Ideas to Shape Tomorrow’s Electricity Grid – NGN Ireland Presentation Competition

Dublin, Ireland
4 November 2025

By Alan Hickey, CIGRE Ireland NGN Committee

The competition invites members to present new innovations or recent contributions that address pressing technical issues within their field. Its broad scope encourages a diverse range of topics and highlights the impact NGN members are having throughout the energy sector. The overall aim is to select a candidate to represent CIGRE Ireland NGN at the Young Members’ Showcase at the 2026 Paris Session.

Members were asked to submit short abstracts summarising their work, and the variety and quality of submissions were impressive. Topics included interconnection within the Irish power system, novel energy storage technologies, enablers of demand response, tools to automate system studies, challenges and opportunities associated with increasing renewable generation in the Irish power system and system restoration. Submissions reflected a wide range of backgrounds and expertise, with entries from undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as industry professionals.

The four finalists chosen to present at the event included Rónán Davison-Kernan, Sowmya Sabu, Stuart Watson and Aidan McNally. A judging panel was convened of a variety of industry experts, including Richard Crowley, Hugh Cunningham, John Ging and Marta Val Escudero.

Rónán’s presentation looked at the development of Transmission Clusters in Northern Ireland. Rónán demonstrated how an expected growth in generation connections has prompted a review of connection policy in Northern Ireland to enable more efficient network planning and development. He highlighted how more efficient planning could be beneficial for the TSO, generators and ultimately the consumer.

Sowmya highlighted her work on foundation design for offshore wind farms in challenging environments. The vast swathe of technical, economic, logistical and sustainability parameters were introduced to illustrate the challenges associated with offshore wind turbine foundation design concept selection.

Stuart spoke about improved substation monitoring and modelling of small-scale generation. He introduced the concept of transformer loading and its impact on transformer lifetime and highlighted the importance of monitoring transformer loading as such assets age. His work on modelling small-scale generation contributed to improved condition monitoring for ageing transformers.

Aidan presented his work on developing a machine learning tool to predict faults on Dublin’s medium voltage cable network. Aidan highlighted the difficulty associated with responding to faults as they occur on the network, rather than the usual discussion on how to avoid faults. He demonstrated the procedure he followed to identify relevant parameters and test his model. He also pointed to the tool’s scalability for broader use and the potential to further refine its accuracy.

John Ging, from the judging panel, also delivered an insightful presentation on the topic of interconnecting people and cultures. He reflected on the benefits of interconnection for Ireland as well as the cultural diversity in working on interconnector projects with counterparts in other jurisdictions.

After much deliberation and a fantastic networking opportunity for members, the judging panel announced Aidan McNally as the winner of the competition and the chosen representative for the Young Members’ Showcase at the 2026 Paris Session.

As the last major event in a busy year for the CIGRE Ireland NGN, November’s event was a meaningful opportunity to reflect on the work of the committee in promoting the development of young professionals in the power systems industry. It is also important to reflect on the 75th anniversary of CIGRE Ireland and the immeasurable benefits that innovation in the industry has brought to the Irish economy and society.

The CIGRE Ireland NGN Committee is looking forward to an exciting 2026, continuing to promote the development of young, innovative professionals in the energy industry with even more initiatives and events. If 2025 is any indication, the future is very promising.

Many thanks to the CIGRE Ireland NGN committee members, highlighted below, who made the year such a success.