Yingsan Geng

Xi’an Jiaotong Unviersity, China

Title: Research on Key Technologies of Environmentally Friendly High-voltage Vacuum Circuit Breaker

Geng Yingsan, a doctoral supervisor, is the Deputy Director of the State Key Laboratory of Electrical Insulation and Power Equipment at Xi'an Jiaotong University, the Director of the Institute of Intelligent Electrical Equipment and Systems at Xi'an Jiaotong University. He is also the Chairman of the Low-Voltage Electrical Apparatus Committee of the China Electrotechnical Society. Professor Geng has long been engaged in research on power switchgear, intelligent electrical equipment theories and technologies.

He has presided over and participated in numerous national and provincial-level projects, including the National Key Research and Development Program, the National 973 Program, the National 863 Program, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, etc. Additionally, he has led multiple collaborative research projects with enterprises. Professor Geng has received three Second Prizes for National Scientific and Technological Achievements. He has also received four First Prizes and one Second Prize for Provincial and Ministerial Level Scientific and Technological Progress Awards.

Professor Geng has published over 200 academic papers. He has authored two monographs on vacuum circuit breakers for transmission voltage levels: "Switching Arc Phenomena in Transmission Voltage Level Vacuum Circuit Breakers" (2021) and "Theories and Technologies of Single-Break Vacuum Circuit Breakers for Transmission Voltage Levels" (2017).

Hajime Urai

Toyo University, Japan

Title: Development of switchgear considering environmental friendliness and safety and arc simulation technology to support these developments

Dr. Urai received a Ph.D. in engineering from the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1997. He then joined Hitachi, Ltd., where he engaged in the development of high-voltage circuit breakers and the research of high-voltage and high-current interruption phenomena at the research laboratory. His contributions include the development of a 1,100 kV UHV circuit breaker and advancing 80 kA interruption technology. In 2021, he left Hitachi, Ltd. and joined Daido University. Since 2023, he has been a professor in the Department of Electrical, Electronic and Communications Engineering at Toyo University. His research interests include the analysis and design of high-voltage circuit breakers, arc plasma phenomena such as DC arcs, and semiconductor-based DC circuit breakers. Currently, he is the chair of the Technical Committee on Switching and Protecting Engineering of the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan (IEEJ). He is a member of CIGRE Japan National Committee for Study Committee A3 (SC-A3).

Bang-Wook Lee

Hanyang University, South Korea

Title: R&D status of Korea for developing MVDC network and its applications

Bang Wook Lee is a Professor, School of Electrical engineering of Hanyang university Korea.He received B.S, M.S. and PH.D degree from Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea in 1991, 1993, 1998. Before he joined Hanyang university, he worked for LS Industrial Systems as a senior researcher for 10 years in the research field of high voltgage electric equipment. Affer joining Hanayng University as a professor since 2008. His main research interests include HVDC insulation design, HVDC protection systems, transient phenomena analysis and the development of electrical equipment for HVDC system. He is now the member of CIGRE SC D1 representing Korea. And he also actively works for several working groups in CIGRE.

René Peter Paul Smeets

Retiree from KEMA Laboratories of CESI Group

Title: European Innovations in Switching Technology

René Peter Paul Smeets received a PhD degree for research work on switchgear in 1987. Until 1995, he was an assistant professor at Eindhoven University. During 1991 he worked with Toshiba Corporation in Japan on vacuum switchgear. In 1995, he joined KEMA, the Netherlands. At present, he is retired from KEMA Laboratories of CESI Group, but still active as an advisor. From 2001 - 2013 he was part-time professor at Eindhoven University, the Netherlands. In 2013 he became adjunct professor at Xi’an Jiaotong University, China.

Dr. Smeets is member of various of study/advisory committees of CIGRE after being in the lead of working groups in the field of emerging switching technologies such as HV vacuum switchgear, HVDC switchgear and SF6 alternatives. He was convener of two maintenance teams in IEC on standardization of high-voltage switchgear. In 2008 he was elected Fellow of IEEE and in 2022 he was awarded a Fellowship of CIGRE. Since 2008 he is chairman of the “Current Zero Club”, a scientific study group on current interruption. Dr. Smeets published and edited three books and authored over 300 international research papers on testing and high-voltage switching technology in power systems. He received nine international awards.