Editorial

Dear CIGRE friends,

As I have mentioned in my last editorial, my relationship with CIGRE has very deep roots, and my career development within our industry is closely linked to my tenure as a CIGRE member. This is my way of expressing the importance of CIGRE to involve as many of your colleagues as possible in this incredible association. From the senior members all the way to the young student members, there is so much going on and so much knowledge to share.

Although I was once called (by a massively exaggerating journalist) ‘The Father of Overhead Lines’, my first project actually dealt with underground cables in the bygone days, when 12 kV cables were still paper impregnated. Soon after, I got my first chance to attend CIGRE because my boss and mentor, CIGRE legend Walter Bückner, had injured himself while skiing. Bückner was then Convenor of WG 04 on the “Endurance capability of conductors” and needed a secretary. This was the start of my CIGRE career!

Bückner, an excellent engineer, was strong-minded and quite outspoken; and was regularly quarrelling with another CIGRE grand seigneur, Magnar Ervik from Norway, on the merits of vibration measurements (Bückner) vs. vibration theories (Ervik). This became too much for the Chairman of SC 22 (now B2) Yves Porcheron, from France, a real gentleman, who called Bückner and Ervik at the end of 1982 for a conciliation meeting in Paris. While in Paris, as life is full of coincidences, I met the woman who would become my wife, Margarita. A few months later in summer 1983 we spent our honeymoon in Rio, where I have presented my first CIGRE paper in a Colloquium! 

Life, also my CIGRE life, was moving on, I became member in several Working Groups in my fields of interest, these being quite diverse: Conductor vibrations and fatigue, composite insulators, and mechanical short circuit effects in substations. During this time, I have met many great people and profited immensely from their knowledge. As a matter of fact, I owe to CIGRE the impulse for my Ph.D. Thesis at the ETH Zürich “On the bending stiffness of transmission line conductors”. This way, I have recognized early the great benefit of CIGRE: Knowledge sharing at its best. That during my WG activities I have seen quite a few beautiful places and enjoyed the hospitality of many cultures comes out on top.

The next level in my CIGRE career came in 2010, when I was selected by Prof. Klaus Fröhlich, CIGRE TC Chair and later CIGRE President, as Chairman of SC B2 "Overhead lines". Being part of the highest technical body of CIGRE, the Technical Council, is a unique experience. Our long meetings in great places, our struggles for the right decision, our quarrels on important and, alas, sometimes not so important matters, will remain unforgettable. Unforgettable is also the introduction in 2016 of the CIGRE Green Books, the first two being “Overhead Lines”, which I have edited, and “Accessories for Underground Cables”, edited by my dear late friend Pierre Argaut.

I am very honoured that for my CIGRE work I have been bestowed upon with the first CIGRE Fellow award in 2014 and with the CIGRE Medal in 2020, which, because of the pandemic, we celebrated in 2021 in Paris on CIGRE's 100th anniversary.

Another happy coincidence was that my election as President took place at the 50th CIGRE session during the fabulous Paris Olympic Games; 20 years after, another anniversary, the also very successful Athens Olympic games in 2004, where I was a volunteer (and missed the closing ceremony to attend our 2004 session!)

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who have been part of my long CIGRE journey, and particularly the members of the Administrative Council for my election. In this respect, I am indebted to Liisa Haarla (middle) and Thani Al Khusaibi (right), my co-candidates for their utmost fairness during the election process and for continuing to serve CIGRE in the Administrative Council and the Steering Committee. 

With my best personal wishes to all of you for the festive Season and the New Year, 

Konstantin O. Papailiou