00:06Dear Philippe, we are happy to welcome you on the CIGRE TV. You are the Secretary General of
00:11CIGRE for years now and you have witnessed many changes that we can say in CIGRE. Could you tell
00:17us more about the most important transformation in the CIGRE and the functioning of the central
00:23office where you are the leader? Ok, bonjour Fanny. Well this question requires a long answer so sorry
00:32for that. So as some history as with the rest of the world the confinement came as a shock for
00:41for CIGRE you know and just a few months before the 2020 session. So all the papers you know for
00:49from zero source had been prepared. All the study committees had reviewed them, selected them.
00:55So what could we do while we had to cancel this session? So we made a decision. In a few
01:04months
01:05we decided to set up a virtual session which was in line with what was been done by many people
01:13in
01:13the world through screens you know using different platforms for remote participation. So we were
01:23able to meet this challenge because we had some experience for webinars. We had started making
01:31webinars in CIGRE. So thanks to this experience we managed to organize 83 webinars over a period of two
01:41weeks instead of one week. So thanks to that we managed to save this session. And in fact it was
01:48like a big
01:51poster session where all the authors were able to prepare from home you know to present their papers. So
01:58that was something unique. And after these bad times we kept some of these learnings that we had. And for
02:08example now we
02:10we systematically have some hybridization of physical events like this one. For example all the events
02:17inside these sessions are captured by video and are also broadcast and streamed so that they are available
02:27for people attending remotely and also for those who cannot attend all the events. So and for the central
02:34office it has changed quite a lot of things. We have we had started teleworking. Now everyone everybody
02:42is teleworking at least a few days per week. And we continue to organize even our statutory meetings through
02:54remote participation. Okay thank you for all this explanation about the many changes in the organization.
03:03CIGRE2024 has set we can say this year a record in participants from all over the world. From your
03:09perspective how can we explain this huge success? Okay so one explanation is a global concern about the energy
03:19transition all over the world. And how to manage that, how to adapt power systems, how to integrate the new
03:29new entrants of this energy transition like those in charge of renewable energy, those in charge of storage,
03:37those interested in digitalization to integrate more customers in the life, in the operation of the power grid.
03:48So we need to respond. We need to teach all these new people how power system works, how grids are
03:58functioning.
03:59So this is a great opportunity that we have offered them and this year we have 12 percent of new
04:06entrants
04:06among our delegates. People who have never seen before, we have never seen them. So that's important to note.
04:13Yeah okay and CIGRE2024's technical work we could say is a real gold mine. Could you tell us a little
04:20bit
04:20more about that and also explain to us the main difference between the CIGRE2024 organization and CIGRE2024 session held
04:28every two years here in Paris? Okay thank you for giving me the opportunity to make this clarification.
04:35In fact CIGRE2024 is like a medal or it's like an iceberg. It has two sides or let's say there
04:43is an upper
04:43part and a lower part. The upper part or the brighter side of the medal is this session. So it
04:51is something
04:52very visible you know it's bright but the other side of the medal or the lower part of the iceberg
05:02which
05:02is the biggest is all the work that is done every day by working group by study committees to prepare
05:09publications and for the central office to manage to facilitate these activities and publish the work
05:17finally. This year we see too many changes in the board members, a new CIGRE2024 president and a new
05:25TC chair. What can you say about Michel Ogonet, the CIGRE2024 president outgoing and Marcio Tessman,
05:31the TC chair outgoing terms and what can you wish for the new ones? Well both Michel and Marcio with
05:41the support
05:42of Mike Hayek who is the treasurer. They had to face very difficult time for CIGRE2024 in the history of
05:50CIGRE2024 the
05:52similar event was the second world war where we had to cancel the session. So here we had a very
05:59very
05:59difficult decision to make. So this is to put to their credit and now the association is back on track
06:09and we can continue to support the industry in sharing experience, sharing expertise, sharing projects
06:17to face the energy transition everywhere in the world. So for the new team I wish them to continue this
06:26this activity to continue the work and to develop it to develop actions that have been decided together
06:34with the administrative council in the strategic plan. So they have a road map so I wish them to follow
06:41it and eventually to improve it or accelerate if needed to be agile. Yeah and we will follow that.
06:49Thank you and I wish you a good 2024 session here in Paris. Thank you. Thank you Fanny.
