More information at: ewh.ieee.org/conf/powertech/2009/

The IEEE PowerTech, the biannual IEEE PES conference in Europe took place in Bucharest, the impressive capital of Romania with a mixture between positive and negative burdens from the past. The second biggest building in the world after the Pentagon, the Palace of the Romanian Parliament, turned into a gift for the IEEE PowerTech 2009. It provided plenty of space for nearly 600 participants, for the 64 sessions with more than 500 contributions. The great success of the conference was the accomplishment of Professor Mircea Eremia from University "Politehnica" of Bucharest (BUP) and his team.

Meliha Selak (IEEE-PES Vice president chapters) and Carlo Nucci (IEEE-PES Regional representative) guided actual information about the potential of supported chapter activities and about the new Web site of IEEE PES (www.ieee-pes.org) and a lively discussion and exchange of experience among the participating chapter chairs.  The participants were welcomed by Wanda Reder (IEEE-PES President), Costas Vournas (Chair of the PowerTech Steering Committee), Mircea Eremia (Conference Chair) and other speakers.

Andre Merlin (CIGRE President) talked about "The Strategic Role and Challenges of EHV Power Grid in the New Context of the European Energy Policy". Mohammad Shahidehpour, (IEEE-PES Vice-President) introduced today's highly fashionable topic "Smart Grid: A New Paradigm for Power Delivery" with an example from his University distribution network. Peter Kirchesch (AREVA Vice-President) pointed to the "Energy Efficiency in Electrical Networks".

The PowerTech 2009 allowed a continuation of technical and personal discussions. It was an exceptional opportunity for networking in between participants and contacts between newcomers and oldies. It was complemented by a meeting of participating students from allover the world with the students of the UPB. A highlight was also the Gala Dinner. It is not possible to report on all the details from the 64 sessions, so I will give my general impressions:

• Always bearing in mind the impact of energy production and use on the climate and discussing the impact of renewable energy resources on the power system, the IEEE PES got greener not only by its new logo.
• Also the role of powerful women in engineering is increasing as seen not only in the group of students but demonstrated by Wanda Reeder, the powerful president of IEEE PES, and Meliha Selak, vice president chapters. Both coming from utilities in North America in contrast to the university dominated IEEE PES in Europe. The last fact was in favor of students bringing fresh, new ideas, but often not checked with utilities against power system facts, as is typical for some AI contributions. Nevertheless "Innovative ideas toward the Electrical Grid of the Future" have been omnipresent. This should be a strong reason for engineers in European utilities and manufacturers to join IEEE PES.
• Another impression was the optimism regarding a clean energy future.
• Today 55% of IEEE members are living in North America and 45% in the rest of the world. Based on the increase of members outside North America the 50% level will be reached in the next 5 years.