A special event hosted by IEEE PES WiP of China Sector and editorial office of CSEE Journal of Power Energy Systems was held during the IEEE PES Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Asia (ISGT Asia) conference, Chengdu, China on 23 May 2019.

The topic of this WiP event was about career advancement, networking and education of Women in the energy industry. Five women speakers covering senior/junior researchers and senior engineer from different countries were invited for the speech. This event was successful in reaching out to a broad range of groups including IEEE Members, PES members, male & female researchers, IEEE Student members and other professionals.

Dr. Xiaoru Wang from Southwest Jiaotong University moderated this event. At the beginning of this event, IEEE PES president Dr. Saifur Rahman delivered the opening remarks and emphasized that women have been playing a key role in the power research and industry.

Fig. 1 Dr. Saifur Rahman communicated with attendees. He is Life Fellow of the IEEE, Joseph R. Loring professor in Virginia Tech, USA, and IEEE PES president.
Fig. 1 Dr. Saifur Rahman communicated with attendees. He is Life Fellow of the IEEE, Joseph R. Loring professor in Virginia Tech, USA, and IEEE PES president.

The first speaker Dr. Yilu Liu, from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, USA, gave some examples on how to get connected with industry as students. For example, she mentioned that it is a good opportunity for undergraduates and postgraduates to work on industry projects or apply the interns in the industry and companies to solve practical issues in the actual power grid during their study.

Fig. 2 Dr. Yilu Liu, IEEE Fellow, Governor’s Chair Professor of ORNL/UTK, Member of the Academy of Engineering in USA
Fig. 2 Dr. Yilu Liu, IEEE Fellow, Governor’s Chair Professor of ORNL/UTK, Member of the Academy of Engineering in USA

The second speaker was the WiP Chair of China Sector Dr. Ruomei Li. She delivered an interesting speech on what women can achieve through the participation of international organizations. She highlighted that it was very important for the women’s career development to participate in international organizations. Joining the international organization was not only good for the networking but also very beneficial to the leadership establishment. Moreover, women should also take up challenging positions in public administration and the professional forum of “Women in Power” should also be “Power in Women”.

Fig. 3 Dr. Ruomei Li, IEEE senior member, Consultant of CSEE IEEE PES WiP Chair of China Sector, Invited Research Fellow of Energy Internet Research Institute in Tsinghua University, Association of CWAST, AAAS member, NGO CSW/NY member, CSEE senior member
Fig. 3 Dr. Ruomei Li, IEEE senior member, Consultant of CSEE IEEE PES WiP Chair of China Sector, Invited Research Fellow of Energy Internet Research Institute in Tsinghua University, Association of CWAST, AAAS member, NGO CSW/NY member, CSEE senior member

The third speaker was Xiaoyan Pang, vice general manager of Sichuan Electric Power Trading Center. Her speech was about ‘The Research and practice of Power System Control’. She shared valuable field experience and took HVDC fault as an example to demonstrate that the practical problem during the field experiment could be very different from the theoretical analysis. Although the process to solve newly emerged issues is difficult and challenging, you can enjoy the sense of achievement at the moment when you solve the problem. Moreover, she also mentioned the electricity market reformation that the spot market will incorporate the traditional electricity dispatching mode.

The next speaker was Dr. Juan Yu, a professor from Chongqing University, China, who is leading the working group on reliability assessment of one IEEE PES task force also provided very valuable and detailed experience on how to successfully establish and deliver the IEEE task force and panel session. It is very helpful for other researchers to apply or join IEEE task force and conduct their research through IEEE task force.

The last speaker was Dr. Feifei Bai, Advance Queensland Fellow, an early career researcher (ECR) from the University of Queensland, Australia. She comprehensively summarized how an ECR to survive and succeed in oversea Universities. Moreover, she provided some tips to ECRs on publishing, funding, networking and teaching for future permanent position application. In addition, she also shared her experience to successfully grant the funding and establish the collaboration with industries as an ECR.

Fig. 4 Audience from different research areas
Fig. 4 Audience from different research areas
Fig. 5 Dr. Nirmal Nair also attended the WiP activity and shared his thoughts on every speech.
Fig. 5 Dr. Nirmal Nair also attended the WiP activity and shared his thoughts on every speech.
Fig. 6 Networking and discussion among attendees (Lei Han, seated in the middle, is the director of editorial office of CSEE JPES)
Fig. 6 Networking and discussion among attendees (Lei Han, seated in the middle, is the director of editorial office of CSEE JPES)
Fig. 7 Group photo of five speakers
Fig. 7 Group photo of five speakers
Fig. 8 Group photo of attendees
Fig. 8 Group photo of attendees

In summary, the WiP event was successfully hosted in Chengdu. The invited speakers and attendees shared their knowledge regarding Energy industry and Education. Furthermore, they also expressed their beautiful expectations regarding the career development of women in power industry. We wish that more WiP activities can be conducted in the future.