The CIGRE Session provides a unique opportunity to share experience from international senior executives as well as experts and specialists through official presentations, panel discussions, technical meetings and poster sessions.

Efacec actively participates in the CIGRÉ working groups including B5.50 (IEC 61850-based SAS - expectation of stakeholders and user interaction) and B5.39 (documentation requirements from design to operation to maintenance for Digital SAS), and this year Session has participated with authorship and co-authorship of three paper contributions:

-	Next Step for IEC 61850: A Unified Power Utility Automation Language - Why and How (by Efacec);
-	A Functionally-integrated Architecture for Online Monitoring and Real-time Diagnostics and Management of Substation Assets as a Tool for Optimized Maintenance Management (by Efacec and Portuguese TSO REN);
-	IEC 61850-Based Substation Automation Systems - Users Expectations and Stakeholders Interactions (by several international authors, including Efacec).

At the B5 session next generation topics regarding the future of automation and protection were discussed including the usage of IEC 61850 and future evolution, UML and new engineering languages, or, the status of application of life-cycle engineering tools from Design to O&M and expectations for the future.

In parallel with the Session, a Technical Exhibition was held, where Efacec presented new additions and improvements to its own power systems automation portfolio, with a special focus on the new Series 450 IED and improved Series 500 for automation, protection and control. Version 3 of Automation Studio, with new features and functionalities including full support for IEC 61850 Ed.2, was also demonstrated in first-hand to visitors. Also demonstrated at the booth was the latest additions the ScateX+ advanced network management platform. The visitors had an opportunity to meet and discuss with our industry experts and market managers.

The 2014 CIGRÉ account for more than 8500 trade attendees from 90 countries including 3235 delegates (senior executives, experts, CEO’s and young engineers from the Power Industry), which, according to the organization, was the largest ever attended session in the history of this event.