PES for changing times

PES for changing timesthe golden age of power and energy
Julio Romero AgüeroOUR INDUSTRY IS UNDERGOING A notable and fast transformation: we are living the “golden age” of power and energy, an age of discovery in which we are exploring novel concepts, technologies, and solutions and reimagining power and energy systems. Decarbonization, climate change and the adoption of clean energy, distributed resources, energy storage, electrification, analytics and communications, automation, and control technologies, among others, are driving significant changes that impact all areas of our industry. These changes span from policy, regulation, planning, and operations to standards, analysis, design, and the construction of modern and future power and energy systems.This evolution is also contributing to make our industry and the IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) more multidisciplinary, multigenerational, and diverse. For instance, PES members in the 20s age group, which includes young professionals and students, have tripled over the last 20 years, from about 2,800 members in 2003 to almost 9,000 members in 2021 (Figure 1). IEEE and PES are cognizant that finding solutions to the challenges driven by climate change is one of the top priorities of our Members, particularly of this cohort, and are working toward creating opportunities to continue leading in this area. For instance, PES is at the forefront of the energy transition by driving the development of key industry standards, such as the IEEE 1547 series of standards, which address the interconnection of distributed energy resources and power delivery systems. This includes inverter-based renewable generation (e.g., solar photovoltaic and wind distributed generation) and distributed energy storage, which are vital components to achieve the goals of the energy transition.
leaderscorner01-3230998leaderscorner02-3230998Our PES organization is also evolving and promoting multiple initiatives to address the needs and interests of our growing membership:21mpe02-pe8143-3240603-fig

We are reorganizing our Membership and Image and Chapter teams into a single organization to facilitate, streamline, and encourage closer collaboration between our Professional and Student Branch Chapters and our affinity groups. This new organization has become effective in January 2023, and I have the honor of leading this outstanding team of volunteers.

We have created the PES Entrepreneurship Committee to focus on promoting energy entrepreneurship initiatives around the world. Last September, the team successfully organized the first PES Clean Energy Entrepreneurship Workshop in Calgary, Canada.

The changing composition of our society includes a growing number of Life Members, many of them interested in mentoring and sharing their lifelong experiences with new generations of power and energy professionals. Our Life Member affinity group has been created to address this need and help transfer the knowledge, subject matter expertise, and wisdom of our most experienced members to newer generations of power and energy professionals and students. PES members in the 60s and 20s age groups are our two largest membership cohorts.

PES Day has gained remarkable popularity among our members; our distributed hybrid conference model allows the participation (virtual and in person) of our global membership in activities organized by our Chapters and affinity groups all over the world (Figure 2). The last edition of PES Day included attendees from more than 50 countries, the participation of 70 IEEE sections, about 500 lectures, and a network of 700 ambassadors who helped make this event a success.

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that hybrid events can be successful when planned methodically and targeted to suitable events (Figure 3). We are using the lessons learned from the last two years to identify best practices in this area that can be applied to events such as PES Day and provide greater benefits to our members. In this regard, we are exploring the possibility of hybrid technical events to facilitate participation from our members around the world in technical activities, working groups, and selected meetings.

We are updating our website to better serve our members by facilitating access to the latest information about our activities, benefits, and opportunities.

Our Humanitarian Activities Committee has been successfully leading the Humanitarian Technology Project Design Competition, our flagship event in this area, with the participation of members from multiple regions and countries, with a focus on power and energy for sustainable development.

Our Women in Power and Young Professionals Committees have implemented the Ignition Funding and Women in Power Funding programs to fund projects that directly benefit members, such as training workshops on key areas of interest and mentorship initiatives.

Our Awards and Recognition Committee is planning to review and update our existing awards portfolio to ensure it is suitable for the ongoing evolution of our industry and properly covers contributions in emerging areas.

Our Marketing and Social Media Committee has implemented its annual social media competition to recognize the online presence of our professional and Student Branch Chapters.

We launched our first Ideathon (https://ieee-pesday.org/ideathon22/), led by our PES Day Committee in partnership with MathWorks, to provide students with an opportunity to learn, imagine, and develop projects related to power and energy. This year, our area of focus is microgrids.

We are revamping our Membership- Driven Initiatives program to provide additional opportunities to our members and Professional and Student Branch Chapters to fund innovative ideas all over the world.

We have launched a pilot project in Region 9 to explore the creation of regional technical committees to address regional and local needs. The outcome and lessons learned from this pilot will help us define an approach to extrapolate this experience to other Regions.

leaderscorner03-3230998These are only a few examples of some of the activities PES is implementing— there are important initiatives involving education, technical activities, conferences and meetings, publications, and industry outreach that provide additional benefits to our members. We also continue learning about the root causes and drivers of regional membership trends to understand and better prepare for the future as well as to solve existing challenges. This includes using technology for making PES more accessible to our global membership; proactively identifying the evolving needs of our members; fostering sustainable growth; improving professional and student member retention; promoting industry participation, particularly from adjacent industries, such as information technology; and increasing student membership, particularly in Regions 1–7, and membership in general in all Regions. Regions 8–10 have tremendous potential in this regard; for instance, Region 10 now has the largest number of PES members.Our industry is experiencing a shortage of qualified resources, and PES can play an important role in motivating new generations to become the power and energy professionals of the future by communicating the importance of our work for the future of humankind, including the opportunity to learn and develop innovative and “cool” solutions and technologies that can have a significant societal impact. This inspirational mission is a special area of attention for PES. This evolution will continue for the foreseeable future, and PES is committed to remaining proactive, dynamic, agile, and adaptive to continue providing value and benefits to our members. None of this can be accomplished without the support and contributions of volunteers. I want to use this opportunity to encourage our members to serve in our committees and contribute to helping PES achieve its mission of being the leading provider of scientific and engineering information on electric power and energy for the betterment of society and the preferred professional development source of its membersDigital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPE.2022.3230998Date of current version: 15 February 202321mpe02-pe8176-3239131-fig

CoverSKM Power ToursMastheadDigsilentBuilt & maintained to lastMarmon Utility LLCS&C Electric CompanyPES for changing timesPS CADT&D equipmentTransmission and Distribution EquipmentSTATCOM Technology Evolution for Tomorrow’s GridStepping Up to the Future With Power TransformersLightning Protection of Distribution Power SystemsAdvances in HVdc Bushing Using Nonlinear MaterialsPower flow controlPES-GMIEEE fellowsIn memoriamPES meetingsRegistration is OpenAd Indexthe future belongs to dcIEEE-PESASPEN