|
This autumn, two
important international conferences were held for the electric
utility community, one with a primarily European flavor and
audience and the other with an Asian-Pacific region flair and
attendance. These events provided me with a glimpse of the
future direction of automation technologies that will drive
the international electric utility industry for years to come.
Held in Paris,
France, the biannual CIGRE Conference focused on generation
and high-voltage electric power transmission issues. Some of
the transmission-related automation developments exhibited at
CIGRE included an optical accelerometer from GEC Alstom, which
is a tool to measure and control (optically) the vibrations of
mechanical parts under voltage. Based on the success of NEPLAN
software, Swiss company, Busarello+Cott+Partner, Inc. has
become a European leader in power system engineering software.
CPM, a Quebec company, displayed its ACE 4000 and ACE Quatro
power quality analyzers. Diagnostic Monitoring Systems from
Scotland unveiled a partial discharge monitoring system for
gas-insulated substations, while High Voltage Test Systems, a
French firm, unveiled its 1998 development, the Digital
Partial Discharge Detector. A Russian firm, Opten Limited,
showed the results of its work in design and construction of
fiber-optic communication lines using existing high-voltage
transmission towers. The French company, Sagem, discussed its
role as the world's first manufacturer to have designed
synthetic insulation HV-EHV cable systems, which meet the
development requirements of modern electrical networks.
New testing methods
and software, professional engineering services, cable
products, remote diagnostics and performance monitoring for
high-voltage and EHV applications rounded out the hundreds of
top notch papers.
A few weeks after
CIGRE, I traveled to the coastal resort city of Pattaya,
Thailand to attend CEPSI (the Conference on the Electric Power
Supply Industry), sponsored by the Association of the
Electricity Supply of East Asia and the Western Pacific. Where
CIGRE was focused on EHV and HV issues, the CEPSI conference
covered a broader range of discussions and exhibits ranging
from power generation equipment to electricity distribution
products, equipment and systems.
Several Asian-based
exhibitors, as well as major European and North American
suppliers, displayed an interesting group of new
automation-related products. In the metering area, Email
Meters, Sydney, Australia, displayed some of its advanced
metering applications. Exicom, a New Zealand-based supplier of
electronics products for telecommunications and power metering
applications, exports to 65 countries. The company has
developed a successful power line carrier-based offering known
as VAM (Value-Added Metering). Demand-side management, a topic
of greater interest in power-hungry Asia-Pacific areas than in
North America, was represented by products exhibited by the
Tokyo Electric Power Co.
The new products and
adaptations of advanced technologies displayed at these two
conferences hold promise for utilities around the world. Here
is my assessment of these developments:
- Chinese companies
and organizations are emerging in the Asia-Pacific power
market as commercial suppliers interested in export market
opportunities. This development will affect future marketing
activities of international equipment manufacturers.
- The increasing
use of power line carrier communications worldwide shows
that such communications technology advances are continuing
through this decade.
- International
firms developing regional flavors of T&D automation
equipment and systems are finding more and more common
ground in their product designs, packaging and price ranges
as the decade closes. Value-added, information-based
capabilities for many of the new products displayed appear
to be the specific advantage for smaller suppliers, while
basic product or equipment components, configuration and
packaging, and sizing are rapidly becoming "global."
- A focus by
international firms on new product advances in the
high-voltage transmission area represents a maturation of
many regional markets for power generation equipment. The
next concern among nations once development of its power
generation infrastructure are underway is to maximize the
efficiency of the transmission grid and interconnect
regional grids.
- Because of the
growing sense of international standardization in the
electric power industry, there is bound to be more
international partnerships between and among vendors and
specialized equipment distributors.
- Successive
generations of many of the new product development efforts
that made their appearances at the CIGRE and CEPSI
Conferences will likely find receptive audiences in the
North American electric power marketplace by the early years
of the 21st century.
|
