Rene Smeets has for more than 30 years been involvedin switching with switchgear ranging from 10 1200 kV.For the last 19 years he has worked at DNV GL (former KEMA)high-power laboratory in the Netherlands. Alongside this he isactive in various positions in CIGRE: as convener and member ofworking groups dealing with switching equipment and testing. He isalso a convener of IEC standardization teams with respect tohigh-voltage switchgear. He is a Fellow of IEEE. Amongst hisscientific activities, he is currently chairman of the Current Zero Club , an informal group of specialistsdealing with current interruption phenomena. He holds a Ph.D. andwas appointed as a part-time professor at Eindhoven University in2001 and adjunct-professor at Xi an Jiaotong University in2013. He has been a guest-editor of IEEE Journals and has publishednumerous papers on switching and testing. He has given courses onswitching and switchgear worldwide. Lou van der Sluis obtained his M.Sc. in electricalengineering from the Delft University of Technology. He joined theKEMA High Power Laboratory in 1977 as a test engineer and wasinvolved in the development of a data acquisition system, computercalculations of test circuits and the digital analysis of testdata. Since 1992 he has been employed as a full-time professor atthe Delft University of Technology in the Power Systems Department.He is a senior member of IEEE and past convener of CC 03 ofCIGRE/CIRED studying the transient recovery voltages in medium andhigh voltage networks. He is currently a member of CIGRE WG A3.24on internal arc testing and co-convener of CIGRE WG C4.502 studyingthe interaction between high-voltage overhead lines and undergroundcables. He is a member of the advisory board of CIGRE SC A3. Mirsad Kapetanoviae received the M.Sc. degree inendurance of high-voltage circuit breakers in 1993, and the Ph.D.degree for discovery of Algebra of fractal vector (Bosnian algebra)in 1997 from the Sarajevo University, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Hehas been with the Energoinvest Electric Power Institute (IRCE),Sarajevo, since 1977. In 1982, he became Head of the high voltagecircuit-breakers design department at IRCE. In 1997, he wasappointed part-time professor at the Faculty of ElectricalEngineering, University of Sarajevo. Currently, he is Professor atthe faculty and part-time R&D Manager of EnergoBos Company fromSarajevo. Dr. Kapetanovic is a Member of IEEE, Distinguished Memberof CIGRE, regular member of CIGRE Study Commitee SC A3 (HighVoltage Equipment), 2002 2008; regular member of SC 13(Switching Equipment), 1996 2002; and, as of 1990, member ofthe CIGRE Working Group 13.01 (Practical Application of Arc Physicsin Circuit Breakers). David Peelo was born in 1943 in Dublin, Ireland. Aftercompleting high school, he studied electrical engineering atUniversity College Dublin and graduated cum laude in 1965. Hisfirst employment was at the ASEA High Voltage Laboratory inLudvika, Sweden. In 1973 he joined BC Hydro in Vancouver, BritishColumbia, Canada, eventually becoming a switchgear and switchingspecialist. He took early retirement in 2001 to pursue a new careeras an independent consultant and to undertake postgraduate work asrepresented by this thesis. He obtained a Ph.D. degree in switchingwith HV air-break disconnectors in 2004. He is active in CIGRE, IECand IEEE committees and working groups and has authored orco-authored over 40 technical papers. Anton Janssen served 35 years in management functionswithin the electric transmission and electricity/gas distributionindustry, including management responsibility for KEMA High PowerLaboratory. He is active in national and internationalorganizations dealing with technical, managerial and strategicnetwork issues. He was convener of a number of CIGRE workinggroups and was special reporter at many CIGRE SC 13/A3 sessions andsymposia. Mr Janssen has special interest in the fields of electrictransients, in protection and system stability issues, in asset-and life-management issues, in network development and planning, inoptimizing the combination of various energy carriers (such as gas,electricity and heat), in the co-operation between utilities andauthorities, in optimizing the network and substation topology, inincorporating the volatile sustainable sources of power(electricity, gas and a combination of both) and in coaching Ph.D.students.