Electrocon International Hosts Record Breaking CAPE Users’ Group Meeting and Conference

Press Release (ePRNews.com) - ANN ARBOR, Mich. - Jul 11, 2017 - Electrocon International, the full-service developer and marketer of CAPE software for protection system simulation and data management, announced another record-breaking attendance at its annual CAPE User’s Group Meeting and Conference held June 26-30, 2017 at the Ann Arbor Marriott at Eagle Crest in Ypsilanti, Michigan. The event attracted 108 protection engineers from 45 utilities and consulting firms from 25 US states and 9 countries.

“This is the third year in a row that we have had record breaking attendance during our week-long conference,” stated Paul F. McGuire, EE, MSEE, PE and President of Electrocon International. “We had a 15% increase in attendance compared to our 2016 conference which is an indicator that our customers are preparing themselves to fully utilize the capabilities of CAPE including our support for many of the required and soon-to-be-approved NERC PRC standards. We once again focused a portion of the CAPE Users’ Group Meeting and training on regulatory compliance challenges facing our utility customers. Attendees in our training sessions were up as much as 27% over last year.”

The weeklong conference began on Monday with a full-day protection seminar entitled “Symmetrical Components.” On Tuesday and Wednesday, the CAPE Users’ Group Meeting covered a variety of topics related to the latest features and enhancements to CAPE protection simulation software. The focus on regulatory compliance will continue with discussions and demonstrations of the latest enhancements in CAPE supporting the various standards. Electrocon demonstrated a wind and solar generator model developed by EPRI that is the first that accurately represent the control of invertor-coupled devices. Another presentation provide an update of Electrocon’s CIGRE 2016 paper on “Simulating Single Pole Opening using CAPE-TS Link,” a unique capability involving transient stability with detailed relay protection models. Updates on new macros further automating protection studies and additional detailed vendor-specific relay models were showcased.

CAPE utility users presented “best practices” technical presentations based on their real-life experience using CAPE in their daily operations.

Thursday and Friday, Electrocon conducted a series of training sessions including a full-day “CAPE for New Users” session and several half-day sessions on topics including “Modeling Detailed Bus Structures,” “Using Coordination Graphics,” “System Simulator and Relay Checking,” “Introduction to Relay Setting Algorithms,” “Introduction to SQL and Reporting,” and “Conducting Transient Stability Studies using CAPE-TS Link™.” A new course entitled “NERC PRC Standards Compliance Reporting” provided a practical application of the capabilities within CAPE supporting the regulatory standards. Electrocon training sessions are taught by the Electrocon engineers who are experts in their field and have on average twenty-five years of experience in power engineering.

Attendees received continuing education units toward their accreditation for their professional engineering certification. Electrocon provides CEU and PDH credit to attendees at no additional charge.

CAPE offers extensive tools for detailed relay modeling that help engineers manage voluminous and complex network data, uncover potential problems, and examine alternative solutions. Supporting the system protection function within electric power utilities, CAPE is used by transmission, distribution and generation companies as well as electrical engineering firms in more than fifty countries on six continents worldwide.

CAPE handles networks of any size, large or small. CAPE users have systems ranging from under 100 buses to over 30,000 buses. Several have protection systems with 20,000 to 50,000 relays.

For more information about the CAPE Users’ Group Meeting & Conference, CAPE, CAPE 14, CAPE-TS Link, IPS-CAPE Bridge or Electrocon training, implementation or custom development services, visit us on the web at www.electrocon.com, call +1 734-761-8612 extension 202 or email eii@electrocon.com. The CAPE 2018 Users’ Group Meeting and Conference will be held June 25-29, 2018.