The last IEEE PES T&D Conference and Exposition was held in Denver back in 2018. (The 2020 T&D slated for Chicago was canceled because of COVID).

From April 25-28, this year’s IEEE T&D will be held in New Orleans and hosted by local utility Entergy.

With approximately 10,000 people expected to attend, more than 650 exhibiting companies and several new activities and additions to the program, this promises to be an outstanding event. We are all so excited to see each other again in person and what better place to celebrate the return of an iconic in-person event than New Orleans! The Big Easy is 100% open for business with world-class restaurants, attractions, and entertainment.

One of the biggest changes for this year’s T&D is that the IEEE PES ISGT Conference will be co-located with T&D in the New Orleans Convention Center. This means that everyone who attends T&D can also have access to the Innovative Smart Grid Technologies (ISGT) conference at no extra charge.

ISGT is an annual event typically held every February in Washington DC. Because of COVID, the organizing committee decided to postpone ISGT and hold it the same week as T&D. It will give everyone a chance to attend both conferences. We tried our best not to have any of the Super Sessions or Keynotes compete with one another.

When so many things in this world are being taken away, we are pleased to give something more to our valued ISGT NA and T&D attendees.

ISGT NA 2022 website https://ieee-isgt.org/
Technical Program https://ieee-isgt.org/isgt-2022-program-schedule/
Registration: https://ieee-isgt.org/registration/

The ISGT Conference is broken down into three tracks:

1. Decarbonization of the grid, including renewable and DER technologies.
2. Grid democratization including technologies and tools for broad active participation
3. Decentralized and distributed decision and control while maintaining grid reliability and resilience.

We hope T&D attendees will take advantage of attending some of the ISGT technical sessions.

T&D kicks off Monday evening with an extravagant Welcome Reception at Mardi Gras World, which is adjacent to the Convention Center. There will be plenty of food and beverages along with entertainment and lots of great fun. The T&D Local Organizing Committee under the leadership of Michelle Bourg at Entergy has been planning this Welcome Reception for nearly a year. It’s a great way to reconnect with industry colleagues and have a lot of fun too. This is something you won’t want to miss!

Opening Session

This year’s Opening Session on Tuesday morning will be a “Keynote Panel” with the theme: How the Past is Powering the Future.

T&D Technical Chair Chan Wong of Entergy helped plan the keynote panel, and it includes some of our industry's most iconic pioneers:

• Dr. Edmund O. Schweitzer, III president, chairman of the board and chief technology officer of SEL. Schweitzer is recognized as a pioneer in digital protection and holds the grade of Fellow in the IEEE, a title bestowed on less than one percent of IEEE members. In 2002, he was elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
  
  
• Dr. Damir Novosel president and founder, Quanta Technology. Novosel is an IEEE Fellow and was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineers in 2014. He served as president of the IEEE Power and Energy Society, VP of Technical Activities, and chair of the Industry Technical Support Leadership Committee.
   
• Alison Silverstein is an independent consultant, strategist and researcher on electric system reliability, resilience, market design, transmission, energy efficiency and technology adoption issues. Her work on major federal electricity efforts includes the U.S. DOE’s Staff Report on Electric Markets and Reliability, three national transmission congestion studies, the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative framework, and the industry-wide advancement of synchrophasor technology.
   
• Paul D. Hinnenkamp executive vice president and chief operating officer of Entergy. Hinnenkamp has more than 38 years of power industry experience including 17 years with the Philadelphia Electric Company and 21 years with Entergy. He is responsible for executive oversight of safety, incident response, power generation, transmission, system planning and capital project management.
   
• Dr. Jessica Bian president of IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES) will be the moderator. Bian is a visionary leader and architect who has spearheaded the electric industry's reliability metrics and grid risk assessment. Currently, she is the vice president of Grid Services at Grid-X Partners. Before that, she was with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Washington, DC. Previously, she was the director of performance analysis at North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) in Atlanta, Georgia.

Entergy and the T&D local organizing committee has assembled an outstanding technical program consisting of more than 400 speakers, three super sessions, 110 poster sessions, tutorials, technical tours and much more. The T&D Super Sessions planned for this year cover three topics: Data Analytics, Resiliency, and the Future Grid. The Super Sessions are set up as panels with plenty of time for Q&A. All of the panelists are subject matter experts and industry thought leaders.

Technical Tours will include: the Entergy Grid Modernization Labs, Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in New Orleans, Entergy Grid Storm Hardening, and Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO).

Innovation Stages

The NEW Innovation Stages will be located in two places on the Expo Floor. These Innovation Stages will feature 12 different companies giving “Ted Talk” style presentations lasting 30 minutes. Most presentations will be about a current industry trend or a new technology for the market. There are so many changes happening in our industry, and this is a good way to bring yourself up to date on some of these changes and new technologies.

IEEE Smart Cities Pavilion

Also new in 2022, the IEEE PES T&D Conference and Exposition is excited to announce the addition of the Smart Cities Pavilion. Developed in partnership with IEEE Smart Cities, this dedicated pavilion on the exhibit floor will feature a variety of presentations and case study exhibits showcasing the effective collaboration necessary to make smarter cities a reality. Access the latest in new technologies and real-world applications meant to promote business and connect thousands of attendees from around the globe with best practices for urban planning and innovation. The Smart Cities Pavilion will provide a platform where public business managers, directors, urban administrators, and international authorities responsible for developing urban policies can offer their services to develop smart cities.

Utility Super Saver Program for Registration

We have added a Utility Bundle registration package to encourage more utility attendees. Utilities can register 10 employees for $1000, which is an incredible savings. Utilities can buy as many bundles of 10 as they wish. We sold over 110 bundles for the 2020 Conference and we are starting to see more and more utilities register for 2022.

Collegiate Program

At this year’s IEEE T&D we are offering an exciting and comprehensive schedule of students and young professional sessions and activities. The “Collegiate Program” at T&D is designed to help students launch successful careers in the power and energy industry. We will also feature a Poster Session and Reception providing a relaxing environment for registered conference attendees to enjoy hors d’oeuvres and beverages while viewing hundreds of accepted papers in poster format. This will be held on Wednesday evening, April 27.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Carl Segneri, IEEE PES North America T&D director and Barbara Powell, T&D operations manager. They are the glue that holds T&D together. Carl has been involved with T&D for more than a decade, and Barbara for more than 30 years. I’d also like to recognize Entergy and the Local Organizing Committee. They have done an outstanding job of putting together a world-class technical program along with all of the fun networking activities. It’s an honor to serve as the volunteer IEEE PES vice president of Meetings and Conferences. The most rewarding part of my job is the incredible team of volunteers that help plan an event like T&D. I look forward to seeing all of you at this year’s IEEE PES T&D Conference and Exposition!