Spirit of CIGRE

The first time I was in this city was in 1991, when the last conference of the CIGRE of the former Yugoslavia was held, and the second time in 2023, at their 16th conference, when I was awarded a special recognition for my professional work and organization in the formation of the South-Eastern European region of CIGRE, which has been developing excellently in the last ten years of operation. This region (SEERC) is one of four CIGRE regions operating in the world. The journey by car from Ljubljana to Neum is over 650 km long and, despite the vast majority of routes on highways, it is quite tiring. We travelled together with my colleague Marko Hrast, President of the Slovenian Committee of CIGRE, who was also specially invited as the winner of the award for successful cooperation between the two professional associations in the field of electric power engineering. 

After registering at the Grand Hotel, I was quite surprised when I met our national honorary member, Prof. Franc Jakl, in the lobby of the hotel. The surprise intensified even more when he told me that he had come by car from Maribor himself. Our Franc Jakl has almost 90 of them (he will celebrate his 90th birthday in July 2026) and I asked myself what motivates him to go on such a long journey alone at this age just to be at the CIGRE event and to meet old colleagues. I knew that in the past he had been a guest and author of many articles at many CIGRE conferences in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and also in Neum, and also that he had worked a lot with the then important manufacturer of electrical equipment (Energoinvest) from Sarajevo, but still, what is so special about CIGRE events that it pulls the old CIGRE people gather together?

When I stepped out of the hotel into the parking lot, I saw that a light was burning on an old car WV Golf with Maribor registration. I immediately called our Franc Jakl on my cell phone and asked him if it might be his car? He replied that it was his car and immediately came downstairs to turn off the lights. When asked how he dared to travel such a long distance of more than 600 km with such an old car, he replied that for an experienced man like him, solutions are always found.

I remembered meeting the legendary American engineer Charles Concordio (1908-2003), the father of methods for systems dynamics, who was still a participant in the CIGRE conferences in Paris after the age of 90, several times at the CIGRE international meetings. I think it was in 1998 or 2000 when I asked him about how modern power systems compare to those during his active engineering years. He said that the progress in the development of connected power systems is amazing and is probably the greatest engineering achievement of mankind. Later, I read how the American Academy of Engineering declared electrification and related electrical systems the greatest engineering achievement of the 20th century. That is why our organization CIGRE certainly has a lot of merit. A year later, I met Charles Concordia again at the IEEE conference in Denver. The Americans celebrate him as a pioneer in the field of stability and dynamic behavior of electrical networks, just as we celebrate Franc Jakl as a pioneer in the construction of the Slovenian 220 kV and 400 kV transmission network. Jakl's contribution and merits to the current strong Slovenian transmission network are enormous.

At a meeting of the Technical Council of the Paris CIGRE at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch on the southern island of New Zealand, I sat together with the famous Prof. Jos Arrillaga (1919-2009), author of excellent books (High Voltage Direct Current Transmission, Computer Modelling of Electrical Power Systems, Power System Harmonics, and others) when he was very old and died only one month after this CIGRE event. His pedagogical work and publications on the electric power system were extremely sought after and valuable to young engineers. At this meeting, CIGRE presented his latest book, "Gathering Renewable Energy in Electrical Networks" (2009).

In the past decades of work in the international CIGRE association, I have met many other famous experts, especially in the field of system development and transmission technology, who regularly came to CIGRE events in their older lives. I would say they were active until the end of their days. A general question arises: What drives old CIGREans to attend professional CIGRE meetings even in their older retirement years?

After reflecting and analyzing the history of CIGRE, I found the answer. This is the Spirit of CIGRE, which was first defined by the long-time president of CIGRE Ernest Mercier (1878 – 1955). He was the longest-serving president of CIGRE from 1934 to 1948. He is known as a visionary of French industry and electrification in particular before World War II. As CEO of CGE (Compagnie Générale d'Electricité), he was the main architect of the modernization of France's electricity infrastructure.

In 1931, at the 6^th session in Paris, our international organization CIGRE received its first statute and was registered for the first time as an international non-governmental association of electric power engineers and not as an alliance of national groups (such as the IEC). Each delegate at the meeting represents himself/herself, acts and discusses at the meetings with complete independence and freedom of thought. He is only required to be competent. In this way, political discourse at meetings is eliminated. And it was precisely the IEC, as the founder of CIGRE, that wanted such an international organization of power professionals with free thinking about global electrification solutions. Thus, from the very beginning of its operation, the best technical solutions are sought and promoted in the professional community, thus upgrading knowledge and implementing better practices. The exchange of experience and upgrading of knowledge for all participants offers the fastest progress in a profession. It is not for nothing that today, at the time of searching for the best solutions to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the COP (Conference of the Parties) UNFCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) considers cooperation and exchange of experience at the global level to be one of the four pillars for achieving its goals related to climate change mitigation. Similar to how CIGRE started it almost a hundred years ago to connect and electrify the world.

Thus, CIGRE has become the largest global association of experts in power systems. In the past, the main topic was the construction of an interconnecting electricity transmission network within and between countries, but today it is the entire power system from the lowest to the highest voltages and its transition to a low-carbon society.

Ernest Mercier said in one of his speeches: "CIGRE is not just a state of mind. It also represents a type of spirit, a spirit that is often referred to as the spirit of the CIGRE."

It is the spirit of trust and endearing simplicity among colleagues that has become a symbol as the "Spirit of the CIGRE". The term "CIGRE Family" is often used at meetings. This access to new knowledge and experience exchange is something familiar to many CIGREans, which, after many years of working in working groups and study committees, creates a kind of family atmosphere and they are happy when they observe how the profession progresses and young generations continue their work. That's why they attend CIGRE meetings as long as their feet carry them.

My colleague Prof. Maks Babuder, who is also the recipient of the high recognition of the CIGRE-Paris in 2020, said when discussing this topic that it is about creating a network not only physical but also spiritual and he used the Latin proverb "E pluribus unum" (out of many, one), which we know was also the main motto of the United States in the creation of one state from 13 colonies.

Therefore, it was not surprising me to see many "old" CIGREans in Paris at the 50th session of CIGRE, in 2024, which was attended by almost ten thousand experts. It is certainly the world's largest Electric Power Systems conference. Next year in Paris it will be 51^st Session with focus on the discussion on how to ensure a resilient and reliable supply of electricity to humanity.  I'm sure I'll meet a lot of old friends again and participate in many CIGRE events.