and the rest wind
generation. In May the total generation in Greece was provided by half from RES. In
the total year-round generation, about 40% is from RES, so there is still quite a way
to go to reach the nal target for the year 2050.

Energy Markets are now in the time of the so called Transition Period during which
the changes necessary to achieve zero-carbon emissions – the target for 2050 – must
be implemented. Efforts are made for non-polluting transports both in land and sea.
The Heraklion Port Authority studies the possibilities for clean maritime transports
based on the Iraklio Port Facility. With such a development the citizens of Iraklio will
be spared of the pollution by ships (see picture 3). Electricity, green hydrogen, and
ammonia could be used in this direction.

In Humanity’s urgent task to avert Climate Change, Electricity could be a crucial tool,
for many reasons. For: maximizing the utilization of RES. For: the smart electric
vehicles and transports. For: achieving maximum ef ciencies in the operation of
cities and industry. For: smoothing out time-variations of the electric power demand
curves with the interconnected Large-Area Power-grids (LAPs). For providing high-
quality, ef cient and robust power supply through the operation of smart-grids and
microgrids. Last, for the production of green hydrogen.

A vision of the scienti c community for more than sixty years has been the
generation of electricity by thermonuclear reactor plants. Impressive efforts have
been made to this end. But, the control of the thermonuclear plasma at star-
temperatures has proven to be impossible up to now. However, recent advances,
including the application of Arti cial Intelligence (AI) seem to lead to concrete steps
forward. It now seems that in ten years from now we may be able to x the date for
the rst pilot thermonuclear plant construction for electricity generation.

Nowadays, that “prosumers” have replaced many a producer and a consumer, the
Public becomes a key factor with a vital role to play for the changes needed in the
operations of the grids and the electricity markets. So, clearly, there is a decisive
Social Dimension in all this, and the Energy Communities provide a new concept for
social intervention for the optimization of the operation of Electricity Grids and
Markets.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 53


Other excellent presentations have
included:

Power theft detection and health


index monitoring using EDGE device
installed in secondary power
distribution substation
The increased numbers of Electric
Vehicles and the aftermath to the
Electric Grid
Wind power plants contribution on
Grid Resilience
Implementation of FTIR and Power-
LIBS analyses techniques for
identifying the ageing of outdoor
composite insulators
Utilizing UAV technology for Aerial
Inspection of the Transmission
System in Crete – current
applications and future perspectives
The Greek National Efforts for
Figure 3 - Cold Ironing in Ports
Energy Communities outreach.

The Opening Session PANEL included


ve panellists from three European-
Union Countries (see picture 1). The
participation to the DEMSEE Congress
originated from four Countries of the
European Union.

Reference
The reference discussed for System Voltage and VAr support:

[1] Thales M. PAPAZOGLOU et. al., CIGRE Working Group C2.13, Voltage and VAr
Support in System Operation, CIGRE Technical Brochure TB 504 , August 2012.

Acknowledgement:
CIGRE is promoting DEMSEE Congress by hosting the relevant information is its
website.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 54


LIFE OF THE ASSOCIATION

CIGRE General Assembly 2023 Report


In accordance with the French Legislation on Associations, every year
in the rst semester, CIGRE must hold an annual Ordinary General
Assembly to approve the accounts of the previous year.

Article disponible en français ici.

Article 7 of CIGRE's Statutes stipulates that ordinary and extraordinary general


meetings may be held by correspondence, and may be conducted electronically or
by other conventional or modern means.

The Secretary General of CIGRE, on behalf of the Administrative Council, invited the
members of the Association to participate in an electronic vote for the Ordinary and
Extraordinary General Assemblies organised by the CIGRE Association in June 2023.

The agenda of the General Assembly was:

Resolution 1: Approval of CIGRE annual 2022 accounts


Resolution 2: Approval of the proposed allocation of CIGRE annual 2022 result

Members invited to take part in this General Assembly were individual and
collective members up to date with their 2022 membership subscriptions.

The breakdown was as follows:

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 55


6 405
Individual members 1
423
Individual members 2 (young professionals)
(basic membership fees and those exempt from
paying membership fees)

917
Collective members 1 (companies)
128
Collective members 2 (universities)

12,502.5
Equivalent members

Participation

Individual members 1 12.99 %

Individual members 2 7.33 %

Collective members 1 8.72 %

Collective members 2 9.38 %

Equivalent members 10.91 %

It is worth noting that attendance at this AGM reached its highest level since postal
voting was introduced in 2017.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 56


The rst resolution was approved by 10.61% of invited voters, with 0.02% against
and 0.28% abstaining. It was approved by 97.25% of the expressed votes.

The second resolution was approved by 10.62% of invited voters, with 0.01% against
and 0.28% abstaining. It was approved by 97.40% of the expressed votes.

Thank you to all the members who voted, for their renewed con dence, and for their
contribution to the life of the association.

A special kudos to our Japanese members, who were the most numerous to vote.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 57


LIFE OF THE ASSOCIATION

Résultats de l'Assemblée Générale CIGRE


2023
Conformément à la législation française sur les associations, le CIGRE
doit tenir chaque année, au premier semestre, une assemblée
générale ordinaire pour approuver les comptes de l'année
précédente.

L'article 7 des statuts du CIGRE stipule que les Assemblées générales ordinaires et
extraordinaires peuvent avoir lieu par correspondance, et peuvent être réalisées par
voie électronique, ou par d'autres moyens conventionnels ou modernes.

Le Secrétaire Général du CIGRE, au nom du Conseil d'Administration, a invité les


membres de l'Association à participer à un vote électronique pour les Assemblées
Générales Ordinaires et Extraordinaires organisées par l'Association CIGRE en juin
2023.

L'ordre du jour de l'Assemblée Générale Ordinaire était le suivant :

Resolution 1: Approbation des comptes annuels 2022 du CIGRE ;


Résolution 2 : Approbation de l'affectation du résultat annuel CIGRE 2022.

Les membres invités à participer à cette Assemblée générale sont les membres
individuels et collectifs à jour de leur cotisation 2022.

La répartition est la suivante :

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 58


6 405
Membres Individuels 1
423
Membres Individuels 2 (Jeunes Professionnels)
(cotisations de base et personnes exemptées de
cotisations)

917
Membres Collectifs 1 (compagnies)
128
Membres Collectifs 2 (universités)

12,502.5
Membres Equivalents

Participation

Membres Individuels 1 12.99 %

Membres Individuels 2 7.33 %

Membres Collectifs 1 8.72 %

Membres Collectifs 2 9.38 %

Membres Equivalents 10.91 %

Il convient de noter que la participation à cette AG a atteint son plus haut niveau
depuis l'introduction du vote par correspondance en 2017.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 59


La première résolution a été approuvée par 10,61% des électeurs invités, avec
0,02% de votes contre et 0,28% d'abstentions. Elle a été approuvée par 97,25 % des
votes exprimés.

La deuxième résolution a été approuvée par 10,62% des électeurs invités, avec
0,01% de votes contre et 0,28% d'abstentions. Elle a été approuvée par 97,40 % des
votes exprimés.

Merci à tous les membres qui ont voté, pour leur con ance renouvelée et pour leur
contribution à la vie de l'association.

Un coup de chapeau particulier à nos membres japonais, qui ont été les plus
nombreux à voter.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 60


LIFE OF THE ASSOCIATION

Thanking our sponsors for their valued


support!
CIGRE extends its thanks to our sponsors for their valued support of
ELECTRA and the work of CIGRE.

CIGRE runs the world’s foremost knowledge development programme, with the
purpose of fostering engagement and knowledge sharing among power system
professionals globally, to enable the sustainable provision of electricity for all.

It’s all part of our mission for the betterment of the power system, by enhancing the
expertise of the people within it.

ELECTRA is the journal that provides the latest news and summaries of this work.

CIGRE is a not-for-pro t organisation and as such relies on the support of our


industry sponsors and members for this important and increasingly crucial work.

So again, thank you to these companies you are investing


in all of our futures!

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 61


LIFE OF THE ASSOCIATION

CIGRE NGN at the Sendai 2023


International Symposium
CIGRE Japan looks forward to welcoming you to the 2023 Sendai
Colloquium in October. This event will be hosted by the Study
Committee B2.

The theme of the Colloquium is “Recent Overhead Transmission Line Technologies


and Environmental Measures”. The following three Study Committees will participate
in this Colloquium:

B2 — Overhead Lines
C3 — Power System Environmental Performance
C4 — Power System Technical Performance

We have a variety of programs, including technical sessions and social events.

On October 3rd, six tutorials related to B2/C3/C4 will be held. From October 4th to 5th,
technical oral and poster sessions will be held during the two days of the Colloquium.
Keynote speeches will be given during the Opening Ceremony and Special Sessions.
The Welcome Party, Lunch and Coffee Break will be held for you to enjoy light
refreshments and socialize with other Colloquium participants. The Exhibition will
be held from the afternoon of October 3rd to 5th.

So far, over 110 synopses have been submitted and we expect a large number of
these to become papers by July 21st, when nal acceptance will be con rmed.

There will be a signi cant focus dedicated to the Next Generation Network and the
Women in Energy throughout the session, with the following events already
underway:

October 4th (afternoon): 1st NGN/WiE Forum (Presentation by each country).


Theme: Integration of CIGRE & your work -Sharing & utilization of technical
information in CIGRE-

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The overall purpose of this forum is to create opportunities for young engineers
to exchange ideas and opinions, and to promote mutual interaction by including
women engineers in the event. The NGN/WiE Forum will be held over two days,
with presentations and discussions by young and women engineers on the rst
day, and lectures by CIGRE veterans on the second day. In addition, the NGN/WiE
Forum will offer good opportunities to make and expand networks for engineers.
The purpose of the forum on the rst day is to give opportunities for young and
women engineers to discuss and exchange their opinion interactively. NGN or
WiE members from several countries will present their activities, the signi cance
and merits of participating in CIGRE, NGN or WiE, and a brief introduction of their
own work or research. At the end of the event, there will be an opportunity for
discussion and questions from the audience to the presenters from each country.

October 5th (afternoon): 2nd NGN/WiE Forum (Keynote Speech). Message to young
or female engineers from the experienced veterans of CIGRE.

The purpose of the forum on the second day is to motivate young and women
engineers for their future work and activities by having three veteran CIGRE
members give career speeches or their experiences in CIGRE. At the end of the
event, there will be a Q&A session where the audience will have an opportunity to
ask questions to the veterans.

Registration for this event is still open, and can be accessed via this link .

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 63


LIFE OF THE ASSOCIATION

CIGRE NGN at the Cairns 2023


International Symposium
CIGRE Australia looks forward to welcoming you to the 2023 Cairns
Symposium 4-7 September. This event will be hosted by the Study
Committees C2 and C5.

The theme of the Symposium is "The End to End electricity system: transition,
development, operation and integration". The exhibition space has been booked out
with currently 48 different exhibitors including several international companies.

Keynote speakers for the opening and the WiE breakfast have been con rmed (refer
 for further detail on sponsors and keynote speakers). Based on current known
registrations, we are expecting in excess of 700 delegates to attend.

The following eleven Study Committees will participate in this symposium:

A3 — Transmission and Distribution Equipment


B1 — Insulated cables
B3 — Substations and electrical installations
B5 — Protection and automation
C1 — Power system development and economics
C2 — Power system operation and control
C4 — Power system technical performance
C5 — Electricity markets and regulation
C6 — Active distribution systems and distributed energy resources
D1 — Materials and emerging test techniques
D2 — Information systems and telecommunication

Over 300 papers will be presented including the local SEAPAC (South East Asia
Protection Automation and Control) and CIDER (Conference on Integration of
Distributed Energy Resources) events. Symposium registration gets the delegate
access to all the Symposium presentations as well as SEAPAC and CIDER.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 64


There will be a signi cant focus dedicated to the Next Generation Network
throughout the session, with organisation of the following con rmed and underway:

5 September (6:00pm - 7:30pm AEST): NGN networking evening

The NGN Networking event will be held at Hotel Shangri-la. The aim of this event
is for NGN members to gather together early during the symposium and get to
know one another. The preference is for this to occur in an informal environment
to break the ice, and encourage participation and engagement during the more
formal NGN Forum and Presentations the following day.

6 September (morning): NGN Forum. Theme: Enabling Knowledge Transfer;


Energising Industry Transition

The aim of this event is for key NGN members to prepare and present on a
particular suite of topics. A panel discussion will close the event, with
opportunities for questions from the audience.

6 September (afternoon): NGN presentations

The aim of this event is for any NGN members in attendance to present their
work to an international audience, and be given constructive feedback from a
panel of judges.
Note we are still accepting submissions. Please contact the NGN for further
information.

NGN stand near the exhibition area

Registration for this event is still open, and can be accessed via the following link .

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 65


ANNUAL REPORT

SC C1

Power system development and economics


By Antonio Illiceto, Chair, & Peter Roddy, Secretary

Overview
T he Paris Agreement and climate neutrality goals for about the year 2050 are
driving energy transition planning in most countries worldwide. Renewable energy-
dominated 2050 power systems which serve e-mobility, heat pump and electri ed
industrial loads much higher than today, are becoming routine study subjects in
planning already today. Therefore, power system development, investment analysis
and asset management, i.e., the Study Committee (SC) C1 scope, are at the heart of
planning for and managing this enormous transition that the entire world must go
through together, at the same time, with the same goals and challenges. As one
example, because of this common global climate and energy transition challenge,
cooperation in a global electricity network seems increasingly desirable, and SC C1 is
nalising its highly successful rst global grid feasibility study in a follow-up
Working Group (WG C1.44 ).

Together with other SCs, SC C1 has described the role of system development and
economics in the new CIGRE Green Book future “Electricity Supply Systems of the
Future”. Uncertainties play a key role in planning for 2050 climate neutrality,
concerning future cost reductions in photovoltaics, onshore and offshore wind
energy, electric vehicles, batteries, electrolysers, UHV transmission technology, EHV
cables, HVDC systems. The only one certainty is the world’s climate neutrality goal to
be attained: whatever scenarios we analyse and however strongly they diverge from
each other over coming decades, the goal remains a climate-neutral energy system
by mid-century. At least with respect to greenhouse gas emissions, the scenarios
need to converge by about 2050 towards zero, even if the exact mix of locally and
globally traded electricity, of electric vs. hydrogen-based transport, of thermal or
hydrogen-based seasonal storage, of nuclear vs. renewable generation will differ by
scenario.

The mission and 2022 progress of SC C1 is very much in line with this important role
of power system development & economics for the world’s climate neutrality goals,
i.e., to support electricity system planners and asset managers worldwide in
anticipating and successfully managing system changes to address emerging needs,
opportunities and uncertainties while respecting multiple constraints, starting from
reliability of supply and security of operations. SC C1 aims to provide particularly
strong value with its recommendations on methods and descriptions of practices
during the ongoing electricity system paradigm shift, brought about by the swift
introduction of CO2-free renewable energy sources aided by rapid evolution in
generation patterns and economics, and also by digitalisation, demand response,
and in social, environmental and regulatory frameworks and expectations.

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The speci c perspective of SC C1 is to show how this paradigm shift can be managed
while emphasizing the integrating role of the transmission and distribution networks
for the entire system which also includes generation, demand and storage. The
system needs to be: planned to deal with the changes; built taking into account
economic and public acceptance challenges; and well maintained. Making the most
of the change implies supporting customers’ and market participants’ desire to
implement innovative solutions and emphasizing opportunities – along with risks –
which the changes bring. It also implies anticipating, integrating and supporting
progress. Opportunities for improvement relate to e.g., customer empowerment,
increased penetration of distributed generation, closer transmission-distribution
cooperation, new technologies, and ef ciency and sustainability improvements.

The scope of SC C1 work generally includes descriptions of state-of-the-art applied


methods and practices for system planning, economics and asset management. To
provide value to SC C1’s target audience, the drivers of the ongoing paradigm shift
need to also partly drive the methods and practices that SC C1 recommends: smart
grids and demand-side response; energy-ef cient electri cation of heating and
transport; generation cost structure changes (from Capex+Opex to Capex only),
especially for renewable and variable distributed generation; energy storage and
sector coupling options; sustainability policies (e.g. CO2), as well as evolving
regulation; and electricity market development and integration.

SC C1 Organisation
The four main areas covered by SC C1 are:

Grid planning
System economics and business investment
Interconnections and Energy Sector Integration
Asset management

Each area is covered by an C1 member acting as Advisor, and all of them are
gathered in a Strategic Advisory Group (SAG), which supports the Chair, Antonio
Iliceto (IT), together with the Secretary Peter Roddy (UK).

The main sections of this Annual Report describe how SC C1 and its Working Groups
(WGs) have addressed in 2022 the effects and the management of the paradigm
shifts in each area.

SC C1 now meets twice per year; once in person and one remotely:

11 March 2022 (43 attendees)


01 September 2022 (49 attendees)

At the September meeting, the creation of new WGs was agreed (subject to approval
by Technical Council):

C1.49: Offshore transmission planning


C1.50: Global sustainable energy system coupling electricity and hydrogen

Our General Discussion Meeting at the Session 2022 included 32 Prepared


Contributions, one keynote address, one NGN presentation, and multiple
Spontaneous Contributions. Other C1 contributions to the Session include:

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 67


Opening panel session on ‘Sector coupling scenarios’
Tutorial on the global interconnected and sustainable electricity system (175
attendees)
Workshop with B1, B2 and B4 on extra-long transmission lines

CIGRE Session 2022 Materials


SC C1 Package available on eCIGRE
Free for Members and Delegates

DOWNLOAD

Strategic Plan
The C1 Strategic Plan was published in July 2021 and updated as part of the CIGRE
new Startegic Plan, catering for new trends of an “End-to-End system of systems”,
referring to the integration of energy sectors coupled with the eelectricity one
(mobility, heating,, hydrogen); also the website description of C1 activities and
workplans is being updated accrodingly. Key enhancements implemented since the
last revision of the plan include:

Advanced studies on economic assessment, business models, Cost-Bene t


analysis, KPI de nition, optimisation metrics in the changing and complex power
system
Introduction of Hydrogen topic in WGs and papers, as well as in CIGRE TC & SAG
Energy Transition
Introduction of explicit Sector Coupling topics in WGs and papers
Advanced studies on Global Grids

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 68


Increased emphasis on Flexibility at planning stage
Increased emphasis on Resilience, at system level
Increased work on TSO-DSO coordination
Introduction of explicit / dedicated actions on sustainability of future
developments

Reports issued in 2022


In 2022, SC C1 published Technical Brochure 882 on ‘Closing the gap in
understanding between stakeholders and electrical energy specialists’. Work was
also completed on TB 863, joint with C6, on ‘Multi-energy System Interactions in
Distribution Grids’.

TB 882 - Closing the gap in understanding



between stakeholders and electrical
energy specialists - WG C1.41

Recent years have seen a rapid increase in the number of renewable generators in
the form of roof top solar, large scale solar farms, small and large wind farms along
with associated new transmission projects. A wide range of customer side
technologies are also now available to help customers manage their energy use.
Recognising the range of new participants this has created, Working Group C1.41 has
produced a Technical Brochure aimed at reducing the gap in understanding between
energy personnel and their stakeholders. It draws on a selection of twenty case
studies and provides a range of tools and examples to help with this task. One key
aim is to facilitate the permitting process for new work in a transparent and
constructive way as this is a growing hurdle for grid development.

TB 863 - Multi-energy System Interactions



in Distribution Grids - JWG C6/C1.33

Multi-energy systems (MES) couple various energy sectors and networks such as
electricity, gas, heating, cooling, transport, water, and waste, to unlock energy
exibility and provisions for cost-effective operation while realizing low-carbon
smart electricity grids. These systems are the key for unlocking new types of energy
exibility as well as techno-economic and environmental opportunities for the future
complex energy system. The TB includes a conceptual architecture for MES
application, an assessment of the role of aggregators in energy or ancillary services
markets, and a summary of the state-of-the-art of system modelling and tools
applied for MES from the level of a single building to the level of the neighbourhood,
district, city, region or state.

Check the CIGRE publications from SC C1 available on e-cigre

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 69


Grid Planning

Overview
As highlighted in the overview, system development of a secure, sustainable and
affordable power system has become central to the world’s climate neutrality goals.
Planning methodologies and evaluation tools continue to evolve in order to live up to
the enormous climate change challenge, the many associated uncertainties, but also
the great opportunities and bene ts which electri cation can bring in both emerging
and mature economies. Sector coupling with mobility, heating/cooling, smart cities,
climate-neutral industries and hydrogen are becoming increasingly important to
system planners and to SC C1. There are also institutional (e.g., transmission and
distribution operator cooperation) and stakeholder involvement challenges that
need to be overcome to deliver the network of the future.

Work in progress
JWG C1/C4.36 reviews large city & metropolitan area power system development
trends taking into account new generation, grid and information technologies.
Metropolitan areas are increasing in size, population, surface area, political and
economic importance. The WG considers new technologies to replace ageing assets
rather than replacing assets on a like-for-like basis. This will include cross industry
coordination and cooperation considerations, taking into account power ows to and
from the distribution network; application of innovative measurement devices;
development of electric vehicles; active and reactive power ow control technologies
and their increasing automation; economic drivers for large city & metropolitan area
development; large scale HV and UHV cable route penetration; rooftop PV
penetration etc. Criteria and principles for large cities power system operation and
development will be proposed. A draft TB has been circulated for comment and is
scheduled for publication in mid-2023; communication with the Russian co-
Convenor is problematic due to international sanctions.

JWG C6/C1.42 addresses planning tools and methods for systems facing high levels
of distributed energy resources. It identi es the impact of large deployments of
distributed energy resources (DER) at the distribution level and repercussions on the
transmission grid, as well as the tools, methods and bene ts of aggregating DER at
the distribution and transmission levels. The WG investigates the potential of co-
simulation tools allowing the analysis of the impact of distribution-connected DER on
the transmission grid considering static and dynamic aspects. It identi es and
de nes the planning and operation tools required at the distribution and at the
transmission levels. The WG surveys distribution and transmission utilities for
present practices and additional needs focusing on already known techniques, tools,
methods and data for valuing DER and customer exibility, practices and techniques
in developing scenarios, both for transmission and for distribution (where e-mobility
presents large uncertainties). The TB is scheduled for publication in late 2023.

The aim of WG C1.47 (Energy Sectors Integration and impact on power grids) is to
address both the technical, business, economic and regulatory issues for the
developing of concrete use cases of energy systems coupling, and assess state-of-

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 70


the-art research in different countries around the world. The WG will also bridge the
gap between academy research and industry on the ESI to reveal the key issues that
should be addressed in the future. The TB is scheduled for publication in late 2023.

System Economics & Investments

Overview
The work in this area addresses uncertainties and increasing penetration of
renewable energy from the investment viewpoint. Business management involves
investment decisions in all aspects of the system, including generation,
transmission, distribution, storage, and demand with its exibility. It complements
grid planning with broader analyses of whether and how investments can actually be
made, and infrastructure be built, in conjunction with private investors. More
speci cally, the work in this area describes how investment drivers and decision-
making processes are changing, how to communicate with the many relevant
stakeholders, and how transmission and distribution investments relate to each
other.

Work in progress
WG C1.23 describes transmission investment decision points and trees, by de ning
target networks at the end of a speci ed planning period to meet all the necessary
criteria and requirements. To account for uncertainty, multiple potential target
networks can be generated which further require a number of decision trees. This
WG established if and how target networks are being used, and if they are used to
generate decision trees and key decision points. In particular, it investigated
processes used to determine the timelines of the decision points in the different
countries and the methods used. A draft TB has been circulated for comment and is
scheduled for publication in mid-2023, following a number of interruptions.

JWG C1/C6/CIRED.37 describes optimal transmission and distribution investment


decisions under growing uncertainty. Transmission and distribution investment
decisions resulting from a planning process require new approaches to deal with
growing uncertainties on many parameters incl. new market designs, high
penetrations of renewable energy, demand growth and so on. The WG summarizes
learnings from several prior SC C1 and C6 WGs. It is now investigating how
transmission and distribution planning scenarios are consistently used to ensure
holistic investment decisions are made by both TSOs and DSOs. This work was
showcased at the e-Session in a joint workshop with C1.39. A full draft of the TB has
been reviewed by C1 and publication is imminent.

WG C1.48 - the main objectives are to: (a) collect and analyse numerous studies
related to technical and economic aspects of hydrogen supply chain and use, as well
as supporting national policies and implementation strategies; (b) present different
use cases in industry, transport, heating sectors and as energy storage and other
system services including renewable electric energy supply needs, land and water
requirements, and (c) recommend technology solutions for grid code compliance and
to enable market-based provision of various local and system wide exibility
services by large scale electrolyser plants. Liaison experts from SC C6, B1 and C5
have been invited. The following topics will be explored and elaborated within the

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 71


working group: Overview of hydrogen supply chain; Forecasting hydrogen demand
and a corresponding amount of renewable electric energy supply and installed
capacity; Identi cation and analysis of speci c use cases in terms of economic value
of green hydrogen; Review of technologies for scaling up electrolyser plant capacity;
Evaluate a future role of green hydrogen and its derivatives; Identify region/scenario
dependent optimal mix of interconnectors, storage including hydrogen and demand
response; and, Overview of governmental policies and implementation strategies in
different regions. The TB is scheduled for publication in mid-2023 and will give a
Tutorial at Cairns Syposium in Sept 2023.

Energy System Developments and


Interconnections

Overview
This area of SC C1 work examines the increasing interdependence and integration
faced by system developers, on top of the usual complexity already implicit in grid
planning, which arises from the power grid being at the centre of the energy
transition towards the climate-neutral energy system, both as a fundamental enabler
and as the most impacted element. The new dimensions of system development
tackled in this C1 work area are:

higher interconnection rates between countries and systems, up to continental


level and eventually to a global grid (“horizontal” interconnections); besides the
traditional hurdles of realizing large technical infrastructures, these cross-border
links spanning several jurisdictions face further critical issues in different
authorisation patterns and market regulations, assessing and allocating costs
and bene ts, negotiating partners’ and investors’ roles, and managing
international implementation;
increasing interdependence of transmission and distribution grids, which means
that going beyond issues like DER, active distribution grids, radical modi cation
of ow patterns, consumer empowerment, energy communities, planners need to
look at the end-to-end electricity system, leading eventually up to a joint
transmission and distribution grid planning process (“Vertical” integration); this
requires also an organisational and cultural change, since one TSO interfaces
often with several or many DSOs, who are themselves undergoing a deep process
of modernising their practices on local system development and of evolving
towards smart grid operation;
starting integration with other energy systems (“Sector Coupling”): to achieve
global climate change targets, electri cation of transport, heating/cooling and
industry, fed by CO2-free power generation is a very effective route; therefore
several workstreams are starting, in order to assess and capture the bene ts of a
common planning and a synergistic operation of various energy carriers
(including gases and hydrogen), exploiting their respective capacities and
complementarities in storing and transporting bulk energy.

Work in progress
WG C1.33, convened by the C1 Chair, investigates interface and allocation issues in
multi-party and/or cross-jurisdiction interconnections: it addresses the origination
and design phase of such projects, focusing on the speci c issues arising from the

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 72


different rules/practices/investors’ policies, to be considered at early stage for the
sake of project success. The work analyses real cases to extract the drivers, rationale
and criteria of such issues, as well as the solutions adopted; it also describes the
business model designed for realising the interconnection project according to the
speci c needs, in order to infer useful guidelines for project of high complexity.
Material and contents for TB has been gathered, and new fresh support from
prospective CIGRE young memberis helping to accomplishing the drafting exercise
within 2023.

WG C1.44 builds on the highly successful work of WG C1.35’s global grid feasibility
study, to analyse more deeply the impact of large and cheaper storage and the effect
of demand response as further elements to be co-optimised together with
investments in transmission and in generation, and to begin addressing the
necessary trading rules for a global grid. The TB is scheduled for publication in mid-
2023.

The scope of WG C1.45 is twofold:

Identi cation of the bene ts indicators (economic, social, technical,


environmental) associated with an interconnection project. In identifying bene t
indicators, the various market and regulatory frameworks worldwide will be
considered
Procedure to quantify the bene t indicators and how to combine them in
consistent way when they have different metrics.

The focus is on interconnection reinforcements or on building new interconnections


between isolated areas, but, in general, the suggested solution(s) can also be applied
to inter-area transmission reinforcements within the same jurisdiction. The concept
of “interconnections” does not necessary refer to a cross-border infrastructure. The
TB is scheduled for publication in late 2023.

Asset Management

Overview
The work in this area addresses emerging issues in asset management related to
operational, tactical and strategic aspects, in a context of increasing sophistication of
risk and economic modelling and increasing convergence of asset management and
planning data and methods. At present there are three WGs.

WG C1.43 deals with establishing requirements for asset management platforms


that will allow integration of data/information from different sources, will have
capability to process data using prescribed algorithms, and will generate the desired
outputs. TB 910 has been nalised and is due to be published in August 2023.

WG C1/C4.46 aims to nd break-even conditions between preventive, containment


and restoration measures and propose guidelines for determining an optimal mix of
resilience measures from diverse techniques. The proposed scope will be delivered
in three distinct steps: (a) establishing current practices and standards (b)
development of a gap analysis and (c) propose opportunities for improving existing
planning methods and standards. Major tasks within the stepped delivery approach
for the proposed WG include: Build on work done by prior WGs on power system

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 73


resilience topics; Adapt and document suitable metrics to de ne power system
resilience for interconnected electrical power networks; Review existing planning
methods and standards used for power system infrastructure investments; Consider
the resilience of power system equipment in view of changing climatic conditions;
Investigate the most used system restart techniques; Investigate the concept of
exible grid design; Promote technical papers, technical panel sessions, and
workshops on power system resilience planning for a decarbonizing energy sector.
Liaison experts from SC C5 have been invited to contribute. The TB is scheduled for
publication in late 2023.

The intent of JWG B2/C1.86 (Approach for Asset Management of Overhead


Transmission Lines) is to recommend a consistent set of requirements for
establishing AM for OHTLs, including requirements for an Asset Performance
Management (APM) platform capable of extracting the data from a multitude of data
sources, have functionality to process these data and generate the required
information, and provide users with required outputs. The objective of the currently
active WG C1.43 is to assist utilities in identifying overall requirements for such a
platform without speci cally de ning requirements at the asset category level. This
JWG will develop a set of APM requirements speci cally for OHTLs. The TB is
scheduled for publication in 2024.

CIGRE active Working Groups / Call for experts

SC C1 contributions to Technical Council


Participation at CIGRE’s Technical Council has been focused on the development of
new way of working in pandemic era, which has particularly affected the work of a
world-wide organisation like CIGRE . Meetings, Workshop and Tutorials have
suddenly switched to web-based tools, with challenging time-zones issues and lack
of the networking, which is one fundamental ingredient of professional exchanges at
the basis of Cigre workstyle. General Sessions have been held virtual (2020) or in
broadcast style (2021), with ever challenging tools and engagements from many
members. For the 2022 Session and future ones, a brand-new system (ConfTool) has
been utilised, and ne-tuned with contributions also from SC C1 to make it easier
and more trackable the management of the scienti c papers and their
revision/approval process. The new peer revision process implies much higher
engagement of SC members; for this reason and for fostering the creation of new
WGs, SC C1 is in favour of enlarging the global number of Committee members, and
will endeavour to engage them in Cigre voluntary activities.

Consistent with its system planning-related mission, the SC C1 Chair Antonio Iliceto
contributed, within the CIGRE Technical Council, in founding a Forum on Hydrogen
and holding/organising 3 internal webinars, last one with the testimonial of ENTSO-E;

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 74


in this thread, C1 Chair hold also a similar joint webinar for GO15. Recently, this
Forum has enlarged is scope to Energy Transition, where C1 still keeps a substantial
contribution role.

C1 Chair is CIGRE liason of cer in IEC ACTAD (Advisory Committee on T&D within the
IEC organisation), in which he is co-Convenor of a speci c Task Force on structured
exchanges on respective workplans between the two organisations . At yearly
meetings (Paris 2022 and Geneva 2023) He has proposed a new structure and
memberships supporting the set-up for achieving the assigned goal in an ef cient
manner. C1 Chair is proposing to extend the same task also to IEEE, taking advantage
of a new liason of cer from their side.

Regarding IEEE, after a joint meeting in Chicago, C1 is participating in a new


collaboration Group, which sahll be set up probably through a MoU with IEEE-PES, on
which C1 Chair is also a regular co-author of technical articles.; a rst joint
endeavour, with C1 contributions, should be a paper on RES penetration and its
consequences on power grids.

C1 is also promotor and contributor to collaboration activities with ETIP SNET, the
European platform for coordination of Innovation actions for smart grids. The two
organisitions regulary promote respective agship events, allowing complimentary
booth participation. In Paris 2022 General Session, it was also co-organised a
workshop on EV and their impact on power grids.

Antonio Iliceto, C1 Chair, is also the co-Convenor of the WG Initiative for Africa; this
WG reports directly to the Technical Council and is in collaboration with World Bank.
This initiative aims at disseminating CIGRE knowledge base and support their
deployment also for rural electri cation in Africa; another aim is to establish new
regional CIGRE Committees in the main African regions. West Africa has been
established already, east Africa is next in the pipeline.The launch of CIGRE Academy
is taking place on July 28 and 29 2023 in Tanzania, hosted by Dar es Salaam
University , in collaboration with C6; the two Chairs will be present in person and will
present in detaile dway the TB 835 on Rural Electri cation, carried out by TSC c6
with also a contribution of C1 Chair. The topic is particularly releavnt for African
audience. The in person workshop will be also attened on-line by other students,
scholars and utilitiies’ engineers from the whole African footprint, aiming as primary
target to the widest possible Capacity Building. The workshop will be enriched with
ample Q&A sessions, with facilitated networking, and I twill be the occasion to step
up with new volounteers te idea of setting up the East African National Committee.
The workshop will be opned with a patronage message by CIGRE Secretary General.

Under the guidance of Keith Bell from C1, the CIGRE policy of Tutorials has not only
been updated but also widely applied in the Paris Session and in Symposia.

Dissemination and Keynote speeches


To disseminate the activities of CIGRE, Chair and members from SC C1 have
participated and presented Keynote speeches during:

Kyoto Symposium , April 2022: C1 organised and chaired one session and led a
Tutorial on TSO-DSO coordinated grid planning (C1.40)
CIGRE SEERC meeting May 2022: Tutorial on Interface & allocation issues for
interconnection projects, by C1 Chair.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 75


Gulf Coordination Council Conference, Oct 2022, intervention on Global Grids, by
C1.44 Convenor.
Oman Symposium, March 2023, as individual papers

Future meetings and events


Cairns/Australia Symposium , September 2023. C1 is a member of the
Organising Committee and there will be a speci c C1 related session (25 papers
have been accepted), plus a Tutorial on Hydrogen (C1.48) and a full meeting of SC
C1.
Remote meeting of C1, February 2024
Paris Session 2024 
Israel, 2025 (to be con rmed)

Contact
Contact of the Chair and/or the Secretary of the Study Committee 

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 76


ANNUAL REPORT

SC C2

Power system operation and control


By Jayme Darriba Macêdo, Chair & Flávio Rodrigo de Miranda Alves,
Secretary

Introduction
Analyzing the year 2022, from the point of view of the Operation of Electric Power
Systems, could just be a continuation of the stabilization process that we should be
experiencing with the resumption of normality after the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, major technical changes and changes in the behaviour of electricity


consumers have ensured the well-known lack of routine in activities in this eld, with
constant challenges.

The growth of intermittent renewable generation with wind power plants, including
offshore plants, and photovoltaic plants could happen only to meet the loads, also in
growth, or in natural recovery.

However, the growth of Distributed Energy Resources, close to and even promoted by
the consumers themselves, are guaranteeing challenges since the unpredictability of
demand, or even lower-than-expected consumption values, have been changing load
curves and usage generation available in the bulk system.

It was not enough that the operators had to face the variability of the generation
availability of these plants, but they also had to live with the excess of this
availability and the frustration of the full generation capacity available.

To overcome the challenges of intraday variability or over longer periods of


intermittent renewable generation, new options can already be seen with the
construction of pumped storage plants that are now starting to come into operation
in several countries.

The use of electrochemical accumulators (batteries) is also on its way and is gaining
ground, although the expected reduction in their cost is not yet a decisive factor for a
large increase in use.

The use of surplus energy for the production of hydrogen also continues to expand,
reducing the frustration of wasting available energy that cannot be accommodated
by demand.

Finally, the ability to take advantage of existing Interconnections between electrical


systems still appears as a strong weapon in the ght against this variability.
However, in addition to the need for these interconnections, economic and technical

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 77


issues have been causing the growing decommissioning of equipment, especially in
the European system and, as a result, the use of this energy exchange resource tends
to be more affected, depending on of the area considered.

And the focus of technicians concerned with the safe operation of the system could
not disregard the reduction of inertia levels which, even though it has ceased to be
the most urgent focus in the problems that arise, remains with its characteristic of
dangerous hidden risk.

On the other hand, the capabilities existing in equipment associated with the new
energy transition elements are beginning to be better used as voltage control
resources and even blackstart capabilities or important support in system recovery.

In the same way, in the activities of CIGRE and, in particular, of our Study Committee
C2, 2022 was also a year for us to get closer to the reality that existed in pre-
pandemic normality.

Not that there was any expectation that everything would go back to the way it was
before, but the arrival of the idea that we would nally return to an in-person CIGRE
Session, at the Palais de Congrès, in the second half of 2022, lled us with
excitement.

And all the intense preparation work for the CIGRE Session 2022 was of great reward
for SC.C2.

Previously, we had great success in the number of participant registrations and,


already on Monday, in the traditional Large Disturbances Workshop, with SC C2
working together with SC C5, we lled the Bleu Amphitheatre with more than 500
registered participants. In face of this expressive audience,the Large Disturbances
Workshop will take place in the Grand Amphitheatre during CIGRE Session
2024.Likewise, we had great success in our Group Discussion Meetings, not only
because of the veri ed participation but also because of the excellent technical
content of the papers and the discussions they provided. On this topic, it is always
important to highlight the great work of our Special Reporters from the beginning of
the preparation to the post-event reports.

Still during the CIGRE Session, we were able to perform again internal discussions
with face-to-face Study Committee and Strategic Advisory Group (SAG) meetings.

An excellent Tutorial was delivered during the 2022 CIGRE Session, successfully
concluding the work of Working Group C2.40.

And, to conclude, it was the rst opportunity for the SC C2 Chair to participate in
person in a Technical Committee meeting since he assumed the position in 2020, in
the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But, evidently, the work of SC.C2 did not stop at the CIGRE Session from July 2022 to
June 2023.

Although we were not of cially in the group of Study Committees taking part in the
Muscat International Symposium, some technical papers related to System
Operation were proposed and submitted to review by SC C2 volunteers. These full

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 78


papers were also presented during the event, thus con guring the presence of our
Study Committee.

This symposium took place in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman, in March 2023. We take
this opportunity to once again thank the reviewers.

And, regarding the events, before closing the topic, we highlight all the work
developed in the preparation of the Cairns International Symposium that will take
place in September, in Australia, on the leadership of our SC.C2 and SC.C5, with the
participation of more of ten other Study Committees. We already have, for our SC.C2,
29 full papers ready and reviewed thanks to the work of our volunteer reviewers.
Thank you so much again. In addition, our Study Committee has scheduled two
Tutorials and some important meetings for the Cairns event.

Finally, our preparatory actions for the CIGRE Session 2024 are already underway.

In addition to the events, the actions of ongoing Working Groups are following their
way, and we are adding to this list two new Working Groups that have already started
their activities, bringing great interest from several specialists. These new WGs will
deal with the very current themes of insertion of Off-shore Wind Power Plants and
Arti cial Intelligence (AI) applications focusing on Power System Operation and
Control.

We are still alive and very active, as are our challenges and our growing need to cope
with them. And it is the inexhaustible technical capacity of our participants that has
been guaranteeing and keeping us con dent to maintain the high level of results of
our Study Committee.

SC C2 Mission and Scope


The scope of the SC C2 covers the technical, human resource and institutional
aspects and conditions for a secure and economic system operation of power
systems in a way that is in compliance with requirements for network security,
against system disintegration, equipment damages and human injuries, and security
of electricity supply.

Unbiased and high-quality knowledge dissemination to the power systems


community by CIGRE Study Committees is a strong pillar for the development and
performance of power systems, especially in the increasingly integrated
environment. This applies not only to current but also to future power systems. SC C2
therefore needs to understand, use and integrate results from other Study
Committees to assure that technical concepts can be applied in real-time in various
contexts and implemented by the System Operators. An area which is unique for C2
is however the dependence on good performance of human resources in performing
operational planning and real-time system operation. In these respects, SC C2
embraces a wide range of competence areas and interfaces to other disciplines.

The mission of SC C2 can be summarised in the following four points:

1. To facilitate and promote knowledge dissemination and worldwide collaboration


in the eld of system operation and control, providing adequate conditions for
progress of engineering.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 79


2. To facilitate unbiased technical information exchange, integrating solutions and
recommendations for system operations issues and problems. These rst two
points are achieved among others by the publication of Technical Brochures and
papers, delivering tutorials, and participating in conferences, symposia and
colloquia.
3. To prepare for the foreseen future challenges by integrating and consolidating
available knowledge and taking into account the usage of new and proven
technologies. For example, the joint effort of several Study Committees in
establishing Joint Working Groups, where different expertise and knowledge is
combined, as well as in writing multi-disciplinary Reference Papers.
4. To engage and encourage young members to increase their involvement in the SC
activities. By integrating them into Working Groups, a bridge between the young
experts and experienced members can be built. SC C2 aims to connect, when
possible, a young member to a mentor from the same SC and NC. This gives the
opportunity to support the young member's development in a supervised way.

Structure
An overview of the structure of SC C2 is given in Figure 1. The SC has 27 regular
members and 12 observer members, 7 active Working Groups of which 2 are Joint
Working Groups with other CIGRE SCs, and 3 Advisory Groups.

The Strategic Advisory Group, consisting of the SC Chair, Secretary and other SC C2
experts, deals with SC strategy and updates the scope of the Technical Directions.
The Publication Advisory Group is responsible for the revision of synopses and
papers for CIGRE activities where SC C2 plays a role. The Tutorial Advisory Group
(TAG) coordinates the development, planning, quality assurance and delivery of
tutorials for conferences, symposia, colloquia and webinars. There are around 195
experts from 42 countries actively involved in SC C2 activities.

Figure 1 - SC C2 Structure

Figure 2 gives an overview of the geographical distribution of SC C2 members.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 80


Figure 2 - Geographical Distribution of SC C2 Members

Main technical directions


SC C2 has de ned three Technical Directions (TD) to address important emerging
factors that will in uence and de ne new requirements on the System Operation
performance.

TD 1: Real-time System Operation and Control


Wide area control, supervision and increased coordination: integration of
regional and national grids into large control areas
Operation and control of new technologies and system protection schemes
Increased power system controllability, observability, exibility and exchange of
information, both at transmission and distribution level: e.g. voltage control,
frequency control
Interaction between market mechanisms and power system operation, e.g.
ancillary services and congestion management
Operational real-time security and risk assessment
Maintaining Security of Supply, Emergency control and restoration procedures
and tools
Information and data exchange in real-time operation

The Working Group C2.18 and the Joint Working Group C2/C5.06 address topics in
this TD 1.

TD 2: System Operational Planning and Performance


Analysis
Impact on system operation from new generation mix, storage and changes in
electrical load behaviour
Close to real-time operation, crucial for a successful and secure real-time
operation, performed both by operational planners and control room operators
Security assessment in Operational Planning, including coordinated activities

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 81


Assessment of monitoring, control and protection functionalities, including
development of new operational strategies
Emerging Operational Issues for Transmission and Distribution Interaction
Impact assessment on integration of new technologies
Blackout integral analysis, defence plans, resilience schemes and restoration
strategy considering the evolving environment
Reliability, network security principles and generation and transmission
adequacy
Operational requirements in Grid Codes
Information and data exchange in the operational planning timeframes

Working Groups C2.26 and C2.44 and the Joint Working Group C2/B4.43 address
topics in this TD 2.

TD 3: Control Centre Infrastructure and Human Resources


for System Operation
Knowledge management and Operator training
Operator training simulator and other training tools
Control Centres processes, methods, tools and organisation development
Tools for decision support and situational awareness
Integration and exchange of information in system operations and data
management
EMS/SCADA systems, speci cations and experiences
WAMS system requirements and their integration within CC
Control Centre reliability and resilience
Information, cyber-security and other vulnerability aspects on control centres

The Working Groups C2.39 and C2.42 address topics in TD 3.

However, it is relevant to point out that some of the WGs touch upon more than one
technical direction.

Working Groups Report


Below a short update of the Working Groups active in 2022-2023 is provided.

WG C2.18 - Wide Area Monitoring Protection and Control Systems –


Decision Support for System Operators

The Working Group activity was focused on nalize the Technical Brochure “Decision
Support for System Operators”, which complements the work documented in the TB
750  titled “Wide Area Monitoring Systems – Support for control room applications”
while describing additional developments done in the meantime in the eld as well
as describing more details with respect of Wide Area Monitoring including Control
and Protection application tools.

The Technical Brochure is based on a pragmatic approach, starting from the different
physical phenomena that require a decision by the control room staff, describing it
from a scienti c perspective and discussing the solutions applied by the System
Operators in real life. The document describes also the state of art of on/of ine

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 82


applications and tools, focusing on the interaction and integration with EMS/SCADA,
including the evolving analytics/AI promising perpesctives. An important focus is
dedicated to the WAM/WAMPAC system performances and cybersecurity constraints
with aim to support the reader in the right selection of the proper architecture and
design, considering also communication, synchronization and protocols issues.

Figure 3 reports and example of real event with aim to show the signi cant
improvement of quality of the analyses and deep comprehension of system
behaviour during large disturbances.

Figure 3 - Complete Event overview based on PMU data (CE system split on January 8th, 2021).

WG C2.26 - Power system restoration accounting for a rapidly


changing power system and generation mix

The Working Group C2.26 focused on identifying emerging risks on system


restoration, investigate opportunities for increased utilisation of new and emerging
technologies during system restoration, and enable system operators and network
owners to continue executing a successful system restart as required in an
environment of rapidly changing generation mix. Key considerations in this WG were
lessons learned and actions taken from recent blackout events, the role of grid-
following and grid-forming inverters in system restoration, positive and negative
impacts of distributed energy resources, physical testing of black start capability
at the system level, the impact of cyberattacks on system restoration, and tools and

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 83


techniques for analysing system restoration. The WG comprised 25 experts from 15
countries. The resultant Technical Brochure has already been approved by the Study
Committee and is expected to be published by September 2023.

WG C2.39 - Operator Training in Electricity Grids at Different Control


Levels and for Different Participants/Actors in the New Environment

The Working Group started its work in August 2018. By the end of 2019, the nal
version of Document No. 1 was completed and constitutes the rst chapters of the
Technical Brochure, the expected nal product of the WG. This document clari ed
the existing situation on the subject based on the scenarios presented by the 16
companies surveyed. From there, the group began to work on the 9 items considered
important for greater detailing of updated training based on simulator exercises.
Research and analysis of the results of the responses were carried out and, today, the
versions of each of these items are each of the chapters of the Technical Brochure,
which is practically ready and, very soon, will be presented to the Secretary and
Chair of the Study Committee for the start of its approval process.

The forecast is that by the end of 2023, the Technical Brochure will be published.

The WG comprises 18 active participants representing 14 different countries.

WG C2.42 - The impact of the growing use of ML-AI in the operation


and control of power networks from an operational perspective

The main goals of this WG are to i) conduct an impact assessment of the usage of
novel and state-of-the-art AI technologies on System Operations and Operators
decision-making, ii) the identi cation of associated risks and core requirements for
system operations (in terms of digitalization, data, and IT processes), iii) survey
ongoing developments in power system industry to capture operational learning or
experiences so far with AI, and iv) identify current trends for further development
and integration. The WG started its activity in March 2022, and de ned the following
main topics for the technical brochure (planned to be published by December 2023):

Taxonomy for AI in systems operations


AI role in exible operation
State-of-the-art review of AI applications in power systems
Survey of system operation practices
AI regulation
Unintended consequences of AI
Technical, organizational, and environmental AI needs
Roadmap of innovating with AI for control centres

Moreover, the WG conducted a survey “on the impact of the growing use of ML/AI in
the operation and control of power network” between November 2022 and March
2023 and received 109 unique respondents from 26 countries, (plus 9 undeclared),
where the majority were from U.S.A. and China, but with an excellent worldwide
spread. According to the survey, around 60% of operators expect the impact of the
value of ML in enhanced human decision-making and forecasting, and 40% expect
ML will improve using data. ML already is used on around 50% of innovations for

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 84


demand and renewable energy forecasting. The use cases of outage management,
planning, the impact of weather events, and frequency risk and uncertainty
management are not used but are of high priority (around 35% of respondents).

Not relevant/low Medium/high priority


Use case priority [%] [%] Already in use [%]

Forecasting Load and 4 48 48


DER

Risk assessment 26 65 9

Grid monitoring 27 65 8

Operations processes 34 60 6

Simulation 36 57 7

Market management 36 57 7

Unplanned, extreme 35 60 5
emergency

Reporting assistance 45 49 6

Table 1 – Operators’ ratings of low/high priority use cases for AI. The high-priority use cases are considered promising,
and some uses involve already AI solution.

Together with the Technical Brochure, the WG plans to deliver a paper about a
roadmap for ML-driven algorithmic advancements in electrical networks.

The Working Group has 26 experts (R&D / Academia from the AI community and
power systems, system operators, industry, regulators, and policy makers for
digitalisation) from 18 different countries.

WG C2.44 - Operational Strategies to Manage Power System Minimum


Operating Conditions

The WG was approved by the Technical Council in June 2023 and is presently
accepting nominations. The kick off meeting will take place during the Cairns
Symposium, in September 2023.

JWG C2/B4.43 - The impact of Offshore Wind Power hybrid AC/DC


connections on System Operations and System design

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 85


The WG C2/B4.43 is made up of utility representatives, consultants, manufacturers
and academics, from 15 countries. A survey for the work of the JWG has been
prepared and is sent for approval to the CIGRE SC C2 and SC B4 Chairs. The plan is to
send this survey before the summer holidays and have the results analysed before
the CIGRE Cairns symposium which is beginning of September 2023. Also a draft
structure for the Technical Brochure has been determined which will serve to
develop its content. A rst draft of the Technical Brochure is expected by Q2-2024.

JWG C2/C5.06 - The Impact of Electricity Market Interventions by


System Operators during Emergency Situations

The JWG started its work in October 2021 and expects to deliver the Technical
Brochure by the end of 2023. The JWG organises 2 hours on-line meetings every 3 or
4 weeks, this works well and keeps the momentum, however the physical meeting
during the 2022 Paris session proved that actual physical presence adds a lot to the
cooperation.

In 2022 the JWG launched a survey and started to process the 21 responses
received. The knowledge gained in that way was discussed in detail and now this
knowledge together with other input is used while drafting the Technical Brochure.
The responses did not (as hoped) provide full clarity on the questions “what is an
intervention“ and “what is an emergency”, this is further debated in the JWG and will
be addressed in the Technical Brochure. The responses to the survey and also
further investigations learn that there are not many practical situations where
system operators intervened in market processes during emergency situations and
therefor there is little real life experience with the impact such interventions have.
As mentioned above the Technical Brochure is expected by the end of 2023 and will
contain all results of the JWG work.

CIGRE active Working Groups / Call for experts

Past Tutorials & Webinars


During the 2022 CIGRE Session, on Thursday, 01 September 2022, Michael Power,
convener of WG C2.40, and Tony Hearne, delivered a tutorial titled "TSO-DSO Co-
Operation – Control Centre Tools Requirements" on behalf of SC C2. As this tutorial
was the last activity to be completed by WG C2.40, it was disbanded soon after.

On Wednesday, June 28th 2023, Antoine Marot, Convener of WG C2.42, and members
of the WG delivered a webinar on the results of the survey on impact of growing use
of machine learning and arti cial intelligence in the operation and control of power
networks.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 86


CIGRE Session 2022 Materials
SC C2 Package available on eCIGRE
Free for Members and Delegates

DOWNLOAD

Joint Technical Activities


The SC also participates in other Working Groups that are being led by other SCs. SC
C2 is part of Joint Working Groups C6/C2.34, D2/C2.48, C4/C2.58/IEEE and
C4/C2.62/IEEE. The SC has active liaisons in the Working Groups C1/C4.36, C6.36 and
C6.40.

Publications
Working Groups C2.18, C2.26 and C2.39 and Joint Working Group C2/C5.06 are
nalising their Technical Brochures, which are expected to be published in 2023.

Check the CIGRE publications from SC C2 available on e-cigre

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 87


Awards
The following SC C2 members received CIGRE awards in 2022:

Ninel Cukalevski (Serbia) was awarded the Honorary Member Award;


Walter Sattinger (Switzerland) was awarded the Technical Council Award;
Doina Ilisiu (Romania) was awarded the Distinguished Member Award.

Future Activities
The next events for SC C2 are:

2023 CIGRE Symposium  – 4-7, September, 2023 – Cairns, Australia - Chair: SC


C2 and SC C5 – B1, B3, B5, C1, C4, C6, D1 and D2.

Franco Crisci and members of WG C2.24 will present the tutorial titled
“Mitigating the risk of re starts and the consequences of res near overhead
lines for system operations” during the 2023 CIGRE Symposium in Cairns,
Australia, in September 2023.

Babak Badrzadeh and members of WG C2.26 will present the tutorial titled
“Power system restoration accounting for a rapidly changing power system and
generation mix” during the 2023 CIGRE Symposium in Cairns, Australia, in
September 2023.

Conclusions
Speaking about Power System Operation and Control, it is impossible not to get more
and more motivated, now that the Pandemic is over, with the challenges that the
changes of the Energy Transition impose on us.

Developing new knowledge, perhaps, has never been so important. And development
already leads us to the need to share everything we need to create to ensure safety
in the operation, which raises the spirit of CIGRE in our routines.

May the new knowledge be absorbed and applied by the teams of professionals who
carry out their routines in the System's Control Rooms. By the way, these rooms that
are changing their characteristics so much, with an evolution marked by high speeds
and technological depths.

Finally, technical challenges continue to be the motivation to develop our knowledge


and face them.

That CIGRE remains stronger and stronger within each one of us.

Contact
Contact of the Chair and/or the Secretary of the Study Committee 

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 88


ANNUAL REPORT

SC C3

Power system environmental performance


By Mercedes Vázquez, Chair, & Angel Salinas, Secretary

Overview of the Study Committee C3


SC3 was created in 2002 with the main mission to produce unbiased positions and
approaches on power environmental performance and impacts and their implication
for management, construction, operation and investment decisions. In 2019, by the
approval of a new Strategic Plan, the focus of the group's activities was broadened
towards a sustainability approach. The goal is to facilitate and promote the
principles of sustainable development through the global exchange of information
and knowledge, by synthesizing state-of-the-art practices and developing
recommendations in line with global best practice.

The concept of sustainability development is a broad one. The United Nations


de nes it as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs” which necessarily involves considering
the three pillars: pro ts, planet, and people.

SC3 activities are focused on environmental protection and dynamic equilibrium in


human and natural systems.

Fortunately, sustainability concern is becoming increasingly relevant within Cigre,


and many SCs are already considering the protection of the environment and people
while addressing technical issues. Moreover, in the context of the current climate and
environmental crisis, sustainability itself is one of the main drivers for moving
towards a different and decarbonised electricity system. Therefore, sustainability is
now one of the focal points for the entire CIGRE community. In this sense, good
communication, cooperation, and collaborative work with other CSs is especially
important for SC3.

Highlights
The lack of face-to-face meetings has really slowed down SC3 activities and we still
trying to get relaunch the work. Some steps have already been taken.

The Study Committee has had many new members since 2020, as many changes
have taken place. The meeting that took place in 2022 Paris Session was the rst
face-to-face meeting with all of them since the start of the pandemic situation. In
2022 the group has been struggling to get back to the work although some WG haven
´t produced any TB.

The interesting discussion that took place during 2022 session, with great
presentations and participation from the audience must be pointed out.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 89


CIGRE Session 2022 Materials
SC C3 Package available on eCIGRE
Free for Members and Delegates

DOWNLOAD

Workstreams
SC C3 has currently 31 regular members (including the Chair and the Secretary) and
8 observers, representing 36 countries.

The scope of the SC3 is categorised into three main Technical Directions, that provide
strategic guidance for WGs, that focus on speci c questions.

Currently, we have 1 Strategic Advisory Group (SAG), 1 Advisory Group on EMF, 5


ongoing Working Groups and 3 Working Groups to re-start, divided over our
Technical Directions. No new Working Group has been approved in 2022.

TD1 Asset management and environment


This TD is aligned with the traditional approach of SC3 works. It refers to the
integration of power facilities into the environment, considering their entire life
cycle: from the planning stage to their decommissioning (cradle to grave).

The WGs are focused on identifying the interaction between nature and
infrastructure and de ning tools and measures to minimise their negative impact
and enhance their positive contribution. There are some regarding this topic:

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 90


C3.09A: “Corridor management”. This WG was disbanded for a few years but TB or
articles were not published. With the aim to nish the publications, the TOR of the
group was reviewed and a new version of the group (C3.09A) started to work, with
some old and new members. The WG are collecting information and comparing
regulation, procedures, methods and best practices from different countries that
apply to relations with landowners and environmental aspects of corridor
management. The objective is to publish a technical document throughout 2023.

WG C3.14 “Impact of Environmental liability on transmission and distribution


activities”. The aim of the WG is to create a reference document to enable T&D
utilities to understand the possible impact (practical and nancial) of environmental
liability and to have a view on best practices regarding prevention, investigation, and
remediation of environmental damage. The convenor will prepare a short document
with the main conclusions of the work of the group for Cigre community

WG C3.16 “Interactions between electrical infrastructure (overhead lines and


substations) and wildlife". In 2022, tutorial about the work of WG C3.16 “Interaction
between electrical infrastructure and wildlife” was presented in Paris session 2022.
The TB has been published in ELECTRA (in 2022).

Technical Brochure 876- Figure 1-9: pin-type insulators (Bonelli's eagle (Aquila fasciata) on a pole,
arti cial illustration).
Source: Patrimonio natural y líneas eléctricas en la Región de Murcia. Proyecto LIFE06NAT/E/000214).
Reprinted with permission.

WG C3.17 “Interactions between wildlife and emerging renewable energy sources


and submarine cables". This WG was created to complete WG C3.16 work by
addressing renewable projects and associated transmission systems, focusing on
operational aspects, though construction impacts are also considered. As the scope
of the work is still very broad, the TOR has been reviewed to be re-launched. The
focus will be on submarine and underground cables and leave renewable projects for
another possible/future WG. There was no agreement regarding the inclusion of
offshore substations marine substation platforms, as the potential environmental
impacts could be similar to the effects of submarine cables. The SAG is looking to
nd a new convenor to propose the updated TOR to the Technical Committee.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 91


WG C3.22 “Vegetation management in substations”. The main intention of the work
is to identify experiences and knowledge regarding the alternatives to the use of
herbicides, but the scope also includes the collection of best practices regarding
types of surfaces and vegetation control in substations.

JWG B1/C3.85 “Environmental impact of decommissioning of underground and


submarine cables”. It focuses on old and new cables and is investigating the
decommissioning strategy (leave it in or dig it up) and impact on environment. The
work are in progress.

TD2 Sustainability: the role of the power sector


This TD is to address the new trends in the power sector under a sustainability
approach. The aim is to anticipate future challenges and their implications.

Ongoing Working Groups:

WG C3.12 “Greenhouse Gas Emissions inventory and report for transmission system
operators”. The purpose of the WG was to review and recommend harmonized
procedures and methods for accounting and reporting GHG emissions that can be
used by TSO’s worldwide, but the work of this group was temporary suspended due to
a lack of members. The TOR was updated, and a new title was proposed: “Managing
GHG emissions of T&D activities. Accounting, reducing & reporting progress”. The
SAG is looking for a new Convenor and participants to relaunch the works.

WG C3.20 “Sustainable Development Goals in the electric power sector”. The general
aim of the WG is to develop recommendations on how the electric power sector
should implement SDGs within their business strategies in order to reach a
maximum contribution to the achievement of these goals. The objective of the WG is
to publish a technical document in 2023.

WG C3.23 “Eco-design methods for TSOs/DSOs under environmental transition”. The


purpose of the group is to activate and harmonize the eco-design potential for
TSOs/DSOs to reduce environmental impact, given that the implementation of a
systemic eco-design approach will be a key success factor to achieve our sustainable
goals. As the scope of the work is very broad, the group reviewed the TOR and a new
version of the WG will be relaunched in 2023.

Check the CIGRE publications from SC C3 available on e-cigre

TD3 Stakeholder engagement and public


acceptance

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 92


This TD deals with other traditional issue of SC3 scope of work: people. It includes
topics related to EMF (as one of the main discussion issues for stakeholders) and
engagement strategies to improve infrastructure development and maintenance.

C3.AG: “EMF and Human Health”. The group provides CIGRE with information and
advice on topics regarding EMF and all health aspects related to electrical
installations and the use of wireless communication. The scope of the advisory group
includes:

AC Transmission line environment - 50/60 Hz Electric and magnetic elds; spark


discharges
DC Transmission line environment - Static Electric and magnetic elds; air ions
Intermediate frequencies and radiofrequencies up to 300 GHz
Interference with medical implants (pacemakers; cardiac de brillators, insulin
pumps etc.)

Figure 1 - Detection of Electric elds HVDC vs HVAC.


Kursawe. Aachen University 2021

WG C3.15 “Best environmental and socio-economic practices for improving public


acceptance of high voltage substations”. The Working Group aims to make an
inventory of the best practices, options, and boundary conditions for the integration
of substations in their environment. The resulting Brochure intends to be an
international reference document to be used in the discussion with other
stakeholders. It shall help to identify workable solutions from environmental and
socio-economic perspectives and increase acceptance by local authorities. No
progress has been made since the convenor Marijke Wassens passed away. The
members of the group are trying to collect the material and to nd someone to nish
the Technical Brochure. It would be a nice tribute to her.

WG C3.21 “Including stakeholders in the investment planning process” The goal of


this group is to study the best practices of the Cigre members to improve the
decision-making processes for grid development both to system operators and the
public/local communities. The convenor will prepare a short article to be published
in Electra, as a conclusion of the work (as it is not broad and relevant enough to write
a TB).

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 93


CIGRE active Working Groups / Call for experts

Future Meetings and Events 2023


The next SC-C3 meeting will be held between 3rd September-7th of October (2023)
during the Sendai Colloquium 2023  (Japan). The theme of the colloquium is
“Recent Overhead Transmission Lines Technology and Environmental measures”
The Preferential Subject 1: Sustainable OHL, Environment and Planning will be the
priority issue related to SCC3.

Speci c actions for the recruitment of young


experts, Place of Women in the SC
One presentation from a NGN member was included in 2022 Paris Session.

Regarding the place of Women, SC C3 usually has a very signi cant participation of
women: 46% of the members are women and the two last SC3 chair have been
women.

Conclusions
Sustainability issues, especially those related to climate change, circular economy,
protection of ora and fauna and social acceptance, are increasingly considered and
integrated into the work of the CIGRE community. For this reason, it is more
important than ever to strengthen the collaboration of SC3 with the other SCs.

CIGRE must be vigilant to identify the needs of the electricity sector and increase its
contribution, to move towards a sustainable system, paying attention to our planet
and people and SC3 has a key role to play in promoting this change.

To achieve that, we count on the dedication of the SC3 members, observers and WG
experts.

Contact
Contact of the Chair and/or the Secretary of the Study Committee 

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 94


TECHNICAL BROCHURE

TB 905 WG B2.68

Sustainability of OHL conductors and


ttings – Conductor condition assessment
and life extension – Vol. 1
MEMBERS

Convenor (FR) Secretary (US) Secretary (US)


C. ROZE N. FULK J. HAVEL

P. BUEHLMANN (CH), G. DIANA (IT), G. FLOREA (RO), T. FURTADO (BR), C. GARESCI


(IT), K. HALSAN (NO), B. JENSEN (DK), S. LALONDE (CA), S. LANGLOIS (CA), S.
MUSHABE (ZA), K. SCHILLAI (CH), J. UNTERFINGER (DE), A. VAN DER WAL (NL), N.
XYDAS (GB), T. YAMANAKA (JP)

Corresponding Members
U. COSMAI (IT), W. GHOUAT (CA), D. HAVARD (CA), S. HEURTAULT (FR), T. KAVANAGH
(IE), H.J. KRISPIN (DE), M. LEE (AU), A. MANENTI (IT), J. Mc CORMACK (AU), A. MOLLOY
(GB), T. OLUWAFEMI (CA), J.P. PARADIS (CA), A. RONDINEAU (FR), N. SAHLANI (US), H.
SAKAI (JP), D. SUNKLE (US), W. TROPPAUER (AT), S. UEDA (BR), P. VAN DYKE (CA), C.
WINTER (DE), L. YANG (CN), X. YANG (CN)

Reviewers
A. ANAND (IN), V. LOVRENCIC (SI)

This Technical Brochure (TB) (Volume 1) provides the state of the art for
conventional conductors and attached ttings regarding:

Ageing mechanisms for conductors


Tests on new and aged components, diagnostic sensors, tools and monitoring
Asset management practices

The aim is to give a complete state of the art on the subject. The new information
concerns:

Corrosion mechanism and classi cations


Sequential test proposal
Summary of tests for aged conductors
State of the art on monitoring corrosion and fatigue
Practical examples: joint failure analysis, assessment of the safe bending
amplitude at speci c tensions, sequential tests on conductors, spacers, etc.
Overview of asset management practices and an average lifetime per component.

Volume 2 will provide recommendations including use of test results, inspection,


maintenance and replacement of conductors and ttings with case studies as
examples.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 95


Ageing mechanisms

Corrosion
The assessment and prediction of conductor corrosion (Figure 1) is dif cult due to its
complex geometry, variety of materials, and environments.

A greater number of aluminium layers surrounding the core will better protect the
core against penetration of pollutants but also retains more water and pollutants.
Studies show it is better to design conductors intended for corrosive environments
with strand diameters above 3 mm (Figure 2). Greasing is a physical barrier for
moisture, salts and pollutants until it decreases over time.

In joints, temperature accelerates corrosion due to increased contact resistance that


can lead to thermal runaway. Loosening or fatigue is of greater concern for other
types of ttings than corrosion.

Impacting environmental factors are:

Pollutants: chlorides ions (sea), sulfates ions (industrial), distance from emission
(Figure 3).
Rainfall, humidity, wet and dry cycles, temperature, possibly magnetic eld.

Parameters to look at are zinc thickness (steel), residual tension strength, pitting
depth, ductility, electrical resistance (aluminium), diameter of strands and cable,
grease.

Figure 1 – Type of corrosion for conductors

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 96


Figure 2 - Relationship between the strand diameter and the residual ratio of aluminium strand tensile
strength [Ito et al. 2012]

Figure 3 - Spatial and temporal scales of variability for atmospheric main constituents [Seinfeld and
Pandis, 2016]

Fatigue
This topic is largely covered in literature but still not so well understood. This section
is a synthesized review on state of the art, highlighting essential aspects, gaps in
knowledge, and on-going research. The primary types of vibration are described:

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 97


aeolian vibration, wind induced oscillation on bundles, and galloping.

About fretting fatigue behaviour (aeolian vibration), there is no exact model for
fatigue endurance determination. The endurance limit is determined as maximum
vibration amplitude applied without strand failure below 500 Megacycles (Figure 4).

Mitigation measures are linked to motion control systems using appropriate


placements of ttings for each of the three main vibration phenomena.

A survey revealed that only 6% of TSOs use the safe border line method to evaluate
conductor residual life, while the majority (59%) adopted the bending strain criteria
to assess the induced damage severity on conductors. Most data available are from
ACSR conductors (Aluminium Conductor Steel Reinforced with round wires) in short
radius metallic clamps.

Other degradation mechanisms


They can be divided in two categories. Those which concern local degradation
(loosening - Figure 5, melting due to lightning, bird-caging, damage due to gun shots,
erection or maintenance damage, and damage due to clashing) and mechanisms that
concern deterioration to the whole conductor (plastic elongation, creep, annealing).

There is still much unknown about degradation mechanisms, and even more for the
combination of phenomena.

Figure 4 - ACSR Crow S-N fatigue curves with different clamp con gurations [Paradis and Van Dyke,
2020]

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 98


Figure 5 - Abrasion damages of the conductor due to clamp slip movements

Tools to appreciate ageing

Classi cations
Corrosion classi cation of the atmosphere can be made by multiple methods
(Table 1). Classi cation results are represented by corrosion rates at different sites
and can be shown on a map as demonstrated in Figure 6. For fatigue, there is no
clear mapping method, but a wind and ice map is provided for the United States
(Figure 7).

Figure 6 - Example of corrosivity map Figure 7 - Freezing rain and prevailing


for zinc in Japan wind direction in the central U.S
[Tatsuoka et al., 2019]

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 99


Creep, estimation of ice
Corrosion Fatigue loading, annealing

Availability of models Rare Yes Some


for conductors and
ttings

Usage of models No feedback For design or to check Not for ageing evaluation
design when damage
appears. On-going
research to develop
numerical tools listed in
TB.

Table 1 - Models

Tests
All tests in TB are summarised for conductors and ttings including type of tests,
testing standards, purpose, relevance, and limitations.

Tests on new samples


To assess ageing on a new design, experience, laboratory tests, and installation on
pilot lines are used. Tests are summarised for new conductors and new ttings
including type of tests, testing standards, purpose, relevance, and limitations.

It is dif cult to predict long-term effects with the few short-term ageing tests
available. Tests for speci c conditions in corrosion, wind, and high altitude are
provided in TB.

This TB proposes a new approach for sequential testing (Figure 8 and Figure 9) and
two examples: one for conductors, another for spacers.

Figure 8 - First step of sequential test - tests on 30 m of conductor with ttings

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 100


Figure 9 - Split in three samples before tests on each sample

Tests on aged components


Recommendations are provided for sample selection, recording information in the
eld, collecting, marking and labelling, transporting, documenting, and preparing in
laboratory.

On-site tools
A review of sensors is included in the TB, covering optical, infrared, UV, acoustic,
radiographic, electromagnetic, temperature, and motion sensors (Example Figure
10).

Figure 10 - Determination of a reluctance chart along the longitudinal axis of a mid-span joint
[C. Wallace, M. Taylor, 2013]

Diagnosic tools are evaluated with infrared thermography, electrical resistance


measurement, boroscope, robotic inspection with electromagnetic sensors (Table 2),
and radiography (Figure 11).

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 101


Figure 11 - Image of a properly installed joint - Radiography with Gamma ray apparatus
[Nogueira et al., 2017]

Table 2 - Example of summary for electromagnetic tools

Monitoring needs to be combined with meteorological data for overhead lines. There
is limited equipment available that is dedicated to conductors and ttings due to
height, electric and magnetic eld, and environmental conditions. Actual corrosion
monitoring is designed for at structures. Ice and fatigue monitoring are possible.
The most recent devices for fatigue afford real time measurement spanning more
than two months.

This TB provides an update on suspended robots and unmanned aerial vehicles for
inspection.

Asset Management practices


This TB reports survey results on utility strategy for replacement and extension of
life of conductors and ttings.

Life Length
Conductor life is considered normal between 50 to 70 years. End of life has been
observed from 10 years to 100 years (Table 3).

The longest life observed for ttings is for suspensions ttings and joints. The
shortest life was observed for AWM (aircraft warning marker) and BFD (bird ight
diverter). Dampers, spacers and IPS (interphase spacer) service life are in the
middle.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 102


Table 3 - End of life by component

Replacement criteria
For conductors and earth wires, the rst replacement criteria are “results from
samples”, then “age”, and “unacceptable high number of failures”.

For OPGW (Optical Ground Wires) and others, the rst replacement criteria are
“unacceptable high number of failures” and “results from samples”.

Actions to extend or follow up end of life


For cables and compression ttings, the rst action is to “take out samples for
laboratory testing”, second is “knowledge from testing”, and third are “monitor and
analyse frequency of failure” (conductors) and “increase inspection intervals”
(compression ttings).

For other ttings, most common actions are “knowledge from testing” and “monitor
and analyse frequency of failure”. However, for dampers, spacers, AWM, BFD, and IPS
often “nothing” is done.

Actions to determine an acceptable limit


First action is to remove samples for testing. Then costs and risks can be compared
with maintenance policies, types of inspection, and time of replacement. Failure
analysis generally concerns line components whose failure result in a line outage or
conductor on the ground.

General strategy for replacement and repair


First strategy is to replace a single component after failure.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 103


Second strategy is:

For cables, dampers, AWM, BFD: “replace single components when speci ed limit
exceeded”
For compression ttings, dead-end string ttings, IPS: “replace single
components when speci ed limit exceeded” and “replace all components after
failure”.

Least common strategy is to “replace all components of the same type”, except for
spacers.

Main challenges

1st 2nd 3rd

Spacers, IPS, AWM, BFD Consequence if failure Methods of estimating Financial consequences
remaining life time and tool inspection

Other components Methods of estimating Consequence if failure


remaining life time

Table 4 - Main challenges

Types of degradation observed


Damages linked to conductor replacement (Figure 12) in decreasing order are
corrosion, clamp loosening, handling considerations, fatigue, annealing, galloping,
and ice deposit.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 104


Figure 12 - Answers on type of degradations observed

In conclusion, this TB provides a comprehensive single source reference about


ageing of conductor and the ttings attached to it.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 105


TECHNICAL BROCHURE

TB 906 WG C6.36

Distributed Energy Resource Benchmark


Models for Quasi-Static Time-Series Power
Flow Simulations
Realizing distributed energy resources (DER) bene ts to distribution
systems, as well as the overall, depends greatly upon models that
accurately represent the performance of these technologies. The
rapid evolution of DER technologies and applications, however, poses
a challenge for distribution planners and others who must implement
representative models for these technologies in their studies. While
distribution modelling and simulation capabilities have largely kept
pace, the lack of industry-de ned reference models has led to
inconsistent terminology as well as multiple representations of
speci c DER types across the industry.

MEMBERS

Convenor (US) Secretary (US)


J. TAYLOR J. PEPPANEN

M. MCGRANAGHAN (US), D. FONSECA (BR), J. SNODGRASS (US), S. CHEN (US), D.


MENDE (DE), M. KRAICZY (DE), T. STRASSER (AT), A. BAITCH (AU)

Scope
T his Technical Brochure documents a DER benchmark model framework and a set
of initial benchmark DER models for quasi-static time-series (QSTS) power ow
simulations. Speci cally, benchmark models for photovoltaic systems, smart
inverters, and energy storage systems are provided – with the expectation that the
library of DER benchmark models will be expanded by subsequent Working Groups.

The reasons for specifying the DER benchmark models for QSTS simulation mirror
the reasons the simulation type is nding increasing use in planning active
distribution systems. While dynamic and EMT simulations allow a more detailed
assessment of DER distribution impacts, QSTS simulations are easier to set up and
require less expertise and less detailed system and DER models. While EMT models
could be used as a reference for QSTS models, this can be problematic for
distribution planners who do not commonly perform EMT simulation. Furthermore,
benchmarking QSTS models against EMT models is not always practical considering

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 106


the relatively longer timeframes that are commonly studied using QSTS, which can
make comparative reconciliation of the different simulation assumptions,
simpli cations, and relevant controls dif cult.

The framework and DER benchmark models provided in the TB are intended as a
common reference for distribution engineers, vendors, academia, and other industry
stakeholders to understand and verify the performance of existing models as well as
support standardization in industry models.

Description of the TB
The Technical Brochure is composed of six chapters and four appendixes. Following
the brief introduction and description of QSTS, provided in Chapter 1, the brochure
outlines a framework and requirements for de ning DER benchmark models in
Chapter 2. Applying this framework, benchmark models for photovoltaics (PV),
energy storage systems, and smart inverters are provided in Chapters 3 through 5.
The body of the brochure concludes with a vision of the needs and areas for
continued development of DER benchmark models in Chapter 6. Additionally, the
brochure contains four appendixes capturing supporting information such as code
scripts and load pro les in support of the benchmark models.

DER benchmark model framework


This de ned framework consists of two key components:

1. DER benchmark model structure and


2. DER benchmark model speci cation requirements.

The DER benchmark model structure de nes the scope and classi cation of DER
types for benchmark model. This structure ensues the salient DER types are
identi ed and provides the necessary framework that aggregates components and
compartmentalizes DER devices at levels that minimizes duplication in the models
while readily permitting the combination of DER models to represent installation
consisting of multiple DER types.

Recalling the DER benchmark models presented in this Technical Brochure are
intended to address distribution system modelling and simulation needs, these
models only need to capture DER operation that is interdependent with the
distribution system. Aspects extraneous to this relationship can then be represented
as equivalents values or inputs.

The scope of DER controls to be included in the benchmarks is also addressed by the
structure. While recognized as important to capture in QSTS studies, controls
external to the DER device were determined to require their own set of models and
similar benchmarking activities are recommended in future efforts.

The model speci cation requirements describe the key aspects of a DER benchmark
model for QSTS simulation. By providing the DER speci cation requirement,
uniformity can be ensured across the different benchmark models provided in this
brochure as well as subsequent derivations for other DER technologies. The
speci cation requirements consist of the following:

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 107


Background: Overview of the principles of operation, internal and external
factors impacting the DER operation, and the key technology types.
Benchmark Model: Detailed breakdown of DER model components including
source, interface, and control components; descriptions of input variables, output
variables, internal parameters, and their relationships; and typical values or
value ranges for the model parameters. Example simulation case and results.
Application Considerations: Discussion of aspects users should be aware of when
applying or implementing the DER benchmark model.

Benchmark Models
The TB’s chapters documenting the individual benchmark models follows the
previously outlined model speci cation structure – including an illustrative
simulation case with the benchmark model and all system components included in
the simulation fully documented. Given the varying composition, operation, and
application between DER types, simulation cases were customized to each DER
rather than de ning a universal test case.

To further illustrate the type of content included in the benchmark section,


highlights from the energy storage system (ESS) benchmark model are provided
here. The generic model of Figure 1 shows key features of ESS models within a QSTS
simulation, including the operating state (idle, discharging, charging), the losses
associated with the operating state, energy stored, and the active and reactive power
output.

Figure 1 - ESS benchmark model components

Simulation of the benchmark model was performed using the simple network model,
shown in Figure 2, consisting of a 12.47 kV distribution feeder supplying two large
customer loads and an ESS system. The network information and details on the large
customer loads, including their temporal load pro les, are fully documented in the
TB. Figure 3 illustrates the ESS operation over a 24-hour QSTS simulation. In this
example, the ESS successfully reduced the highest peak loading, factoring in the
rating and ef ciency, but was unable to keep the main line loading below the target
due to insuf cient energy capacity. Nonetheless, activating the ESS reduced the
duration of the main line overloads from four hours to one hour 15 minutes. The
simulation results illustrate the importance of properly capturing the ESS minimum
state of charge, as well as operational losses, which resulted in the de ned ESS
parameters being unable to fully mitigate the line overload in this example.
Additional metrics, such as the frequency of the discharge cycle, can also be derived
from similar QSTS simulations.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 108


Figure 2 - Network model for the simple simulation example of the energy storage system benchmark
model

Figure 3 - BESS state-of-charge (top) and the feeder main line loading with BESS enabled and disabled

Conclusions and recommendations


The benchmark models discussed in this brochure represent only a small part of
overall industry needs. While great strides have been made in advancing DER
models in recent years, these efforts must continue to re ne and validate existing
models along with developing models for emerging technologies and control
schemes. Achieving this objective depends upon the collaboration between electric
utilities, researchers, vendors, and industry organizations. This collaboration is
critical to realizing the full societal bene ts of DER integration while also ensuring
electric distribution systems maintain, or improve upon, current levels for safety,
reliability, and ef ciency.

Areas to be addressed by future Working Groups include:

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 109


Expand the benchmark models to include EV charging, demand response,
biomass, wind turbines and other types of DER.
Expand the DER benchmark models from autonomous controls to centralized
controls by advanced distribution management systems (ADMS) and DER
management systems (DERMS).
Validate the DER benchmark models against laboratory and eld testing of DER.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 110


TECHNICAL BROCHURE

TB 907 WG B3.41

Mobile substations incorporating HV GIS


CIGRE Working Group B3.41 was tasked with an investigation and
assessment of mobile, prefabricated and build-off-site substations
for the following scope:
• Drivers for deployment of mobile substations
• Bene ts of using mobile substations.
• Experience of implementation and operation, including relevant
case studies
• Applicability of existing standards
• Guidelines for speci cation and design

MEMBERS

Convenor (UK) Secretary (DE)


P. FLETCHER S. CRAY

F. DISSON (FR), F. GEBHARDT (DE), A. GOYVAERTS (BE), P. GROSSMANN (US), J.


LOPEZ-ROLDAN (AU), D. MAGANTO (ES), C. MARTIN (BE), V. MURPHY (IE), N. OTAKA
(JP)

Scope of Working Group


I n recent years several utilities have reported on the use of ‘mobile’ substations
employing a high level of off-site construction. A number of speci c objectives have
been described, such as the ability to quickly substitute a failed transformer in an
emergency; however, the underlying aim is the ability to provide new, extended or
replacement substation facilities either at short notice and/or with a reduced site
construction period compared with traditional solutions. There is a growing interest
in such ‘build off-site’ solutions as transmission and distribution owners come under
pressure to respond rapidly to changing user demands. The ability to respond to
these demands is one element in delivering smarter grids for the 21st Century.

Mobile substations generally, although not exclusively, utilise GIS technology with
many designs based on compact switchgear assemblies with the addition of
integrated protection and control facilities. Thus, in addition to individual standards
covering the design and testing of the functional components of the substation, the
following existing standards are partly relevant to mobile substations:

IEC62271 High-voltage switchgear and controlgear - Part 202: High voltage/low


voltage prefabricated substation

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 111


IEC62271 High-voltage switchgear and controlgear - Part 205: Compact
switchgear assemblies for rated voltages above 52 kV

These standards, however, do not necessarily consider the speci c requirements for
design, construction and testing of mobile substations and it was identi ed that
recommendations were required on this issue.

In some circumstances, depending on the application, it may not be appropriate for


mobile substations to fully comply with conventional standards regarding, for
example, foundations, environmental conditions or testing requirements. The work
of CIGRE WG B3.41 aims to give recommendations on how to consider these topics.

The early adopters of mobile substation technology have now gained valuable
experience regarding the design, testing, implementation and use of mobile
substations and CIGRE Study Committee B3 decided that it would be valuable to
capture this experience. WG B3.41 was established to undertake this task and the
resulting Technical Brochure presents the conclusions of the work.

The main focus of the Technical Brochure is on the incorporation of GIS technology
into mobile substations. The WG does not aim to give guidance on speci c design
and testing requirements for other types of equipment such as transformers or
Protection & Control (P&C).

Structure and content of the Technical Brochure


The scope and main results of this Technical Brochure includes the contents below.

1. INTRODUCTION ON MOBILE SUBSTATIONS:


a. What is a mobile substation?
b. Types of mobile substations
c. Development of technologies to enable wider use of mobile substations
d. Drivers and bene ts of mobile substations
2. GUIDELINES FOR SPECIFICATION AND DESIGN OF MOBILE SUBSTATIONS
a. Transport/road regulations
b. Mechanical requirements
c. Design requirements speci c to location
d. Deployment
3. TESTING OF MOBILE SUBSTATIONS
a. Introduction to testing
b. Variation in test requirements between standards and mobile substations
c. Recommendations for testing of mobile substations
d. Summary of test requirements
4. ASSET MANAGEMENT
a. Storage
b. Maintenance
c. Asset life
d. Gas handling and gas management
e. General considerations for redeployment
5. EXPERIENCE OF MOBILE SUBSTATIONS
a. Summary of case studies
b. In-service experience
6. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE APPLICABILITY OF EXISTING STANDARDS
7. CONCLUSION
8. APPENDIX: CASE STUDIES

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 112


Chapter 1 presents the concept of mobile substations and the motivation to design a
mobile substation instead of a conventional substation. The WG established 3
categories of mobile substations:

1. Type A mobile substation: “short term emergency type unit” typically used for:

Unplanned deployment to replace failed equipment, bays or the complete


substation
Planned deployment to support maintenance works or to provide short time
network enhancement.

2. Type B mobile substation: “intermediate type unit” typically used for:

Unplanned deployment to replace failed equipment, bays or substations (longer


deployment time than emergency type)
Planned deployment to support infrastructure works or to provide network
enhancement for a longer period of time.

3. Type C mobile substations: “semi-stationary type unit” typically used for:

Planned deployment as an alternative to a conventional substation where


resources (e.g. skilled labour) are not readily available or costs are high
Planned deployment as an alternative to a conventional substation when site
works are dif cult or impossible (eg offshore substation).

Figure 1 shows an example of the three types of mobile substations.

Figure 1 - Examples of mobile substations type A, B and C

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 113


The drivers for selecting each type of mobile substation are summarised in table 1

Table 1 - Overview of Drivers in relation to Types of Mobile Substation

Chapter 2 presents some guidelines for the speci cation and design of mobile
substations emphasizing the speci c conditions not considered in conventional
substations such as the requirement for relocation, the road regulations, the
mechanical vibrations during transport, the compromise between clearances onsite
and carriage size and the earthing connections when installing the mobile substation
inside or outside an existing substation.

Chapter 3 discusses the speci c requirements for the testing of mobile substations.
For example a conventional substation requires the testing of the HV components
both at the factory (FAT) and onsite. Mobile substations might require different
considerations of testing, for example due to additional transport between factory,
assembly location and nal destination, or in order to enable a shortening of the
installation and commissioning time on site. This can be seen at gure 2.

Figure 2 - Testing Locations for Mobile Substations

The WG gives some considerations for the testing of mobile substations regarding
the balance between the impact of the testing on the cost and the deployment time
and the risk appetite of the user depending on their circumstances (as in the case of

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 114


emergency situations). This is shown in gure 3.

Figure 3 - Risk Appetite and On-Site Testing Options (Note: Tests are cumulative, Left to Right)

Chapter 4 presents some aspects regarding the asset management of the mobile
substations such as the storage, the maintenance, the gas handling, the
decommissioning of the mobile substation and its later redeployment.

Chapter 5 gives a summary of the in-service experience of mobile substations taken


from the experiences provided by the WG members and selected experts. The case
studies are described in detail in the Appendices, which are listed here in table 2. A
wide range of case studies are presented allowing the reader to refer to comparable
experienced to his requirements.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 115


Appendix Description Use

APPENDIX B Type A – Germany (50Hertz) System replacement


380kV, Air bushing connection

APPENDIX C Type A – USA (Dominion Virginia Emergency


Power) 138kV, Cable connection

APPENDIX D Type A – Germany (50Hertz) System replacement


110kV, Air bushing connection

APPENDIX E Type A – Japan (Chubu Electric Emergency


Power Grid)
66/6.6KV, Air bushing & cable
connection

APPENDIX F Type A –Saudi Arabia (National Additional power need


Grid) 400/132kV, bushing & cable
connection

APPENDIX G Type A – Ireland (ESBI) Emergency


110KV, Air bushing connection

APPENDIX H Type B – Belgium (Elia) System replacement/Emergency


123kV, Cable connection

APPENDIX I Type B – UK (National Grid) System replacement/ Maintenance


400/132kV, bushing & cable
connection

APPENDIX J Type B – Spain (Red Electrica) System replacement


220kV, Cable connection

APPENDIX K Type B – Belgium (Infrabel) Semi-permanent substation


70kV/3DC, Cable connection

APPENDIX L Type C – Germany (50Hertz) Offshore


220kV, Cable connection

APPENDIX M Type C – France (RTE) E-House


63kV, Cable connection

APPENDIX N Type C – New Caledonia (France) E-House


63kV, Cable connection

APPENDIX O Type C – Germany (VMOP) Offshore


155/33kV, Cable connection

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 116


Appendix Description Use

APPENDIX P Type A – Japan (User) Emergency


77/6.9 KV, Cable connection

APPENDIX Q Summary of Japanese use


of Mobile substations

Table 2 - Summary Table of Case Studies in Appendices

In Chapter 6 the Working Group gives some recommendations for the applicability of
existing standards such as the IEC 62271 (high voltage switchgear & controlgear) &
IEC 60076 (transformer) series. The Working Group has thoroughly reviewed these
standards and found them to be generally suitable for application to mobile
substations and it has not identi ed any requirements for additional mandatory type
or routine testing.

In some circumstances, depending on the application, it may not be appropriate for


mobile substations to fully comply with conventional standards regarding, for
example, foundations, environmental conditions or testing requirements. The
Technical Brochure aims to give recommendations on how to consider these topics.

Conclusion
Mobile substations are becoming an established solution and international use is
growing. The technology is now considered proven.

The Working Group has identi ed many cases where mobile substations have been
effectively deployed to meet user requirements across a wide range of applications.

Various drivers and bene ts have been reported. They can be con rmed by
numerous case studies analysed by the WG spanning the range from mobile
substations used for emergencies, intermediate type units, and semi-stationary type
units. These case studies demonstrate mainly positive experiences, users,
manufacturers, and engineering companies have made. Challenges experienced
during the projects are also discussed.

Mobile substations are very adaptable to cover different requirements for different
applications users may have. To bene t from this exibility to use a mobile
substation according to the speci c need in a required time frame, it is
recommended to follow the considerations discussed in the Technical Brochure.

This exibility is also related to risks when transporting, installing, and testing
mobile substations on site. This risk situation needs to be understood before
energizing the mobile substation. An increased risk appetite can be acceptable in
emergency situations where power needs to get restored quickly and time for
intensive on-site testing is not available. Previous deployments, known road
conditions, shock indicator readings will in uence a certain con dence level that
needs to be considered for the risk evaluation.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 117


In addition to the risk evaluation, it is important to determine the objective of the
use of the mobile substation. A clear understanding of the expected outcome of
operating the mobile substation will streamline preparation and mobilization
aspects such as choosing the correct mobile substation type, transport options,
installation, safety, risks, and on-site testing considerations. Fencing, access, and
related safety items should be taken into consideration when operating the mobile
substation. A clear objective and good planning will allow the realization of many
bene ts though using a mobile substation.

Existing technical standards have been reviewed and considered as t the purpose.
There is no recommendation for adjusting or upgrading these standards for the use
of mobile substations.

Further details on the recommendations of the Working Group as well as a detailed


overview of case studies from a variety of users are discussed in the CIGRE Technical
Brochure of WG B3.41.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 118


TECHNICAL BROCHURE

TB 908 WG B1.64

Losses in Armoured Three Core Power


Cables
Losses in three-core armoured power cables have historically been
calculated using the formulas presented in the IEC Standard 60287-
1-1. The formulas are based on semi empirical research on cables
with smaller conductor cross sections and common sheath which is
not representative of the design trend of today’s cables. For armoured
three-core cables with greater insulation thickness and larger
conductor cross sections than those used in the past, the accuracy of
IEC 60287-1-1 is insuf cient as the standard typically overestimates
the cable losses resulting in over dimensioning of the cables and
increased cost.

MEMBERS

Convenor (NO) Secretary (SE)


R. STØLAN D. PALMGREN

K. ABKEN (GE), G. ANDERS (CA), D. CHATZIPETROS (GR), L. COLLA (IT),


Y. DOUIMA (FR), M. HATLO (NO), H. HEO (KR), U. HUANG (UK),
W. KAMARA (1ST QUARTER) (CA), J. PILGRIM (UK), S. STURM (GE), R. SVOMA (UK),
O. THYRVIN (SE), K. YONEYA (JP), K. ZHANG (CN), J. ZHANG (NL)

Corresponding Members
B. BRIJS (BE), A. GODARD (FR)

Introduction
International commitments to reduce greenhouse gasses alongside with
government funding has led to a step change in the competitiveness of the
renewable energy market in recent years. Wind and solar power are the renewable
technologies with the largest growth rates and are expected to generate roughly 70
% of the world’s energy needs by 2050, while coal powered electricity plants are
expected to drop to 10 %.

Replacing offshore gas powered generators with renewable power from shore and
fossil fuelled generation onshore with power from offshore wind are just two
examples of the measures to reduce carbon emissions where power cables play an
important role and constitute a signi cant part of the total project cost.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 119


Efforts to improve the nancial viability of offshore wind puts pressure on windfarm
developers and cable manufacturers to reduce the cost of both export and array
cables.

Increased wind turbine size and installed power, more specialised installation
vessels, project synergies, experience and optimised supply chain are some factors
that contributed to a cost reduction of 18 % of installed offshore wind between 2010
and 2019. In addition to upscaling the wind farms, another trend is moving them
further away from the shore.

Interconnecting transmission cables increase redundancy by enabling energy ow


between countries depending on the generation and demand. As the number of
offshore wind farms increases, the use of combined export- and interconnecting
cables may provide another level of redundancy.

With AC-transmission reaching distances of more than 200 km, having accurate
cable parameters is essential for nding the correct system design and calculating
capital and operational expenditures. Using accurate cable parameters for the cable
design results in potentially large cost savings when compared to designs calculated
using IEC 60287-1-1.

Scope and Contents of the Technical Brochure


The members of Study Committee B1 voted in the 2017 SC meeting in New Delhi, to
establish a Working Group (WG) to study the topics of the scope proposed by Task
Force B1.64. As part of this scope, WG-B1.64 has developed analytical formulae
which is veri ed by measurements of cables using the group’s standardised loss
measurement procedure and 3D Finite Element Analysis (FEA). A method for
measuring of the magnetic permeability of armour wires is proposed and utilized by
the WG to obtain values for the armour wires of the measured cables in order to
compare the results from the loss measurements with the loss calculations.

The Technical Brochure is divided into the following chapters:

Chapter 1 “Introduction” contains the introduction, background, terms of reference


and a guide for the contents of the TB to help the reader navigate the different
subjects.

Chapter 2 “Cable losses overview” describes the physics responsible for the losses in
the cable. It explains how the different parts of the cable interact with each other
with the aid of illustrations from Finite Element Analysis. The background of the
formulas of IEC 60287-1-1 are discussed and compared in a qualitative way to the
current understanding of the physics behind the losses in three-core armoured
cables.

Chapter 3 “Calculations” introduces two analytical calculation methods. Results


obtained using methods 1 and 2 are compared extensively throughout the TB.
Method 1 has been in continuous development by the WG. Method 2 is used as
originally published [7].

Chapter 4 “Impedance measurements” addresses important factors related to the


measurement of the cable impedance and recommends minimum requirements for
the equipment to obtain accurate measurement results. Impedance measurements

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 120


of three-core armoured power cables have been conducted by members of the
working group prior to and during the course of the WG activities. The results from
these measurements play a central role in the development of these
recommendations, as they contribute to the veri cation of the results from the 3D
Finite Element Analysis and the analytical formulas.

Chapter 5 “Magnetic permeability measurements” presents the method used by the


working group to obtain values of the permeability from several armour wire
samples, including samples from cables on which impedance measurements have
been performed. The results from the permeability measurements are compared
and discussed.

The magnetic permeability of the armour wires is an important parameter when


calculating the losses in the cable. Hysteresis losses result in a cable resistance that
is non-linear with the applied current.

Mechanical stress in the armour wires in uences the magnetic permeability. This is
not a focus for this TB, but the topic is brie y discussed, and the effect highlighted
based on test results.

Chapter 6 “Finite Element Analysis” gives a detailed account of the different subjects
related to the 3D Finite Element Analysis for three-core armoured power cables
presented in this TB. The sensitivity of mesh size and the geometrical properties are
discussed to provide recommendations for modelling using 3D FEM (Finite Element
Method).

Chapter 7 “Discussion” presents a brief study with calculations of the thermal rating
for three cables with different parameters with the calculated losses from method 1
and the IEC method. The chapter illustrates the bene ts of performing accurate
cable calculations by comparing the resulting cable designs calculated with method
1 and the IEC method and discussing the different possibilities for cable design
optimisation.

The process of verifying the different calculation methods with impedance


measurements is explained and the results from the process are presented and
compared.

Results from the FEA of a double layer at wire armoured cable are compared with
the measurements. The purpose of this discussion is to suggest a method of
calculating the parameters of at wire and/or double layer armoured cables as none
of the methods presented in this TB have this capability.

Topics that have seen new development during the course of this work, but which
have not been included in this TB due to time constraints are discussed, along with
potential future improvements.

Appendix A “References” presents the literature that is directly referenced in this


TB.

Appendix B “Abbreviations and symbols” lists abbreviations and symbols used in


this TB.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 121


Appendix C “Application of equations method 1” provides a numerical calculation
example of method 1 with speci ed input to help guide the reader through the steps
of the calculations in order to aid the understanding and arrive at the same answer.

Appendix D “Application of impedance measurement procedure” presents an


example of an actual measurement performed by the working group members on
one of the cables used as an example throughout the TB. It complies with the general
requirements and procedure of chapter 5 and is the method utilised for almost all
the measurements described in this TB.

Appendix E “Comparison of results” compares all the results from the cases
calculated using FEA, methods 1 and 2 and IEC 602871-1. For each cable, the
common cable parameters for a set of cases are given in a separate table to make
comparison between the cases easier.

After checking that the fundamental properties of the methods capture all the
mechanisms of the physics responsible for the cable losses, the range of cables for
which the methods have been evaluated by measurements, is extended. This
allowed a comparison of the results obtained with the analytical formulas and FEA
for cables with a wider range of parameters than of those that were measured.

Appendix F “Cable data” presents data for the cables that are measured and for
which a comparison with FEM and analytical methods has been made.

Conclusion
The physics responsible for the losses in a cable are presented, gradually increasing
in complexity, starting with a single conductor and nishing with a complete three-
core cable with stranded armour. The effect of sea water conductivity on the cable
losses is veri ed to have an insigni cant impact based on both analytical
consideration and Finite Element Analysis (FEA). The background of the formulas of
IEC 60287-1-1 is discussed and compared in a qualitative way to the current
understanding of the physics behind the losses in three-core armoured cables.

Two calculation methods, “method 1” and “method 2”, are presented in the TB.
Method 1 is an analytical method developed by the WG members, while method 2 is
a numerical method referenced and used in the TB as published prior to the WG. The
main difference between them is that method 1 considers the conductor proximity
effect on the magnetic eld, while method 2 formulas do not include the conductors.
These differences are re ected in the results – method 1 more accurately accounts
for losses induced in sheaths and armour for most cases, while method 2 is slightly
overestimating the sheath and armour losses. Both methods handle magnetic and
non-magnetic armour.

The calculation methods are veri ed by loss measurements. Figure 1 compares the
measured cable losses from six different cable designs with the values obtained by
different calculation methods. The calculated losses from the methods are in good
agreement with the measured losses, except for IEC 60287, which signi cantly
overestimates the losses in the cables with magnetic armour.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 122


Figure 1 - Comparison of measured and calculated total cable losses. The UL and CL suf x speci es
unilay and contralay armour respectively. SS speci es stainless steel (non-magnetic) armour

The WG has performed measurements on several cables and the recommended


procedure is presented with an example following all the steps used during the
actual measurement of one of the cables in the TB. Important factors, from test object
preparation and the correct use of equipment, to post processing of data and error
estimation are discussed.

3D Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is used extensively in the comparison of more than
one hundred cases. The developed model is used to aid in the understanding of cable
losses and for veri cations of physical phenomena during the development of
method 1. 3D FEA is the recommended method for cables with double layer or at
wire armour since none of the other calculation methods includes these options. This
is one of the identi ed areas for further work.

2D FE models are not able to capture the 3D nature of the mechanisms responsible
for the losses in the cable. Table 1 compares the losses calculated using 2.5D and 3D
for four different cable designs. For unilay cables (with long crossing pitch) the
agreement is good. For contralay cables the 2.5D method underestimates the losses.
The underestimation increases with decreasing conductor resistance and increasing
permeability of the armour, while for smaller conductors carrying less current and
armour with low permeability, the accuracy of the 2.5D method improves.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 123


Conductor 1600 mm2 Cu 1200 mm2 Al 1600 mm2 Cu 1000 mm2 Cu

Armour lay Unilay Contralay Contralay Contralay

Permeability 150-j50 150-j50 150-j50 600-j350

Difference [%] -2.8 % -9.2 % -12.6 % -20.3 %

Table 1 - Percent difference between results calculated using 2.5D FEA and 3D FEA for different cable designs. Negative
values indicate an under estimation of the losses by the 2.5D method.

The magnetic permeability of armour wires is an important parameter for the


accurate calculation of cable losses. It in uences not only the losses in the armour
wires, but also the losses in conductors and screens. The non-linear properties of the
armour result in a current dependant resistance. Results from magnetic
permeability measurements of several samples, including samples from the
measured cables, are presented and discussed in the TB. Mechanical stress in the
armour wires in uences the magnetic permeability. This is not a focus for this TB,
but the topic is brie y discussed, and the results from a test performed by the WG
show the effect.

Figure 2 - The real (continuous line) and the imaginary (dashed line) part of the magnetic permeability
for 7 different grade 65 armour wire samples

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 124


Calculations of the thermal rating for three cables with different armour designs with
the calculated losses from method 1 and IEC 60287-1-1 are performed. Table 1
shows the maximum ampacity for a 1200 mm2 aluminium cable with different
armour con gurations calculated with method 1. In the same table, the conductor
cross section required to achieve the same ampacity according to IEC 60287-1-1 is
shown. A signi cant reduction of the conductor cross section is possible for all the
cable designs when calculating the losses with method 1.

Grade 34 Contralay Grade 65 Contralay Grade 34 Unilay


Calculation method (950 A) (990 A) (1025 A)

Method 1 1200 mm2 1200 mm2 1200 mm2

IEC 60287-1-1 1600 mm2 1800 mm2 2000 mm2

Table 2 - Comparison of the aluminium conductor cross sections required by calculations according to method 1 and IEC
60287-1-1 to achieve the same ampacity.

For a cable with copper conductors, Table 3, the difference becomes even greater due
to the increased skin effect in the conductors. The reduction of conductor cross
section of 600 mm2 as seen for the rst cable, would impact the cost of the cable with
approximately 27 % for the materials alone. The potential cost savings may become
even greater when considering the cost of manufacturing and the impact of the 19 %
(2277 tonnes for a cable with a length of 100 km) reduction in weight on the number
of required installation campaigns.

Grade 34 Contralay Grade 65 Contralay Grade 34 Unilay


Calculation method (1041 A) (1098 A) (1157 A)

Method 1 1200 mm2 1200 mm2 1200 mm2

IEC 60287-1-1 1800 mm2 > 2000 mm2

Table 3 - Comparison of the copper conductor cross sections required by calculations according to method 1 and IEC
60287-1-1 to achieve the same ampacity.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 125


TECHNICAL BROCHURE

TB 909 JWG C4/B4.52

Guidelines for Subsynchronous Oscillation


Studies in Power Electronics Dominated
Power Systems
Subsynchronous oscillations (SSO) have been identi ed as a major
concern in modern power systems. Especially, the introduction of
power electronic devices such as HVDC, FACTs and renewable
generation has escalated SSO related issues. Considering the need of
the industry, this technical brochure has been developed to provide a
general guideline for understanding the relevant SSO phenomenon,
study methodology, mitigation/prevention techniques and protection
mechanisms.

MEMBERS

Convenor (CA) Secretary (CA)


C. KARAWITA U.D. ANNAKKAGE

D. NESTEROV (BE), F. PETIT (BE), T. DOBBIN (BR), J. ZHOU (CA), A. DISSANAYAKA (CA),
D. WEERAKOON (CA), X. XIE (CN), T. RAUHALA (FI), O. JANHUNEN (FI), V. COSTAN
(FR), A. ATALLAH (DE), D. VIERHEILIG (DE), A.S. TREVISAN (DE), R. DIMITROVSKI (DE),
M. HUMER (DE), T. GERAERDS (NL), V. SEWDIEN (NL), M. CHEAH (ES), J. RENEDO (ES),
E. LAVOPA (GB), A. PASHAEI (GB), O. AGAMALOV (UA), E. PRATICO (US), D. HOWARD
(US), Y. CHENG (US)

Corresponding Members
B. BADRZADEH (AU), W. WINTER (DE), K. MA (CA), K. VENNEMANN (DE), S. MURRAY
(IE), E. AHLUND (IE), J. JOO YONG (KR), D. RAMASUBRAMANIAN (US), H. CHOU (US), S.
KYNEV (US)

Classi cation of SSO


F irst, a historical review of subsynchronous oscillation events is presented
(Chapter 2). Methods of analysis and metrics that indicate the likelihood of an SSO
event occurring have been developed in the past with the phenomena observed at
that time. The subsynchronous oscillation landscape has signi cantly changed since
then mainly due to the introduction of renewable generation and power electronic
devices at grid level.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 126


The presence of power electronic converters and their controllers has recently
introduced subsynchronous oscillation issues to the grid. Recognizing this, IEEE
proposed a revised classi cation of stability of power systems where two new
categories related to these developments were proposed. Having reviewed the
recent SSO events and keeping in line with the new classi cation proposed by IEEE, a
detailed classi cation of subsynchronous oscillations is proposed in the technical
brochure (Chapter 2). The proposed classi cation is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 - Proposed classi cation of SSO

SSO is divided into two main categories: Subsynchronous Resonance (SSR) and Power
Electronic Device Interactions (PEDI). The SSR is further divided into Electrical and
Torsional. This is to differentiate between the SSR that is purely electrical, where the
torsional systems are not involved and those where a torsional system is involved.
The Electrical type SSR could be due to the resonance in the network when there are
series compensation devices in the network, or it could be due to the negative
resistance offered by a generator at a network resonance frequency. In both these
cases shaft systems are not involved. The Torsional type SSR is divided into three
types: Shaft Torque Ampli cation, Torsional Interactions with the Network (TI-N) and
Torsional Interactions with another device (TI-D). The new category of SSO
introduced in this chapter is the Power Electronic Device Interactions (PEDI). These
are control interactions of two types: Control Interactions with the Network (CI-N)
and Control Interactions with another Device (CI-D). All these types of SSO discussed
in the chapter have been experienced by power utilities and are well documented.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 127


Industry Practices, Challenges and Experiences
Related to SSO Issues
The Technical Brochure also reviewed the industry practices for SSO evaluation and
the reported SSO issues (Chapter 3). An SSO study process varies depending on the
project's stage at which the study is performed. Also, due to the absence of a
standard procedure, there are different industry practices. In this chapter these
differences are discussed along with examples of many practices used in the
industry. The SSO events reported from the industry and the mitigation measures
applied are summarized in this chapter.

This Technical Brochure proposed a systematic approach to study and resolve the
SSO issues in power systems. The proposed SSO study procedure has been divided
into four sections: screening studies, detailed studies, mitigation measures, and
monitoring and protective measures.

Screening of Potential SSO Risk


When a new project is planned or an existing SSO issue is analyzed, the rst step is to
perform the screening studies. At this stage, the possible SSO phenomenon is not
clearly identi ed; contributing devices to the SSO are unknown; a large number of
operating scenarios and contingencies need to be considered; and detailed
simulation models may not be available. Therefore, the main objective of the
screening studies is to evaluate the SSO risk while allowing false alarms and avoiding
false dismissals. Chapter 4 presents an overview of the different methods available
for screening the potential risk of various SSO types. The methodology and
theoretical background of each method is brie y explained along with the
limitations, assumptions, modeling requirements and the evaluation criteria.
Analytical (static) and dynamic simulation based (dynamic) frequency scanning
techniques, Unit Interaction Factor (UIF) calculations, and Radiality Factor
calculations are identi ed as screening techniques. A summary of screening
techniques is given in the following table. As guided in this technical brochure, the
most suitable screening procedure needs to be selected based on the nature of the
SSO issue and the types of devices involved. This chapter also provides the reader
with practical advice regarding the use of each screening method together with
guidelines for the interpretation of results. Additionally, examples are provided for
each method to facilitate their practical application and understanding.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 128


Table 1 - Available Screening Methods per SSO Type

Detailed Evaluation of SSO


The detailed study procedures include electromagnetic transient (EMT) simulations
and small signal stability analysis (Eigen analysis) which are presented in Chapter 5.
EMT simulation is the most popular study procedure due to its exibility, such as the
use of black-boxed device models. However, the root cause of SSO phenomenon
needs to be carefully evaluated using time-domain simulation plots of various events
and operating scenarios. In contrast, the eigen analysis (frequency domain) gives
more insight into the SSO phenomenon. The oscillations and the damping in the
entire study case can be identi ed from the eigen values and the devices
contributing to the oscillations can be evaluated using eigen properties such as
participation factors and mode shapes. However, this is a linear analysis technique
and therefore, multiple scenarios need to be considered to cover the possible
conditions. Furthermore, the models need to be linearized around each operating
point and, therefore, the black-boxed type models are dif cult to be developed. The
modelling requirements, assumptions and limitations and the evaluation procedures
are discussed in Chapter 5.

SSO Mitigation and Prevention


Once the detailed studies con rm the risk of SSO, suitable mitigation measures need
to be implemented. Chapter 6 presents operational restrictions, control adjustments,
subsynchronous damping controllers (SSDCs), adjustments to series capacitors,
adjustments to power plants and the introduction of shunt compensation (SVCs and
STATCOMs) with SSO damping controllers as available mitigation measures. Some
mitigation measures can be used as short-term temporary measures until a

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 129


permanent solution is implemented. For example, bypassing a series capacitor at a
particular operating condition with a risk of SSO can be used as a temporary
measure. It is important to carefully evaluate possible mitigation measures and the
most suitable solution needs to be selected based on the performance and the cost.
It is necessary to evaluate the system performance with and without the solution for
all the critical conditions identi ed from the detailed studies. It is also important to
evaluate the impact of the solution on the dynamic performance of the system.

Monitoring and Protection Mechanisms for SSO


In addition to the mitigation measures, suitable back up protection mechanisms
need to be implemented to ultimately avoid damage to the devices. Furthermore,
power systems are rapidly evolving, and their dynamic behavior may change
unknowingly. This means that great attention must be paid to the behavior of all the
devices involved. Therefore, sophisticated condition monitoring of the devices
involved is needed. The available monitoring and protective measures are discussed
in Chapter 7.

Summary
In summary, this Technical Brochure provides a general guideline for SSO studies in
power electronic dominated power systems. It is recommended to adapt the
proposed study procedure as required and the evaluation should be based on an
engineering judgement as there are no solidly de ned criteria.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 130


TECHNICAL BROCHURE

TB 910 WG C1.43

Business Requirements for Asset


Performance Management
The purpose of this WG was to provide guidelines for utilities on
having a consistent set of requirements for Asset Performance
Management (APM) platforms. This will facilitate the vendor selection
processes in deciding which of the offered APM solutions provides the
most suitable platform.

MEMBERS

Convenor (CA) Secretary (NL)


Y. TSIMBERG C. OREMUS

R. CHEUNG (CH), H. HUANG (US), J. LEVINE (CA), B. JOROWSKI (CA), S. PARUPALLI


(US), J. DI GIROLAMO (US), S. MARWITZ (DE), M. ARAUJO (BR), T. GUERRERO (CA), R.
TOMAZIC (SL), M. ELLENBOGEN (IS), L. ZHAO (DE), L. MANLI (AU), F. LIRIOS (AU), E.
HILL (US), T. MOKWANA (SA), K. ZELLERS (US), H. HASAN KAZMI (DE)

To better understand the current challenges utilities are facing in selecting-, and
using an APM platform, the WG examined available publications. Section 3 of the TB,
describes some of these challenges and sites examples of systems being used within
utilities.

The WG developed a set of requirements using the expertise of its members which
included mostly utility industry experts. At the same time, the WG incorporated the
perspective of utilities outside the WG. For this purpose a survey was conducted,
which included responses from 33 utilities across the world. Section 4 of the TB
presents the results of the survey using spider charts for mean values and highlights
regional differences.

At the project outset, the WG established a need to identify Asset Performance


Management decision areas referred to as “Asset Sustainment Strategies”, covering
maintenance- and replacement decisions.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 131


Figure 1 - Sustainment in Asset Life cycle Management

Ten (10) strategies were de ned and described in detail. For each of these, the
following information is provided in Section 5 of the TB:

1. Introduction describing the Asset Sustainment Strategy and associated


challenges
2. Information requirements
3. Data types used in generating required information
4. Software requirements.

Number Asset Sustainment Strategy

1 De ne (initial) optimal asset maintenance strategy

2 Time Based Maintenance

3 Condition Based Maintenance

4 Risk Based Maintenance

5 End of useful life scenario

6 Select replacement strategies

7 Time based Replacement

8 Condition Based Replacements

9 Risk Based Replacement

10 Optimize life cycle value

Table 1 - Asset Sustainment Strategies

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 132


The data and information requirements increase with the complexity of selected
Asset Sustainment Strategy. For a very simple run-to-failure strategy, little
information and data is required. For more complex time based, especially condition
based, and risk-based Asset Sustainment Strategies, more data and information is
required. Speci cally, it is important to qualify both the probability of failure, based
on condition and use of assets, and the consequences of failure. This is applicable to
both maintenance and replacement strategies for asset (sub)-populations and/or
individual assets.

To ensure consistency in describing information requirements, data types and


software requirements are de ned in generic tables, which include references
linking each item with relevant Asset Sustainment Strategies.

In Section 6, an assessment of selected APM vendors is performed, based on the


publicly available information, input from the utilities survey conducted by the WG
and experience of WG members themselves. The list of assessed vendors is based on
Gartner’s 2018 and 2019 reports. It is important to note that their capabilities were
assessed based on publicly available information only and do not necessarily
present the current or complete list of their capabilities.

Finally, observations and recommendations regarding future steps for improving


Asset Management processes are provided in Section 7. These include the following:

Each utility has its unique set of challenges and requirements; therefore the
material in this Technical Brochure should be treated as a general guide.
Although a majority of utilities surveyed indicated that they do have an APM
platform, the platform met only about 50% of their needs which indicated that
more “homework” needs to be done before selecting the APM platform
None of the vendors assessed had the capabilities needed to address all the
identi ed requirements while all the vendors combined did
Using an APM system is expected to improve data collection, improve the risk-
based decision-making process, and facilitate development of Asset Management
Plans to satisfy ISO55000x standards requirements

The 10 identi ed Asset Sustainment Strategies should be used as a starting point


in developing utility-speci c ones
Typical interfaces between APM platforms and utility enterprise systems were
included in the survey and used in the vendor assessments. However, it is
possible that some utilities have other tools not mentioned in the TB
Having an APM platform will enable utilities to incorporate “near real time”
inputs to complement typical “static” inputs. This is expected to improve
investment decisions and the timing of required actions regarding not only
capital spending, but also maintenance aspects of sustaining the existing asset
base.
Using utility speci c Asset Sustainment Strategies combined with informed
decisions and timely actions to address discovered issues/problems is expected
to improve reliability performance of assets both at the end of life and
throughout their life cycle.

This TB provides a starting point for utilities in developing their own Asset
Sustainment Strategies and their corresponding unique set of requirements for an
APM system. It is recommended to focus future efforts in the following areas:

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 133


Facilitate integration of sustainment (addressing needs of existing asset base)
and development (addressing need for expanding the existing asset base)
decisions
Standardize asset categories and asset components to the extent possible,
including developing a default naming convention
Link data quality and availability with con dence in the decisions made
De ne Machine Learning and Arti cial Intelligence requirements
Develop a methodology for linking utilization of Asset Sustainment Strategies
with resultant reliability at both individual asset and system levels.

©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 134


©2023 - CIGRE ELECTRA N°329 August 2023 135

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