The Winnipeg IEEE PES chapter would like to congratulate Dr David Jacobson for achieving the 2015 Outstanding Engineer Award for our chapter.

Dr David Jacobson (S’84, M’90, SM’ 05) received the B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering (with distinction) and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada, in 1988, 1990, and 2000, respectively. He has been employed with Manitoba Hydro in the System Planning department for 25 years and is currently the Section Head of the Interconnections and Grid Supply Planning Section. In 1994-95 he worked with the Siemens Network Planning group in Erlangen, Germany as a visiting researcher.

David enjoys exploring the feasibility of using new technologies at Manitoba Hydro. He was instrumental in the successful development and installation of several static var compensator devices. Single pole trip and reclose technology on the 500 kV transmission line between Winnipeg and the US was finally commissioned in 2014 after many years of study. He led the effort to have voltage source converter technology recognized as a viable alternative for Bipole III.

Since 2002, David has been involved with a variety of groups in the wind industry. In addition to leading interconnection or exploratory studies of wind generators in Manitoba, he is also a stakeholder in many US studies that have investigated the impacts of high penetration levels of renewables (EIPC, ERGIS, MRITS, US DOE Hydrovision). He is a contributing member of the NERC Interconnection of Variable Generation Task Force and the Canadian Wind Technology Roadmap. He’s a steering committee member of the CanWEA Pan-Canadian wind integration study.

David is a Distinguished Member of CIGRÉ and has contributed to many working group reports over the years including: 14.29 Configurations & Coordination of Multiple DC Links and FACTS Controllers in the Same Area, Joint Study Committee C1/C2/C6.18 Coping with Limits for Very High Penetration of Renewable Energy, C6.08 Integration of Large Share of Fluctuating Generation, C4.601 Power System Security Assessment and C4.307 Resonance and Ferroresonance.
He is a member of the IEEE Wind Power Coordinating Committee and was the Technical Committee Program Chair for several years. He’s been a technical committee member of several international conferences and was the Technical Program Chair for two successful conferences held in Winnipeg: the 2011 IEEE Electric Power and Energy Conference and the 2015 CIGRE Canada conference.

David has collaborated on more than a dozen research projects at the University of Manitoba and has supported more than $300,000 in research funding. He has authored or co-authored thirty-five conference and journal publications on a variety of topics. David is a senior member of the IEEE, an adjunct professor with the University of Manitoba and has been a Registered Professional Engineer in the province of Manitoba since 1992.