The articles in this edition of the magazine at first glance look like they are covering a range of different issues. But if we consider what the authors discuss, it becomes clear that these issues are somehow related.

In our industry, the aging of the workforce and the loss of expertise, combined with the increasing workload and new advancements in the protection, automation and control technologies require the acceptance of a new approach to the engineering, testing and maintenance of the protection system.

One of the critical requirements for all of us to consider is the advanced features in state-of-the-art multifunctional devices - not as a change imposed on us - but as an opportunity to improve the efficiency and reliability of the protection and control systems while reducing the impact of system events on the power system's stability.

This not only applies to the devices themselves, but also to the engineering tools that are used during different phases of the devices' lifecycle. Transformer protection has evolved with the changes in design and materials, not only to the selection of the protection devices used, but to every aspect of the transformer's operation. The protection and control design, commissioning, and routine testing must change, as well as the analysis requirements of transformer protection operations.

An important issue related to all of the above is the scheduled maintenance of protection systems - all utilities are required to improve the reliability and availability of critical protection devices and systems. However, testing alone is not enough; the proper use of all condition monitoring functions available in intelligent or multifunctional digital protection devices can help utilities replace the mandatory scheduled testing with continuous monitoring. 

This will on one hand reduce the possibilities for human errors during the testing process.

At the same time it can replace the detection of problems and failures only during testing or misoperations, with automatic detection as soon as the problem occurs.

But for this to happen, we need to change our mindset - instead of doing things like "we always did", we should embrace the new capabilities and do them in the most efficient way possible, taking full advantage of all advanced functions in modern protection and control IEDs.