PES members,
Greetings from your regional representative (RR) from the Asia-Pacific (Region 10)! It gives me immense pleasure to share with you some of the happenings in the Region 10 with regards to PES activities.

The IEEE PES Asia Pacific Region 10 (R10) has 34 PES Chapters (singly or jointly) involving 27 Sections and 2 Councils. Two new chapters were formed in 2013 – South Australia Section Chapter and Macau Section Joint Chapter. We have, for ease of organization and management, sub-divided the PES chapters in R10 into three zones:

  • Area East has 9 chapters, with Zahrul Faizi Hussien from Malaysia being the Chapters Representative (CR). The chapters under this zone comprise Beijing, Hong Kong, Japan (Council), Malaysia, Macau, Nanjing, Seoul, Taipei, and Thailand.
  • Area West / South-West has 15 chapters, with T R Rajagopalan from Hyderabad, India, as CR – chapters under his purview comprise Bangladesh, Bangalore, Bombay, Delhi, Gujarat, Hyderabad, India (Council), Islamabad, Kerala, Kolkata, Lahore, Madras, Pune, Sri Lanka, and Uttar Pradesh.
  • Last but not least, Area South comprises 10 chapters with Dean Sharafi from Perth, Australia, as CR – Indonesia, New South Wales, New Zealand South, New Zealand North, New Zealand Central, Queensland, Singapore, Victorian, Western Australia, and South Australia.

We have been very successful in organizing PES sponsored conferences in R10 – of particular mention are the ISGT Asia 2012 held in Tianjin, China in May 2012, Powercon2012 held in Auckland, New Zealand, in Oct/Nov 2012, and the upcoming ISGT Asia 2013 from November 10 to 13 in Bangalore, India, the 5th IEEE PES Asia-Pacific Power and Energy Engineering Conference (APPEEC 2013) from December 8 to 11, 2013, in Hong Kong, and the ISGT Asia 2014 from May 20 to 23, 2014, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

I am also delighted to report that the PES outstanding chapter awards (OCA) for year 2012 were swept by R10. My heartiest congratulations to the winning chapter chairs and chapter volunteers, who worked tirelessly to take their chapters to greater heights. For the Large Chapter category (> 100 members), the winner was the Delhi Chapter under the stewardship of Mini S Thomas, while the three runners-up in alphabetical order were Madras [Chapter Chair – K. V. Rupchand], Malaysia [Chapter Chair – Izham Zainal Abidin], and Queensland [Chapter Chair – Mehdi Eghbal]. For the Small Chapter category the winner was the Kerala Chapter under the leadership of Muhammed Kasim. Winning Chapters received US$1000, while the runners-up received US$250. The winning chapter chairs (or designee) were also invited to the 2013 General Meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and honored at the Awards Dinner and the Chapter meetings. Please be sure to congratulate these chapters if you meet their volunteers.

The IEEE PES-IAS Delhi Chapter with 188 members is a large chapter in R10 South/ South West Area. It has always been one of the vibrant chapters among the chapters in this area and bagged the runner-up OCA Awards in 2010 & 2011. It had a wonderful year in 2012 with a large number of activities conducted for the benefit of members with special attention being paid to students and Women in Power (WiP). The chapter conducted a total of 46 activities, out of which 41 were Technical/Educational/Public affairs/ Student activities and 5 were administrative meetings. A special program was conducted to recruit student members and to increase the number of PES student chapters in the neighbourhood. As many as four industrial visits were conducted for student members. The chapter financially supported the two existing student chapters for organising meaningful programs. A career counselling session was conducted by one of the leading career counsellors for the benefit of members and non-members, as part of the public affairs program. The Chapter also conducted four tutorials in the year and many workshops were conducted as part of the continuing education program. Two International conferences were organised with the chapter sponsorship in December 2012, attracting large participation from Industry and academia.

The IEEE PES Kerala chapter was very active during the year 2012 with a number of technical, educational, societal, membership advancement and development programs. This chapter won the Membership Growth Competition Award in the small chapter category for the year 2010, in which the membership saw significant growth, after a dormant period since its inception. This growth in membership continues unabated now also, with PES members hailing from utilities, R&D centers and academic institutions (faculty and students, alike) and amply benefiting by the Chapter programs showcasing the modern trends in electricity sector. All these activities paved the way to involve members from academia, industries and also GSM & student members in large numbers in all the activities of the Chapter. The Chapter also invited non-member professionals and students to join in all these programs, to increase awareness about the benefits of joining IEEE and its technical societies.

Lalit Goel
Regional Representative (RR), R10, IEEE PES