Power system security under the spotlight at major conference

Power system security will be the topic under the spotlight at the Australasian Universities Power Engineering Conference (AUPEC ‘04).

The School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering (ITEE) at The University of Queensland is hosting the major Australasian conference in power engineering from September 26–29.

According to conference General Chair, Associate Professor Tapan Saha from ITEE, the meeting represents a major event for industry professionals as well as academics in power engineering to share recent advances in power-engineering research and development.

“It is particularly relevant given Queensland's current electricity supply debate,” Dr Saha said.

The conference theme is Deregulated Power Industry: Challenges and Opportunities.

Technical presentations will be conducted in four, parallel sessions for three days with attendees from a number of countries, including Australia, New Zealand, China, India, Iran, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Italy, Canada and Austria.

During the conference, leading experts in power engineering will present keynote speeches on a number of major issues faced by the electricity industry.

Professor George Gross from the University of Illinois will deliver a keynote speech outlining the security aspects of a complex, interconnected electricity grid with special reference to a recent blackout of the North American electricity grid.

Jeff Harding, Managing Director of Pacific Hydro, will present a keynote speech on renewable energy, in particular on the challenges and opportunities presented by wind energy.

Gordon Jardine, CEO of Powerlink, will outline the challenges facing transmission companies in a deregulated market environment.

Energy systems research is an integral part of the Complex and Intelligent Systems Research Group in the School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering at UQ.

Dr Saha said the group was one of the most successful research groups in power engineering in Australia with projects receiving funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC), the National Electricity Market Management Company (NEMMCO), Powerlink Queensland, TransGrid New South Wales, Transend Tasmania, and South Australia's Electricity Supply Industry Planning Council.

Internationally, the power engineering research team had also forged strong research collaborations.

Media contacts: Dr Saha (telephone: 07 3365 3962, email: saha@itee.uq.edu.au), Communications Manager Kristina Sinclair (email: sinclair@itee.uq.edu.au) or Shirley Glaister at UQ Communications (telephone: 07 3365 1120, email: s.glaister@uq.edu.au).