The IEEE Smart Grid - Passing the Baton from 2018 to 2019

By Pete Wung

As the year 2018 comes to an end, it is the useful to sum up the past year, review the accomplishments of our enterprise, look forward to what is planned in our foreseeable future, and forecast what could be in our unforeseeable future.

 Personally, I would like to thank Prof. Massoud Amin, the PES board, and the IEEE for having the confidence to allow me to have the opportunity to lead this exciting and forward-thinking community. I am aware of the responsibility I have accepted, and I am invigorated by the challenge ahead.

I wish to thank the outgoing chairs from the IEEE Smart Grid: my esteemed mentor and predecessor, Dr. Massoud Amin, Dr. Ebrahim Vaahedi of the Publications Committee, and Mr. Stephen Collier of the Education Committee for having served our IEEE Smart Grid diligently and extremely well, as they guided this group through the important formative years of our existence. We know that any enterprise, especially those like the IEEE Smart Grid, need a strong foundation and wise decisions to ensure future successes. We are healthy and thriving, which is a tribute to the hard work and wisdom of our founders and past leaders. I salute those giants on whose shoulders we stand. We know that they will be staying engaged with us and we can call upon their sage advice always.

Along with our current chairs, Dr. Satish Saini of the Technical Activities Committee and Jeff McKinnon of the Marketing committee, we welcome the new chairs of the committees within the IEEE Smart Grid: Dr. Salam Bani-Ahmed of the Education Committee, Dr. Panayiotis Moutis of the Publications committee, Dr. Andy Knight of the Research and Development Committee, and Dr. Anu Annaswamy of the newly formed Meetings and Conference committee. In addition, we welcome Dr. Merhdad Rostami as the new managing editor of the eNewsletter.

Working Strategic and Implementation Plan

The IEEE Smart Grid Working Strategic and Implementation Plan, as prepared by Prof. Massoud Amin, was presented and accepted in August of 2018 at the IEEE Smart Grid committee meeting before the IEEE PES General Meeting. The plan laid out a strategic vision and a cogent plan of implementation to follow for the next two years of the IEEE Smart Grid.

The vision and mission of the IEEE Smart Grid is stated as follows:

Vision

IEEE Smart Grid brings together IEEE’s broad array of technical societies and organizations through collaboration to encourage the successful rollout of technologically advanced, environment-friendly and secure Smart Grid networks around the world.

Mission

IEEE Smart Grid is the professional community and leading provider of globally recognized Smart Grid information. IEEE Smart Grid is intended to organize, coordinate, leverage and build upon the strength of various entities within IEEE with Smart Grid expertise and interest.

From these statements, the attendees at the August 2018 meeting worked on the strategies, objectives and goals of the plan and created an implementation plan which will be followed by the IEEE Smart Grid to achieve our stated goals.

These activities fall into the following categories:

Position IEEE Smart Grid as the primary source of knowledge. (Specifically involving the Technical Activities, R&D, Education, Publications, Marketing, Meetings and Conferences committees)

Why?

• Service to the technical community as a centralized resource.
• Educate the general public about Smart Grid.
• Create trust and establish proof of expertise with the general public.
• Organize a technical foundation as basis for Smart Grid credentials for practicing engineers.

How?

• Promote the expertise of the member OUs.
• Promote the existing knowledge base inherent in the IEEE Smart Grid Technical Community and encompassed in the portal and in the IEEE Xplore.
• Serve as a knowledge and resource clearinghouse for the member OUs, giving efficient response to inquiries.
• Create a cohesive atmosphere of collaboration for the member OUs in regard to Smart Grid technical areas.

Organize and provide organization to a multi-dimensional and rapidly evolving Smart Grid knowledge base. (Technical Activities, R&D, Publications)

Why?

• Follow applied and innovative technical developments within the Smart Grid milieu.
• Connect and create causal relationship between technical developments.
• Update the Domains and sub-domains paradigm for describing the Smart Grid state of the art technology development.
• Inform the Smart Grid technical community on the big picture of Smart Grid.
• Categorize new R&D topics into logical groupings.
• Graduate mature technology into the commercial realm and add new R&D topics.
• Give researchers and practicing engineers a road map of the ongoing technical topics that are being developed and researched.

How?

• Create and maintain a relational database of all known research topics in the Smart Grid area.
• Sort and categorize the research topics into existing Domains and Sub-domains.
• Use technology insight and foresight methods to identify new focus areas and sorting those topics that do not fit naturally into the existing focus areas.
• Transition maturing technologies into its proper milieu.
• Maintain relational links between research topics.
• Write and maintain Smart Grid focused IEEE Standards for application in the field.
• Establish a database of clear and well written white papers to disseminate known Smart Grid knowledge to the technical community and to communicate this knowledge to the layman.

Provide access to state of the art Smart Grid technical knowledge and rapidly evolving breakthrough technologies for both the technical community and our global community. (Specifically involving: Education, Publication, Meetings and Conferences committees)

Why?

• Service to the technical community as a centralized resource.

How?

• Webinars leading to tutorials to evaluate interest from the general public as well as creating a incubator for assuring success with the tutorials.
• Consider creating a Smart Grid credential for practicing Smart Grid practitioners.
• Creating conferences and meetings to engage and promote Smart Grid.

Create a collaborative environment for the entire IEEE Smart Grid Technical Community. (Specifically involving: Operations committee, Steering committee)

Why?

• To pull all fourteen OUs in the same direction and promote mutually beneficial collaboration activities.
• To include all the Smart Grid practitioners in industry, government laboratories, equipment and software manufacturers, standard making agencies, and other entities committed to the Smart Grid.
• Create a synergy amongst all stakeholders in order to adequately cover a subject as broad and deep as Smart Grid.

How?

• Create symbiotic relationship between all fourteen OUs and the broader Smart Grid community.
• Seamless communications between the Smart Grid committees, steering committee, and other stakeholders.
• Create a system of communication to quickly inform all parties of the latest Smart Grid development.

Global Technical Outreach (Specifically involving: Steering committee and marketing committee)

Why?

• The Smart Grid subject is a global phenomenon, it is necessary that the IEEE Smart Grid Technical Community to be a contributing and productive member of the global Smart Grid concept.

How?

• Reach out to the international community through official government as well as professional societies.
• Initiate contact with other professional and governmental entities having to do with Smart Grid.

Grow the IEEE Smart Grid Technical Community’s knowledge base and influence regarding policy and governance aspects of the Smart Grid. (Specifically engaging IEEE-USA policy group. Steering committee)

Why?

• Policy making and governing bodies determines the future direction of the Smart Grid, the IEEE Smart Grid Technical Community must be in tune with the policy making and governance bodies.

How?

• To consistently update and communicate with the IEEE Energy Policy Committee and government agencies which has jurisdiction over the Smart Grid.

2018 Year in Review

On the programs side of the IEEE Smart Grid, we have made great strides in terms of the number and quality of the webinars and tutorials that IEEE Smart Grid has been able to produce in this past year. Our schedule of webinars and tutorials have stabilized, and we are able to consistently present quality topics that meet the needs of the Smart Grid professionals as well as for those who are interested in delving into this broad and deep subject. Much thanks to Ms. Phyllis Caputo for heading this effort as it takes much patience and persistence in pushing these efforts, as well as the Education Committee including Steven Collier, and Salam Bani-Ahmed, who are also to be commended for this herculean effort.

Dr. Satish Saini of the Technical Activities committee has taken this committee to new heights with a number of nuanced white papers that are geared toward introducing the general public as well as the practitioner to the intricacies of existing and upcoming Smart Grid enabling technologies. Standard making activities are also in the near future of this very active committee.

In close association with the Technical Activities Committee, the R&D committee has been working on a less tangible but equally important effort. First and foremost, the relational database construction that was spearheaded by Dr. Sivapriya Mothilal Bhagavathy and Dr Andy Knight, the R&D committee has started the process of categorizing the foreseeable R&D topics that will serve to build the Smart Grid. In so doing, the R&D committee has also determined that new paradigms are needed to fully describe the future R&D topics for IEEE Smart Grid.

Under the guidance of Prof. Massoud Amin, the R&D committee has created a process based on the technology insight and foresight process to clearly categorize the present and future R&D topics into the existing Domains and sub-domains structures as well as amend that structure.

As a part of the evolution of the IEEE Smart Grid, the Meeting and Conference committee was created to promote opportunities for those who are working on the cutting edge of the Smart Grid as well as those who wish to work in Smart Grid to come together and share knowledge and experience. This new committee is led by Dr. Anu Annaswamy. She has already convened a great group of volunteers to plan and coordinate meetings, workshops, and conferences to best serve the needs of industry, academia, manufacturers, and government entities. We see this committee as a key towards growing the reach of IEEE Smart Grid.

Lastly, the marketing committee, under the leadership of Mr. Jeff McKinnon has been working steadily and forcefully in putting the IEEE Smart Grid out into the traditional and social media. They promote the webinars and tutorials through all the medias channels we have at our disposal, as well as coordinating the distribution of the other committee’s technical content for the IEEE Smart Grid community.

Summary

Our activities in 2018 are very much aligned with the Strategic and Implementation plan proposed for 2019-2020. This was intentional as we wish to build upon the momentum of the previous work from IEEE Smart Grid and accelerate the goals that we had set for the IEEE Smart Grid effort. As the term Smart Grid has become ubiquitous in the daily vernacular of our society, it is very important that IEEE Smart Grid be at the forefront in leading the charge towards a cohesive and effective dissemination of information, knowledge best practices, and standards. IEEE Smart Grid should also be leading the way in promoting new technologies, encouraging discussions and critical analysis internal and external to the community in order to create and innovate the most reasonable solutions to the ever growing number of challenges presented to us by the Smart Grid as it evolves.

Happy holidays to one and all and please frequently check back with us as IEEE Smart Grid evolves and grows in the coming year.