Between October 25 - 26, 2006, there was an international congress on energy and environment organised in Opatija, Croatia. Our Senior Researcher Andrej Sustersic presented a paper written by him and some other authors entitled "A Methodological Approach to Allocation of Rights to Green-house Gas Emissions within the Power and Heat Generation Sector in Slovenia for the 2008-2012 Horizon". The shown methodology, which is based on models of grand-fathering (permits allocated free of charge depending on historical emissions) and benchmarking with the best available technologies, is used in the current preparation of the National Allocation Plan for Emission Allowances for the period from 2008 to 2012.

On November 22 last year, Working Group 3, Emission Trading, of the EU Climate Committee held a meeting in Brussels, Belgium. At this occasion, Slovenia presented to the EU Commission its National Emission Allocation Plan for the Period from 2008 to 2012. The presentation was headed by Nives Nared from the Slovenian Ministry for Environment and Spatial Planning. The group meeting was attended also by our Senior Researcher Andrej Sustersic who explained to the EU Commission the Slovenian allocation methodology for the electricity and heat production sector. The discussion that followed attracted participation of representatives from the Great Britain, Germany, Belgium and some other countries. The proposed national plan was in its current phase of the acceptance procedure favourably assessed; the present members of the meeting required only minor corrections and explanations.

On June 1, 2006, the "Vidmar's Day", a traditional convention of experts involved with the electricity supply industry, was held at the Cankarjevem dom..

In the first part of the convention, five awards were presented to companies and individuals in recognition of their merits of distinguished importance in the field of power engineering and electricity supply industry in Slovenia and abroad.

The Vidmar's award recipients are:
- Prof. Dr. Ferdinand Gubina
- Mag. Janez Hostnik
- Prof. Dr. Konrad Lenasi
- Stane Rozman, Univ. Dipl. Eng..
- Termoelektrarna Toplarna Ljubljana (Combined Heat and Power Plant of Ljubljana)

In the part to follow, the following thematic issues were addressed:

• electricity demand meeting - long-term assurance of reliable electricity supply,
• current views on the strategic development of the transmission system,
• technological development towards improved efficiency of distribution utilities' business operations.

The Institute's Department for Transformer Physical-chemical Diagnostics organised the second international meeting of the TF CIGRE D1.01.13, Group whose task is the study in the use of the analysis of furans in transformer oils for the needs of age diagnostics of high-voltage transformers. The meeting was held on May 15-16, 2006. The Group combines experts involved with transformer diagnostics from thirteen countries (Australia, Brazil, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Canada, Belgium, Slovenia, Portugal, the Great Britain, France, Norway and Italy). In spring 2006 the Institute organised an international comparative test among labaoratories of fourteen countries that study transformer ageing. The result statistics of the inter-laboratory comparative analyses of 2FALin oil and PD of the paper insulation made in the fourteen laboratories all over the world showed that, with the exemption of two of them, they are all well comparable and are therefore competent for treating comparable values of critical parameters within the frame TF D1.01.13. We are pleased to note that the Institute's results have once again confirmed excellency of our Laboratory for Transformer Physical-Chemical diagnostics. Active participation of the Institute's chemistry personnel in the international CIGRE Task force groups responsible for transformer diagnostics is now already a tradition with a history of some fifteen years.

At the international conference WSEAS Energy and Enviromental systems '06, which was held on May 8. - 10, 2006 in Halkidi (the capital of the second greatest Greek island), the member of the Department for Physical-chemical Transformer Diagnostics Tim Gradnik presented a paper co-written with M. Koncan Gradnik. The title of his reporting was "Cooling System Optimisation and Expected Lifetime of Large Power Transformers". Findings and achievements of the Department's most recent investigations in ageing and cooling of large power transformers were in this way for the first time exposed to the international professional public.

On May 9 - 11, 2006, the Faculty for Electrical Engineering, Computer Sciences and Informatics of Maribor, Slovenia, organised the 15th International Conference on Community Power Engineering". Two researchers of the Institute's Department for Energy and Power System Planning, Zvonko Bregar and dr. Brane Hlebcar, presented their papers dealing with the conference issue. The paper of the former was entitled "Some examples of operation of a system of three existing hydro power plants on the river Soca and the pumping power plant of Avce", delivered within the frame of the topic "Reliable Energy Demand Meeting ", and that of the latter was "Switching over-voltages in power transmission networks", delivered within the frame of the topic "Power equipment and apparatuses".

Prof. Dr. Maks Babuder, the Institute's General Manager, and Rado Isakoviæ, Tone Marincek and Tomaz Zivic, members of the Institute's Department for Power Plants and Facilities Environmental Effects, took part in the "17th International Symposium on Electrical Installations", which was held in Sibenik, Croatia, between May 4 - 6, 2006. At this occasion they presented their papers on the symposium topic and a poster illustrating a part of the Institute's activity prepared for this particular event, and distributed a folding leaflet inviting the participants and any body interested to the 15th International Symposium on High-voltage Engineering (ISH) scheduled to take place in August 2007 in Ljubljana.
During the Symposium coffee breaks, the above mentioned participants engaged themselves in several informal meetings with the Symposium organisers and participants which is being acknowledged as most fruitfully spent time.

In two of the Institute's Laboratories, the one of the Environmental Department and the one of the Department for Power Plants and Facilities Environmental Effects, a regular annual assessment and control procedure took place between March 14 - 15, 2006 with regard to accreditation granted to them in 2005 in compliance with SIST EN ISO/IEC 17025:2005. Apart from this, the accredited methods were extended so as to include also the area of measurements regarding electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), noise, emissions of dust, HCl and HF, flue gas number, emission sampling for heavy metals and volatile particles PM10 in air. Results of the assessment and control procedure conducted by a Slovenian accreditation body were positive so that after certain corrective measures are completed, extension of the scope of the accreditation chart will be applied.

The Institute is conducting a survey ordered by the Public Energy Agency of the Republic of Slovenia targeting at seizing the state in the area of electricity quality at the level of consumers, distribution utilities and electricity producers. All the tariff consumers are given access to the survey questionnaire on the web sites of the Institute and the Public Energy Agency of the Republic of Slovenia. You are being invited to fill-in the questionnaire in this way entrusting to us your opinion about the supplied electricity quality. The questionnaire consists of fourteen questions which you can answer by clicking on the offered possibilities.

A new sensor of the Slovenian Centre for Automatic Atmospheric Discharge Locating (SCALAR) has positively passed a two month lasting trial operation. During this time, the Institute's specialists have been testing various setting parameters of the sensor and the related communication. This sensor of the series LS7000 is the most recent product of the family of sensors for lightning stroke locating manufactured by Vaisala from Finland. It is sited at Banjsice above the city of Nova Gorica (western part of Slovenia) and is connected to the Institute over the GPRS/APN service of the Slovenian telephone operator Mobitel assuring real-time data flow. The new sensor will contribute to efficiency and accuracy of lightning stroke locating in Slovenia.

Between February 27 - March 1, 2006, Breda Cestnik and Rudi Voncina, Senior Researchers of the Institute's Department for Electric Power Plants and Facilities Environmental Effects, visited the company FGEU mbH in Berlin, Germany, which manufactures the software application used in electromagnetic radiation analysis.

In the beginning of February 2006, representatives of the Company for Motorways of the Republic of Slovenia, Consulting and Engineering Company and of our Institute had a meeting at which the so far accomplished work and plan for the future work regarding construction of the motorway and speedway leg in the Primorska region (south-western part of Slovenia bordering on Italy) were presented.
At the Institute we actively participates in the construction of motorways and speedways over Slovenia. We are engaged in measurements and examinations of grounding systems, equipment acceptance procedures, providing expertises about equipment and technical solutions adequacy and technical assessments of the electrical-mechanical equipment used for tunnels and individual sections of motorways and speedways upon work completion.

• construction work (floor lining, walls, channels and ventilation system)
• electrical installation work (low-voltage equipment, lightning)
• renovation of the grounding system and lightning protection
• replacement of the 10 (20) kV switching unit with a 400 kVA (10/0,4 kV) transformation
• replacement of the 6 kV switching unit for the 2 x 350 kV cascade supply
• " replacement of control and protection equipment for the 2 x 350 kV and the 2 x 200 kV cascade, and the 1800 kV and the 800 kV impulse generator