Editorial

Dear All,

For all of you who were present at the Palais des Congrès in August, a few words after this very successful 2022 Paris session which was attended by 3,700 delegates (very close to 2018’s record year at 3,800)! An unprecedented 2,500 delegates attended the opening session on a bright Sunday afternoon, which was also a fabulous opportunity to pay tribute to the Cigréans who received awards for their valuable contributions to CIGRE.

Overall, there was a lot of energy (no pun intended!) which one could feel and hear in the meetings, in the corridors, and at the exhibition; our members were happy to meet again.

This session comes at a time when our industry must adapt to unprecedented growth in demand and change in supply. These changes require new collaboration and commitment across the complete energy value chain with the goal to contribute to reaching a net-zero carbon society.

Thank you to all who attended and made this Paris Session a success!

Among the ELECTRA articles I would like to highlight:

• A Climate Ready Power System: Reliable, Resilient and Affordable Decarbonization by Dr Arshad Mansoor, CEO, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) who was the 2022 Paris CIGRE Opening Session Keynote speaker
  As we continue to move toward a net-zero society, this article emphasizes the importance of reliability and affordability. Low-carbon electricity generation is essential but will not be sufficient if modern society and economies operate only on a reliable and affordable supply of electricity. The energy industry must push further to guarantee the strength and efficiency of the networks which will in turn ensure customer acceptance and impact efforts to meet net-zero goals.

• Roadmaps to a common destination: Decarbonization of energy systems
  This paper summarizes the contributions of four distinguished experts who presented the decarbonization goals of the energy systems in Europe, USA, China, and Australia at the CIGRE/ETIP SNET panel in August 2021.

• Utility Scale Battery Storage in the Australian NEM (National Energy Market) by Jonathon Dyson, Managing Director of the boutique NEM consulting firm, Greenview Strategic Consulting. 
  The article describes the economics of large scale energy battery storage.
  In Australia, the NEM (National Energy Market) leads the global trend in shifting electricity generation from fossil fuels towards Variable Renewable Energy (VRE) resources including wind, utility (grid-connected) solar, and DPV (distributed solar PV). Within that changing supply landscape, a number of key factors are required, not the least being suitable market structures that allows for price volatility (for charge/discharge arbitrage). Most of the commissioned BESS in the NEM have been setup to be available in the Frequency Control Ancillary Services (FCAS) markets.

Moving forward from this very successful Paris session, I would like to highlight the request for your contributions and participation at our next Symposium in Cairns (Australia) in September 2023. The focus will be: The End-to-End Electricity System - Transition, Development and Integration.

My best regards and good reading,
Michel Augonnet