The event was held 28-31 August 2023 at the Raleigh Convention Center, Raleigh, NC, USA.
For the first time the Americas conference was preceded on Monday by a half day tutorial “Utility Drivers and Experiences Using IEC 61850” included two presentations followed by a Panel Discussion: The Real Engineers of IEC 61850. It was followed by the traditional welcome reception which this year was at the Raleigh Times Bar.
The opening of the conference was followed by the Keynote address on “Protection, Automation, & Control – Past, Present, & Future,” presented by Dr. Damir Novosel, CEO Quanta Technology, IEEE Fellow, Past President of IEEE PES, and Member of US Academy of Engineering. The two-and-a-half day conference program included 47 papers presented in single sessions and covering a wide range of topics. As is a tradition for all PAC World conferences – there were no parallel sessions. The authors of the papers were from many countries from all over the world. The papers presented were followed by a discussion of all the papers at the end of each session.
For the first time the last paper session at the opening day of the conference was replaced by a utility panel on the Impact of IBRs on transmission protection, which triggered a lot of lively discussions due to the criticality of the topic to the participants in the conference. The papers presented at the conference covered a wide range of topics related to the developments of electric power systems protection and control technologies, the evolution in the implementation of IEC 61850 in digital substations, distribution automation and system integrity protection schemes. A number of papers were focused on various aspects of testing of protection and control devices and systems, while others talked about cyber security,
The traditional “Ask the experts” panel was the last session in the conference program. The lively interactive discussion was a great opportunity for the participants to cover a wide range of topics and answer questions submitted in advance or raised during the session.
During the breaks the participants visited the exhibition and discussed with the vendors’ representatives the latest advanced technology and its applications.
The gala dinner took place at the North Carolina Museum of History, which offered a unique chance for the participants to visit the museum and learn about the history of this state. It was also an opportunity to spend some time with all the new friends and then enjoy the excellent menu. This was followed by the photo competition awards ceremony and a lot of fun with a local musician.
As already has become a tradition, the “PAC Demo Hour +” was held at the end of the conference program on Tuesday, providing an additional demo session when participating exhibitors had an extended interaction with participants in a relaxed atmosphere.
