ISGAN welcomes its new Vice-Chair Wickie Lassen Agdal, delegate from Denmark. Wickie has been programme manager with the Danish Energy Agency since 2017 and has been the national delegate for Denmark in ISGAN since 2019. Wickie says that she embraces her new role as ISGAN Vice Chair as the experience in the ExCo so far has been very enlightening – Her hope is to get more involved, and she will contribute with her knowledge about the topic of Smart Grids and the electricity system. Apart from the new Vice-Chair, ISGAN’s leadership team currently consists of one Chair, Luciano Martini, Italy and two vice-Chairs Russell Conklin, USA and Arun Kumar Mishra, India.

ISGAN also welcomed a  guest participant, Emily Mitchell from the Photovoltaic Power Systems TCP (PVPS) who provided an overview of the recent highlights and publications based on current topics of PVPS. Furthermore, ISGAN’s input was sought for setting up a new task in PVPS concerning system integration of PV.

One focus of the meeting was the six Working Groups of ISGAN. Their strengths and challenges were focused on and further even stronger cooperation between the working groups on an urgent topic is planned.

Further plans were made for ISGAN to contribute with several highly relevant workshops to the upcoming Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) Events in India later this year.

Two Side-Events completed the ExCo meeting. The first took place before the meeting and focused on the national priorities and strategies of ISGAN’s participating countries. Valuable input from this side-event provided the foundation for further discussions and steered the direction for topics in which ISGAN should increase its focus.

The second side event was the Knowledge Sharing Project workshop on Network Planning under Uncertainties. More details about this workshop and the whole project with high international participation can be found here.

The Executive Committee of ISGAN will reconvene for the 26^th meeting in September 2023 in The Netherlands.

Building on the successes of past knowledge sharing projects on smart grid solutions, ISGAN has now embarked on an ambitious international initiative focused on how to best achieve adequate power grids in line with global sustainable development goals.

Engaging representatives from Transmission and Distribution System Operators, policy makers and research institutions in 13 countries as well as IRENA (the International Renewable Energy Agency), the Network Planning and Decision-Making under Uncertainty project deep-dives into the complex, multifaceted, and challenging task of developing network infrastructure as an enabler of low-carbon electricity, in a quickly evolving energy landscape.

During the first stages of the knowledge sharing process, experts have shared their insights and experiences regarding the sources and nature of uncertainty and complexity in network planning. The project now turns to co-creating concrete and globally relevant policy advice aimed to increase the ability of relevant stakeholders to deal with the inherent uncertainty and complexity in the network planning process.

The year-long project that kicked off in September 2022, involves a series of interlinked activities, including both digital and in-person workshops, as well as analytical tasks. The objective is to produce actionable policy advice in time for the next Clean Energy Ministerial Meeting (CEM14, July 2023 in Bengaluru, India). Next up is an intensive and highly interactive 2-day workshop in Berlin, 23-24 March, held in conjunction with the 25th meeting of the ISGAN Executive Committee.

For more information, please contact:

• ISGAN Communication Working Group/Structured Knowledge Exchange: Helena Lindquist
• ISGAN Working Group 6, Power Transmission & Distribution Systems: Susanne Ackeby