Coastal South Carolina Chapter

The Coastal South Carolina Section and Joint CS/COMSOC/PES Chapter organized a tour of the Santee Cooper Jefferies Hydro Generating Plant in Moncks Corner, SC on March 7, 2014. The event consisted of a presentation and tour with 30 participants. Hydro Units 2 and 4 are currently being overhauled and the group was able to see some 1930’s and 1940’s generator technology up close.

Aerial View of Jeffries Hydro Generating Plant
Aerial View of Jeffries Hydro Generating Plant
IEEE Tour Group Inside the Plant
IEEE Tour Group Inside the Plant

Dr. Chandra Curtis was the 2014 recipient of the Charleston Engineers’ Joint Council (CEJC) Engineer of the Year Award.  She received the award during the EWeek Banquet held at The Citadel on February 18, 2014 where the IEEE Coastal South Carolina Section and the Joint CS/COMSOC/PES Chapter had member representation.  She currently serves as the IEEE Joint CS/COMSOC/PES Chapter Chair and was nominated for this award by the IEEE Coastal South Carolina Section.

Mississippi Chapter

The Jackson PES Chapter was pleased to host Dr. Yong Fu of Mississippi State University for its March 19th Technical Presentation on the use of the Security Constrained Unit of Commitment in System Planning Models.  The chapter is now preparing for its next technical presentation on April 9th, featuring Martin Rollins, PE.  Mr. Rollins, of the H.M. Rollins Company, Inc., will be presenting on destructive testing to verify ANSI O5.1 strength values for Southern Yellow Pine poles used in the utility space.

Looking ahead to May, our Short Course and Technical Program group is preparing a short course on Motor Theory, Starting, and Effects on Flicker.  The Short Course will be held at Jackson State University from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm on May 13, 2014, and will cover topics including Operational Theory, Design Types, Starting Methods, Effects of Variation in Load and Source, Motor Stopping, and IEEE 1453 Flicker Standards.  Attendees will be provided with print materials and PDH certificates.

Jacksonville Chapter

In 2013, the Jacksonville chapter was busy supporting the SouthEast Con 2013.

Last year we also toured SJRPP (Saint Johns River Power Park), a coal plant that JEA is part owner in. The tour ended up being mostly students as the other members had already seen the power park a few times. Back in October, we started having monthly meetings.  We combine with UNF Student section/branch of IEEE. So far, each meeting has had 5 or 6 people attend.  So far it is just social, but moving forward, the ambition is to let those that attend decide what to do.  A copy of our meeting invitation is shown below:

IEEE- PES/IAS Society Members and UNF Student Members

Date:                2nd Tuesday each month at 5:30 pm
Location:         Dick’s Wings – San Pablo, 4286 Beach Blvd #32, Jacksonville, FL

Hello fellow IEEE members,

A brand new series of IEEE meetings is now scheduled for PES/IAS and UNF student members.

The initial meetings will be to discuss area plant tours in a social and informal setting.  Those that show up and participate will decide the meeting venue and the agendas moving forward.  Some of the future tours may take place before, after, or in lieu of the monthly meeting.  Other tours may be on the weekends or during normal work hours.  Those that are active and show up will decide.

The professional members will continue to receive IEEE correspondence as they currently do.  It is anticipated that the UNF students members will prefer to continue using their IEEE facebook page for updates.  However, to those PES/IAS members that would welcome email PES/IAS updates, please send a short note/request to Russell:

russell_simmons@ieee.org
Subject:  IEEE – Please email me PES/IAS meeting/tour information

Sincerely,
Russell Simmons and Jason Baber

Tallahassee Chapter

In short form, the Tallahassee Section PES chapter was very active during 2013. We had 4 PES meetings as follows:

  1. Role of Surfaces and Their Analysis in Photovoltaics
  2. Li-air Batteries and Li-air Flow Batteries
  3. Tour of Hopkins Power Generation Plant
  4. IEEE Maglab Power Tour

In addition to creating the PES Tallahassee Area section website, we also had two other meetings which were beneficial for IEEE PES members:

  1. Membership Drive and Senior Membership Promotion Meeting – 1/31/2013
  2. MPAC/SPAC Meeting – 9/14/2013

This was probably the best year yet for the IEEE PES Tallahassee Area Section.

Richmond Chapter

The Richmond PES is continuing to deliver successful technical seminars to its members.  In 2013, the Spring seminar focused on protective relaying and system protection with participation by Schweitzer Eng. Labs and Dominion.  The Fall venue dealt with power quality with Eaton Corp. and Dominion making presentations.  Both attracted 50 to 60 attendees and the 5 or 6 PDH credit was a plus for the PEs that attended.

The 2014 program will feature two more exciting programs on timely topics.  The first will deal with synchrophasors and is planned for May 8.  The Fall program covering geomagnetically induced currents is planned for September.

Louisville Chapter

The Louisville PES chapter hosted a supper meeting on March 6th with a presentation on Unmanned Aerial Systems by Dr. Adrian Lauf.  The abstract from the meeting invitation was as follows:

Every day brings a new headline about “drones,” also known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Drones capture our attention, imagination, and for some, fear. This presentation seeks to shed light on key important topics and concepts, such as the technology, applications, and legislation that may define how our skies look ten years from now. Dr. Lauf will discuss the use of drones today, and the technical challenges of implementing UAVs, as well future applications. The usage of UAVs in powerline monitoring, aerial surveillance, disaster area assessment, and agricultural settings will be highlighted. The talk will include live demonstrations and interactive components. He will also provide insight into recent innovations in this promising, emerging technology.

Atlanta Chapter

We will have the honor to have Dr. Sakis Meliopoulos present the topic of “Grid Transformation: Seamless and Secure Protection, Control and Optimization” on April 8th.  Dr. Meliopoulos is faculty member at the Georgia Institute of Technology who helped develop the power program and Power System Certificate at Georgia Tech.  During his presentation, he will discuss the development of an integrated and seamless infrastructure for protection, control and operation of an electric power system in order to practically make it immune to cyber attack.  The presentation will focus on protection and will discuss pilot programs for the evaluation of these techniques.

Our chapter will also have the honor to have John D. McDonald, P.E. during our April 23rd spring seminar.  John has an extensive list of achievements and awards throughout his 40-year career.  He is an IEEE PES Distinguished Lecturer.  Currently, he is Director, Technical Strategy and Policy Development for GE Energy Management’s Digital Energy business.  In his presentation, John will familiarize participants with Smart Grid concepts and solutions, including Distribution Optimization, Transmission Optimization, Asset Optimization, Demand Optimization, Smart Meters and Communications and Workforce and Engineering Design Optimization.  Smart Grid industry standards efforts will be discussed, including NIST, IEEE, CIGRE and IEC.  An overview of recent Smart Grid deployments will be given, including the lessons learned from the deployments.  The impact of high penetrations of rooftop solar PV will be discussed, including the need for new technology to manage the increased voltage volatility and the impact of policy on the future of electric utility operation.