REN hosts CIGRÉ Portugal´s annual meeting

REN hosted CIGRÉ Portugal's Annual Meeting at its offices in Sacavém. The meeting was attended by Konstantin Stachus, Secretary General of ENTSO-E and Pablo Rodríguez Herrerías, Secretary General of CIGRÉ Spain.

The meeting, which brought together several electricity sector specialists and members of the CIGRÉ Portugal National Committee, opened with a session on the 'Relationship between Transmission System Operators and Distribution System Operators in the Future European Electrical System', with the secretary general of ENTSO-E and the chairman of EDSO as speakers. The ensuing debate was chaired by Victor Baptista, director of institutional relations in his role as chairman of the CIGRÉ Portugal National Committee.

An assessment was then made of the work carried out by the CIGRÉ Study Committees during 2015, followed by a presentation of the organisation's strategic goals for 2016-18 and, to end, a presentation of the CIGRÉ Portugal National Committee's outlook for 2016 under Pedro Cabral, its secretary since 2015.

Founded in Paris in 1921, CIGRÉ (International Council on Large Electric Systems) is a non-profit association that brings together collective members (electricity sector utilities, manufacturers of electrical and command and control equipment, and organisations carrying out research in electrical systems) and individual members (most of whom work in the area of electricity transmission). At the end of 2015, CIGRÉ had 8,000 individual and 1,100 collective members. CIGRÉ has members in 90 countries, 58 with a National Committee (countries with more than 40 'equivalent members').

CIGRÉ is a unique forum bringing together specialists in all areas concerned with the technology and technical management of electricity systems. It has hundreds of highly-qualified people - both members and non-members - who collaborate with its Study Committees and Working Groups to produce important technical documents used throughout the world to establish standards (CENELEC and IEC), create legislation and in manuals of good practice. Participation in CIGRÉ is a way to keep up-to-date and to ensure the ongoing training of electrical power transmission technicians and the management of national electrical systems across the world.

The CIGRÉ Portugal National Committee has 11 collective members - including REN - Rede Eléctrica Nacional, S.A (the other ten collective members include two utilities, four equipment manufacturers and technical service providers, one test and trial laboratory, one university research laboratory, one industrial R&D centre and one official regulatory body) and 39 individual members, including 20 REN employees, for a total of 105 equivalent members.