Being part of the EASY RES team gives us a deeper insight in future solutions enabling us to be ready as much as possible to cope with future challenges.

We interviewed Marjan Jerele from Elektro Gorenjska in our last Who’s who @EASY-RES before the summer break. Marjan speaks about his longstanding assignment with EG and the experiences from the Slovenian DSO which are highly relevant for EASY-RES.

Marjan, please tell us about yourself!

I graduated from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the University of Ljubljana in 1984 and gained a Master’s degree from the Faculty of Organizational Sciences in 2006. Since 1996, I have been working with Elektro Gorenskja (EG). Here, I started my first assignment as a Protection and Measurement Engineer. From 2001 to 2006, I was the Technical Director of the company and I am currently employed as Assistant to the Director of the Distribution Unit. During the last years, I have been intensely involved in different R&D projects, mostly as EG’s coordinator for EU projects like INCREASE FP7, STORY, TDX-ASSIST, and EASY-RES as the last one.

What is the mission of Electro Gorenjska? What are you doing at Elektro Gorenjska? 

Elektro Gorenjska, podjetje za distribucijo električne energije, d. d. (EG) is an electricity distribution company that provides core services to approximately 10% of the Slovenian territory (2,091 km² in the North-Western part of Slovenia). Our distribution network entails 11,110/20 kV transformer stations and nearly 1,400 MV/LV transformer stations providing supply to more than 90,000 customers. In total, EG maintains 5,844 km of the electricity network. In line with the development plans, EG continued with advancing the measuring equipment for their end users. It is planned that in 2021 all users in the Gorenjska region will be equipped with advanced measuring systems. By the end of 2018, more than half of the users in Gorenjska region had been included in remote reading. More than 16 percent of the distributed electricity is produced in small distributed renewable resources connected to the distribution network. EG is also the owner of 15 small hydro, 18 solar and two cogeneration power plants.

Through active participation in international research and development projects, EG persistently builds the reputation of an innovative and reliable partner. Participation in projects also enables us to successfully integrate state-of-the-art technology systems that provide appropriate demonstration environments, important for the implementation and evaluation of new concepts of managing and operating distribution networks. EG experts have participated in various European or national funded projects like STORY (ongoing H2020 project researching new energy storage technologies and their benefits in distribution systems ), TDX-ASSIST (H2020 project, TSO-DSO interoperability), INCREASE (FP7 – Increasing the penetration of renewable energy sources in the distribution grid by developing control strategies and using ancillary services), HiPerDNO (FP7 – High Performance Computing Technologies for Smart Distribution Network Operation) or Project SUPERMEN – a member of the Slovenian consortium working on practical implementation of IEC 61850 standard with SCADA integration.

During the INCREASE FP7 project, we met some exceptional people from the Department of Electrical Energy of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Working closely with Prof. Grigoris Papagiannis and Prof. Charis Demoulias has been an exceptional experience for us, not only on a professional but also on a personal level. The invitation to the EASY-RES consortium was therefore a great honor for us and the decision to join has been taken without any hesitation.

Following the requirements related to sophisticated distribution network control and data acquisition, EG had invested a lot of efforts to increase the observability of our low voltage networks by building up an integral monitoring system. Providing different network models and measurement data for different simulation cases as well as sharing the experiences from a local energy system and from Slovenian market regulations are the main EG responsibilities within the EASY RES project.

We are aware of the rapid changes ongoing in distribution networks. Sooner or later, we will be facing an enormous number of small to medium sized distributed generation, highly unpredictable loads and several new services related to different market solutions. Being part of the EASY RES team gives us a deeper insight in future solutions enabling us to be ready as much as possible to cope with future challenges.

Besides professional challenges, meeting nice and interesting people and sharing experiences is another big advantage of my EASY RES activities. Professional devotion, enthusiasm and exceptional people is something I really admire and what is worth of the extra efforts spent.

And on a more private note: How do you currently enjoy your summer evenings?