Croatian NC CIGRE activity update

We were skeptical towards this manner of holding a big meeting, but as we were also very encouraged by the positive experience from the successful 2020 e-session in Paris we organized the 14^th Symposium on managing power systems. The major topic was the cooperation between transmission and distribution system operators. In our present period of major evolutions in power systems, with the objective of integrating renewables in transmission and distribution grids, expert knowledge is necessary at a normative, technical, technological and organizational level. Although the on-line symposium was held under exceptional conditions, the quality of papers, participant response, lectures, and discussions were very successful.

One of the important activities Croatian NC CIGRE is very proud of is our participation in the work of the South-East European Research Centre (SEERC). International CIGRE has qualified this group as the most active, so we in Croatian NC CIGRE are particularly glad to have been one of its founders and to have supported Mr. Krešimir Bakič from NC Slovenia. The SEERC Conference was supposed to be held this year in Vienna but, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, had to be postponed until next year. Apart from regular meetings in SEERC, we also organized professional and working visits, so just before the SEERC Symposium, which was held last year in Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina), our guests were colleagues and friends from the CIGRE Georgian Committee. Croatian NC CIGRE also recognized the importance and quality of SEERC, and the work and cooperation within this region is one of our priorities; this is visible through our contribution to the book on the history of SEERC, which was published at the end of 2020.

Croatian NC CIGRE organized Women in Engineering (WIE), Young Engineers, and NGN is being created. At the 2020 e-session conference, the chair of the Croatian committee of Women in Engineering, Minea Skok, PhD, as one of the six representatives of national branches which were active at the e-session 2020, presented the activities of the committee, as well as its manner of work and future. All the members of the committee Women in Engineering, 108 of them, were able to participate in the 2020 e-session forum.

One of the most important colloquium is the International Colloquium supported by Croatian NC CIGRE with CIGRE Study Committee A2 - Transformers, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb, and the Centre of Excellence for Transformers in Zagreb. This Colloquium and exhibition is recognized as an event of great interest for researchers and scientists from all over the world. Traditionally chosen topics offer some answers to R&D and technology trends as well as to Transformer Maintenance Life Cycle. The 5^th International Colloquium was organized in 2019. And there were more than 200 participants from 25 countries from all over the World. Croatian NC CIGRE is planning to organize A2 Colloquium and 6^th International Colloquium “Transformer Research and Asset Management” as one unique conference in 2023.

The most important conference of Croatian NC CIGRE is held every second (odd) year. The last meeting, 14^th in line, was held in November 2019 and there were 1,125 participants, 80 of which from foreign countries. There were more than 240 papers from all 16 Study Committees, also 27 exhibitors and Conference sponsors.

The next big conference of Croatian NC CIGRE is 15^th conference in November 2021. It will be special due to several important anniversaries. The most important is the hundred year anniversary of the first CIGRE conference in Paris. We will also mark 70 years of CIGRE in Croatia. The National Committee of Yugoslavia (YUKO) was founded in 1951, with its headquarters in Zagreb (Capital of Croatia), which also marked the first year of CIGRE’s activity in Croatia. As Yugoslavia disintegrated, YUKO CIGRE did as well, so Croatian NC CIGRE was founded, and was admitted to the family of national committees at the 1992 conference held in Paris. In 2021 we also mark 30 years of Croatian NC CIGRE. Another important anniversary next year will be the hundred years of Končar Company, the most important producer of electric power equipment and engineering in big power systems in Croatia, which is also a great supporter of Croatian NC CIGRE. The Končar Company was founded in 1921, just like the international CIGRE. Another great anniversary is the 70 years of The Journal of Energy, which is the real archive of power system development, its models, analysis and theory.

The idea and mission of CIGRE in Croatia has been deeply rooted and it has a long tradition which we inherit today and for which we can thank a high level of understanding of power system, of cooperation with colleagues from other national committees, and of activity in the international CIGRE as well as in the regional SEERC.

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