Region 7 (Canada) Chapters Report
Dec 3, 2015
By Mazana , Wahab and Jahangir, IEEE PES Chapters Region 7

IEEE Region 7 (R7) encompasses the entire Canada. PES is represented in twelve Canadian IEEE Sections via PES Chapters, some of which are joint chapters with other IEEE technical societies. The Chapter Representatives for Canada-East is Wahab Almuhtadi and for Canada-West is Jahangir Khan. Mazana Armstrong is the Region Representative for R7.

The following is the list of existing PES Chapters in Canada and their chapter chairs:

• Canadian Atlantic Section Joint Chapter, chapter chair Mehran Zamani
• London Section Chapter, chapter chair Maike Luiken
• Montreal Section Chapter, chapter chair Ambrish Chandra
• Ottawa Section Chapter, chapter chair Wahab Almuhtadi
• Toronto Section Chapter, chapter chair Bala Venkatesh
• Kitchener-Waterloo Section Chapter, chapter chair Kankar Bhattacharya
• Hamilton Section Chapter, chapter chair Bogusmaw Bochenski
• Northern Canada Section Joint Chapter, chapter chair Alexandre B Nassif
• Winnipeg Section Chapter, chapter chair Michael (Mike) Sefton
• North Saskatchewan Section Joint Chapter, chapter chair Rama Gokaraju
• Southern Alberta Section Chapter, chapter chair Shan Pandher
• Vancouver Section Joint Chapter, chapter chair Dipendra Rai

In addition to the PES Chapters, Region 7 has three PES student chapters located in University of British Columbia, British Columbia Institute of Technology and University of Calgary.

The Chapters in this region arranged significant number of technical events on timely topics such as, renewable energy, smart grid, power electronics, system transients, substation equipment, energy market, bulk power system, communication networks, data acquisition, protection and control, academic research and business practices. Many chapters also arranged tours, tutorials and workshops which amount to about 50 highly-attended events in 2015. Of notable mention are technical workshops on electromagnetic transients in power systems hosted by the Vancouver Chapter and transmission line design by the Alberta Chapter.

In 2015, the Winnipeg Chapter has awarded Outstanding Engineer Award to Dr. David Jacobson. The Northern Canada Chapter is currently seeking nomination for this award. The Southern Alberta Chapter was a runner-up for PES Outstanding Chapter Award. In this Chapter, 7 members were elevated to Senior Member grade. Also, this Chapter awarded 2015 Volunteer of the Year Award to Dave Hines and 2015 Continuing Contributions Award to Dale Tardiff. Ottawa London Chapter co-sponsored the Electrical Power and Energy Conference (EPEC) for 2015. The Ottawa Chapter plans to host this event for 2016.

The Region 7 is striding toward establishing new PES Chapters in this region. In regular intervals, this Region holds conference calls and webinars to aid the Chapter Chairs and to identify ongoing challenges.