Organised by IEEE New Zealand South PES Chapter and Electric Power Engineering Centre (EPECentre), this presentation will familiarize participants with a vision for Grid Modernization, focusing on technological advancements beyond Smart Grid. The technological advancements include discussions of key industry/societal trends, Smart Grid concepts, holistic solutions, integration of microgrids and distributed generation, and Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS) software applications. The talk will also cover feeder automation business models, managing different types of data, big data, analytics, enterprise data management, Smart Grid standards and interoperability, and Smart Grid deployments and lessons learned.

Speaker Bio:

John McDonald may be familiar to some of you in Christchurch. He came to our shores in the summer of 2004 to the EEA Conference and gave a keynote. John will also deliver a keynote presentation at TENSYMP 2025 IEEE Region 10 Symposium. Please read his bio below:

John D. McDonald, P.E., is Founder & CEO of JDM Associates, LLC. John has 50 years of experience in the electric utility transmission and distribution industry. John received his B.S.E.E. and M.S.E.E. (Power Engineering) degrees from Purdue University, and an M.B.A. (Finance) degree from the University of California-Berkeley.

John is a Life Fellow of IEEE (member for 54 years), member of IEEE-HKN (inducted 54 years ago) and Tau Beta Pi (inducted 52 years ago), member of the Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity, and was awarded the IEEE Millennium Medal, the IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) Excellence in Power Distribution Engineering Award, the IEEE PES Substations Committee Distinguished Service Award, the IEEE PES Meritorious Service Award, the 2024 CIGRE US National Committee (USNC) Philip Sporn Award, the 2016 CIGRE Distinguished Member Award, the 2016 CIGRE USNC Attwood Associate Award, the 2021 CIGRE Honorary Member Award, the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative (SECC) Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity Career Achievement Award.

John is Past President of the IEEE PES, the VP for Technical Activities for the USNC of CIGRE, the Past Chair of the IEEE PES Substations Committee, the IEEE Division VII Past Director, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. John was on the Board of Governors of the IEEE-SA (Standards Association), is an IEEE Foundation Director and Vice President of Development, is a Governor At-Large on the IEEE-HKN Board of Governors and is a Founding Board Member of the SECC.

John received the 2009 Purdue University Outstanding Electrical and Computer Engineer Award and the 2023 Purdue University Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award. John teaches Smart Grid courses at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and Smart Grid courses for various IEEE PES local chapters as an IEEE PES Distinguished Lecturer (since 1999). John has published one hundred fifty papers and articles, has co-authored five books and has one US patent.

There will be an opportunity for networking after the presentation (light snacks and refreshments will be provided).

More information about Electric Power Engineering Centre (EPECentre) can be found here: Electric Power Engineering Centre | University of Canterbury