At Raleigh Convention Center during the Conference Program
We know how much our participants enjoy a good conversation about what is going on within utilities and their experiences. This year, we are offering the following panels which cover a variety of topics and utility panelists. Can’t wait to hear the conversations! See the conference schedule for the exact timing.
Each panel listed below has a description about the topic with the panelists and moderator. Expand the ones that interest you.
As utilities evaluate modernization strategies for medium-voltage substations, the concept of virtualized Protection, Automation, and Control systems is transitioning from theory to practical implementation. This session will examine the current readiness and limitations of virtual solutions based on IEC 61850, with a focus on real-world deployments and engineering considerations.
- The use of edge compute infrastructure to host virtualized IED functions
- Integration of IEC 61850 process bus elements, including GOOSE, Sampled Values, and system configuration via SCL
- Determinism, cybersecurity, failover behavior, and timing in virtualized protection schemes
- Operational integration with existing relay protection schemes and utility SCADA systems
Proposed Panel Roles:
- Quanta Technology: Field engineering insights from digital substation pilot projects, including risk assessments and protection scheme validation in environments.
- ABB: Vendor perspective on IEC 61850 adoption, device interoperability, and the challenges of supporting virtualized control functions within evolving substation architectures.
- Red Hat: Infrastructure and orchestration considerations for running real-time and deterministic workloads in edge environments, focusing on secure lifecycle management of virtual PAC functions using open hybrid cloud technologies.
- SRP: Utility perspective on utilizing virtual protection.
Attendees will gain clarity on what aspects of solutions are production-ready, what standards support is mature, and what open questions remain. The session will be most useful for protection engineers, grid architects, and substation modernization teams seeking to assess the technical and operational feasibility of migrating protection logic to a virtualized, software-defined model.
Moderator: David G. Hart
Panelists:
Brant Heap (Salt River Project)
John Archer (RedHat),
Jonathan Sykes (Quanta Technology)
Cristian Garcia (ABB)
With the acceleration of capital projects (new substations and upgrading existing substations), it is increasingly important to look at how to deploy digital substations. Digital substations provide improvements in protection, control, design, compliance, and testing cycles. However, there are many actions that a utility must do to pave the path to digitization that will make the journey successful and sustainable. The panelists will provide real-world experiences in how utilities approach this process. They will touch on the challenges, justification, standards, proof of concept and testing, commissioning, training and more. The goal is to give utilities that are just beginning the digitization of substations process, some valuable information to make the journey more effective and efficient.
- Utility applications
- Challenges in adopting digital substations
- Results from digital substation testing and field deployments
Attendees will gain insights from on-going digital substation deployments.
Moderator: John Bettler (ComEd retired)
Panelists:
Rick Tuck (Dominion),
Kelly Fox (CenterPoint),
Rich Hunt (Quanta Technology),
Inverter-based resources (IBRs), such as solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind power systems, have revolutionized the energy landscape by providing clean and renewable sources of electricity. However, these resources also introduce unique reliability challenges to power systems. Several key concerns are their dependency on weather conditions and lack of response to changing or adverse system conditions. Furthermore, inverter-based resources lack inertia, frequency and voltage control, and fault current which traditionally came from conventional generators and helped stabilize grid. Mitigating these challenges requires advanced control and monitoring systems that can detect changing system conditions, automatically recommend and take corrective actions, and stabilize the grid. The panel will be addressing this topic in detail both from a regulatory perspective, as well as from a utility perspective, and looking into practical, real-world solutions.
Moderator: Jonathan Sykes (Quanta Technology)
Panelists:
- Jason Eruneo (Duke Energy)
- Topic: High level overview and summary of issues including modeling issues of inverters of various models
- Zheyuan Cheng (Quanta Technology)
- Topic: – Solutions related to problems encountered with IBRs
- Bogdan Kasztenny Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL)
- Topic: Real world data of impact of IBR, application concerns for distance and backup protection
The Hot Springs Microgrid in North Carolina was designed to enhance reliability for a remote, single-fed community vulnerable to extended outages. During Hurricane Helene, the microgrid faced its first major test—catastrophic flooding severed access, damaged infrastructure, and disrupted communications. Despite these challenges, the microgrid successfully islanded and restored power to critical services days before grid power was re-established.
This panel will explore the technical, operational, and strategic lessons learned from the Helene event. Topics include intentional islanding strategies, protection philosophy under IEEE 1547, grounding transformer design, and the role of EMT modeling and Hardware-in-the-Loop (HiL) testing in preparing for abnormal scenarios. The discussion will also highlight the importance of community coordination, backup communication systems, and adaptive restoration planning.
The panelists will provide a utility-centric perspective on how microgrids can serve as resilient assets during extreme weather events, and how their design and operation must evolve to meet future grid challenges.
Moderator: Patrick Louka (Duke Energy)
Panelists:
* Bryan Hosseini (Duke Energy)
* Junior Hatcher (Duke Energy)
* Whiduddin (“Dean”) Qaemi (Duke Energy)
