Plenary Speakers
1. René Peter Paul Smeets, DNV GL’s KEMA Laboratories, Netherlands
Title of the Talk: Developments and Trends in European T&D Switching Technology
René Peter Paul Smeets received the M.Sc. degree in physics from the Eindhoven Univ. of Technology, the Netherlands in 1981 and a Ph.D degree for research work on switchgear. Until 1995, he was an assistant professor at Eindhoven University. During 1991 he worked with Toshiba Corporation in Japan in the development of switchgear.
In 1995, he joined KEMA, the Netherlands. At present, he is with DNV GL’s KEMA Laboratories, as a service area leader. In 2001 he was appointed part-time professor at Eindhoven University, the Netherlands in the field of high-power switching. He received six international awards. In 2013 he became adjunct professor at Xi’an Jiaotong University, China.
Dr. Smeets is convener and member of working groups and study/advisory committees of CIGRE in the field of emerging high-voltage equipment such as high-voltage vacuum - and HVDC switchgear. He is convener of two maintenance teams in IEC on high-voltage switchgear. He published and edited three books and authored over 250 international papers on testing and switching in power systems. In 2008 he was elected Fellow of IEEE and since 2008 he is chairman of the “Current Zero Club”, a scientific study committee on current interruption.All over the world, he conducted many international workshops and trainings on high-voltage equipment including technology, application, requirements, testing and certification.
2. Yasunori Tanaka, Kanazawa University, Japan
Title of the Talk: Fundamental Studies on Switching Arcs
-Experimental and Numerical Approaches-
Yasunori Tanaka received B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Nagoya University, Japan, in 1993, 1995 and 1998, respectively. In April 1998, he was appointed a Research Associate at Kanazawa University, Japan. From August 2002 to March 2010, he was Associated Professor. Presently, he has been working as Professor since April 2010 at that university. His research interests include arc interruption phenomena in circuit breakers, and fundamentals and applications of arcs/thermal plasmas: numerical simulation of thermal plasmas, nanopowder synthesis, plasma arc cutting, surface modification, etc.
3. Bang-Wook LEE, Hanyang University, South Korea
Title of the Talk: HVDC Circuit Breaker - Design Considerations and Application Issues
Prof. Bang-Wook Lee is a Professor, School of Electrical engineering of Hanyang university Korea.
He received B.S, M.S. and PH.D degree from Hanyang university, Seoul, Korea in 1991, 1993, 1998. Before he joined Hanyang university, he worked for LS Industrial Systems as a senior researcher for 10 years in the research field of high voltgage electric equipment. Affer joining Hanayng university as a professor since 2008. His main research interests include HVDC insulation design, HVDC protection systems, transient phenomena analysis and the development of electrical equipment for HVDC system. He is now the member of CIGRE SC D1 representing Korea. And he also actively works for several working groups in CIGRE.
4. Jianying Zhong, State Grid Pinggao Group Co. LTD., China
Title of the Talk: Introduction on the Switchgear of DC Transmission System
Zhong Jianying, Ph.D., professorate senior engineer, doctoral supervisor, deputy to the twelfth National People's Congress, was born in 1975. She is currently the general manager assistant of State Grid Pinggao Group Co., Ltd., China.
Her research focuses on the power transmission and transformation equipment. She has led and accomplished 36 national and provincial key scientific and technological projects, and obtained 35 national, provincial (or ministerial), municipal scientific and technological achievements. She has won 4 first prizes and 15 second prizes at provincial and ministerial level, and 3 national outstanding patent awards. She has published 42 technical papers including 15 indexed by SCI or EI, and edited 2 books. She has been awarded many honorary titles, such as China Power Excellent Young Engineer Award, Henan Province Outstanding Science and Technology Talent, Henan Province Top Ten Outstanding Science and Technology Female, Pingdingshan Science and Technology Hero, State Grid Corporation of China’s Outstanding Expert, etc.
Invited Speakers
1. Satoru Yanabu, Xi'an Jiaotong University, China
Title of the Talk: DC Current Interruption of CO2 and SF6 Beased on Self-excited Oscillation Under Transverse Magnetic Field
Satoru Yanabu was born on July 15, 1941. He received the B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, in 1964, and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Liverpool, Liverpool, U.K., in 1971.After graduation from The University of Tokyo, he was with Toshiba, where he worked on high-voltage equipment. Since 2000, he has been with Tokyo Denki University, Tokyo, where he is currently with the Department of Electrical Engineering and is engaged in high-voltage and high-current research. He is currently Professor of Xi’an Jiaotong University in 2012.
Dr. Yanabu is a Fellow of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, U.K., and a member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. He is also a member of the Japan Engineering Academy and the Current Zero Club and is a Fellow Engineer of the Royal Academy of Engineering, U.K., and a member of various international societies. His research interests are vacuum arcs and post arc phenomena, the axial magnetic field vacuum circuit breaker and SF6 puffer breaker, gas-insulated substation (GIS), DC circuit breaker and superconducting current limiting technology.
2. John Shea, Schneider-Electric, USA
Title of the Talk: Low Voltage Power Distribution Level DC Circuit Breaking
Received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1989. He is currently the Scientific Advisor for Schneider-Electric, based in Raleigh, North Carolina where he is involved in advanced distribution circuit protection technology and distributed energy systems. He is the chairman of the Raleigh IEEE Power Electronics Society chapter, associate editor for IEEE Electronics and Packaging Society and a longtime member of the IEEE Holm conference steering, operating and technical committees.
He was awarded the 2008 Holm Scientific Awardee for electrical contact erosion mechanisms, four prize papers, the Ralph Armington award for service to the electric contact community, and the E.O Forester service award for long time contributions to the IEEE Dielectric and Electrical Insulation Society magazine. He presently holds 72 patents on various arc interruption and power distribution component designs, and written 30 journal articles and has made 30 conference presentations on various arc interruption power distribution component topics.
3. Riccardo Bini, ABB Corporate Research, Switzerland
Title of the Talk: DC Interruption Technologies for HVDC Transmission: State-of-Art and Outlook
Riccardo Bini received his MSc (2001) and PhD (2006) in Mechanical Engineering from Politecnico di Milano with a numerical and experimental study of welding arcs.
He joined ABB Corporate Research in 2006 as scientist, focusing his activities on switching arcs and high voltage circuit breakers development. From 2010 to 2012 he led the Gas Circuit Breakers group at the Swiss Corporate Lab and since 2013 he is managing globally the Corporate Research portfolio on AC and DC switching technologies for the entire voltage range.He is author or co-author of more than twenty international journal or conference papers and four patents.
4. Hiroki Kojima, Nagoya University, Japan
Title of the Talk: Surface Flashover Mechanism and Its Application to Diagnosis in Vacuum Interrupter
Hiroki KOJIMA was born on 7 December 1975. He received his B.E. degree in electrical engineering in 1998, and his M.Eng. and Ph.D. degrees in energy engineering and science in 2000 and in 2004, respectively, from Nagoya University, Japan. He was a Research Fellow with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science from 2000 to 2003. Since 2004, he has been at Nagoya University and presently he is an Associate Professor at Nagoya University in the Department of Electrical Engineering. His research interests are high voltage engineering, discharge physics, electrical insulation and diagnosis engineering in power apparatus, and superconducting power technology. He attempts developing the environment-friendly efficient energy system. Dr. Kojima is a member of IEEE DEIS and IEEJ.
5. Anthony B. Murphy, CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering，Australia
Title of the Talk: Multicomponent diffusion in arc plasmas – examples from arc welding, and implications for circuit breaker
Tony Murphy is a Chief Research Scientist with CSIRO, Australia’s main government research organisation, where he has worked for 27 years. He leads the Materials and Process Modelling Team in CSIRO’s Manufacturing division. His main research area is thermal plasma processes, including arc welding, waste treatment, and plasma property calculation. He was a member of the team that developed the PLASCON waste destruction process, and he has led large plasma modelling projects with companies including General Motors and Boeing. He has over 220 refereed journal publications and over 5000 citations in the Web of Science, and has been awarded medals by the Institute of Physics (UK), Australian Academy of Science, Australian Institute of Physics and the Royal Society of NSW. He is Editor-in-Chief of 'Plasma Chemistry and Plasma Processing', and a member of the Editorial Boards of 'Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics', 'Scientific Reports' and ‘Reviews of Modern Plasma Physics’.
6. Huimin Liang, Harbin Institute of Technology, China
Title of the Talk: The Experimental Study on the Influence of Debugging Parameters of DC Contactor on Contact Breaking Velocity and Rebound
LIANG Huimin, Ph.D, IEEE Member, Doctoral supervisor, was born in 1972. She received her B.S. degrees from the Department of Electrical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China in 1993 and Ph.D. degree from Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China, in 1999. She is currently a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology.
She is now the leader of HIT & Rockwell Automation Lab and the vice president of the Institute of electrical apparatus and electronic reliability. Her main research interests include electrical contacts theory, the reliability of electrical apparatus and the numerical method for electrical apparatus.
7. Gang Li, Xi'an High Voltage Apparatus Research Institute Co., LTD (XIHARI), China
Title of the Talk: Discussion on the Problem about Capacitive Current Switching of EHV and UHV AC Circuit Breaker
Li gang, born in 1982, master of engineering, senior engineer, deputy director of High Power Laboratory of Xi'an High Voltage Apparatus Research Institute Co., LTD (XIHARI), and is now serving as the secretary of technical committee of China High Power Testing Liaison (CHPTL), and the member of UHV AC Transmission Standardization Technical Committee.
He is mainly engaged in the test of high-voltage apparatus and the development of oscillating circuit and synthetic test. He has been responsible for a number of research projects related to synthetic and UHV test technology, and has published more than 10 papers. He has also been responsible for formulating one industry standard and revising one national standard.
8. Zhiyuan Liu, Xi’an Jiaotong University, China
Title of the Talk: Formation of Anode Spots in Transmission Voltage Vacuum Circuit Breakers
Zhiyuan Liu is a professor in Xi’an Jiaotong University, xi'an, China. He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Shenyang University of Technology, Liaoning, China, in 1994 and 1997, respectively. He received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China, in 2001. From 2001 to 2002, he was a senior engineer in the General Electric Company Research and Development Center (Shanghai), Shanghai, China. Since 2003, he has been working in State key laboratory of electrical insulation and power equipment, department of electrical engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China. Now he is a professor in Xi’an Jiaotong University.
He is primarily involved with research and development of high voltage vacuum circuit breakers. He has published more than 200 technical papers. He hold more than 40 Chinese patents and 1 US patent. He was an IEEE member from 2001 and he became an IEEE senior member from 2014. Dr. Liu is a member of current zero club. He was a member of CIGRE working group WG A3.27 “The impact of the application of vacuum switchgear at transmission voltages” and he was a member of CIGRE working group JWG A3/B4.34 “Technical requirements and specifications of state-of-the-art DC switching equipment”. Now he is a member of CIGRE working group WG A3.38 "Shunt Capacitor Switching in Distribution and Transmission Systems: Verification by Tests and Performance in Service".
9. Leslie T Falkingham, VIL, UK
Title of the Talk: The Future of Vacuum Switchgear
Leslie was made a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) in 1987 and a Fellow of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) in 1988. He became a Fellow of the IEEE in 2007.He is a Chartered Engineer in the UK (C.Eng) and is also a European Engineer (Eur. Ing). He obtained a BSc (Hons) in Combined Electrical and Mechanical Engineering in 1978, and his PhD by part time study from Cranfield University (UK) in 2002. He is presently a part time Professor at Aston University and also an Adjunct Professor at Xi’an Jaiotong University in China.
He is a member of the Permanent International Scientific Committees of two IEEE Sponsored conferences; the International Symposium for Discharges and Electrical Insulation in Vacuum (ISDEIV) (Chair), and the International Conference on Electric Power Equipment – Switching Technology (ICEPE-ST). He is also Chairman of the Vacuum Inner Circle of the Current Zero Club, and an individual member of CIGRE, and was secretary of CIGRE Working Group WG A10.37. A member of the IEC UK National Committee for switchgear, and also a member of the IEEE Switchgear Committee, he has been active in the writing and development of international standards in the field of switchgear for many years.
He has spent most of his working life involved in the research, design, development, and manufacture of vacuum interrupters and switches for vacuum switchgear, and has so far created three generations of devices. He holds a number of patents, and is an acknowledged expert internationally in this field. During his career he has produced a large number of technical papers and presented numerous lectures on vacuum switchgear and switching technology world-wide. His employment experience includes twenty years Vacuum Interrupters Limited, London, England which he joined as a graduate apprentice in 1978, followed by Technical Director of GEC Alsthom VEL in Rugby. He was then made Technology Director for Alstom T&D MV in the Head office in Paris, and then Technology Director for Areva T&D again in the Head office in Paris. In 2005 he left Areva and reformed VIL in Rugby England where he is presently Managing Director. He received the Nelson Gold Medal from GEC in 1996 for “outstanding technical innovation”, and the J. J. Thomson Medal of the IEE in 2002 for his “distinguished contribution to electronic engineering”. In 2011 he also received the IEC 1906 Award for his personal contribution to the development of international standards in switchgear and electrical engineering.
10. Yosushi Yamano, Saitama University, Japan
Title of the Talk: Research on Vacuum Breakdown and Discharge Related to Electrode Gap of Vacuum Interrupter
Yasushi Yamano received B.E. degree and M.E. degree in electrical and information engineering from Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan in 1994, 1996 respectively and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Nagoya University, Japan in 2000. From 2000, He has been at Saitama University and presently he is an Associate Professor at Saitama University in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Systems. His research interests are high voltage engineering, electrical insulation in vacuum, vacuum discharge physics, and fuse technology.
Dr. Yamano is a member of IEEE DEIS and IEEJ.
11. Lorenz Bort, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Switzerland
12. Min-Jee Kim, LSIS, South Korea
Title of the Talk: Application of a First Peak Non-Limiting Type FCL
Min Jee Kim received the Master degree and the Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from Hongik University, South Korea in 2007 and 2011 respectively. She has been working at Electrotechnology R&D center of LSIS in South Korea since 2011. From 2005 to 2010, she developed the cryogenic cooling system for superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) through DAPAS program-one of the 21st frontier projects in South Korea. Since she joined the fault current limiting technology team of LSIS in 2011, she mainly has researched and developed the various types of FCLs with the ratings 24kV/5,000A for the large scale distribution line of POSCO and 22.9kV/630A for the underground distribution line of KEPCO. And also she has the experience of the pilot project to evaluate the real application performance of 22.9kV SFCL at the substation. Currently, she concentrates on development and application of 22.9kV/1,250A SFCL for bus tie of the power system.
13. Akira Daibo, Toshiba, Japan
Title of the Talk: High-Speed Current Interruption Performance of Hybrid DCCB fo HVDC Transmission System
Akira Daibo was born in Iwate Prefecture, Japan on July 24, 1989. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Nuclear Engineering in Tohoku University in 2012 and 2014, respectively.
He has been working at the Power and Industrial System R&D Center in Toshiba Corporation since 2014. He has been engaged in research and development of vacuum interrupter and vacuum circuit breaker in the medium voltage switchgear. His research interests include high current interruption, high-speed interruption, electrical insulation, and controlling on arc behavior in vacuum by magnetic field phenomena. Presently, he is developing the DCCB of the multi-terminal HVDC transmission system.
14. Joseph D Yan, The University of Liverpool, UK
Title of the Talk: Cooling of turbulent nozzle arc in different gases
Dr Joseph D Yan received the BEng and MEng degrees from Tsinghua University in 1986 and 1988, respectively, before he joined Xi’an High Voltage Research Institute (XIHARI) engaged in spectroscopic diagnosis of switching arcs and prediction of the dielectric strength of non-equilibrium residue plasma following current zero. He joined the University of Liverpool in 1994 for his PhD studies and became a research fellow in 1998. He is currently Reader at the University of Liverpool with research interests in intelligent and low carbon switching technology, discharges in HVDC insulation systems and the application of power electronics in high voltage systems.
Dr Yan is member of IEEE, IET and the Current Zero Club. He has published over 150 refereed papers. He sits on the Scientific Committee of the International Conference on Gas Discharges and Their Applications, and the International Symposium on Physics of Switching Arcs. He is also an overseas member of the editorial board of High Voltage Apparatus.
15. Joseph Williams Spencer, University of Liverpool, UK
16. Xin Lin, Shenyang University of Technology, China
She received the M.S. degree and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Xi’an Jiaotong University in 1985 and 1989, respectively. Now she is a professor at Shenyang University of Technology in China. She is member of Chinese Society for Electrical Engineering (CSEE) and member of CIGRE A3 representing China, etc. During her career she has published two books and authored more than 300 articles in the field of high voltage switchgear breaking. As the first inventor, she holds over 20 invention patents.
Her researches include insulation characteristics of high voltage switchgear, discharge mechanism of SF6 and its substitute gas, and the arc breaking performance in circuit breakers, etc. Most of her research results have been applied directly to the design, manufacture and operation of extra and ultra high voltage circuit breakers in China.
17. Guomin Zhang, Institute of Electrical Engineering Chinese Academy of Science, China
Title of the Talk: Progress in High Temperature Superconducting Power Technology
Zhang GuoMin, Ph.D., born in 1964. Hundred talents program professor of Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is now an international expert of IEC/TC90, the deputy director of National Superconductivity Standardization Technical Committees of P. R. China (SAC/TC265), the deputy director and Secretary General of Applied Superconductivity Committee of China Electrotechnical Society (CES), and the Secretary General of Applied Superconductivity and New Material committee of Chinese Society for Electrical Engineering (CSEE), etc.
He research interests include the foundational research on applied superconductivity and the key technologies: such as the critical current, AC loss, quench and fatigue properties of HTS tapes; the power application of superconductor fault current limiter (SFCL), superconductor magnetics energy storage (SMES) and superconducting cables; and the new exploration on HTS flywheel energy storage, HTS wireless power transfer, and HTS invertor technologies etc. He led and accomplished more than ten major projects such as the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 Program),the Key Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, etc. He presided over and accomplish 2 national superconducting standards, and participate in the completion of 2 international superconducting standards. He won “The IEC 1906 Award” and the National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation of China award. He published more than 100 articles (more than 60 were indexed by SCI, more than 70 were indexed by EI), and won10 national invention patents.
18. Yi Wu, Xi’an Jiaotong University, China
Title of the Talk: Research on DC Switching Technology
Dr. Wu was born on Nov.,1975 in Jiangsu Province of China. He had learned the electrical engineering and got his PHD in 2006 from Xi’an Jiaotong University. From 2009 to 2010, he worked on the post doctor position for Delixi Corporation. Now he is a Professor in the School of Electric Engineering of Xi’an Jiaotong University.
Dr. Wu’s research has been centered on the Electric arc plasma and short current interruption mechanism in the electrical power system. He continues to explore new methods and theories on switch arc discharge, arc plasma properties, non-equilibrium plasma and analysis of breakdown in hot gas, arc characteristics controlling and high DC current interruption.
Dr. Wu has 56 peer-reviewed papers published in SCI journals including, J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys, IEEE Trans. on Plasma Sci., etc., including 32 first/ corresponding-author papers (1 ESI paper of these).
He is also the editorial board member of Plasma Science and Technology, Scientific Committee member of GD Conference and member of CIGRE Working Group on DC switch technology. He has given 5 invited talks at international conferences organized by GD,EMD,CZ Club., APCPST and 8 invited talks at seminars on the arc plasma or DC interruption to industries and international universities.
He was awarded "The Second Prize of National Technical Invention", " First Prize of Natural Science of China’s Ministry of Education", "The Excellent Talents of the New Century of the China’s Ministry of Education" and "First prize of technical invention in Shaanxi Province".
19. Fei Yang, Xi’an Jiaotong University, China
Title of the Talk: Arc Plasma Characteristics and Analysis in Gas Discharge
Dr. Fei Yang was born in Shanxi, China, in 1982. He received the B.Sc. degree and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Xi’an Jiaotong University in 2005 and 2010, respectively. Now, he is an associate professor lecturer in school of Electrical Engineering in Xi’an Jiaotong University. He was a Visiting Scholar in department of Material Science and Engineering in Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), MA, USA from 2016 to 2017. His current research interests include physics in electrical contact and plasma, DC breaking technology.
He has been in charge of 13 research project as Principle Investigator, including National Natural Science Foundation of China, sub project of National Key Basic Research Program of China (973), etc. He has published more than 40 peer reviewed SCI papers, hold US patents and 26 Chinese patents. Dr. Yang has been invited as a session co-chair of the 2016 International Conference on Electricity Distribution (CICED) and as a peer reviewer for important international journals such as Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, IEEE Tran on Power electronics, Plasma Chemistry and Plasma Processing, IEEE Trans on plasma science. He is a Member of Electric Contact and Plasma Science Committee of Chinese Society of Electrical Engineering (CSEE) and a Member of IEEE. In recent years, he has been awarded as “Second Prize of National Award for Technology Invention. (Ranked 3rd)”, “First Prize of Technology Invention Award in Shaanxi Province. (Ranked 3rd)”, “Chinese Patent Award of Excellence. (Ranked 1st)”, “First Prize of Natural Science of Ministry of Education of P.R. China. (Ranked 6th)”, “Shaanxi Province Youth Star of Science and Technology”, “Shaanxi Province excellent doctoral dissertation award”, “Nomination of National excellent doctoral dissertation”.
20. Zhenxing Wang, Xi'an Jiaotong University, China
Title of the Talk: The Thermodynamic Processes Before and After CZ in a high-curent Vacuum Arc Interruption
Zhenxing Wang received the B.E. degree and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Xi’an Jiaotong University, China, in 2006 and 2013, respectively. He was a visiting scholar in the department of physics, at University of Helsinki, Finland, in 2015. Since 2013, he has been working in State key laboratory of electrical insulation and power equipment, department of electrical engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China. Presently he is an associate professor in Xi’an Jiaotong University. His research interests are vacuum arc, vacuum insulation, plasma simulation, plasma diagnostics, permanent magnetic actuator.
