Experts examined the critical issues and explored the latest news and trends spanning across all energy sources, including fossil fuel, nuclear power and renewable energy.

Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA (18 June 2015)—Many of the best and brightest minds in the power generation industry gathered last week in Kansas City, Missouri, USA to discuss the most pressing challenges in instrumentation and control, and to outline strategies and solutions to overcome them.

The 58th ISA Power Industry Division (POWID) Symposium—the largest conference in the world dedicated to automation, control systems and instrumentation in power generation—attracted 120 attendees and 18 exhibiting companies; featured 60 technical presentations and sessions over three days; hosted an engaging industry roundtable and panel discussion; conducted two ISA training courses; and held a highly interactive student forum.

Experts examined the critical issues and explored the latest news and trends spanning across all energy sources, including fossil fuel, nuclear power and renewable energy. Presenters and sessions placed particular emphasis on:

* Recent innovations in applying security to control systems
* Improvements in power plant load demand response and low-load operation
* Advances in monitoring and diagnosing plant equipment and system reliability issues
* Industrial cybersecurity

Given the increasing risks of cyberattack in the energy sector, the Automation Federation (ISAs umbrella association) helped to arrange several noteworthy speakers in the area of industrial cybersecurity. Particularly notable was Mike Smith, Senior Cyber Policy Advisor for the US Department of Energy, who spoke on: "US Department of Energy-Cyber Policies in Power Generation."

Other notable presenters included:

* Scott Stallard, Vice President, Black & Veatch, who spoke on: "Integrating Clean Renewables into the Grid, Optimizing the Collective Capabilities of Renewable and Conventional Generation"
* Pengju Kang, Ph.D., Executive Technical Lead, GE Global R&D, who spoke on: the "Impact of Industrial Internet on Power Generation"
* Robert Romanosky, Ph.D., US Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Lab (NETL), who spoke on: "Fossil Energy Research and Development for Clean Power Production"

The symposium also featured:

* A career development session, involving 18 undergraduate and graduate student guests as well as six student mentors, that delivered practical guidance on potential power industry careers and how to best prepare for them.
* Meetings of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) interest group and ISA power plant standards working groups on nuclear power plant controls (ISA-67) and fossil power plant controls (ISA-77).
* Two ISA courses: Introduction to Boiler Control Systems (ES15C); and Introduction to Industrial Automation Security and the ANSI/ISA99 (IEC 62443) Standards (IC32C)

"The symposium is a great opportunity to stay current with my peers as well as meet new people in my field," says Hafiz Banire, a Senior Engineering Consultant at Schneider Electric and an ISA member whose presentation at the event was titled, "Sustainability in Alarm Management Solutions."

Along with providing his positive impression of the POWID Symposium, Banire took an opportunity to summarize the key "take-home points" of his presentation.

"Alarm management with operational awareness is vitally important to our industry as we need to move away from just alarm eradication to a more holistic solution that includes high performance graphics and control environment design," he emphasizes.

Banire provided some additional comments about the recently held POWID Symposium in a video message taped at the event. View it here on YouTube.

About the ISA Power Industry Division (POWID)
ISAs Power Industry Division, one of the largest within ISA, is a recognized leader in developing and communicating the highest standards of information exchange, practices, environmental awareness and safety of information exchange among engineers, scientists, technicians, students/universities, and management involved in instrumentation and control relating to power generation. For more information about the ISA Power Industry Division, visit www.isa.org/powid or call +1 919-549-8411.

About ISA
Founded in 1945, the International Society of Automation (www.isa.org) is a leading, global, nonprofit organization that is setting the standard for automation by helping over 30,000 worldwide members and other professionals solve difficult technical problems, while enhancing their leadership and personal career capabilities. Based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, ISA develops standards; certifies industry professionals; provides education and training; publishes books and technical articles; and hosts conferences and exhibitions for automation professionals. ISA is the founding sponsor of The Automation Federation (www.automationfederation.org).