Region 7 (Canada) Chapters Report
Nov 6, 2016
By Mazana , Wahab and Jahangir, IEEE PES Chapters Region 7
IEEE Region 7 (R7) represents the Canadian PES chapters. The Chapter Representatives for Canada-East is Wahab Almuhtadi and for Canada-West is Jahangir Khan. Mazana Armstrong is the Region Representative for R7.
The following is the list of existing PES Chapters in Canada and their chapter chairs:
- Canadian Atlantic Section Joint Chapter, chapter chair Jeff MacKinnon
- London Section Chapter, chapter chair Jin Jiang
- Montreal Section Chapter, chapter chair Ambrish Chandra
- Ottawa Section Chapter, chapter chair Wahab Almuhtadi
- Toronto Section Chapter, chapter chair Bala Venkatesh
- Kitchener-Waterloo Section Chapter, chapter chair Kankar Bhattacharya
- Hamilton Section Chapter, chapter chair Nigel Schofield
- Northern Canada Section Joint Chapter, chapter chair Carl Lam
- Winnipeg Section Chapter, chapter chair Sameh Kodsi
- North Saskatchewan Section Joint Chapter, chapter chair Eli Pajuelo
- Southern Alberta Section Chapter, chapter chair Shan Pandher
- Vancouver Section Joint Chapter, chapter chair Dipendra Rai
In addition to the PES Chapters, Region 7 has three PES student chapters located in University of British Columbia, British Columbia Institute of Technology and University of Calgary.
A total of 6 Chapters in Region 7 received High-Performance Chapters Program (HPCP) award for their activities in 2015. Congratulations and many thanks to the following IEEE PES Chapters: London, Northern Canada, Ottawa, Southern Alberta, Vancouver and Winnipeg. The HPCP awards ranged from $460 to $900 USD.
New Chapter Chairs that came onboard are in Canadian Atlantic, London, Hamilton, Northern Canada, Winnipeg and North Saskatchewan Chapters. Economic conditions in some provinces led to a membership decline and lower participation in PES activities. IEEE and PES offer reduced membership fees for members in difficult financial situations (for example because of unemployment), and most chapter technical events are offered free of charge.
Region 7 PES Chapters held many events throughout 2016:
Vancouver Chapter held technical presentations on Current Interruption in Atmospheric Air (by Dr. David Peelo), Environmental Friendly Substation (by Li Xiao), Smart Condition Monitoring of Power System Equipment (by Dr. Charles Q. SU), Power system protection and control update (by David E. Whitehead). Two Distinguished Lectures on Experience of Severe Overvoltage in an Interconnected Transmission Subnetwork (Dr. Mukesh Nagpal) and ‘Electric Utilities – An Industry in Transition’ (by Wanda Reder). Outstanding Engineer Awards were given to – Dr. Mukesh Nagpal (+15 yrs of experience) and Dr. Jahangir Khan (-15 yrs experience). Two Industry Tours were arranged (Endurance Wind Power and Stave Falls Powerhouse). The IEEE Standard Association (IEEE-SA) awarded “2016 Standards Medallion Award” to two of PES/DES Members: Dr. Anthony Ho and Dr. Sudhakar Cherukupalli.
Ottawa Chapter held technical presentations on Next Generation Photovoltaics (by Prof. Karin Hinzer, University of Ottawa). Made tour of NRC Heavy Vehicle Testing Facility. Workshop on: Summary of US Department of Energy programs at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) (by David Narang, NREL, USA), and Fundamental changes to the electric power system-post 2018 (by Mark Siira, ComRent International, USA). Provided technical support, hosted, and organized the Electrical Power and Energy Conference (EPEC) 2016 “SMARTER GRID AND BEYOND: FUTUTRE OF THE INTEGRATED POWER SYSTEMS” held on October 12-14, 2015, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada http://epec2016.ieee.ca/. On October 14, 2016, presented the IEEE PES Chapter Outstanding Engineer Award (OEA) to Mr. to Colin Clark at the 72nd Ottawa Section AGM.
Saskatchewan chapter held a technical talk by Dr. Roy Billinton. The Chapter also initiated an Outstanding Engineer Award nominations process. Preparations are under way for hosting the EPEC2017 conference.
Northern Canada and Southern Alberta chapters arranged seminars on topics such as Hazardous Locations Standards for Canada, Designing Electrical Systems for On-Site Power Generation, Partial Discharges in Electrical Insulation, Getting on top of High Voltage Grounding and 4-day course on Power System Stability and Control. Southern Alberta Chapter’s Outstanding Engineer Awards were presented to Fred Ritter(+ 15 years category) and to Ronnie Minhaz (-15 years category). Chapter member Sidra Malik received the Myron Zucker Student Travel Grant from IAS. Chapter received funding from PES Member Driven Initiative program, and is collaborating with our YP group and UofC Student Branch, on several projects.
Northern Canada chapter held a well-attended grounding seminar in September, and selected winners of 2 Outstanding Engineer Awards as well as an Outstanding Volunteer Award.
Southern Alberta chapter also focused on educational activities with ‘Power Systems – Making the Right Decisions’ event.
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