At SES, we are committed to continuously improving our software and services to empower engineers and researchers worldwide. In this edition, we're excited to share highlights from our 35^th annual CDEGS Users' Group Conference, hosted this year by Dominion Energy in Richmond, Virginia—a city with its own engineering legacy, having introduced the first successful large-scale electric streetcar system in 1888. This year's conference drew the largest level of user participation in its history, and in the pages that follow we showcase the many software advances unveiled there. Most of these features are already available in Version 21 with more arriving in its next update.

The release of CDEGS Version 21.0 delivers the advances previewed at last year's conference alongside the introduction of the new Ultimate licenses, to which most users under support have now been automatically upgraded. Among the most anticipated enhancements is the official availability of unlimited parallel case execution. While the Ultimate license represents the gold standard of what SES Software offers, the full software suite continues to advance across the board.

Advanced Soil Modeling & Finite Volumes

• SESResap
• Building on the driven-rod measurement method, can now automatically account for buried metallic structures near soil resistivity measurements.
• MultiGroundZ
• Now supports nested soil volumes.
• MultiFields
• Initial results from a new inclined-soil model.
• SoilModelEditor
• Enhanced with a new 3D viewer for finite volumes.
• Thermal MALZ
• Continues to evolve, now including conductor coatings and finite volumes.

Plastic Conductors & Non-Conductive Enclosures

• SESCAD
• Introduces a long-awaited and frequently requested capability: plastic "conductors."
• MultiGroundZ, MultiFields & Right-of-Way
• Now support the integration of non-conductive enclosures.

Devices

• Now mature, with the full strength of this functionality demonstrated for large networks through compelling case studies.
• New device editor now available in SESCAD.
• Can now switch between device scenarios and generate result envelopes in SESResultsViewer.

Metallic Plates in MultiFields

• Can now coexist with finite volumes.
• Now supported in horizontally layered soil, vertically layered soil, and multi-region soil.
• Junction modelling for magnetic plates is also now available.

Right-of-Way, CorrCAD & SESTransient

• Right-of-Way
• New hybrid circuit solver mode allows circuits to be energized at any location, with connections easily created between any two nodes.
• Practical enhancements include no-coupling zones and structure extensions as entities.
• CorrCAD
• Automatic detection of polarization requirements added.
• New interface to support Google Earth plotting.
• SESTransient
• Model definition is now substantially easier through graphically selected observation points and more detailed editing of profile and conductor selections.
• Visible energization enables direct setup verification.
• Now supports finite volumes, and step-voltage post-processing has been significantly accelerated.
• Now offers 3D plots and animations, as well as 2D plotting in the new SESGallery.

SESTrainSimulator

• Results can now be managed directly from the ribbon, with full visibility into train data entries and their status, enabling new computations to run only when necessary.

SESShield-2D

• Now supports Risk Assessment studies not only in accordance with the latest third edition of IEC 62305-2:2024, but also NFPA 780 Annex L, giving users the choice of either detailed or simplified risk assessment under that standard.

SESConverter3D (New)

• Continued progress with support for additional AutoCAD entities, improved navigation, and SES data embedded directly within AutoCAD files.
• CAD and SES models can now also be exported as interactive 3D PDF documents.

Expanded Databases

• SESLibrary
• The Thermal Properties database now includes thermal conductivity, thermal resistivity, specific heat capacity, and density for a wide range of power system materials.
• The Sag database contains key mechanical and thermal properties of overhead conductors required for sag and tension calculations.

• SESAmpacity
• The Bimetallic Buried Conductors (Copperweld) computation type has been expanded to support 29 Copperweld conductor types, including the ArcAngel and Century families, compared with the six ArcAngel conductor types previously supported.
• Conductor data for the ArcAngel 14 cable has also been updated to reflect the latest manufacturer specifications.

Reporting Environment Enhancements

• SESResultsViewer
• Now includes leakage current density from a 1 cm² holiday.

• SESThreshold
• Now displays maximum values within user-defined zones.

• SESGallery (New)
• Has evolved into a full-fledged application that will soon be included in the SES Software tools folder, providing a centralized environment for browsing plots, reports, and a wide range of image files generated by the software.

• SESReportBuilder (New)
• A new application designed to automate and simplify the creation of engineering reports from SES project files.

Governance, Security & Certifications

• SES earned its SOC 2 Type II attestation earlier this year, following its ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification last year—milestones that reflect our ongoing commitment to information security, operational discipline, and the trust our users place in us.
• SES is also currently implementing its ISO 9001 Quality Management System, with certification expected to be completed in approximately three months.
• Work has already begun on a Level 4 Certification course, the next evolution of SES's certification program.

Acknowledgments

We extend our heartfelt thanks to our dedicated user community. Your feedback and support continue to shape our development efforts, helping us deliver world-class tools for:

• Grounding / Earthing
• Lightning Protection
• Electromagnetic Compatibility