The Power and Energy Society of of Region 9 covers all Latin American and Caribbean Countries; it comprises of 33 Chapters that are organized in four areas:

Mexico and the Caribbean:, consists of the chapters in 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 Section, 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 was Juan Carlos Montero (JMontero@ice.go.cr) of Costa Rica Section. He was substituted by Guadalupe Gonzales of Panama Section in January, 2016. Juan Carlos took over the position of PES VP for Membership and Image.

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 four additional Joint Chapters (sharing membership with other IEEE Societies) in : the Bahia Section -Bahia Northeast, Minas Gerais Section – Itajuba, South Brazil Section -Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul 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.

In 2015 two new Chapters have been formed in the Region: Itajuba ( Minas Gerais Section) and Rio Grande do Sul ( South Brasil Section).

We welcome Edson da Costa Bortoni and José Renes Pinheiro the new chapter’s chairs.

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

In 2015, 12 Chapters have been awarded the High Performance Chapter Program

Congratulations to the Chairs and local volunteers for the achievement!

Students’ Activities

The “Student participation in Regional Conferences Program” offers financial support to stimulate the student members to attend conferences held in the region. This year 44 students received support to attend the 2015 ISGT LA 2015 in Montevideo, Uruguay.

At that conference the students were encouraged to network with professionals, other students and, had a meeting with the IEEE 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 form the Student Branches of the PES Chapter.

PES Scholarship Plus Program in the Region 9

IEEE Power & Energy Society Scholarship Plus Initiative, a Signature Program of the IEEE Foundation has selected two (2) recipients from Puerto Rico.

Congratulations to Lisboa Santiago and Delgado Mildred from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus

Chapter leaders training

Chapter Chair Training session held in October 2015 in Montevideo City was attended by 17 chapter leaders from the Region.

This is a part of the continuous training process that has been offered by the Society for a long time. It is always great 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 Uruguay Section PES Chapter hosted the 2015 ISGT LA in Montevideo, Uruguay in October.

Further details were published in November’s eNews Update.

For 2016 the IEEE PES T&D LA will be held in September, 21^st – 24^th, in Morelia Michoacan, Mexico.

More information can be reached at http://ieee-tdla16.org/.

A brief message to the Region 9 PES members

The IEEE and PES volunteers have been working to provide the members with high quality information and networking opportunities.

The Chapters are your local and focal points to help you technically and professionally.

The PES offers a myriad of resources to you: lectures by local, regional or global experts thru 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