Vijay Vittal, IEEE Fellow, PES-GB Member
Vice President Technical Activities

Technical Activities Update:

Technical Activities are a principal function of PES activities and virtual offerings are a critical avenue for maintaining and advancing technical activities during this global pandemic.

I serve as the Vice President for technical activities and within this role my key function is to chair the IEEE PES Technical Council. The technical council coordinates the technical activities within PES and oversees the functioning of the 17 technical committees and 4 coordinating committees https://www.ieee-pes.org/technical-activities. The technical council and its various technical committees also play an integral role is planning, designing, coordinating, reviewing and organizing the various technical paper sessions, panel sessions, poster sessions and super sessions for the IEEE PES General Meeting and also work with the local organizing committee of the IEEE PES T&D Conference and Expo to review the technical papers and organize panel sessions. These activities are coordinated by the Vice Chair of the Technical Council under the auspices of the Technical Sessions Planning Committee and includes a representative from each technical committee and coordinating committee.

An important activity within the technical committees is the development of IEEE standards and guides. In the IEEE PES technical activities website referenced above, there is a separate tab for the various technical committees. For more information readers can navigate to each technical committee’s website and examine the standard’s activities being conducted by the various technical committees.

Technical committees also produce technical reports on various topics of relevance and current interest. IEEE PES members can access these reports at no cost by going to the IEEE PES Resource Center, and logging in with your IEEE credentials. The resource center is an important technical resource for professionals. In an effort to promote and provide more access to technical material being developed by the technical committees, a number of technical webinars are being offered. IEEE PES members can register and attend these webinars live. These webinars are also recorded and available in the resource center.

Several technical committees do meet at the IEEE PES general meeting, but some committees also meet several times a year at various locations. The technical council website provides a listing of the meeting schedule for the technical committee meetings. The various, subcommittees, working groups and task forces within each technical committee also conduct their activities in a virtual setting. As of 2020, the PES Technical Council has facilitated this activity by providing 4 Webex licenses which the various groups within the technical committees can reserve to conduct their virtual meetings.

These are some of the recent developments and offerings associated with technical activities in PES and the technical council has played an important role in facilitating these developments.