CIRED – International Conference on Electricity Distribution is a biennial event occuring every time in a different European country. CIRED, set up as a ‘non-for-profit’ international Association established in Belgium, works for the purpose of increasing the business relevant competencies, skills and knowledge of those who see themselves as a part of the electricity distribution community, whether they are from the utility, product, consultancy, service, business or Academic sector.
Each even year (every two years between CIRED main conferences), CIRED also organizes a CIRED Workshop on specific topics. This year’s CIRED Workshop will be held in Ljubljana‘s Cankarjev dom – Cultural and Congress Centre between 7 and 8 June under the title »Microgrids and local energy communities”.
Microgrids and local energy communities can have a tremendous impact on distribution system development, and may offer a number of important advantages for the end-users and for the utilities. Customers, producers and those who do both have the potential to reduce energy costs, improve service continuity and bidding system services and flexibility. Distribution system operators may reduce or postpone investments, increase hosting capacity and improve quality of services. A proper regulatory framework has to be designed to allow them to bring these expected benefits to the various stakeholders, while maintaining an effective market operation, making sure there is no negative impact on the overall cost base and avoiding unfair cross-subsidisation.
Cankarjev dom – Cultural and Congress Centre Ljubljana located in the centre of Slovenian capital will from 7 – 8 June host 400 delegates that will focus on microgrids, i.e. electricity distribution systems containing loads and distributed energy resources (such as distributed generators, storage devices, or controllable loads), that can be operated in a controlled, coordinated way. Ljubljana, as the Green European Capital 2016, thus presents a perfect choice for an international workshop on a modern electricity distribution.
