Dec 13, 2017

By Mazana , Branislav and Jahangir, IEEE PES Chapters Region 7

IEEE Region 7 (R7) represents the Canadian PES chapters. The Chapter Representatives for Canada-East is Branislav Djokic 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 Aminul Islam
• 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 Mehdi Narimani
• Northern Canada Section Joint Chapter, chapter chair Carl Lam (outgoing in Dec 2017)
• Winnipeg Section Chapter, chapter chair Sameh Kodsi
• North Saskatchewan Section Joint Chapter, chapter chair Eli Pajuelo
• Southern Alberta Section Chapter, chapter chair David Hines
• 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. The Hamilton, Canadian Atlantic (Halifax) and Southern Alberta chapters have new Chapter Chairs this year.

The First utility-focused Grid Modernization Workshop was held in Vancouver on July 24, 2017, followed by a Utility Executive Meeting on July 25. This event was supported by 12 Canadian electric power utilities and companies. About 100+ utility attendees and guests participated in this event. On the second day, the Executive Meeting was attended by the Canadian utility executives and senior managers.

Following up on the success of the first utility-focused Grid Modernization Workshop, organized jointly by the Vancouver PES Chapter and BC Hydro and held in Vancouver on July 24-25, 2017, preparations for a Grid Modernization Workshop in Ottawa in 2018 are under way. The Ottawa PES Chapter is ready to help with the organization of the event, and Hydro Ottawa was contacted and has shown interest in hosting the workshop. The format will be similar to that of the event in Vancouver: a full-day workshop followed by a full-day utility executives’ meeting. The intention is to attract primarily the participation of utilities in Eastern Canada but other utilities and companies across Canada will also be welcome.

Highlights from Canadian Chapters:

Vancouver Chapter hosted a number of technical talks including the recent ones on “Redesigning the Electric Grid for High Reliability and High Flexibility” by Haroon Inam and Brad Bell from Smart Wires Inc. and on “United States Navy Submarine Rescue: Project Strategies”, by Peter Helland from Midgard Consulting Inc.

Saskatchewan Chapter hosted Electrical Power & Energy Conference (EPEC) conference on Oct 22-25 and arranged technical talk on “Wind Energy Conversion Technologies for Grid and Stand-Alone Applications” by Dr. Vijayakumar Krishnasamy. They hosted technical talk on Photovoltaic Generation in Low Voltage Networks for Sustainable Energy Systems by Dr Kalpesh Joshi (Nov 14th)  which was co-hosted with the PES student chapter. They also announced PES Outstanding Engineer Award Nominations for 2017.

Northern Canada Chapter hosted tutorial on Distribution and power transformers up to 30 MVA and arranged guided tour of ABB Power Services. They hosted technical talk on Grid energy storage: policies and applications hosted NCS PES/IAS annual general meeting.

Toronto Chapter organized a seminar “Recent Advances In Direct Torque and Flux Control of IPMSM Drives” by Dr. M. N. Uddin, Lakehead University, in Toronto on August 11, a Manufacturing Facility Tour of SIEMENS RuggedCom in Vaughan, Ontario on Nov. 2, and hosted a seminar “Global, Regional and Local Impacts of Climate Change – A European Union Perspective” by Dr. Tsanis, Technical University of Crete, in Toronto on Nov. 15.

Ottawa Chapter organized two PES DL talks by Dr. Saifur Rahman: “Measurement, Control and Protection in a Robust Smart Grid with a Reference to Energy Management Systems for Smart Buildings in a Smart City,” held at NRC, and “Smart Building Energy Management Systems in the Development of a Smart City” held at Algonquin College. Both talks were outstanding and raised a lot of interest among the attendees. The Chapter also organized three seminars in Ottawa, on Dec. 7, by Doug Houseman, Project Manager at Burns & McDonnell, USA: “IEEE Grid Vision 2050 and Getting Measurements Right Underground“ at NRC, “Improving Internal Standards to improve the utility of the distribution grid” at Hydro Ottawa, “Solar Energy and the Northern Weather Cycle” at Algonquin College. All of these were very well attended and received.

In addition to the Chapter organized events, the positive impact of the IEEE PES Chapter Chair Training held at the IEEE PES General Meeting (GM) 2017 in Chicago in July has been significant on the PES Chapters.

The formation of two IEEE PES Student Chapters in Ottawa, at the University of Ottawa (UO) and at Carleton University (CU), is in the process. The work on forming the two new student chapters  started after the summer but got a significant boost at the IEEE PES seminar “Smart Building Energy Management Systems in the Development of a Smart City” given by Dr. Saifur Rahman, IEEE PES President-Elect and PES Distinguished Lecturer, in Ottawa on Oct. 19, 2017. In a very interested audience of over 50 people, there was a significant student attendance, thanks in part to encouragements of Dr. Riadh Habash and Dr. Xiaoyu Wang, professors at UO and CU, respectively, to their students. The talk and the PES Student Chapter initiative have resonated with the students and their professors, so well that they also triggered an interest in the formation of PELS Student Chapters at these two universities.

All Canadian chapters had representation at the Chapter Chair Training. Among a number of training and chapter performance issues discussed, two stood out: organizing larger local events, such as workshops for the benefit of local PES Chapter and engineering communities, and forming new PES Student Chapters based on the positive PES experience and the momentum which appears to be on the rise.