The Region 9 covers the Latin America Countries; it comprises of 31 Chapters that are organized in four areas:

Mexico and the Caribbean, consisting of the chapters in the sections of Mexico, Centro Occidente, Guadalajara, Monterrey, Morelos, Queretaro, Puerto Rico, Western Puerto Rico and Trinidad y Tobago. The Chapter Representative for this area is Jose Guillermo Calderon (jgcg@iie.org. mx) of Morelos, Mexico.

Central America and Panama corresponding to the countries in the CAPANA Council: Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Guatemala.  The Chapter Representative for this area is Juan Carlos Montero (JMontero@ice.go.cr) of Costa Rica Section.

South 1 (The Southern Cone) comprising of the chapters in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil: Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, South Brazil and Minas Gerais. Due to the large distances involved in Brazil, there are three additional Joint Chapters (sharing membership with other IEEE Societies) in : the Bahia Section -Bahia Northeast, South Brazil Section -Santa Catarina and in the Brasilia Section -Manaus. The Chapter Representative for this area is Glauco Nery Taranto (tarang@coep.ufrj.br) from Rio do Janeiro Section in Brazil.

South 2 (The Andean part of South America), corresponding to the countries in the Andean Council: Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and Colombia. The representative for this area is Renato Cespedes  (rcespedes@ieee.org) of Colombia Section.

Chapter Activities Recognition

Although most of the chapters have been involved with members’ technical activities some of them have also been recognized for their excellent performance.

This year 10 Chapters have been awarded by the High Performance Chapter Program.

Congratulations to the Chairs that have done a terrific job!

More chapters were eligible to receive their share of funds but for some reason or the other missed the deadline or information in the form.

I’d like to invite the Chapter Chairs in the Region to add this matter in their year-end agenda and apply for the 2013 Program Year award by December 31.

Students Activities

The students represent the “Energy of the Future” to our Society and we have been improving and stimulating their participation in the technical and leadership activities.

The PES has a program named “Student participation in Regional Conferences” that offers financial support for stimulating the students to attend conferences in the region. This year 24 students received support to attend the ISGT LA 2013 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

There the students had the opportunity to network with professionals, other students and had a meeting with the PES President Noel Schulz and other PES Executive Committee Members.

Student members from Schools with a Student Branch should feel free  to contact their PES Chapter Chair or PES Chapter Representative and start the formation of the Student Branch PES Chapter.

Chapter leaders training

Chapter Chair Training held in April 2013 in Sao Paulo was attended by 12 chapters leaders from the Region.

This is a continuous training process that has been offered by the Society. It has been a great opportunity to have a face-to-face meeting with the Society Officers and be familiar with the tools and best practices to manage a Chapter.

Regional Conferences

The PES sponsors two major Technical Conferences in the Region, the IEEE PES Transmission and Distribution Latin America (T&D LA) and the IEEE PES Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Latin America (ISGT LA)

They are held every two years and the South Brazil Section PES Chapter hosted 2013 IEEE ISGT LA in April in Sao Paulo.

The conference attracted 293 attendees from Latin America and other countries such as the USA, South Africa, South Korea, Germany, Canada, Portugal and Trinidad and Tobago. The diversity of panel sessions, papers and poster presentations offered the attendees a great opportunity to discuss the current trends and needs for the Smart Grid development in Latin America.

For 2014 the T&D LA will be hosted in Medellin, Colombia.

A brief closing message to the Region 9 PES members

As a Regional Representative my principal duty and responsibility is to serve the PES members.

We have the chapters that are the local and focal points to help you technically and professionally.

The PES offers a myriad of resources to you: lectures with local, regional or global experts through the Distinguished Lecture Program; tutorial courses that can be online; regional conference in your area or other services that may  not still be available in your country or city.

Please feel free to contact me or your Chapter Representative for any further information or any special needs that you have.

All the best,
Nelson Masanobu Segoshi
PES Region 9 Representative
n.segoshi@ieee.org