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| LEADER'S CORNER PES Vice Presidents
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Alan C. Rotz | ||
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| I struggled for weeks to come up with a topic worthy of your time to read it. As I write this in May, smart grid is in the news every day. It seems like every day another manufacturer of smart grid equipment or software is promoting its role in the effort, or another politician chimes in on what he think needs to be done and what the potential benefits will be. In the meantime, the IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) is trying to get out front of the effort by collaborating with organizations, including NIST and EPRI, to get standards in place and make sure that we occupy a leadership position from which we can appropriately influence the effort. But with the three-month lead time required for this column, such news might well be out of date by the time you read it. I also considered reporting on the efforts of the PES Long-Range Planning Committee (LRP), which I have been chairing during my term. The LRP had a very productive meeting when we met in Atlanta in January 2009 before the Joint Technical Committee Meeting. We had a brainstorming session on a number of topics that PES will have to address in coming years:
At the General Meeting in Calgary in July this year, the plan is to spend the LRP session developing those ideas into goals for 2010. I'm planning to report on that effort more fully in my first article as PES president, which will be published in the January/February 2010 issue. VP HighlightsSo what I've decided to concentrate on is making you aware of some of the outstanding efforts your PES vice-presidents have been spending their time on. These folks have been giving unselfishly of their time, and I'd like you to be aware of what they've done to further the mission of PES and how they provide value and service to all of you. We have just enough space to give you the highlights of what they've been doing. As you cross paths with them, please take a moment to join me in thanking them for the time and effort they've expended on behalf of PES's mission and membership. Web Site UpdateBy the time you read this, the new PES Web site should be operational. A team was assembled in 2008 to lead this revitalization effort by our then VP of Membership and Image Edina Bajrektarevic and has continued under current VP Greg Reed. Henry Louie, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Seattle University, agreed to chair this effort. Many of us felt that the look of the Web site was a bit tired, it was difficult to navigate and search, and it was quite cluttered and busy. This team spent countless hours reviewing the old Web site, collecting opinions on what was wrong with it, and deciding what the new Web site should look like. The whole effort was undertaken to make the Web site more user friendly and to better serve the needs of all of you, our membership. This team has done a great job in a short time under Henry's leadership, and I hope you will be as proud of the results as I am. 125th Anniversary OutreachHave you seen any information on the IEEE/PES 125th anniversary activities? Heard of the recent new PES technically cosponsored conference in Wuhan, China? Watched a video highlighting the contributions to the electric power industry in various parts of the world? If so, you should probably thank Saifur Rahman, PES VP-New Initiatives and Outreach. These are just a sampling of activities Saifur has worked on in recent months. Saifur has been leading the 125th anniversary efforts for PES as well as serving on the IEEE 125th Anniversary Celebration Committee. By the time you read this, PES will have highlighted our 125th anniversary celebrations during the General Meeting in Calgary in late July 2009 at both the general membership meeting and the reception. I hope you were able to attend and participate. Saifur also worked diligently with Prof. Barry Zhou of Wuhan University to set up a new technical conference, Asia-Pacific Power & Energy Engineering Conference (APPEEC), that was hosted in Wuhan in late March 2009. This new conference was a great success, with 941 papers accepted out of about 1,900 submissions. The more than 700 attendees enjoyed presentations by authors from ten different countries. And finally, the videos referenced were already presented at PowerCon in India in October 2008 and at APPEEC in Wuhan, China, in March 2009. A third is currently in production to highlight the contributions of the European membership and is scheduled to be presented at the Power Tech Conference in Bucharest, Romania, in June 2009. These videos are all available on the PES Web site. New Transactions in the WorksDo you subscribe to any of the IEEE PES publications: IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, or IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion? Are you aware that two more IEEE transactions sponsored by PES are in the approval stage? One will be called IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid (IEEE Computer, Communications, Computational Intelligence, Signal Processing, Industry Applications, Industrial Electronics, Instrumentation and Measurement, and Power Electronics Societies are technical cosponsors), and the other IEEE Transactions for Sustainable Energy (financially cosponsored by IEEE Power Electronics, Industry Applications, and Industrial Electronics Societies and technically cosponsored by Industry Applications, Industrial Electronics, Power Electronics, Social Implications of Technology, Photonics, and Oceanic Engineering Societies). Mohammad Shahidehpour, VP-Publications, has been diligently shepherding these proposed periodicals through the approval process (quite a rigorous procedure to say the least!). PES hopes to publish the initial edition of each of these journals in 2010. Meetings and ConferencesHave you been to a major PES meeting or conference lately? These events have continued to achieve record-setting attendance over the last year or so, despite the downturn in the economy. John Paserba, VP-Meetings, has been the overall coordinator of this effort, with the very capable support of Tommy Mayne for the T&D Expo and the Local Organizing Committee for the Pittsburgh General Meeting (GM) in 2008. (GM 2009 in Calgary is looking successful also, but is two months in the future as I write this!) The T&D Expo, held in Chicago in April 2008, had over 13,000 attendees registered, the second largest of all time. The 2008 GM in Pittsburgh had over 2,000 registered attendees, an all-time record for the GM since the format as we currently know it began. The PSCE, held in Seattle in March 2009, also had an all-time record attendance of over 1,300 registrants, nearly a 50% increase over the highest prior total. There are many other PES-sponsored conferences going on around the world that are just too numerous to mention in this column. They have all been very successful. Hopefully these successes are an indicator that PES is doing something right! Speaking of meetings, was your technical committee (TC) represented at the Joint Technical Committee Meetings in Atlanta in January 2009? Eight TCs had at least one meeting during this event, and there were also additional meetings by CIGRE working groups, NEMA, NERC and more. The total attendance of 653 represented an increase of over 40% from the previous meeting. This meeting was put together by the VP-Meetings John Paserba, former VP-Technical Activities Paula Traynor, and current VP-Technical Activities Rick Taylor. The format has been very successful, minimizing administrative and overhead activities and maximizing technical meeting time. Based on this success, the TCs are considering sponsoring similar meetings at other times during the year for committees that have natural associations. Power CoursesDo you know any nonengineering professional associates who need to learn more about the electric power industry? Do they know about the Plain Talk courses that PES offers? These courses, developed under the leadership of Prabha Kundur, VP-Education, have been very well received. You can access more information on these courses from the PES Web site. Current offerings include “Power System Basics,” “Distribution System,” and “The Grid.” Two additional courses are currently in development: “Power Quality and Harmonics” and “Operation of Electricity Markets.” PES Executive Director Pat Ryan and PES staff have been key advocates in looking for new venues and marketing these offerings. More ChaptersUnder the leadership of former VP-Chapters Enrique Tejera and current VP Meliha Selak, the number of PES Chapters worldwide has grown to 190. New Chapters added from January through May 2009 include Lebanon, Galveston Bay, East Tennessee, Kansas City, the Czech Republic, and Hampton Roads (note that some are joint chapters with other IEEE Societies). Additionally, three more possibilities are in various stages of investigation/approval process at this time. Also, new Student Branch Chapters have been created in Hungary at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics and in Colombia at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Bogata. Their Time and Effort Is AppreciatedAs noted earlier, this article has only touched on the highlights of what the PES VPs have accomplished in the past year or so. There are many more successes and many supporting volunteers who deserve recognition as well, but I've exhausted the space allocated for my column. I hope you will join me in thanking these tireless volunteers for all of their efforts, not only for the accomplishments noted in this article but also for their ongoing efforts in support of PES. And finally, please consider stepping up yourself to volunteer your time to give back to this great profession if you're not already involved. Without YOUR efforts, there will be no leadership ready to continue these accomplishments over the next 125 years of PES. Become a part of that history! | |
