Editorial

Dear Colleagues,

Summer is over in the Northern Hemisphere and CIGRE is in full swing:  

• In early September, CIGRE Australia hosted a very successful symposium on The End-to-End electricity system: transition, development, operation and integration, and gathered a record attendance of more than 1,300 participants.
• The Administrative Council has just met in Sarajevo; and everyone was very pleased to see the measurable steps taken towards developing CIGRE in that region and our overall contribution to the electrical industry. The council also approved the CIGRE Strategic Plan for 2030. This will soon be available on the CIGRE website, and a summary will be published in the next edition of ELECTRA.

There are some very thought-provoking articles in this issue that I would like to draw your attention to:

• Visions for the Energy Transition, by Dr Rob Stephen, Past president of CIGRE, Editor-in-Chief for CIGRE Science and Engineering (CSE) Journal, in which Dr. Stephen looks at the overall concept of Energy Transition and how the future offers exciting prospects that challenge our existing paradigms.
• Overhead Superconducting Power Transmission, by Nathaniel Shields, Steve Ashworth, Tim Heidel, Kyle Thomas, Franco Moriconi, makes the case for increased capacity transmission lines, but also proposes that certain lines could benefit from exceptional transmission capacity density because of the superconductor materials that exhibit zero electrical resistance.
• Global Leadership Perspectives, by Peter Claghorn, focuses on Keys to Making Effective Requests and Obtaining Reliable Commitments, and outlines the most efficient means to achieving task-related goals.
• We also have a new installment in Life of the Association: An interview from Next Generation Network. We start with NGN Türkiye Vice Chair, Alper İhtiyar.
• In Global Connections:
  • Stewart Ramsay, Vanry Associates, delves into the Canadian wildfires, climate change, and what utilities can do to tackle these issues.
  • Yannis Kamouris explains the Green Transition as it applies to the Greek power system.
  • Hiroshi Okamoto, PhD CTO, TEPCO Power Grid Chair, CIGRE Japan, gives a broad yet holistic overview of how the 4th industrial revolution will be defined by electrification, network convergence, ‘Vehicle to X’ and Utility 3.0.

As a reminder, Paris Session 2024 is only 11 months away. For more information, please check for details here.

I wish you all good reading!

Best regards,

Michel Augonnet