The 12th IEEE PES Powertech Conference, the IEEE PES anchor conference in Europe, PowerTech Manchester 2017 “Towards and beyond sustainable energy systems”, was held at The University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom between 18-22 June 2017.

The conference was the largest gathering of international researchers and practitioners working in the general area of electrical power engineering outside the USA in 2017 and possibly the largest such conference ever held in the UK and certainly the largest to be held in the UK for a generation. It attracted over 670 delegates from 54 countries from around the world. The conference was formally opened by Prof Martin Schröder, Vice-President of the University of Manchester and the Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering.

Prof Jovica V. Milanović, General Chair of the conference, inviting the chairmen of the “Basil Papadias Award” committee (Prof Athanasios Bakirtzis and Prof Joao Tome Saraiva) to announce the winner of the award for the best student paper at PowerTech Manchester 2017 during the gala dinner at the Manchester United’s stadium at Old Trafford.

Prof Luis (Nando) Ochoa – Chairman of the Technical Programme Committee of the conference (second from the right) chairing the key-note session featuring (from left to right), Prof Vladimiro Miranda, Ms Sonya Twohig and Ms Wanda Reder Delegates during

Delegates during well attended plenary (key-note) sessions

The conference featured 3 tutorials, a Women in Power special session with 5 panel presentations attracting 45 delegates, 10 key note speeches, 18 special sessions with 90 presentations by industrialists and academics, and 252 oral and 245 poster presentations of latest research results. In total there were 602 presentations during the conference.

Some of the presenters and participants of Women in Power special session (top) and Prof David J. Hill of the University of Hong Kong (bottom), talking at special session on “Mathematical foundations of power system analysis” that attracted over 120 attendees.

Dr Damir Novosel, President of the IEEE PES (top) and Prof Nikolaos D. Hatziargyriou, Chairman of the Board & CEO Hellenic Electricity DNO and Chair of the European Technology Platform on Smart-Grids (bottom) giving key-note speeches at the conference.

Prof Dame Nancy J. Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor of The University of Manchester (top) and Prof Ronnie Belmans, Co-founder & CEO of EnergyVille and Honorary Chairman of the Board of Directors of ELIA, giving key-note speeches at the conference.

The keynote speakers at the conference included Dr Damir Novosel, Prof. Dame Nacy J. Rothwell, Prof Nikos Hatziargyriou, Dr Bruno Meyer, Prof Vladimiro Miranda, Ms Sonya Twohig, Ms Wanda Reder, Prof Malden Kezunović, Mr Mark McGranaghan and Prof Ronnie Belmans.

Prof Joao Tome Saraiva and Prof Athansios Bakirtzis with the winner of “Basil Papadias Award” for the best student paper Adrian Hauswirth from ETH Zurich, and Ana Marija Blanco Castañeda from TU Dresden and Uroš Marković from ETH Zurich winners of High Quality paper certificates.

Prof Jovica V. Milanović, General Chair of the conference, closing the conference and inviting delegates to the next IEEE PES PowerTech conference, PowerTech Milano 2019.

The PowerTech conference was preceded by annual meeting and training session for PES Chapter Chairs from Region 8 (Europe, Middle east and Africa) which took place on Sunday 18 June 2017. The meeting and training session was attended by 23 out of 44 Chapter Chairs from the Region 8 and representatives of IEEE PES Governing Board including Damir Novosel, President of IEEE PES, Patrick Ryan , PES Executive Director, Frank Lambert, PES VP for Chapters, Danijel Topić, PES Student Branch Coordinator, Meliha Selak, Past PES VP Chapters and Member of the PES Long Range Planning Committee, Carlo Alberto Nucci, PES Region 8 Careers and Scholarship Plus Coordinator and Jovica V Milanović, PES Regional Representative for Region 8.

Some of the attendees of the annual meeting and training session for PES Chapter Chairs from Region 8.