Powering CIGRE’s 2nd Century

As Administrative Council member for the United States since 2016, I have been elected as your VP Finance (Treasurer) from August 2020 through August 2026. It is an honor to serve CIGRE as continuity with the newly elected officers in August 2024 and to assure continuity with CIGRE’s Strategic Plan to 2030 for the Energy Transition. My experience includes engineering, business, financial, and senior executive experience to grow CIGRE's proud tradition.

Advancing CIGRE in its 2nd century

I have worked as a team with other officers, the Secretary General, Philippe Adam, the Steering Committee, and the Administrative Council to continue the excellent advancements made by the administrations of Konstantin Papailiou, Michel Augonnet, Rob Stephen, and Klaus Fröhlich. Those advancements include:

• Maintaining the traditions of CIGRE, its technical foundation, and its unbiased ethical approach to advancing power system expertise.
• Advancing CIGRE revenues and membership fostering greater technical participation with a marketing and communications strategy of end-to-end (E2E) power system expertise.
• Assuring resources and excellent services to National Committees (NCs) in keeping with our strong decentralized approach, and further the digital ability of language translations for CIGRE.
• Providing resources in support of advancing diverse membership growth in areas of the world not served as well, with NGN and WiE, and with student membership.
• Advancing the Treasurer’s role to include marketing and membership leadership, assuring financial sustainability and risk management for revenues and cash reserves to assure CIGRE’s future.

Dedicated service to CIGRE since 2006

The CIGRE journey started at American Electric Power (AEP) 

My CIGRE journey started with AEP as Collective Member in the United States National Committee (USNC). AEP is one of the largest electric power companies in the United States, and the largest transmission owner. My Individual Membership journey began in 2006 joining the Executive Committee of the US National Committee (USNC) as AEP representative.

President, CIGRE US National Committee

In January 2011, I was elected President of the USNC and served for six years through 2016. US CIGRE membership was not at full potential for a country well over 300 million people. The business model relied on charitable Collective Member sponsorships without strong benefits for their interests. Member fees were targeted to remain low to continue to attract members, but cash reserves were low. In 2012, the business model was improved with introduction of an annual CIGRE conference in the United States, called Grid of the Future (GOTF). The resulting annual GOTF conferences have been so popular, the USNC filed a Trademark in the United States with exclusive rights to the name “Grid of the Future.” This branding has helped CIGRE in the US to grow to number one for several years with the leadership of USNC presidents.

CIGRE Steering Committee Member

In 2016 as Steering Committee member, with the prior work of Clark Gellings from the USNC, I was listening to the conversation on marketing in my first meeting led by President Rob Stephen and uttered the phrase based on all the input “sustainable electricity for all.” I was then appointed convener for the Marketing and Communications Task Force (TF). The objective was to increase membership and advance member benefits and technical participation. The Steering Committee approved the plan that quickly developed in early 2017 and led to the hiring of a marketing firm, Aspire, led by Colin Knox.

CIGRE Branding and Communications

At the Administrative Council meeting in September 2017, the TF obtained approval to implement a new brand and communications strategy. This was inaugurated in Paris at the 2018 Session and included extensive materials and tutorials to support the NCs. The new brand advanced the ideas from the September 2017 Administrative Council creative breakout sessions (CIGRE at its best), such as end-to-end (E2E) power system expertise. CIGRE followed the brand release with an E2E campaign in 2019 as the foremost technical organization fulfilling power system expertise needs of the industry.

Digital ELECTRA for CIGRE’s 2nd Century

At a joint meeting of the Steering Committee and Technical Council in 2017, I introduced the TF plan for digital ELECTRA and enhanced newsletter channels. The Administrative Council approved this strategy in 2018 noting annual 300,000-euro savings (printing and delivery costs) and allowing delivery of CIGRE communications responsive for smart phones, tablets, and computers. ELECTRA moving to a digital platform eliminated an enormous carbon footprint of printing and delivery.

ELECTRA Editorial Board and New Communications Channels

In 2018 as first convener of the new ELECTRA Editorial Board, a new ELECTRA section for invited authors “Global Connections” began. The board also assisted the development of the new Leadership Circle newsletters for CEOs and peers led by our President, the new Future Connections newsletter led by the Technical Council, and the renewed PowerTalk newsletter replacing the General Newsletter for news and events. All are in support of CIGRE’s technical unbiased foundation.

CENTENNIAL Pandemic

The 2020 Paris Session and the 2021 Centennial Session were accomplished virtually due to the forethought of advancing CIGRE since 2018 to a digital platform. Thankfully, Treasurers from the past, Richard Bevan, and Michel Augonnet, developed cash reserves to sustain the loss of a Paris Session. Fortunately, the 2022 Paris Session (in person) was a success with approximately 3700 delegates just below the peak in 2018 at 3800. For 2024, the delegates numbered nearly 4500!

CIGRE Strategic Plan for the Energy Transition to 2030

As convenor of the Strategic Task Force, in coordination with Marcio Szechtman’s leadership from the Technical Council Strategic Advisory Group, a Strategic Plan was developed for CIGRE to 2030 for full adoption of E2E for the Energy Transition, and to assure finances are secure for CIGRE’s future.

CIGRE Exciting News Ahead

With the leadership group of Konstantin Papailiou as President, Rannveig Loken as VP Technical, myself as VP Finance, and Philippe Adam as Secretary General, there will be exciting news ahead for CIGRE. We are at the early stages of development of a CIGRE Fund (name to be determined) in alignment with CIGRE’s vision and mission. We have sound cash reserves for risk mitigation, and we will not just sit and look at bank accounts. We intend to further CIGRE’s mission across the globe with our Fund, attracting proposals and donors, with the full support of the Steering Committee and the Administrative Council. Stay tuned for developments ahead!

Biography of Michael Heyeck

Michael Heyeck’s technical career began in 1976 at American Electric Power (AEP) in transmission planning and operations with two electrical engineering degrees and is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Ohio. He spent several years in AEP’s Finance Department as AEP’s Budget Director managing billions USD after attaining his Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) degree focusing on marketing and finance.

In 2005, he was appointed Senior Vice President – Transmission, responsible for AEP’s 11-state transmission system (largest in US), including nearly 65,000 kilometers of transmission and over 3500 T&D substations. Responsibilities included business development, engineering, project management, construction, maintenance, operations, dispatching, technology development, and reliability compliance. He also served as Chair of EPRI’s Power Delivery and Utilization Council for a few years during the period.

Heyeck proposed the development of the separate and new AEP Transmission Company (2006), which now operates in several states in the US with excellent revenue growth. He has published technical papers and numerous articles in international publications. His top technical initiative as young engineer with other colleagues was the development of Probabilistic Transfer Capability for use in enhancing deterministic transmission planning studies (1985).

In 2013, Heyeck retired from AEP and started The Grid Group, LLC to provide strategic advisory and business development services for executives and boards related to the electric utility industry. He served as Chair for the United States Department of Energy Electricity Advisory Committee for over a decade, having been appointed to this committee by the Administrations of Presidents Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden.

Heyeck is a strong advocate for the NGN having spent many years mentoring young professionals in their career. For these efforts, he was honored with IEEE’s Power & Energy Society Leadership in Power Award (2013) and the National Society of Professional Engineers Industry Engineer of the Year Award (2013). For CIGRE, he holds CIGRE’s Distinguished Member Award and the CIGRE USNC’s Sporn and Attwood Awards. As 50+ year member of IEEE, he attained the level of IEEE Life Fellow.

Heyeck is also an elected official in Ohio serving since 1993 on Westerville City Council and is currently Chair (for 14 years). Westerville has a population of nearly 40,000 people with all services, including public safety (police and fire services), water, and electricity, with a total annual City budget today nearing $300 million (USD).