CIGRE Awards

CIGRE awards: definition and eligibility

Session 2024 Awards

Distinguished Members Awards

The Distinguished Member awards were introduced in 1996 to reward long standing Individual Members who have contributed to the Association through technical work or work within the National Committees. The awards are made every two years during the Paris Session years. Each of the National Committees are invited to propose suitable people who have been Individual Members for at least ten years and who have contributed significantly to the development of CIGRE. This year distinguished members are:

Tony has been engaged in various capacities in the cable sector for almost 50 years and has been a member of CIGRE since 2012. Since joining he has actively promoted CIGRE within European Subsea Cable Association (ESCA) executive and plenary meetings and also ESCA within CIGRE UK Executive Committee and plenary meetings, this being in addition to his own personal input to both. He has organised cable ship visits for CIGRE UK and UK NGN members. He was heavily involved over a number of years, in providing expert advice and guidance in the compilation of CIGRE TB 883: Installation of Submarine Power Cables. He referred a suitable lawyer to CIGRE UK Executive when CIGRE UK needed legal advice on GDPR. He provides feedback/advice to CIGRE and ESCA Executives as appropriate and continues to liaise between ESCA and CIGRE, particularly aiming to ensure commonality of advice within respective Guidelines/TB’s.

Session 2022 Awards

Honorary Member Award – Zia Emin

Zia has been involved in CIGRE for more than 20 years in various working groups as member, task force leader and convener. He was the convener of WG C4.307 looking at resonance and ferro-resonance phenomena and establishing transformer energisation studies guidelines. He was a task force leader within C4.502 establishing system technical performance issues associated with long HVAC cables. He later started the JWG C4/B4.38 on network modelling for harmonic studies before moving to become the chair of Study Committee C4 Power System Technical Performance. Zia was the UK Regular Member for SC C4 from 2006 to 2014. During his Regular member role he was a member of the Strategic Advisory Group from 2010 to 2014 and convener of the Tutorials and Conferences Advisory Group from 202 to 2014. He was the SC C4 chair and a member of CIGRE Technical Council from 2016 to 2022 during which he was also the convener for the Strategic Advisory Group within Study Committee C4. Zia was also the CIGRE UK Technical Committee chair from 2016 to 2018.

Zia received the Technical Council Award from SC C4 in 2013 and was also bestowed with the Distinguished Member Award in 2014.

Distinguished Members Awards

The Distinguished Member awards were introduced in 1996 to reward long standing Individual Members who have contributed to the Association through technical work or work within the National Committees. The awards are made every two years during the Paris Session years. Each of the National Committees are invited to propose suitable people who have been Individual Members for at least ten years and who have contributed significantly to the development of CIGRE. This year distinguished members are:

Alan Wilson 

He started working in the central research laboratories of Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) publishing many papers in IEE and IEEE. He first attended a CIGRE Paris Session in the late 1960s. Following privatisation of the Electricity Supply Industry (ESI) in the UK his work focus changed and he became a technology manager for the work teams of transformer and cable specialist engineers. He became significantly involved with CIGRE groups and activities, particularly D1, A2, B1 and B3. He left the ESI in 1999 and became the Technical Advisor for a private Engineering Company who supported his CIGRE involvement within B3 activities allowing him to contribute to ten technical brochures. For WG B3-48 (TB 858) he initiated the activity TOR and served as secretary and is currently a corresponding member of B3-61. He also contributed to the B3 Substations Green Book, published CIGRE session papers in Paris, Brazil, Japan and Romania and presented WG tutorials in Brazil and Japan. He received the SC B3 Outstanding Service Award in 2020.

Elizabeth MacKenzie

Elizabeth has been involved with CIGRE since 1998 initially as part of the ABB corporate membership attending the SC12 UK liaison meetings regularly. She became an individual member in 2004 and continued to attend the SC12/A2 UK transformer liaison meetings whenever possible. She was a member of WG A2.44 for a few years, participating in several meetings, until a change of job meant that it was no longer possible to attend meetings. She has continued to attend the A2 liaison group meetings. She is currently the UK additional member for A2 since 2020. She has been very active in the A2 community in the UK and organised the A groups presentations at the AGM in 2021.

Leslie Falkingham

His history with CIGRE goes back to 1986 in Paris when as a young engineer he published a paper at the conference (Recent Advances in Vacuum Interrupter Design).  Since then, he attended the conference in Paris regularly under the GEC/Alstom/Areva Collective Membership. He became an Individual Member in 2003. Over his time with CIGRE he has tabled many questions at the Paris meetings promoting the UK point of view, and has also attended and supported NGN functions. In his main role as UK Regular Member for A3 from 2010 to 2018 he organised meetings in the UK as well as attending all of the main A3 meetings where he was active in raising many points for discussion, proposing New Work Items, and supporting new directions. He was secretary of WG A3-27 from 2013 – 2017 which published Technical Brochure 589 “The Impact of the Application of Vacuum Switchgear at Transmission Voltages” in 2017 & Electra article ELT_276_5. As a member of the UK IEC PEL-17 Switchgear Committee and also a member of the IEEE Switchgear Committee he has worked, and is still working, to promote CIGRE within IEC and IEEE.

Paul Fletcher

He joined Working Group 23.04 of Study Committee 23 (Substations) as the UK Member in 1989 and was immediately co-opted into a Task Force which prepared a paper for the 1990 Paris Session.  [Maintenance of Substations.  Practices and Trends.  Cigre 1990, 23-101]. Since then, he has contributed to many task forces and working groups associated with GIS substations and dynamic loading of equipment contributing to six technical brochures over the period 1992 to 2010. He was the UK Regular Member to Study Committee B3 from 2010 until 2018. He is currently Convener of Working Group B3.41, Mobile Substations Incorporating HV GIS.  The final report of the Working Group will be issued in 2022 as a Technical Brochure.

Simon Neve

His first involvement with Cigre was in 2000 when he co-authored a paper at the Paris session, 22-203 following work on understanding induced currents on OHL’s. He joined TAG 06 shortly after and attended many of the WG meetings in various EU locations. At this stage his employer had a Collective membership. In 2008 he took up the role of UK RM for Study Committee B2, a position he held for 8 years until 2016. He reviewed various documents over the years including TB731 for WGB2.52. He took up the role of UK Technical Committee Chair in 2015 for one year. He regularly attends the Paris sessions as well as conferences in New Zealand, Iceland & India including a trip to the 1200kV Ohl route in Bina.

Simon Ryder

His first involvement with CIGRE was in 2002 attending the Paris Session as a co-author of one of the papers. In 2008, he contributed to a new working group (A2.36) dealing with transformer procurement.  Having really enjoyed the experience he became a convenor for a new working group on shunt reactors and the brochure 655 was completed on time.  He was asked by the outgoing chair of Study Committee A2 whether he was willing to be nominated as a possible successor.  He agreed and was elected as chair of study committee A2 in 2016. As chair, he encouraged working group convenors to finish their work more quickly as he was concerned that the duration of some of the working groups was putting off potential members.  He also encouraged more participation in activities from outside Europe and succeeded in promoting two Asian countries to regular member status.  The end of his period as chair was dominated by the Covid-19 pandemic, the cancellation of the Paris session for the first time since the Second World War, and the need to move most activities on-line. He also supported the A2 Green Book project and has been spending time editing the Green Book on transformer procurement.

Session 2020 Awards

CIGRE Medal – Mark Waldron

Mark has been involved in all aspects of lifetime management of switchgear and substation equipment with National Grid and is currently their Switchgear Technical Leader. He has been heavily involved in CIGRE activities over the past twenty years, initially as the UK Regular Member for Study Committee A3 participating and convening various Working Groups.  On completion of his time in that role he became the Study Committee Chair for Study Committee A3 in 2006 and led the Technical Committee project on Ultra High Voltage Transmission. Following six years in this role he became the Chair of the Technical Council in 2012.

In this role he presided over some significant changes within CIGRE as the organisation is changing from a Generation and Transmission dominated organisation to one covering the industry end to end, introducing Additional Regular Members for Study Committees to encourage this change. He also presided over the introduction of the CIGRE Green Books which are now becoming acknowledged as fundamental reference works for the Industry.

Honorary Membership – Simon Ryder

Simon has been involved with CIGRE activities for 20 years.  He was a member of working groups A2.36 on power transformer procurement and D1/A2.47 on dissolved gas analysis for power transformer diagnosis.  He was convenor of working group A2.48 on shunt reactors.  He was chairman of Study Committee A2 on power transformers between 2016 and 2020.  He remains involved in CIGRE activities as a member of working group A2.58 on transformer installation, commissioning, and trial operation and as editor-in-chief of the Green Book on transformer procurement.

Distinguished Member Awards

Richard Adams 

Richard became an Individual member, when taking on the role of UK Regular Member for Study Committee B5 which he held until 2012. In 2008 he also became a member of the B5 Strategic Advisory Group as Advisor for Advisory Group 53 which was one of three groups which assist in the preparation and planning for the SC Annual meeting by collating WG and PS suggestions and continued in this role until 2018. He became Secretary for WG B5.14 through to completion of the work and also became convenor of WG B5.41 after the previous convenor stepped down.

In 2011, Richard received the CIGRE Technical Committee award in recognition of his contribution to SC B5 and he was a Special Reporter at the B5 colloquium in 2015. He also found time to contribute two chapters for the B3 Green Book “Substations”. He has been the Secretary for SC B5 since 2018 as well as webmaster for the SC B5 website.

Martin Ansell 

Martin has been a strong supporter of CIGRE since 1997 during his time in leadership roles in both at ALSTOM and then GE. He encouraged his engineering teams to join as Individual Members and supported their engagement in CIGRE technical activities.  He first became an individual member in 1999.  In 2012 he joined the CIGRE UK Executive Committee (EC), initially in a Communications support role that later grew to include Marketing and Events. His activities within the EC in addition to running typically 5 events per year included the introduction and running of the monthly webinars which now frequently attract more than one hundred attendees.

He has also been a contributor to help bringing CIGRE UK into the 21st Century by streamlining some administrative processes, such as the introduction of annual subscription payments online, an online membership application form, online voting as well as dealing with the issue of GDPR.

Russell Martin 

Russell became active within CIGRE in 2005 initially as part of a Collective membership and then became an Individual member in 2009. Over the years he has participated in various Working Groups being the Convenor of A2-35. He has always been actively involved and was the Special Reporter at the main CIGRE Session in Paris in 2008. Although he is closely aligned to SC A2 Power Transformers and Reactors he is currently a member of three Working Groups spread over Study Committees D1 Materials and Emerging Test techniques and B3 Substations and Electrical Installations.

He is a strong proponent for the use of both natural and synthetic esters rather than mineral oil in transformers and the benefits these can provide.

Adam Middleton 

Adam manages to find the time and energy to provide immense support to CIGRE UK despite holding CEO and Managing Director posts with large Companies. He has been an Individual member since 2005 then becoming a very active member of the CIGRE UK Executive Committee (EC) in 2006. He progressed to Vice Chair in 2012 and then his current position as Chair in 2016. He has been involved “hands on” in all aspects of CIGRE UK including membership, finance, marketing and events. His international involvement includes being a member of the Admin Council, the Steering Committee (SteerCo) and the CIGRE France Executive Committee (2016-19).

He was one of the prime movers behind the establishment of the UK NGN (the first one in CIGRE) in 2007, as well as mentoring the inception of the CIGRE UK Women’s Network in 2015/16.

Nigel Shore

Nigel first joined a CIGRE Working Group in 1989, and since then has been an Individual Member. Over the last 30 years he has been almost continuously active in Working Groups, under Study Committee B4 (formerly SC14) and to some extent C4. He has been Convenor of four WGs and a very active member of another four. Three of the brochures emanating from Working Groups that he convened have become IEC TRs and a further one is expected next year. He has effectively created a comprehensive “bible” of all aspects of harmonics and filters in the context of HVDC and beyond. As well as being the “go-to” man for any harmonic issues he has assisted the SC Chair by reviewing papers, contributing to publications and presenting Tutorials.

He was awarded the Technical Committee Award for SC B4 in 2014.

Simon Sutton 

Simon has been an Individual member of CIGRE since 2008 and the UK Regular Member for D1 for the last 6 years.  During this time he has been active in communicating the work of the Study Committee to UK members at regular liaison meetings sometimes jointly with other related SCs such as B1 and A2. He has been the Convenor of Advisory Group D1-03 on Solid Materials for the past 4 years and Special Reporter for D1 in 2018 and again for 2020.  He was Secretary for WG D1,71 “Understanding and mitigating corrosion” and has previously been a member of several B1 WGs and a B3 one

He has also been one of the judges at the NGN presentation days where NGN members compete to present a paper at the Paris Session.