Zagreb Energy Conference (hereinafter: ZEC, eng. rabbit) is an international meeting of students, teachers and people from the industry in the field of energy, organized by the IEEE Student Branch Zagreb. ZEC is designed as an annual event where students primarily share their experiences, make new acquaintances and friendships and establish the foundations for future cooperations. The first edition of ZEC took place in December 2015. It lasted two days, the participants were able to attend lectures on the topics of energy and visit electrical and industrial plants. For this organization, the members of the IEEE Student Branch Zagreb received the Chancellor’s Award for community service work in the academic and wider community 2015/2016.

Last year ZEC was held from 8^th till 10^th of December. With lectures and study visits, participants were able to participate in interactive workshops. The purpose of the conference was to inform participants about news, current events and activities from the world of energy and electrical power engineering. Along with the students of the University of Zagreb, students and guests from Croatia (Osijek and Rijeka), Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia, as well as high school students from Zagreb attended the ZEC.

On the first day of the conference, (8th December) participants visited the Ducati komponentid.o.o. company in Ludbreg and Dubrava Hydroelectric Power Plant, located on the Drava river. Afterwards, in the center of Ludbreg we visited a smart solar tree. After Ludbreg, we went to the accumulation lake Dubrava, where the Hydroelectric Power Plant Dubrava is located.

On the second day of the conference, (9th December) program was structured in the form of lectures, which were held at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb. The opening lecture was delivered by Member of European Parliament, Prof. Davor Škrlec who informed us about the latest developments in the Energy Community, and in general about the energy plan and the future energy policy of the European Union. On the other hand, the closing lectures focused on the projects regarding automation supported by the European Union. Refreshing to hear how all the fields of electrical engineering are so diverse but yet intertwined.

The last day the participants had the opportunity to participate on one of four interactive workshops. All were held at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Assistant Professor Juraj Havelka conducted a workshop on “Remote readout programmable measuring equipment in low-voltage substation (20 / 0.4 kV) and displaying the result on a remote computer via the user interface made using the methods of graphical programming (LabVIEW)”. The workshop participants were first taken in the laboratory of the Department for Power Systems where the functions of the substation were demonstrated. Then they went to the Department to see the computers using LabVIEW and were connected to the respective power station. Workshop “Hydro power plants in the electricity system” was held at the same Department. The assistants showed the participants how to make a small hydro power plant and how to engage it in the operation. In the Laboratory for Management of Electrical Drives, Institute of Electric and Automation, assistants held a workshop named “Management of electrical machines using frequency converters”. Participants were initially demonstrated the principle of operation of the electrical machine and the frequency converter, and then had the opportunity for experimental work.

IEEE Power and Energy Society Student Branch Chapter
University of Zagreb, Croatia