The Conference Organizing Committee is working in the planning of the following high-value Panels

Challenges and opportunities of the integration of renewable energies in Latin America

Motivated by more responsible and environmentally friendly electricity production, governments around the world have enacted legislation to increase electricity generation through renewable energies. However, integrating renewable energies into existing power grids presents significant challenges in the operation of electrical systems because their intermittent, stochastic, and non-dispatchable nature creates imbalances between the energy supplied and demanded, affecting all agents in the system. One way to address the challenge of variability and uncertainty is through operating reserves. However, the reserve requirements increase as the amount of renewable energy used grows, which may be economically infeasible. In this way, achieving ambitious energy penetration objectives will require implementing innovative planning, operation, and control strategies for electrical systems, which will be discussed in this panel.

Challenges and Opportunities of Electrical Distribution Systems

Electric power distribution systems are facing new challenges due to the rise of renewable energy sources, energy storage systems, and electric vehicles. These challenges are further compounded by the need for greater resilience to extreme weather events. As a result, the operation of the distribution system becomes more complex due to higher congestion in the network, significant voltage variations, and the need for better coordination of protection settings. To address these challenges, automation and measurement infrastructure advances are being used to create intelligent distribution systems. This panel will discuss strategic investment in network infrastructure, updating monitoring and control systems, new business models, and changes to policies and regulations that enable the transition from a passive to an active and intelligent distribution network.

Experiences of the operational policies of the control entities of CENACE, CAISO, ERCOT, Chile

Energy control centers are responsible for decision-making that guarantees an interconnected electrical system’s normal and economical operation. The change in operational paradigm that electrical systems face due to the energy transition, the electrification of demand, delays in the expansion of the transmission structure, and greater availability of available data leads to redesigning operational policies and the decision-making in control centers. In this context, this panel discusses the experiences of the control centers in the face of this change in operational paradigm and how new technologies can be integrated to operate the electrical system appropriately in real-time.

Review of the resilience plans in the Distribution and Transmission networks of LA

Extreme events like hurricanes, earthquakes, and floods significantly impact the operational security of electrical systems by causing long power interruption times and significant damage to electrical infrastructure. Therefore, designing resilience strategies in electrical infrastructure to minimize prolonged power outages and losses of critical services is essential. This panel will discuss the efforts being made by electric companies to improve the resilience of their systems, which leads to minimized social and economic losses during severe weather events.

Challenges of electrical transmission systems and the need to increase transmission capacity as well as the interconnection of Latin America and the USA.

Electric transmission systems in Latin America face significant challenges to maintaining their normal operation status because of the growing energy demand, the need to modernize aging infrastructure, as well as the integration of renewable resources, which are in detriment of the system efficiency and reliability. Furthermore, the economic efficiency operation of the electricity market has led to an increasing stress of the power system steering its operation close to its stability limits. Within this operating context, several solutions have been proposed that can be visualized as opportunities to cope with all those challenges. Those opportunities include: expanding transmission capacity to facilitate renewable generation,  integration of regional power systems via tie lines interconnection and the adoption of smart technologies. However, to achieve these goals that will result in a more resilient and sustainable network, collaboration between the public and private sectors is essential. This panel will present an overview of these challenges from the experts point of view.

Route map for the supply of electric energy to cope with the nearshoring in Mexico

Geopolitical changes have positioned Mexico as the most attractive country to relocate the production processes from their original location outside the USA, referred to as nearshoring,  to take advantage of the existing commercial transactions between Mexico and USA through the TMEC and, perhaps mainly, of the geographical closeness between these countries.

A Road Map for the supply of electricity in the Mexico-USA nearshoring is crucial to guarantee the continuity and efficiency of all the production processess operations.  It must ensure resilience against possible interruptions, facilitate the identification of sustainable energy sources, optimize the distribution of resources,  and promote the adoption of clean technologies. In addition, it has to facilitate the strategic planning of shared electrical infrastructures, promoting cross-border collaboration and meeting environmental objectives. 

This panel will start the discussion of a comprehensive approach in the nearshoring roadmap to meet the growing energy demand of the nearshore supply chain, driving competitiveness and sustainability in the region.