Power Systems Computation Conference 2024, Paris

The Power Systems Computation Conference (PSCC) is a significant event in the field of power systems research. The conference is held every two years and is notoriously known for its challenging review process – only about 20-30% of all submitted works get accepted. In the era of publishing inflation, PSCC refused to grow and publish more papers. This low acceptance rate is due to the fact that the number of presentations during the four days of the conference is fixed at around 220 (no poster sessions!). Thus, getting a spot becomes more and more competitive for authors. During the review process, editors and reviewers give scores to manuscripts. Then, only 220 highly scored papers go through. The remaining manuscripts are rejected with no possibility of revision or appeal. This obviously creates some dissatisfaction among authors, rumours of a random scoring process, unfair decisions, and other concerns. Even papers by famous researchers get rejected at PSCC. Nonetheless, this conference stands as one of the few trusted academic events in power systems research.

My first two attempts to present at PSCC were unsuccessful as my manuscripts were rejected in 2020 and 2022. I remember how discouraging it was to receive the rejection emails. They meant that I would not publish my manuscripts at PSCC and would have to resubmit them elsewhere. They also meant that I would not attend the conference because there was no point in travelling without presenting my research. With all these rejections, attending PSCC has been a dream for me for quite some time.

Finally, my third attempt to join PSCC was successful! This summer, I got the opportunity to contribute to the conference and give a talk at PSCC 2024 in France.

What did I do differently this time to get my manuscript accepted?

Well, several factors come into play here. First, a bit of luck. One needs it if aiming for PSCC. Second, a hard-core model reported in the paper. Remember that the conference focuses on computations for power systems. So, many reviewers are looking for challenging problems and complex models. In my work, I elaborated on a well-known problem of security-constrained transmission expansion planning. This problem is inherently difficult due to the large number of nonlinear constraints. Plus, I added a twist by introducing a new layer for interpreting the value of investment options. Finally, the third factor is the clarity of the manuscript. Reviewers and editors want to see clearly formulated ideas and distinguishable contributions. In this regard, I spent much time polishing my paper (especially the introduction) to make it easy for readers to understand 1) the problem I was working on and 2) the main findings of my work. After many weeks of revisions and refinements, I produced one of the most professional manuscripts in my career.

My paper, titled “Interpreting the Value of Flexibility in AC Security-Constrained Transmission Expansion Planning via a Cooperative Game Framework”, is now available on arXiv https://arxiv.org/pdf/2310.03610.pdf and the Electric Power Systems Research journal https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378779624005558

My talk at PSCC about this paper is also available here:

The conference was held at the Paris-Saclay University – quite far from the centre of Paris with its most popular places. So it was interesting for me to both feel the vibe of the university and to see the French countryside.

University amphitheatre during the first day of tutorials:

All participants of PSCC 2024 (actually rather few people compared to some other major conferences):

I enjoyed walking around the campus. It was green and shiny in June:

A peculiar thing about PSCC 2024 was a 1-km walk through the forest to the venue. It was fun during the day. But at night, getting back to the hotel in complete darkness was challenging: