Europe, Middle East and Africa
Some of the key activities and achievements of members from Region 8 during the past year include the following:
Chapters in Region 8
A new chapter was established in early July 2018 in Ghana, Chair: Kingsford Atanga. This is the 8th chapter in Africa, 5th in “Zone Africa” and the 47th chapter in the Region 8. There are also 67 student branches in the region.
Conferences
Africa Power Utility Week Conference
It was held in Cape Town on 15-17 March 2018 to advertise PES and IEEE. South Africa Chapter attended the conference. The reason for choosing this conference is because of the large turnout of industry professionals. One of our main drives is to actually bring on board many industry people so that we can kill the perception that IEEE and PES are for academics. It was also the occasion for a membership drive and marketing the Power Africa conference.
The 2018 Power Africa conference was held in Cape Town, South Africa between June 26-29, 2018. The first meeting of chapter chairs from Africa was held and was attended by twelve people including 7 chapter representatives from Africa (Saifur Rahman: PES President; Frank Lambert, PES President Elect; Pat Ryan, PES Executive Director; Jovica V Milanovc: PES R8 Representative; Joseph Mutale: Member of the IEEE President’s Ad-hoc Committee for Africa; Tunde Salihu : Zone Africa Representative; Mpaisha Phiri – Zambia; Limo Kipleting – Kenya; Ibrahim Helal – Egypt; Mlulaki Hlatshwayo – South Africa; Esrom Mahlatsi Malatji – South Africa; Avoki Omekanda – IAS, Africa). During the meeting discussions were held and foundations have been laid for creation of PES Africa Council that will coordinate PES activities in Africa. Procedure for applying for and selecting future venues for Power Africa conferences were also discussed and agreed.
PES Member Driven Initiatives
The Italian PES Chapter PE31 was attributed the Best Chapter Award 2018 by the IEEE Italy Section for the most active Chapter of the year.The prize has been given to the Chair of the Chapter PE31, Stefano Massucco, by the Chair of the Italy Section, Tiziana Tambosso, during the conference dinner of the 4th International Forum on Research and Technologies for Society and Industry Innovation to shape the future, held in Palermo (Italy) on September 12th 2018. Officers of the Italian PES Chapter PE31 are Roberto Langella, vice Chair and Samuele Grillo, Secretary. Compliments to all Chapter Members for their intense and qualified activity.
The IEEE Croatian Chapter held the second IEEE TopWeek event, which they organized together with Industry application and Young Professionals. A full week of industry lectures take place, focusing on a specific topic each day (such as automation in the car industry, IT in the energy sector, new electro-mobility concepts etc.). There are several sponsors (last year they were awarded IEEE PES More Power to the Future).
IEEE Jordan Chapter held a PES day on 22 April 2018, which included technical lectures and visits, e.g to Tafila wind farm trip (the largest wind farm in Jordan, to the south of the capital Amman)
IEEE PE/PEL Sweden Chapter held their annual general meeting on 1 October 2018 at which a seminar entitled “New trends in AC transmission and distribution” was given by Dr. Ambra Sannino, from ABB System Integration. The meeting gathered around 40 persons, and around 30 students.
Kenya Chapter
Poland Chapter
Ukraine Section Jt. Chapter, PE31/IA34/IE13 was сo-organizer of the 2018 IEEE 38th International Conference on ELECTRONICS AND NANOTECHNOLOGY (ELNANO), which took place in Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 24-26, 2018.
Hungary Chapter
In May 2017 a proposal was sent to the PES MDI Chair about the Lightbringers program. This program aims to give families, who are living below the subsistence level real support, an instant-positive impact in their monthly budget. Solar powered, island-operating LED light systems: we do not build anything that is connected to the electrical grid, instead we use solar panels and battery storage, which is not only capable of delivering indirect and direct light in every room, but also USB ports can charge a rechargeable device (e.g., a mobile phone, a pocket radio). From the received support – thanks to the good connections with the suppliers – the team was able to buy 30 package of PV panels, LED stripes and additional elements, so altogether 30 households can be lighten up! The IEEE PES HU members and HS members were involved in the organization and ordering process.
