The first DIgSILENT Southern African User conference was held on the 28 March 2007 at the VW Conference centre in Midrand, South Africa. The conference was attended by over 70 delegates from South Africa, Namibia and Zambia. The aim of the conference was for users of PowerFactory and PowerWare to share their experiences and knowledge gained from utilising these products.
Dr Markus Poller gave the keynote address and a demonstration of some upcoming features in the soon to be released PowerFactory Version 14. Thereafter users of PowerFactory from both DIgSILENT and outside gave presentations on their experiences with PowerFactory.
May 11, 2010
As one of the first wind turbines, the W100, 2,5 MW turbine, developed by W2E and produced and marketed by Fuhrländer AG (FL2500-100) has received a unit certificate for compliance with the German SDLWindV, which is part of the German Renewable Energy Act. >
March 14, 2010
PP(M)SB Refinery, Malacca has requested DIgSILENT to perform extensive plant performance tests comprising AVR and PSS tuning, UEL / OEL settings verification as well as gas turbine primary response capability tests, at their recently commissioned CoGen plant. Background of the project is Petronas' concept to operate the refinery self-sufficiently but with connection to the public grid closed to cope for plant contingencies such as unit trips. >
December 09, 2009
DIgSILENT has completed a high level feasibility study for the integration of up to 2800 MW of wind generation in the Western Cape / South Africa. The feasibility study was one of the major objectives of the joint project of GTZ/ESKOM and the Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning (D:EA&DP) primarily analysing the impact of planned wind generation projects on the South African Transmission Grid. >
November 10, 2009
The gtz-TERNA workshop took place in Berlin from 10th to 12th November 2009 with the participation of more than 50 delegates from nine different countries and experts from system operating, network planning, regulation authorities and politics. The technical programme was DIgSILENT's responsibility. The workshop presentations by experts from DIgSILENT, ISET and Energy Brainpool received an excellent feed-back from the participants. Topics covered were: >
October 01, 2009
On October 1st, 2009 DIgSILENT has released a further short circuit analysis calculation method according to the IEC-61363 standard, now forming part of the PowerFactory version 14 basic functions. The IEC-61363 defines procedures for calculating short-circuit currents in three-phase AC electrical installations of ships and mobile and fixed offshore units. >
August 01, 2009
On August 1st, 2009 ISLA Refineria Curaçao has awarded DIgSILENT GmbH for the execution of the conceptualization study "Upgrading Electrical Power Distribution System Refineria ISLA Curaçao". Background for this study is the refinery rehabilitation and expansion project allowing the operation of one of the world's oldest and largest refineries for another 20 years also complying with up-to-date environmental requirements. >
July 17, 2009
New rules and grid codes to connect generators to the grid are emerging worldwide. In every country or region, the operators responsible for the safety and reliability of the power system have established different requirements to connect renewable generation systems to transmission and distribution networks. Such requirements are highly dependent upon the characteristics of individual power systems. DIgSILENT has developed and released a new test verification tool called "DIgSILENT GridCode v1.0", in response to the need to verify whether a wind farm, solar plant, or any other generator is compliant with local Grid Code requirements on basis of unit tests executed. Some of the functions can be verified off-line or on-line. DIgSILENT GridCode is already being used by manufacturers and laboratories during field testing of wind turbines to verify compliance. >
February 02, 2009
DIgSILENT participated in the International Exhibition and Conference GRIDTECH 09 organized by the Power Grid Corporation of India Limited, 29th & 30th January in New Delhi, India. The conference focused on state-of-the-art technology in Transmission & Distribution systems and areas like load dispatch, telecommunication, smart grids and application software. >
November 07, 2008
DIgSILENT announces the release of PowerFactory version 14 to all its users entitled for free software upgrades. Version 14 (Build 508) is available via the login to the DIgSILENT Support Area. >
November 03, 2008
Continuing the training activities developed in recent years, the 7th PowerFactory Seminar was organized by Megawatt S.A. /Perú in Lima from November 3-7th, 2008. >
October 13, 2008
A 2-day workshop titled "Grid Integration of Wind Energy", followed by a 3- day "Wind Generator Modelling Workshop" was organized by ISA / Colombia in Medellin from October 6-10th, 2008. >
July 31, 2008
DIgSILENT GmbH continues its international expansion by incorporating DIgSILENT Ibérica, S.L. for the markets in Spain and Portugal. >
April 16, 2008
After completion of a comprehensive test phase, DIgSILENT GmbH has now released the Beta version of PowerFactory V14 to all its users entitled for free software upgrades. >
June 25, 2007
From June 25-28, 2007 at the Swissotel Le Concorde in Bangkok the Asian User Meeting followed by a Power System Stability Workshop was attended by some 30 participants from Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia. >
June 20, 2007
The first Pacific region PowerFactory users' group meeting held on Wednesday 20 June 2007 in the Park Hyatt hotel in Melbourne was a huge success. The meeting was attended by 30 engineers representing transmission and distribution utilities, consultants and industrial users of PowerFactory from across Australia and New Zealand. The meeting was followed by a two day wind power integration seminar conducted by Dr Markus Poeller. >
June 01, 2007
A total of 16 PFM/DSM systems with approximately 1000 analogue channels have been commissioned in June 2007 and handed over to SEC / Saudi Arabia. >
May 11, 2007
On May 11th, 2007 a delegation of 20 key experts of the Chinese electrical power and wind energy sector visited DIgSILENT GmbH in the course of their European "Wind Power Study Tour 2007". The tour has been organized by the Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Technische Zusammenarbeit (gtz) GmbH, China LongYuan Power Group (CLYPG) and China Electric Power Research Institute (CEPRI), which are working together in the Chinese-German technical cooperation project "China Wind Power Research and Training Project". >
January 03, 2007
Dr. Markus Poeller has been nominated as Managing Director of DIgSILENT GmbH with effect from 1.1.2007. This step was taken due to the high growth experienced by DIgSILENT in the past years. It ensures the continued efficient management of the company's increasing number of consulting projects, software sales and software integration projects, as well as the DIgSILENT PowerFactory and PowerWare product development. >
September 01, 2006
As from the 1 September 2006, Buyisa Power Engineering (Pty) Ltd and DIgSILENT South Africa (Pty) Ltd. have merged into DIgSILENT Buyisa (Pty) Ltd. The new company DIgSILENT-Buyisa is proud to be classified as a BEE company (Black Economic Empowered company). >
July 14, 2006
National Grid, the Transmission System Operator of Great Britain, has acquired a corporate license for the PowerFactory power system analysis software, by DIgSILENT. The license covers more than 165 simultaneous user installations of varying functionality. These will be used for transmission planning, up to 7 years ahead and for operations planning purposes, down to 4 hours ahead. To guarantee the highest possible availability for operational applications, PowerFactory installations will be running on redundant application server clusters, in a multi-user database environment. >
March 01, 2006
In February 2005, the Australian National Grid Operator NEMMCO engaged DIgSILENT to carry out power system stability studies to assess the impact of high levels of wind generation on the South Australian power transmission system. This follows indications that more than 1000 MW of wind generation capacity may be connected to the South Australian grid within the next few years. This was a concern as the South Australian load varies between a forecast peak demand of 3378 MW for summer of 2005/06 and a minimum demand as low a 900MW. >
August 10, 2005
MATN International, representatives of DIgSILENT GmbH in Iran, organized their first User Conference in Tehran, Iran, on August 02/03, with more than 120 registered participants. The inaugurating addresses were held by Parviz Ghiasseddin, general manager of MATN International, by Mr. Hojjat, Deputy Secretary of State of the Power Ministry, and Mr. Mohseni Kabir of Tavanir Co. >
July 01, 2005
DIgSILENT GmbH was invited to hold a 3 days' seminar on "Wind Power Integration" which represented a major event in the opening of the 5-years GTZ-project "China Wind Power Centre". The seminar which was combined with a PowerFactory software training was conducted by Dr. Markus Pöller from June 6th to 10th, 2005. >
April 17, 2005
DIgSILENT GmbH secured a large order of PowerFactory Monitoring systems (PFM/DSM type) for SEC Saudi Arabia. A number of 16 PFM/DSM systems will be installed in total of 15 substations in the eastern and central SEC regions. The 16 PFM/DSM systems will handle some 800 signal channels monitoring PT and CT signals from most relevant substations. The 16 PFM/DSM system installations will be handled via fast remote access and two Master Stations for coordinated access. >
March 11, 2005
DIgSILENT has been contracted by dena, Berlin to asses and review the dena grid study mainly under the focus of network integration aspects which have been analysed and elaborated by the consortium formed by major German utilities, the University of Cologne (EWI) and DEWI. >
March 04, 2005
DIgSILENT Pacific has been appointed by NEMMCO, the Australian regulator, to carry out the study "Assessment of potential security risks due to high levels of wind generation". The study will mainly focus on the dynamic impact of wind generation in South Australia on the Australian power transmission system. Prior to the appointment, benchmarking could validate the accuracy of dynamic PowerFactory models of the Australian transmission grid. DIgSILENT's vast expertise in power system stability and wind generation made its proposal to NEMMCO very competitive. However, the very accurate dynamic wind generator models available in PowerFactory software assured DIgSILENT this appointment. >
January 30, 2005
DIgSILENT Pacific will be exhibiting at the Sustainable Energy 2005 Conference in Melbourne on 27-29 April 2005. The DIgSILENT exhibition will concentrate on electrical power system simulation services as well as PowerFactory software. This follows a continued interest by developers and suppliers involved in renewable energy generation in the innovative products and services available from DIgSILENT. During the last few months DIgSILENT completed a number of studies in this area including wind farm feasibility and wind farm stability studies. The power of PowerFactory software enables DIgSILENT to provide these services within relative short period of time and reasonable cost. All those interested are invited to visit our stand. >
July 29, 2004
metaGRA engineering ltd. (metaGRA) has been appointed as the DIgSILENT Representative for North America (Canada & USA) and the Caribbean Islands. Increased interest in power system modeling, simulations and system expansion studies makes PowerFactory an attractive engineering tool in a mature but rapidly expanding market. >
June 20, 2004
NamPower, the national utility of Namibia, has awarded DIgSILENT GmbH the contract to install a Real-Time Training Simulator at their National Control Center in Windhoek. Following negotiations between Manfred Manchen (National Control specialist from Nampower) and Christoph Schmid (expert from DIgSILENT GmbH) with the participation of Alexander Dierks (from DIgSILENT South Africa (Pty) Ltd), the formal contract was placed in early May 2004. The DIgSILENT Training Simulator is a PowerFactory Engine application integrated to NamPower's ABB MicroSCADA. >
May 14, 2004
DIgSILENT GmbH has presented it's software and consulting capabilities and expertise at the international exhibition "WindEnergy 2004" at Hamburg which took place from May 11-14, 2004. This was the first time that DIgSILENT GmbH was present at a special wind power exhibition. >
May 06, 2004
Das PowerFactory Anwendertreffen 2004 stand im Zeichen der Präsentation und Diskussion der neuen PowerFactory Version 13.1 und dem PowerFactory PSMS, einem neuen DIgSILENT Produkt zur Verwaltung, Dokumentation, Einstellung und Prüfung von Schutzgeräten. PSMS steht dabei für "Protection Settings Management System". >
March 26, 2004
As a result of extensive experience solving customer's issues, DIgSILENT has mastered the know-how and tools to provide sound technical consulting services on the analysis of Electromagnetic Transients (EMT). >
February 28, 2004
DIgSILENT's local partner in Iran, MATN International, Tehran, has organized two 5-days trainings held in Kerman and Tabriz. The first course from February 7-11, 2004 was focussing on distribution planning for Zanjan Regional Electric in the North-West of Iran. The second training from February 14-18, 2004 concentrated on transmission planning and took place in Kerman in the Southern center of Iran. Both trainings were held by Dr. Jürgen Backes from DIgSILENT GmbH / Germany. >
January 07, 2004
DIgSILENT has initiated at FGW (Fördergesellschaft Wind) a working group for defining reference models and benchmark systems for large wind power parks. The reference models cover all kind of wind generator technologies, wind park layouts and grid integration aspects such as HVAC connections and DC connections via classical HVDC systems as well as HVDC-VSC (HVDC Light, Plus, etc.). They are especially defined for large wind parks (500 MW and above) being remotely connected (e.g. off-shore wind parks). >
December 31, 2003
A further increase in software sales in 2003 by more than 25% compared to 2002, has again strengthened DIgSILENT's market position. Nearly 250 licenses have been installed in over 50 places around the world with a major installation at ESKOM / South Africa with more than 150 licenses in a total of 7 regional distribution areas. With the great support of DIgSILENT's local offices, in 2003 more than 300 engineers attended the various PowerFactory training courses. >
November 15, 2003
ENERSIS/Chile, an ENDESA holding company of more than 30 generation, transmission and distribution companies in South America, has signed with DIgSILENT via SYNAPSIS, the IT service company of ENERSIS, a Corporate License agreement for the PowerFactory Software. This will allow all ENERSIS companies an easy and economically attractive access to the DIgSILENT PowerFactory software for all kind of applications. This agreement is especially interesting for SYNAPSIS as an ENERSIS system developer and solution provider in the field of SCADA and GIS systems as well as general utility IT infrastructure. >
September 15, 2003
DIgSILENT GmbH has been contracted by dena GmbH / Berlin to provide expertise, supervision and quality control for the dena study called "Energiewirtschaftliche Planung für die Netzintegration von Windenergie in Deutschland an Land und Offshore bis zum Jahr 2020". The study executed by a consortium of German transmission companies and EWI. >
September 01, 2003
Just in time – 4 weeks prior to commercial operation – a DIgSILENT PowerFactory Monitoring system was commissioned at Aqualectra's "New Diesel Station" which is located at ISLA Refinery premises close to the 60 MW BOO plant commissioned early this year. The 33.6 MW diesel station is operated with 4 units 8.4 MW each connected via setup-transformer to Aqualectra's new 66 kV substation. >
August 28, 2003
DIgSILENT will this year take the chance to participate for the first time at the forthcoming 2003 IEEE/PEW Conference and Exposition in Dallas, Texas. We shall be presenting the latest features of our integrated power system analysis software PowerFactory at booth no. 3041 situated at Hall C. >
August 01, 2003
Since the first release of the doubly-fed induction generator model in 11/2000, DIgSILENT has recently completed a number of generic, large scale and high precision wind turbine models for both, doubly-fed as well as full converter driven generation systems. As those models are fully integrated in the PowerFactory software, the full range of application aspects such as load flow, fault analysis, harmonics, protection simulation, stability calculations (RMS) as well as electromagnetic transients (EMT) are supported. >
March 24, 2003
Eskom Distribution (South Africa) has acquired a corporate license for the power system simulation software, PowerFactory, by DIgSILENT. The license consists of 120 installations, of varying configuration, spread across the seven distribution regions of Eskom. According to Eskom Distribution Information System Management (DISM) the implementation and roll-out of PowerFactory is the highest profile software project Eskom Distribution is undertaking this year. >
March 03, 2003
Vector Power Solutions Ltd. (VPS) has been appointed as the DIgSILENT Representative for the UK and the Republic of Ireland. This is in recognition of the rapidly developing interest in the capabilities of PowerFactory within the region and its good international reputation. For example, there is currently a strong interest in its capabilities for wind power studies. The agreement with VPS has been signed to allow DIgSILENT to offer a higher level of service locally to its customers and enquirers. >
February 24, 2004
For a planned project to interconnect the systems of Central America and South America at the boarder between Colombia and Panama , ISA/Colombia has requested DIgSILENT GmbH to present a special training course on HVDC modelling and analysis. During the week of Febr. 17-21, 2003 Dr. Markus Pöller conducted the training at ISA's offices in Medellin. >
February 06, 2003
DIgSILENT was present at the ETG conference (Mannheim, Feb. 4th and 5th) by a stand manned by Dr. Jürgen Backes and Ir. Jasper van Casteren. The stand gave a good overview of the capabilities of the PowerFactory software. Special focus was given to the latest reliability calculation features in the PowerFactory program. The stand was well visited and there was ample time and opportunity to convince the audience of the seamless integration of the reliability assessment in the PowerFactory environment, the ease of which reliability calculations can be carried out and the practically of the results. The interested response of the audience showed that the reliability module does meet the needs of today's planning departments. >
December 27, 2002
DIgSILENT Representative of the Year 2002 – Dr. Amir Hamzah from PTI-Asia (Kuala Lumpur / Malaysia) has been nominated "Representative of the Year 2002". Dr. Hamzah has significantly contributed to DIgSILENT's success during the year 2002 with further increase in sales on PowerFactory Software, Consulting Services and Monitoring Hardware. Especially the Asian market is growing very fast as Dr. Hamzah was able to identify the various needs of many utilities, research institutes and universities in updating their traditional software tools with modern, integrated power system analysis software. >
December 02, 2002
Sebastian Achilles joined DIgSILENT's study group on early December, to strengthen the consulting activities of our team. >
November 01, 2002
On November 01 Juergen Backes joining our study group division has reinforced our team. After graduating from the University of the Saarland, Germany in 1991, Juergen started working in the department of Electrical Power Engineering and received his PhD in the area of Distribution network planning based on Probabilistic Reliability Criteria in 1997. In the following period, he collected practical network planning experience within ABB's Electrical Systems Consulting Group (Mannheim, Germany) and in September 2000 changed to the developer team of the NEPLAN software, BCP (Zuerich, Switzerland), from where he left last month to join our company. >
October 03, 2002
DIgSILENT PowerFactory Monitor for SESCO, Kuching/Malaysia. DIgSILENT GmbH has reveiced a purchase order over 5 units of the PowerFacory Monitor (PFM) from SESCO in Kuching/Malaysia. It is SESCO's intention to upgrade their exisiting monitoring systems from Power Technologies (PTI) with the portable and more flexible system from DIgSILENT. As SESCO's system is operated isolated from TNB and other neighbouring countries, system contingencies can have major effect on excursions of frequency and bus voltages. In addition, SESCO is interconnected with one of the world largest LNG plants located in Bintulu requiring high quality and high reliability supply. SESCO's decision for the flexible PFM system from DIgSILENT is mainly based on the following considerations: >
September 27, 2002
DIgSILENT's involvement in CAMMESA's project called "Formacion de Islas" for the NOA region has prioritised the need to fundamentally improve their system studies validity with respect to large scale voltage and frequency excursions. As the project "Formacion de Islas" was implemented to develop criteria which should allow to safely separate the various areas from the central supply system of Argentina in case of major system upset conditions, it became obvious that a profound knowledge on the load characteristics would be most decisive for designing and adjusting such area islanding schemes. >
September 02, 2002
Dr. Markus Pöller and his colleague Dr. Walter Sattinger have made more than 50 full scale PowerFactory software presentations at the DIgSILENT booth at Cigré 2002 in Paris. They said "we were very much surprised on the specific interest on complex applications in modern transmission and distribution system analysis. Obviously, the leading position of the PowerFactory software, especially in modern wind power analysis and design is making our software the first choice". They received also a very positive response on it's integrated capabilities allowing to analyze all relevant steady state and transient effects within the same software environment. As modern wind power offshore applications – especially when considering latest generation unit technology with unit sizes of up to 5 MW per unit – are calling for high precision modeling and analysis capabilities, PowerFactory is the most efficient and cost-effective tool to cover all relevant aspects such as: >
August 16, 2002
End August 2002 DIgSILENT GmbH will complete one of its most challenging projects performed in the past years. A simulation model for the MLNG Tiga expansion (Petronas, Bintulu/Malaysia) is covering the 50 Hz and 60 Hz systems with complete integration of the process dynamics. The project, which was jointly developed with AspenTech Ltd., UK, required an on-line link of the DIgSILENT PowerFactory software with AspenTech's process simulation tool. Such integrated simulations are required as C3/MR compressor upset conditions will generate major torque variations of several hundred percent at the C3 and MR trains, finally resulting in the loss of synchronism of the 60 Hz system. >
May 27, 2002
End May 2002: DIgSILENT GmbH moved to their new offices in the "UNIPRO" Business Park in Gomaringen – just some 900 meters away from the old office at Buchenstraße 10. After a planning phase of 6 months the "first sod" was turned on September 3rd, 2001. Within a construction time of only 9 months, the new office, with its 1300 m2, was completed. The 7.17 kW photovoltaic system installed on the flat rooftop generated its first kWh on June 18th, 2002. >
February 04, 2002
End January 2002: DIgSILENT GmbH has been awarded the electrical design studies contract for the first German offshore windpark "Borkum West" by PROKON Nord GmbH. Although the installed capacity, some 60 MW, is only in the mid-range, there are a number of other aspects that qualify "Borkum West" as an extraordinary project. >
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