Organised jointly by IEEE Calcutta Section and
its Power Engineering Chapter under the aegis of IEEE-PES DLP
Date: December
19, 2003
Venue: Seminar Room, Electrical Engg. Dept., JU.
In the inaugural session of the workshop program, Prof. R.Nandi, IEEE Calcutta Section Chair, welcomed all the participants and outlined the relevance of the workshop in the backdrop of Indian scenario. The inaugural address was given by Mr. A. Roychoudhuri, Former Member (Technical) of WBSEB and also former Director (Technical) of Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC). In his speech Mr. Roychoudhuri discussed the pros and cons of the privatization of power sector in India. The speaker Prof. M. Shahidehpour of Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, USA, was introduced by Dr. K. Bhattacharya, Secretary of IEEE Calcutta Section and also its Power Engineering Chapter.
The entire workshop program was divided into two sessions and the sessions were chaired by Prof. N. Chatterjee, former Chairman of IEEE Calcutta Section and also its Power Engineering Chapter.
In the first session Prof. Shahidehpour spoke on the pressing reasons because of which privatization of electricity becomes necessary in a country. In this context he mentioned that privatization of electricity becomes imperative due to different reasons in different countries. He dwelled on the different models that were followed in countries like USA, France, Bulgaria, Argentina etc and highlighted the salient points of each models along with a comparative analysis of these models. He also provided thought provoking observations on various aspects of electricity privatization in India.
In the second session , Prof. Shahidehpour presented two software packages. The first one was on Generation Asset Optimization, which is a software package for optimizing operation of generating companies in electricity market. This software package had modules for short-term load forecasting, short-term price forecasting, price based unit commitment, arbitration in electricity market, generation risk analysis etc. The second software was on Probabilistic Market Price Simulation. This software package had modules for security constrained unit commitment, market power monitoring, reliability centered generation and transmission maintenance scheduling, transmission congestion management and settlement etc. In the end there was a prolonged question-answer session because the talk generated varied queries from the participants. Prof. S. Chakravorti, Chairman of Power Engineering Chapter of IEEE Calcutta Section proposed the vote of thanks. In this occasion Prof. N. Chatterjee presented a memento to Prof. Shahidehpour on behalf of the organizers.
There were more than 70 registered participants in this workshop program from educational institutions like Jadavpur University, BE College (DU), BIT Mesra (DU), Haldia Institute of Technology, College of Engg & Management Kolaghat, NIST-Berhampur etc, power utilities like WBSEB, DVC, CESC and industries like ABB Ltd. There were also about 20 student participants. The workshop program was sponsored by Damodar Valley Corporation, a leading power utility of India.