by Peter Bishop, Transpower NZ Ltd, New Zealand
News from CIGRE Study Committee B5 Protection and Automation

From 12 to 15 May, SCB5 contributed to the CIGRE Symposium in Trondheim Norway as a participating Study Committee. It hosted 3 paper presentation sessions, one tutorial and contributed to a tutorial with SC A3. The B5 tutorial was titled “Protection and Metering Advancements in the Evolving Power System” and included contributions from WG B5.57 and WG B5.76
SC B5 will organize the CIGRE Study Committee B5 Osaka Colloquium in Japan from 30th June to 6th July 2025. 48 papers have now been reviewed, accepted and authors notified about developing posters to present. The Special Report summarizing the papers and asking related questions for industry responses has been published. Delegates can submit prepared contributions before June 16.
Further details can be found on the colloquium website at https://cigre2025osaka.jp/
During the colloquium, SC B5 will present a tutorial entitled “Protection and Automation Considerations During Power System Disturbances.” SC B5 will also hold its annual meeting at the Colloquium.
Many B5 papers have also been received for the CIGRE symposium in Montréal Canada from 29 September to 3 October 2025 – https://cigre.ca/2025/en/
The papers are presently being reviewed. Although B5 was not listed in the participating Study Committees, there will also likely be B5 sessions.
The call for papers for CIGRE Session 2026 has been issued and SC B5 will have two preferential subjects as follows:
PS1: Knowledge management in the field of protection, automation, control, metering and monitoring
- Knowledge and skills and their preservation
- Education, training and life-long learning of students, young professionals, academics and manufacturer and utility personnel
- Platforms, methodology, tools and support for documentation and educational delivery
PS2: Protection and control in networks with unconventional sources
- Best practices and regulatory and performance requirements for protection and control in networks dominated by unconventional sources, including wind and solar generation, battery storage, HVDC links and other converter-based devices
- Lessons learned and field experience with protection and control in networks dominated by unconventional sources, including fault-ride through and transient behavior
- New developments in protection and fault response control of unconventional sources
Two new B5 working groups have been approved and member nominations are being sought via national committees:
B5.87 Digital Transformation of PACS: beyond the Application of IEC 61850
B5.88 Implementation Guide for fully digital IEC 61850-based Protection, Automation and Control Systems
A third working group (Protection Redundancy and Backup for Modern Power Systems) is expected to be approved soon.
Biography:

Peter Bishop is aPrincipal Protection and Automation Engineer at Transpower NZ Ltd, the transmission utility in New Zealand.
He is a chartered member of Engineering New Zealand and a Chartered Professional Engineer in New Zealand. Since graduating in 1989, Peter has gained experience in power system protection & automation engineering support for a transmission utility and protection manufacturer. He is now Secretary for CIGRE Study Committee B5, after being the Australia regular member. In 2022 Peter received the CIGRE Technical Council Award for Study committee B5.