The CIGRE International Symposium, was held in Trondheim at the Clarion Hotel. The event was organized jointly by eleven CIGRE Study Committees. It provided a forum to exchange technical knowledge on integrating renewables, digitalization, and maintaining system security.
Study Committee B5 featured prominently in tutorials and technical sessions. On the opening day, B5 collaborated with A3 to present a tutorial on Modern Instrument Transformers for Protection Applications, emphasizing the transition from conventional to low-power instrument transformers for digital substations. Later, a dedicated B5 tutorial, Protection and Metering Advancements in the Evolving Power System, highlighted new challenges for frequency protection in low-inertia systems and the role of IEC 61850-based digital metering architectures.
The technical sessions on May 13th covered a wide spectrum of B5 research. Session 1 explored system engineering and design aspects, including risk management for utilities, IEC 61850/62351 implementations, centralized protection and control, and top-down engineering approaches. Session 2 addressed implementation experiences, with case studies on AI-assisted relay settings, high-resistivity fault detection, differential protection communication strategies, and operational feedback from Norwegian digital substations. Session 3 focused on the impact of renewable and inverter-based resources on protection, tackling issues such as adaptive reclosing, distance relay challenges, and protection strategies in evolving networks.
Overall, the B5 contributions underscored the critical role of protection, automation, and control systems in enabling the energy transition. By addressing technical, operational, and cybersecurity dimensions, SC B5 provided a clear pathway for adapting PACS (Protection, Automation, and Control Systems) to future grid requirements.
