Editorial

Special Ingeniería e Investigación Edition – International Symposium on Power Quality – SICEL 2015

The International Symposium on Power Quality was held for the first time in October 2001 and took place in Bogotá. It was planned in order to provide and academic and professional space to discuss and exchange the experience on topics related to the quality of electricity service. SICEL has evolved from the main causes of faults and electric system outages, to the most recent developments for improving systems reliability and possibilities to develop new businesses and markets based on power quality.

In addition, SICEL has also addressed Smart Grids, which represent a global trend for the improvement and development of electric power systems. These have allowed the creation of new Information Technology based business to be implemented on existing and future grids, and offer the opportunity to rethink reliability, energy efficiency, sustainability and the way we, as electricity professionals, should face the challenges of future demand. SICEL 2015 was tuned to this opportunity, and offered sessions on smart grids to the attendees, where their contributions were presented and discussed.

SICEL 2015 was held in Universidad Técnica Federico-Santa-María - UTFSM in Valparaíso (Chile), and it represents the 8^th occasion to gather experts on power quality from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Germany, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and the United States of America. In this occasion, Professor Johny Montaña, ascribed to UTFSM and general host of the event, was invited to be guest editor of this special edition of the Ingeniería e Investigación journal, along with Profesor Javier Herrera, ascribed to the Facultad de Minas of Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

The 8^th version of SICEL had five main topics: Power Quality (18 papers), Electromagnetic Compatibility (9 papers), Smart Grids (17 papers), Energy Management (6 papers), Research on Lightning (6 papers) and one paper on Regulatory aspects. The total of these 57 technical papers was organized in oral sessions, from which 15 papers were selected to be published in this special issue due to their outstanding contribution, innovations and quality. All of these were evaluated in accordance to the following journal requirements:

• Double blind peer review
• Each paper read by at least two peers
• A peers committee formed by 32 highly recognized researchers; in this occasion: 15 of them international (47%), 11 Colombian (not involved with Universidad Nacional de Colombia) (34%), and 6 local readers (19%)

The Editorial Board of Ingeniería e Investigación is very glad to share these selected papers. We hope they provide an interesting outlook to our readers about the topics addressed by SICEL 2015.

Johny Hernán Montaña Chaparro
Guest Editor for SICEL 2015
Special Ingeniería e Investigación Edition
Professor at Universidad Técnica Federico Santamaría
Valparaiso - Chile
Head of SICEL 2015

Javier Gustavo Herrera Murcia
Guest Editor for SICEL 2015
Special Ingeniería e Investigación Edition
Professor at Mine Faculty
Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Medellín - Colombia

Andrés Pavas
Director
Ingeniería e Investigación
Professor at Engineering Faculty
Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Bogotá - Colombia