On September 12, 2022, we participated in the CIRED conference in Serbia. This conference lasted until September 16, where we had the opportunity to join the program and enrich all the participants with our comments. What was the conference all about and why was it worth coming? You will learn in our article.
What is CIRED?
It is the leading forum where the international electricity distribution community comes together.
CIRED wants to increase the business competences, skills and knowledge of everyone involved in its activities. It also offers conferences and exhibitions that showcase developments and best practices. All of this is about the technology and management of the distribution of electricity.
Besides conferences, CIRED also organizes specific working groups. These groups are dedicated to current topics of interest to the entire electricity distribution community. Last year, we were partners in the CIRED conference in the Czech Republic. Read more about it.
Consultation on electrical distribution networks
The Serbian and Montenegrin CIRED Committee and other committees organized the 13th Conference on Electricity Distribution in Serbia. Many experts and companies from Serbia and the regions were invited, including us. The entire conference took place from September 12 to 16, 2022.
All the participating countries from the same region are at a similar technical level. They face the same challenges in the area of electricity distribution, operation and management of distribution networks. Therefore, the conference served as an opportunity to exchange practical knowledge and mutual assistance.
All of these companies are at different levels of the process of restructuring, deregulation and privatization of the electric power industry. They must also deal with the opening of the electricity markets. Therefore, this conference was attractive to many companies from the area.
Statement by the president of CIRED Serbia
Even before the start of the whole event, Zoran Simendić, president of CIRED Serbia, said the following:
“ Through carefully selected works and numerous business presentations, visitors will have access to information in one place about the latest scientific and professional knowledge within thematic units relevant to the electricity distribution industry, and through discussions and concrete experiences in the application of new technologies.”
Then he explained: “So far, we have held 12 consultations, published 1,450 papers written by over 1,600 engineers, organized 26 round tables and several pre-seminars. The consultation was attended by 8,333 participants and supported by 222 different companies. On the occasion of 25 years of work, we published a film about CIRED Serbia and printed a monograph, which is available on the CIRED website.”
Conference program
During this year, Expert Work of the 13th Consultation, it will take place in six expert commissions according to the planned program. 102 papers were submitted according to the given preferential topics, of which 86 will be presented.
Introductory lectures took place every working day:
- tuesday, September 13, 2022, from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. – Jovica V Milanović, Ph.D. – Challenges of switching to distribution networks with neutral greenhouse gas emissions and assuming the role of distribution system operator (online lecture),
- wednesday, September 14, 2022, from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. – Dr. Vladica Mijailović – Reduction of losses in the distribution network as part of the transition to a sustainable active system,
- thursday, September 15, 2022, from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. – Dr. Mladen Kezunović – Big data analytics for predicting, managing and mitigating outages (online lecture).
3 round tables
Talks on current topics were also planned for this event. President Simendić pointed specifically to three round tables. Behind them, current matters in the field of electricity distribution were discussed:
- aggregator as a new market participant – the operator of a virtual power plant created by aggregating manageable consumption and distributed production,
- renewable sources in the low voltage network – regulation and challenges,
- digitization of energy equipment.
