The 35th Annual Western Protective Relay Conference was held in Spokane, WA

The conference is the  largest specialized conference in the field of electric power systems protection in the world.

This year it was attended by about six hundred specialists from many countries.

The conference program included fifty four papers covering different aspects of protection:

• Transmission
• Distribution
• Generator
• Wide area

Other topics discussed at the conference were: communications, synchrophasors and security.

Only one paper was presented (as an alternative paper) on IEC 61850.

The papers were presented at the Spokane Convention Center during the three days (21 to 23 October 2008) of the conference mostly in parallel sessions with breaks between the individual papers to allow the attendees to select between the two papers presented in each time slot.

Five panelists discussed with the audience issues related to the security partnership between manufacturers and customers.

After the end of the paper sessions the attendees had the opportunity to visit the hospitality suits at the Red Lion hotel, see the latest technology - devices and tools - in the field offered by the different vendors, and discuss their application.