September 15 - 16, 2025
Virtual
Future-Proofing the Energy Grid and IEC 61850: Ready for the digital future
Industry experts with experience in power systems
Be part of a powerful community of 4,600+ engineers driving the future of power systems.
We are excited to announce that the 6th Power System Protection Summit (PS²) will take place virtually on September 15–16, 2025. Gain exclusive access to MEA and global protection industry experts, not available elsewhere — diving deep into MEA-specific protection topics:
⚡Future-Proofing the Energy Grid
⚡IEC 61850: Ready for the Ddigital Future
PS² is an industry-led initiative fostering knowledge sharing. It's the first MEA-focused power system protection summit of its kind in the region. PS² was introduced in 2020 to provide the MEA region with the latest trends and technologies, with a focus on protection applications through a mix of: presentations, panel discussions, case studies, virtual tours and shared experiences.
Future-Proof Your Grid: Gain insights from experts on future-proofing your energy grid for the digital future.
Stay Ahead: Explore key trends like inverter-based resources, QV protection, HVDC multiterminal stations and more.
Engage with Industry Experts: Get your questions answered and engage with experts from OMICRON, GE, Hitachi, SIEMENS and more!
Support Young Engineers: Tune in to OMICRON’s Young Engineers Dialogue—live from the University of Bahrain.
Discover Innovations: Deepen your knowledge of the newest technologies in protection systems.
Get Certified: Attend 50% or more of the event and receive an official Certificate of Participation.
Marwa Alawi
OMICRON electronics MEA
Mrs. Nadia Bouslama (OMICRON electronics MEA) and Eng. Angus Kerr (ENOWA-NEOM)
Eng. Florian Fischer
OMICRON electronics
Eng. Florian Fischer
OMICRON electronics
Eng. Gerd Kaufmann
OMICRON electronics
This session presents practical testing approaches for anti-islanding protection in distributed energy resources. It highlights the use of CMCheck RE with the CMC 310 for voltage and frequency protection, and ARCO Control for validating recloser-based anti-islanding functions in MV grids.
Eng. Gerd Kaufmann
OMICRON electronics
This session presents practical testing approaches for anti-islanding protection in distributed energy resources. It highlights the use of CMCheck RE with the CMC 310 for voltage and frequency protection, and ARCO Control for validating recloser-based anti-islanding functions in MV grids.
Eng. Alexander Dierks
Alectrix (Pty) Ltd.
Over the past decades, the advances in digital communications technologies have enabled systems-based protection schemes where microprocessor-based relays can handle real-time measurements from different points of the systems via communication data exchange. Over the years the usage of digital communications for protection schemes such as Line differential (87L) and Busbar differential (87B) has become the conventional way to do protection. However, these schemes have been using proprietary communication protocols to exchange real-time data between the IEDs involved in the scheme. This means that the system owner is always dependent on the same vendor for any system modification or expansion.
The appearance of the IEC61850 Standards and the adoption of the open protocol Sampled Values are game changer in system-based protection schemes since the protocol creates interoperability for real-time measurement data exchange between IEDs from different vendors. However, there are still concerns from the utilities about the usage of multivendor system-based protection schemes for critical applications like busbar differential. This paper presents the experience of a proof of concept of a Multi-vendor Busbar Protection Scheme using IEC 61850 Sampled Values.
Busbar protection schemes protect electrical nodes of power systems. Hence, they have an superior requirement in terms of stability for load and through fault conditions, as well as selective and fast tripping for in zone fault conditions.
When such a busbar protection scheme is using IEC 61850 Sampled Values (SVs), this bring additional challenges from an engineering perspective – especially in a ‘brown field’ environment, where the merging units (MUs) (or LPITs) as well as central unit (CU) are not necessarily from the same vendor. This paper discusses the challenges experienced when configuring and engineering such a multi-vendor busbar protection scheme using SVs.
After the engineering process is completed, thorough testing of both the MUs and CU utilizing the SVs is necessary to prove inter-operability between all MUs and CU. The paper will propose a list of tests to verify compatibility of the various MUs with the busbar protection scheme CU. Anonymized test results will be presented.
Eng. Majida Malki
Quanta Technology
With rising renewables, electrification, climate risks, and cyber threats, today’s grid must evolve. Future-proofing means building intelligence, resilience, and flexibility into the system. IEC 61850 is a critical tool—enabling digital substations, real-time communication, and device interoperability—positioning the grid to meet tomorrow’s demands with smarter, faster, and more adaptive infrastructure.
Panel Moderator: Wayne Bishop, Quanta Technology
Panel Members:
This panel will explore various critical aspects of modeling and impact studies for IBR-dominated power systems. Topics to be discussed include modeling challenges, reliability issues, compliance with emerging standards and regulations, protection and control challenges, interconnection requirements for IBR plants, system impact studies, and expected future mandates.
By examining real-world case studies and practical insights, the presenters will share their diverse experiences and expertise in tackling the challenges associated with IBR modeling and impact studies. They will highlight the strategies and innovations necessary to ensure a smooth transition to IBR-dominated power systems, allowing for a more sustainable and resilient energy future.
Eng. Mohamed Adly
AtkinsRéalis
This session will cover:
Eng. Mohamed Adly
AtkinsRéalis
This session will cover:
Marwa Alawi
OMICRON electronics MEA
Marwa Alawi
OMICRON electronics MEA
Eng. Ronny Lehutso
National Transmission Company of South Africa (NTCSA)
Configuration management in IEC 61850 systems faces challenges such as maintaining consistency across multiple tools and vendors, handling frequent updates to IED files, ensuring version control, and avoiding configuration mismatches. These issues can lead to integration errors, operational delays, and difficulties in troubleshooting and system maintenance.
Eng. Ronny Lehutso
National Transmission Company of South Africa (NTCSA)
Configuration management in IEC 61850 systems faces challenges such as maintaining consistency across multiple tools and vendors, handling frequent updates to IED files, ensuring version control, and avoiding configuration mismatches. These issues can lead to integration errors, operational delays, and difficulties in troubleshooting and system maintenance.
This session will be broadcasted live from University of Bahrain's campus in Sakhir, Bahrain!
Panel Moderator: Eng. Ahmed El-Hamaky, OMICRON electronics MEA
Panel Members:
This session will be broadcasted live from University of Bahrain's campus in Sakhir, Bahrain!
Panel Moderator: Eng. Ahmed El-Hamaky, OMICRON electronics MEA
Panel Members:
Eng. Ahamed Rabbani
Hitachi Energy UAE
Eng. Ahamed Rabbani
Hitachi Energy UAE
Panel Members:
In this panel discussion, we'll:
Eng. Yassine Agouzoul
GE VERNOVA
The Digital substation aspect, and how using all its new technologies and concepts we can lead the energy transition and change the traditional concepts implemented in electrical substations. With the Introduction of the most recent and powerful communication protocol IEC61850 and its benefits to help protect, control, and monitor the substation, the power system and overall Grid.
Eng. Yassine Agouzoul
GE VERNOVA
The Digital substation aspect, and how using all its new technologies and concepts we can lead the energy transition and change the traditional concepts implemented in electrical substations. With the Introduction of the most recent and powerful communication protocol IEC61850 and its benefits to help protect, control, and monitor the substation, the power system and overall Grid.
Eng. Stefan Flemming
SIEMENS AG
Learn why precise time synchronization in a digital substation is important and why it is beneficial to differentiate between the various applications that require time synchronization and the advantages of such an approach. What possibilities does Omicron Test Universe offer for testing systems with different time synchronization concepts.
Eng. Stefan Flemming
SIEMENS AG
Learn why precise time synchronization in a digital substation is important and why it is beneficial to differentiate between the various applications that require time synchronization and the advantages of such an approach. What possibilities does Omicron Test Universe offer for testing systems with different time synchronization concepts.
Mrs. Nadia Bouslama and Ms. Marwa Alawi
OMICRON electronics
Majida Malki, PE, PMP, Executive Advisor, Vice President, is a professional engineer and certified project manager with over 20 years of experience in the utility and consulting sectors. She has deep expertise in protection and control design for transmission and distribution systems, including relay settings and coordination studies using ASPEN and CAPE. Majida has led Wide Area Coordination Studies, fault event analyses, NERC PRC compliance efforts, and Special Protection Schemes (SPS). Her work also includes single-point-of-failure assessments, short-circuit studies, and evaluating the impact of inverter-based resources. She is also skilled in IEC 61850 applications and substation automation.
Eng. Ahmed El-Hamaky has more than 25 years of experience in Electrical Power Systems following attainment of a diploma degree in power system protection in 2005 from Ain Shams University and a B.Sc. of Electrical Engineering from Cairo University in 2000. He has been an IEEE senior member since December 2011 and is also a member of IEEE Power Energy Society (PES).
In 2014, he received a post graduate Certificate in Business Administration from the Open University in the United Kingdom, he is at OMICRON since May 2010, presently acting as Regional Manager for the Middle East, Africa and Türkiye.
In 2021, Ahmed received Alumni of the Year Achievement Award-Highly Commended from the Open University in the United Kingdom
Alexander has over thirty years of experience in protective relay, meter testing and high voltage plant testing. He received his practical training at Eskom Distribution in Brackenfell before joining OMICRON electronics GmbH in Austria as a Sales and Application Engineer.
Since 1997 he is managing Alectrix, which is the exclusive distributor for OMICRON equipment in South Africa.
Alex has delivered dozens of papers at local and international conferences and symposiums on subjects such as protective relay testing, maintenance and diagnosis of power transformers, current transformers and other substation assets, as well as aspects of power system simulation.
An Electrical Engineering Graduate with more than 27 years’ experience in India and Gulf as Lead Protection and Commissioning Engineer in Transmission Utilities and Power plant.
Eng. Anilkumar works with Oman Electrical Transmission Company –OETC at Muscat, Oman since last 16 years. At present, he is designated as Technical Expert-Protection.
He is responsible for:
Arulraj graduated as an Electrical and Electronics Engineer at the Saveetha Engineering College-Chennai-India in 2014 and started at GK Power as Relay Service Engineer for MiCOM Numerical protection and control IEDs,later he worked as a Substation Automation System(SAS) Engineer for many projects for ALSTOM and Schneider Electric in India until 2018.
He worked as a verification and validation Engineer for bay level products in ABB Global R&D team from 2018 until 2020 and now he is responsible for IEC 61850 application testing and cybersecurity solutions in OMICRON.
Electronic and communications engineer from Colombia. Since 2007, he worked as control and protectin specialist, participating protection and communication IEC61850 projects that took place in different countries of south and north America.
In 2016, he joined OMICRON, currently part of a consultancy team supporting utilities in digital substations projects around the globe.
Dr. Fadhel Albasri is an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering at the University of Bahrain. He holds a Ph.D in Electrical Engineering from the University of Western Ontario, Canada. He also earned a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice from York St. John University. Previously, he worked as an operation engineer at the Ministry of Electricity and Water. He has more than 30 years of teaching experience, IEEE member, published over 22 papers, and developed & taught numerous undergraduate and graduate courses. His research interest on power systems protection and analysis, FACTS devices and smart grids.
Frans Shanyata is a Senior Engineer at Namibia Power Corporation (NamPower). He currently leads a team of protection engineers within NamPower. As the team leader responsible for safeguarding the utility’s transmission grid, his primary functions include PAC-scheme design, protection IED configuration & testing. He is also responsible for transmission-grid fault studies and analysis. Frans is a registered Professional Engineer with the Engineering Council of Namibia. His qualifications include M.Eng. and B.Eng. in Electrical Engineering both from Kazan State Power Engineering University, Russia. Additionally, he is actively involved in CIGRE B5 working groups and the SAPP Operating Sub-Committee on regional interconnection protection coordination.
Gerd has a background in electrical engineering and an MBA, with hands-on experience from vocational training to product management. He’s worked at Valeo, ABB, and A-Eberle, and has spent the last six years at OMICRON—first in sales, now in product management focused on distribution networks.
Juergen Holbach, PhD, Executive Advisor, Senior Director of Automation and Testing, has over 35 years of experience designing and applying protective relaying. He has published over a dozen papers and holds three patents. Juergen is a Western Protective Relay Conference (WPRC) Planning Committee member. Juergen’s areas of expertise include automation and protection, inverter-based resource (IBR) impact of protection, real-time digital simulator (RTDS) testing, and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 61850 compliance.
Events Coordinator
Eng. Mohamed Adly is a senior protection and control specialist in ATKINSREALIS acting as a team member of the project management office (PMO) of the Saudi – Egypt ±500KV HVDC Interconnection project with 20 years of experience in the power system protection in Transmission & Distribution and EHV substations projects. Long experience in the middle east, GCC and Africa regions with large utility (National grids) companies and multinational consultancies in power mega projects.
Hear from our Regional Application Specialist Mohamed Ebrahim Alsaif, who specializes in Circuit Breaker & Switchgear Testing. He has more than 7 years of experience in the field of Electrical Testing in Power Substartions. He is also an OMICRON Academy Trainer and Technical Support Engineer.
Nadia Bouslama is the Regional Marketing & Communication Manager for MEA at OMICRON Electronics. With over 24 years of experience, she has extensive expertise in developing strategic marketing initiatives and leading high-performing teams. Nadia has a solid track record in driving brand visibility and implementing innovative campaigns. Passionate about women’s empowerment, Nadia has spoken at the Women Power Summit 2018, leads the OMICRON Energizing Women (OEW) initiative, and actively mentors young women across industries. She holds an MBA and BBA in Marketing from Hofstra University, USA.
Stefan Flemming graduated in electrical engineering from the Dresden University of Technology and Science in 2003. He specialized in electrical power systems and high voltage engineering during his studies. Upon graduation, Stefan Flemming worked for Siemens and has more than 21 years of experience in electrical engineering. His work experience includes worldwide commissioning, design and operation of distribution and transmission substations. He has a special interest in substation protection and control. Currently, Stefan is working at Siemens AG Germany as a Product Lifecycle Manager with a focus on IEC 61850 process bus and IEEE 1588.
Wayne Bishop Jr. is Vice President of Industry Outreach and Strategy at Quanta Technology, a subsidiary of Quanta Services, and Fortune 500 company. Wayne has worked in the electric power industry for over 30 years and is a Senior Member of IEEE.
Wayne is also an active member of IEEE PES where he has served in a variety of leadership roles including Vice President of Meetings and Conferences from 2019-2024, a member of the IEEE Power and Energy Society Governing Board and a member of the IEEE PES Executive Committee. Since 2011, Wayne has been an active member of the IEEE PES Long Planning Committee where he helped write and implement the Long-Range Strategic Plan for IEEE PES. In addition, Wayne currently serves as a Senior Advisor to LUMA Energy, the electric utility in Puerto Rico.
Previously, Wayne worked at OMICRON electronics for 13 years where he was head of Marketing for North America. Prior to that, Wayne was employed at Doble Engineering Company for nearly 20 years in several senior management positions. In 2007, he was appointed by Doble’s Board of Directors to serve on the Executive Committee to broker the sale of Doble Engineering to ESCO Technologies.
Wayne is a graduate of Merrimack College, Harvard University, and the Executive MBA Program at Suffolk University in Boston, graduating with honors. He speaks regularly at industry conferences, has moderated more than 75 panels, and published several articles and papers in industry publications including IEEE Power and Energy Magazine and T&D World Magazine. Wayne is also a member of the Board of Advisors for the School of Engineering and Computational Sciences at Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachusetts. He is also on the Advisory Board for IRISS Companies of Bradenton, Florida.
Wayne and his family live in the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts.
Yassine Agouzoul, Lead customer application engineer, with 13 Years experience in Power system Protection and Automation, Joined GE (Ex: Alstom) back in 2012.
With various experience and achievements in Protection, Control, Substation Automation and Asset Monitoring and Diagnostics.