The 2007 Western Power Delivery Automation Conference was held 3-5 April 2007 in Spokane, Washington, USA. Spokane is located in the northeastern corner of Washington state and was first established in 1810 as a small trading post in the lands inhabited by the Spokane (meaning Children of the Sun) native Americans. The Spokane River runs through it, with spectacular falls on the western end of the city center.
The conference venue was the Davenport Hotel of Spokane that originally opened its doors on September 1, 1914, and was soon acclaimed as one of the world's grand hotels. It reopened in September 2002. Restored to its former elegance, the grand hotel again attracts a worldwide clientele, serves as Spokane's business and social hub, and is a major factor in the revitalization of the downtown area.
The conference is hosted by Washington State University and offers the attendees the opportunity to discuss the latest developments in the field of substation and power system automation. Papers about the application of communications protocols and equipment, network topology and security, substation automation and wide area monitoring and how they can be used in utility and industrial facilities were presented. The conference relies on papers from utilities, manufacturers, industry, educators, and consultants to offer a well-rounded, informative program.This conference focuses on the fast-growing issues of automation and control of power system substations. It is very helpful to power system specialists that are trying to find answers to their questions, such as:
The papers and discussions at the conference addressed the concerns regarding the selection of the right communications topology and mechanisms, refurbishment strategies or retrofitting substations, improving the engineering process or finding solutions to their networking problems.
This was the 9th conference on power delivery automation in Spokane that is intended to complement the protection relaying conference in the autumn, thus providing participants from the US and around the world to discuss the complete range of issues related to the control of electric power systems under different conditions.
The conference program included 16 carefully selected by the committee papers that were presented by industry leaders over the two and a half days. One of the main differences between this and many other conferences is that papers are presented at single sessions which allows all attendees to be present at the presentation and participate in the discussions of all conference papers.
During the breaks or after the end of the paper presentations leading manufacturers of intelligent electronic devices for substation protection and automation, as well as communications equipment and software tools were exhibiting in the beautiful halls of the Davenport hotel the latest power delivery automation technology and discussing with the participants their application.
