Roll of laboratory education in electrical power engineering education

Laboratory education is an important part of the engineering curricula. In the past, undergraduate electrical power engineering education used the traditional electrical machine and high voltage laboratories. The fast development of computers shifted the power engineering education towards the usage of computers instead of laboratories. The computer based virtual laboratories appeared. Additional development is the manifestation of Power Electronics, which requires different laboratories. The participants of this panel session present the status of laboratory usage in power engineering education worldwide. This paper gives a short history of laboratory usage in power engineering. The effects of emerging new trends and the changing environment, on laboratory education in power engineering are discussed. Furthermore the paper poses questions that should be answered during the panel session.