PES Election News
We are pleased to announce our new officers for 2020.
- President-Elect: Jessica Bian
- Secretary: Jonathan Sykes
- Treasurer: Nouredine Hadjsaid
We would like to thank all the candidates for running. The outstanding slate helped drive a recent history record in votes cast. Over 22% of our eligible voters cast their vote in this election.
Congratulations to the new PES Leaders and again our sincere appreciation to all the candidates.
President-Elect: Jessica Bian
Jessica Bian is a visionary leader and architect who has spearheaded the electric industry’s reliability metrics and grid-risk assessment. She is currently with Grid-X Partners. Before that, she was with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C. Previously, she was the director of performance analysis at the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) in Atlanta, Georgia. Under her leadership, a total of 18 industry-wide reliability indicators were established for the first time to determine grid reliability, adequacy, and associated risks. She is widely recognized as a pioneer and trusted world leader in the field.
Before joining NERC, Bian was with PJM, ERCOT, and Westinghouse Electric. She received her B.Sc. degree from the Taiyuan University of Technology, China, her M.Sc. degree from the Electric Power Research Institute, Beijing, China, and her Ph.D. degree from Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana. Bian has had more than 70 articles published, and she received the 2014 PES Wanda Reder Pioneer in Power Award for her technical achievements. She is a Senior Member of the IEEE.
IEEE Activities and Accomplishments
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- PES secretary (2016–present).
- Member, IEEE Future Directions Committee (2017–present) and IEEE Admission and Advancement Committee/Senior Member Review Panel (2012–2015).
- Member, IEEE PES Women-in-Power Leadership Advisory Committee (2017–present).
- Advisory committee member, IEEE Conference on Energy Internet and Energy System Integration; IEEE PES Power System Analysis, Computing, and Economics Committee (2009–2014); IEEE PES Wind and Solar Power Coordinating Committee (2010–2012); Reliability, Risk, and Probability Application Subcommittee (2009–2013); IEEE HVDC & FACTS Subcommittee (1994–1997); Probability Application for Common Mode Events Working Group (2009–2013); Distribution Reliability Working Group (2012–2014); Understanding, Prediction, Mitigation, and Restoration of Cascading Failures Working Group (2013–2015); Task Force on Reliability Impacts of Demand Response Integration (2013–2014).
- IEEE Distinguished Lecturer
- tutorial, “Grid Reliability and Its Vital Signs”
- lectures, “Regulatory Impact on Advanced Technology” and “Finding a Balance: Regulation and Bulk Power System Performance.”
- Technical paper reviewer for IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, and IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy.
- Conferences:
- moderator and chair at various IEEE PES Technical Committee transactions paper sessions
- speaker, presenter, and panelist at various IEEE PES technical panels and super sessions.
- Sections/Chapters:
- Princeton/Central Jersey Section (2007–present)
- Philadelphia Section (2002–2006)
- Central Texas Section (1997–2001)
- IEEE Orlando Section (1993–1996)
- New Orleans Section (1990–1992).
- Societies:
- IEEE PES
- IEEE Communications Society
- IEEE Computer Society
- IEEE Women in Engineering.
- Awards:
- 2015 IEEE PES Technical Committee Working Group Recognition Award
- 2014 IEEE PES Wanda Reder Pioneer in Power Award
- IEEE PES Paper GM1575, July 2013, “A Novel Statistical-Based Analysis of WECC Bulk Transmission Reliability Data,” nominated as the best paper and featured in the December 2015 issue of IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine.
Secretary: Jonathan Sykes
Jonathan Sykes is the senior manager at System Protection and Test at Pacific Gas and Electric, in San Francisco, California. Sykes received his academic training from the University of Arizona, Tucson, in 1982 and has worked in the electric power industry for more than 35 years. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and a licensed Professional Engineer. Sykes has always leveraged technology in collaboration to close gaps and champion success. In the 1990s, his teams provided the first integrated protective relay/RTU/SCADA systems in Arizona. In the 2000s, he pioneered the first wide-area protection scheme based on IEC 61850 GOOSE messaging, and in the 2010s, his team implemented one of the most advanced synchrophasor systems in North America. Today, Sykes’s teams are enacting leading-edge concepts in the area of asset life-cycle management for mission-critical systems and developing new techniques and processes as the grid evolves toward inverter-based renewable power production.
IEEE Activities and Accomplishments
When Sykes began his engineering career in Arizona, he was intrigued by IEEE meetings, where his colleagues would collaborate, share, and learn more refined ways to get work done. Sykes found that those meetings provided a wealth of experience, and he was in awe of the knowledge that the attending members had. His first interaction with the IEEE entailed his involvement in forming the early integrated substation guides and standards. He worked on implementing new communication techniques that eventually lead to the current 61850 standard. Sykes also helped rewrite and update core topics such as breaker failure, distribution protection, and equipment guides and standards. After the 2003 North American blackout, he began to work with the teams to write applicable regulatory standards and helped engage the IEEE Power System Relaying and Control Committee in the oversight of emerging compliance requirements. The expertise of the IEEE became invaluable to help regulators understand the relevant issues and write meaningful standards, and Sykes helped bridge the gap between these two entities.
The industry relies on remedial action schemes to write the design and testing guidelines for these critical schemes. Sykes contributed as a leader and member of the team, and, as a leader of a large team, he believes that one of the most important jobs is to recruit and then cultivate engineers in this industry. Throughout his career, he has been an advocate for PES, and, in the last five years, he has been representing IEEE in North America and around the world, sharing the association’s good work, knowledge, and experience through lectures at universities, conferences, workshops, and stakeholder meetings. His aim is to help elevate the IEEE’s reputation and promote the reliability, affordability, and safety of this industry. Sykes is still in awe of the potential of the PES team and now understands its important role and how it shapes this industry.
Treasurer: Nouredine Hadjsaid
Nouredine Hadjsaid is a full professor at the Grenoble Institute of Technology, France, and the director of G2ELab, a joint research laboratory between the French National Scientific Research Council, the Grenoble Institute of Technology, and the University of Grenoble Alpes. Hadjsaid led a common academia–industry research center between EDF, Schneider Electric, and G2ELab on smart grids from 2001 to 2013. He was also president of the CRIS International Institute from 2004 to 2006, the French corepresentative at IEA–ENARD implementing agreement from 2009 to 2012, and chair of the IEEE Emerging Technologies Coordinating Committee from 2013 to 2016.
He was the general chair of the 2013 IEEE PowerTech Conference, held in Grenoble, France, and the first IEEE International Forum SmartGrids for SmartCities (SG4SC), held in Paris, October 2016. Hadjsaid is presently the director of an ENEDIS industrial chair of excellence on smart grids and chair of the Scientific Council of “Think Smart Grids,” the French smart grids industrial branch. He is also an associate editor for IET Generation, Transmission, and Distribution and a book collection director at ISTE. He is also the IEEE PES Treasurer.
Hadjsaid has published more than 260 scientific papers in international conferences and refereed journals, five patents, and one industrial license. He has authored/coauthored and directed seven books on power systems and smart grids. He has been awarded for seven major national projects (with a total budget of more than US$70 million), eight European projects (with a total budget of more than US$30 million), and 25 industrial projects (with a total budget of more than US$18 million). He has also received CRIS award recognition (2006), the IEEE PowerTech Conference Outstanding Achievement Award (2013), and IEEE SG4SC Outstanding Achievement Award (2016).
Throughout his career, Hadjsaid favored the interaction between academia and industry, knowledge dissemination, and innovation and has always been community service driven. He has shown the capacity to detect and foster new activities and demonstrated an ability to build national- and international-level partnerships with various stakeholders, such as for government, industry, academia, consultants, and scientific associations.
IEEE Activities and Accomplishments
Hadjsaid has been actively involved in IEEE activities since 1994. Highlights of his activities are:
- PES Treasurer (2018–present).
- Chair, IEEE Emerging Technology Coordination Committee (ETCC) (2013–2016).
- Vice chair, IEEE Intelligent Grid and ETCC (2016).
- General chair, IEEE PowerTech Conference (2013).
- General chair, IEEE SG4SC (2016).
- Member, Board of the IEEE French Section (1994–2009).
- Member, Technical Editorial Committee of IEEE Computer Application of Power (1997–2002).