Townhall Session

Technology & Applications in Europe

European experts from transmission system operators, CIGRE, and the research community discuss wide-area monitoring, protection, and smart grid advancements across Europe.

Thursday, June 4, 2026 | 09:30–10:30 | SGSMA 2026

Renata Rubesa received her B.Sc.E.E degree in electrical engineering from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb in 2005, and the PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Zagreb, Croatia in 2015.

Since 2005, she has been with the Croatian transmission system operator, where she started working as a relay protection engineer. She is currently head of department for the support to power system control in HOPS.

She is a member of IEEE, member of CIGRE Croatia study committee C2 (Power System Operation and Control), and chair of Croatian CIGRE study committee B5 (Protection and Automation). Since 2017 she has been technical lead for the integration and development of an automated Volt/Var control system in Croatia as part of the Sincro.Grid project co-funded by the European Commission in the field of smart grids.

Her main topics of interest are transmission system protection, wide-area monitoring, and energy management systems.

Rannveig Loken, CIGRE Vice-President Technical, is a highly experienced professional with more than 30 years in the power system sector. She currently works for Statnett, the TSO of Norway, and holds a Master of Science in Electric Power Engineering from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

Her extensive involvement with CIGRE began in 2006. She is the Chair of the Norwegian committee of CIGRE and was Chair of the Organising Committee for the NRCC CIGRE Symposium in Trondheim 2025.

She also served as Chair of CIGRE Study Committee B5 (Protection and Automation) between 2018 and 2024, and in 2024 she received the Honorary Award from CIGRE in recognition of her contributions.

Mrs. Sylvie Perrin is Head of the Voltage, Protection and Stability Department within the R&D Directorate of RTE. She also leads the transformation of RTE stability processes and is Vice President of CIGRE Women In Energy France.

Until the end of June 2023, she was Deputy Head of the Power Systems and Energy Markets Department at EDF Lab R&D, working on energy transition, energy regulation, market design, and the integration and control of distributed energy resources and storage in electrical systems, including grid-forming technologies.

Over the past few years, she has also been involved in international standardization working groups within organizations such as the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission). Her recent projects have mainly focused on defining standards for electronic data interchange for utilities.

Dr. Tadeja Babnik has been a member of the ELPROS research and development team since 2005, working on power system wide area monitoring, protection and control systems based on synchrophasor technology. She has successfully implemented numerous WAMS projects around the world. Prior to joining ELPROS, she spent more than ten years at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Ljubljana, where she conducted research in electric power systems, with a particular focus on power system protection. She is actively involved in the CIGRE Study Committees B5 and C2.

Solange David has 28 years working in the Brazilian Electricity Sector, 18 of which were at the Energy Market Operator as executive legal manager and vice president (2014-2020). She is Chair of CIGRE International Women in Energy (2022-2026), member of CIGRE-Brazil in C5 Regulatory and Market Studies Committee, PhD in Sciences (Electrical Engineering), lawyer specialized in the Brazilian electrical sector, and founder of the Women Writing Energy movement (WWE).