Past Events
2019 Events
PES Technical Talk on “Practical Power Flow Controller Brings Benefits of Power Electronics To The Grid”
Speaker: Dr. Kalyan K. Sen
Date: Wednesday August 26, 2019
Time: 12:00pm to 1:00pm
Place: Centre Room, Auditorium – BC Hydro Edmonds Office, 6911 Southpoint Drive, Burnaby
Summary: Power flow control techniques have been practiced, from using inductors, capacitors, transformers and load tap changers in the earlier days of electrical engineering to power electronics-based solutions in recent years. Even though the costs and complexities of the available solutions vary widely, the basic underlying theory of power flow control is still the same as it always has been. The question is which solution one should employ. The answer depends on knowing what the true need is. The power industry’s pressing need for the most economical ways to transfer bulk power along a desired path may be met by building new transmission lines, which is a long and costly process. Alternately, it may be quicker and cheaper to utilize the existing transmission lines more efficiently. The key is to identify the underutilized transmission lines and harness their dormant capacity to increase the power flows to the lines’ thermal limits. The presentation is designed to provide the basic principles of power flow control theory, an overview of the most commonly used power flow controllers, and future trends. The presentation will be of particular interest to all utility power engineering professionals. The required background is an equivalent of an Electrical Engineering degree with familiarity in power engineering terminology. The audience will hear from an expert who actually designed and commissioned a number of power electronics-based FACTS controllers since its inception in the 1990s.
PES Technical Talk on “Sub-synchronous Currents Damage 500kV Shunt Reactor”
Speaker: Dr. Mukesh Nagpal
Date: Wednesday August 14, 2019
Time: 12:00pm to 1:00pm
Place: Centre Room, Auditorium – BC Hydro Edmonds Office, 6911 Southpoint Drive, Burnaby
Summary: On March 31, 2019, a 500 kV air-core, shunt reactor at BC Hydro’s Mica generating station was severely damaged shortly after four unit transformers were simultaneously energized from a 500 kV series and shunt compensated line source. Forensic investigations revealed that the controlled switching system, controlling the instant at which each breaker phase closes during energization to minimize inrush current, had failed. Uncontrolled closing led to under-damped, high-magnitude and sub-synchronous currents; predominantly about 20 Hz ferro-resonant currents in transformers and about 9 Hz resonant currents in the air-core line shunt reactor. Protection tripped and isolated the four transformers, followed shortly by shunt reactor protection tripping. Before the reactor could be isolated by circuit breakers, a damaging internal fault developed. Deep understanding of the sequence-of-events and root cause of failure were crucial because they enabled safe re-energization of the generating station within in days of the event and in-turn alleviated system reliability and regulatory concerns while the plant was not available. This presentation describes the sequence of events, presents forensic evidence to support conclusions made and shares valuable lessons learned on pitfalls of applying point-on-wave technology in a complex system.
PES Technical Talk on “Grid Reliability and Its Vital Signs”
Speaker: Dr. Jessica Bian
Date: Friday June 14, 2019
Time: 12:00pm to 1:00pm
Place: Southpoint Room, Auditorium – BC Hydro Edmonds Office, 6911 Southpoint Drive, Burnaby
Summary: Frequency, voltage, customer interruption. What do these vital signs tell us about the bulk power system? Learn the grid health underlying the vital signs and how to accurately assess them. This lecture will explore reliability aspects of bulk power system so that you will develop a systematic, integrated understanding of how to assess the bulk power system reliability. Additional indicators include energy emergency alerts, transmission outage rates, protection system operations, and resource reserve margin. The presentation will also provide ranges, trends, and driving factors that influence changes in these indicators.
PES Technical Talk on “Synchrophasor-assisted Power System State Estimation”
Speaker:
Date: Wednesday, May 29, 2019
Time: 5:00pm to 6:00pm
Place: Centre Room, Auditorium – BC Hydro Edmonds Office, 6911 Southpoint Drive, Burnaby
Summary:Phasor measurement units (PMUs) are increasingly being deployed in power systems. One immediate potential application of the sychrophasor measurements from PMUs is in state estimation. Accuracy and refresh rate of the existing SCADA-based state estimator can be improved by incorporating PMU measurements. This talk will mention the limitations of the SCADA-based state estimators, and the advantages of using PMU measurements in the estimator. For a system completely observable by PMUs, one can use PMU-only state estimator. For limited number of PMUs, it is generally advisable to use hybrid state estimator that considers both PMU and SCADA measurements. Both these types of estimators will be discussed. Challenges associated with the hybrid state estimator will be illustrated. Based on the available number of PMU measurements, suggestions will be drawn regarding the type of estimator suitable for a utility. Some of the recent developments in state estimator algorithms including forecasting-aided state estimator will highlighted in the talk.
2018 Events
Workshop on “Protection Relays, Automation, IEC 61850 and Event Analysis”
Speaker: Rogelio P Baldevia, Jr., Justin Jeter
Date: Friday, August 10th 2018
Time: 8:00am to 4:30pm (full-day)
Place: BCIT Burnaby Campus 3700 Willingdon Avenue SW01 Room 2019
Summary: A full-day hands-on workshop brought to you in collaboration with Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL). The workshop covered how to navigate through the SEL QuickSet software, how to configure an RTAC controller for automatic event retrieval and how to use SEL SynchroWave event software.
PES Technical Talk on “Avalanches and Storms – Experiences from the BC Hydro Control Centre”
Speaker: Mr. Brett Hallborg
Date: Wednesday, June 6th 2018
Time: 12:00pm to 1:00pm (lunch hour)
Place: Skytrain Room, Auditorium – BC Hydro Edmonds Office, 6911 Southpoint Drive, Burnaby
Summary: BC Hydro runs a major portion of the provincial electrical grid from two Control Centers, FVO and SIO. This presentation will introduce you to Fraser Valley Operations, and how it runs during both normal and emergency situations caused by avalanches and storms.
PES Technical Talk on “Evolution of Circuit Breaker TRVs and Standards”
Speaker:Dr. David Peelo
Date: Wednesday, April 11th, 2018
Time: 12:00pm to 1:00pm (lunch hour)
Place: Centre Room, Auditorium – BC Hydro Edmonds Office, 6911 Southpoint Drive, Burnaby
Summary: The first commercial bulk-oil circuit breakers appeared on the market around 1910 with manufacturing in North America dominated by GE and Westinghouse. Current interruption was viewed as an AC event for almost two decades and, with no short-circuit test laboratories, commissioning on-site often included a fault test which resulted in failure. The existence of TRVs was first proposed in 1927 and proven in 1931. TRVs evolved driven by experience and breaker performance. The first IEC standard for breakers was published in the 1950s and the today’s IEEE standard did not start until the early 1970s. The history of TRVs and standards is not only about the subject itself but also of those who contributed to the development.
PES Technical Talk on “Lessons Learned from a Regional System Blackout and Restoration in BC Hydro”
Speaker: Mukesh Nagpal, Principal Engineer and Manager of P&C Department, BC Hydro
Date: Wednesday, February 7th, 2018
Time: 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. (lunch hour)
Place: Skytrain Room, Auditorium – BC Hydro Edmonds Office, 6911 Southpoint Drive, Burnaby, BC
Summary: On September 6, 2016, the Peace Region in the Northeast BC Hydro system experienced a blackout after an intense thunderstorm subjected multiple 500 kV lines, sharing the same transmission corridor, to lightning strikes in the time span of about three minutes. These lines connect two large generating stations, regional loads and five non-utility generators to the rest of the BC Hydro system. The protection scheme on the first line tripped three-phase and initiated autoreclose as designed. However immediately after three-phase opening, high magnitudes of low-frequency (about 9 Hz) currents appeared in the line shunt reactor, causing a protection trip and aborting the autoreclose. Subsequent lightning strikes coupled with a pre-existing line outage disconnected both generating stations from each other as well as from the integrated system. The larger of the two generating stations and almost all the regional load formed an islanded subsystem, which eventually collapsed and blacked out. During the restoration of the subsystem, steady-state resonant overvoltages higher than 145% were experienced. The occurrence of blackouts can’t be eliminated entirely because power systems are very complex, geographically dispersed and have many machines operating synchronously. However, the lessons learned from these unwelcome events can help to minimize the probability of recurrence. So, the intent of the presentation is to share the lessons learned by BC Hydro from forensic analysis of the disturbances leading to a regional blackout and describes the risk of unsafe overvoltages from a near power frequency resonant condition during the restoration process. A simple circuit analysis will be used to provide insight into the phenomenon of the low-frequency ringdown current which caused the reactor protection to trip and the near power frequency resonance which led to the overvoltages. Corrective actions implemented to prevent recurrence of a similar incident will also be presented.
2017 Events
PES Technical Talk on “United States Navy Submarine Rescue: Project Strategies”
Speakers: Peter Helland, CEO, Midgard Consulting Inc, Vancouver, Canada
Date: Wednesday, September 13th, 2017
Time: 12:00PM to 1:00 PM (lunch hour)
Place: Southpoint Auditorium – BC Hydro’s Edmonds Office | 6911 Southpoint Drive, Burnaby, BC
Summary: Effective project management is about motivating people to do the right things at the right time. Peter Helland, CEO of Midgard Consulting, will be presenting lessons learned managing the project turn around and delivery of a Submarine Rescue Vehicle to the United States Navy. The lessons explored in this presentation will be universal lessons of human behaviour that are widely applicable in any organization, and may benefit front line staff, engineers, project managers, and executives. Please join Peter as he shares his unique experiences developing and delivering a first in class submarine vehicle designed to rescue submariners trapped under 2000 feet of seawater on the ocean floor.
PES Technical Talk on “Redesigning the Electric Grid for High Reliability and High Flexibility”
Speakers: Haroon Inam, Chief Technology Officer and Brad Bell Director of Customer Solutions, Smart Wires Inc.
Date: Friday, August 25th, 2017
Time: 12:00PM to 1:00 PM (lunch hour)
Place: Center Auditorium – BC Hydro’s Edmonds Office | 6911 Southpoint Drive, Burnaby, BC
Summary: PES Chapter invited two speakers from Smart Wires Inc. USA to talk about modern grid challenges and redesigning the grid for reliability and flexible operation.
IEEE PES Region 7 Canadian Utility Workshop on Grid Modernization
Organized by PES Region 7 in collaboration with BC Hydro and PES Vancouver Chapter
Date: Monday, July 24th, 2017
Time: 8:00AM to 5:30 PM
Place: BC Hydro Edmonds Auditorium | 6911 Southpoint Drive, Burnaby, BC V3N 4X8
Summary: IEEE Power and Energy Society Region 7 event on Grid Modernization was hosted by Bc Hydro, which focused on the Canadian electric power utilities experiences, opportunities, challenges, planning and strategies. The workshop was supported by PES Vancouver chapter. The workshop had four panel sessions and five presentations.
PES Chapter Industry Tour: General Fusion Research Facility at Burnaby
Date: Friday, June 23rd , 2017
Time: 2:30PM to 4:30 PM
Place: General Fusion Inc | 106 – 3680 Bonneville Pl, Burnaby, BC V3N 4T5
PES Technical Talk on “The Journey to the Digital Utility”
Speaker: Kip Morison, Fellow IEEE, Chief Information Officer, BC Hydro
Date: Friday, May 12th , 2017
Time: 12:00PM to 1:00 PM (lunch hour)
Place: Center Auditorium – BC Hydro’s Edmonds Office | 6911 Southpoint Drive, Burnaby, BC
PES Chapter Industry Tour: General Fusion Research Facility at Burnaby
Date: Tuesday, May 2nd , 2017
Time: 3:00PM to 4:45 PM
Place: General Fusion Inc | 106 – 3680 Bonneville Pl, Burnaby, BC V3N 4T5
IAS/PES Joint Distinguished Lecture on “Experience with an on-line Hydro Generator Expert System Monitoring System”
Speaker: Blake Lloyd, PEng. Fellow IEEE
Date: Friday, April 21st , 2017
Time: 4:30PM to 6:00 PM
Place: Skytrain Auditorium – BC Hydro’s Edmonds Office | 6911 Southpoint Drive, Burnaby, BC
PES Technical Talk on “Practical Paths to Fusion Energy”
Speaker: Michael Delage, Chief Technology Officer, General Fusion, Burnaby, BC
Date: Monday, February 27 2017
Time: 12:00PM to 1:00 PM (Lunch Hour)
Place: BC Hydro: Edmonds A01 Auditorium – Southpoint Room | 6911 Southpoint Drive, Burnaby, BC V3N 4X8
PES Technical Talk on “Planning & Operating BC Hydro Main Grid with Remedial Action Schemes”
Speaker: Steven Pai, Chief Planning Engineer, Transmission & Station Planning, BC Hydro
Date: Wednesday, January 25th 2017
Time: 12:00PM to 1:00 PM (Lunch Hour)
Place: BC Hydro: Edmonds A01 Auditorium – Skytrain Room | 6911 Southpoint Drive, Burnaby, BC V3N 4X8
Last Updated: Dec 23, 2019