The first biennial IEEE International conference on Power Electronics, Smart Grid and Renewable Energy, PESGRE2020, ended on 4th January 2020 after an exciting and productive three days of non-stop activities, stimulating discussions, and prolific exchange of ideas between 450 attending power Electronics and Energy Systems professionals and researchers from 15 countries. The conference was organized by IA/IE/PELS Jt. Chapter Kerala and was co-sponsored by IEEE Industry Applications society, IEEE Power Electronics Society, and IEEE Kerala section. The conference focused on the challenges, latest developments and upcoming technologies in power electronic systems, electric drives, renewable energy resources and the operation in the smart grid environment. With this year’s conference located in Cochin, Kerala, India, PESGRE2020 emphasized the theme of “Power Electronics and renewable energy for sustainable development” and the conference opened with an inaugural address from Prof. Wang Peng, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

PESGRE2020 had received 483 submissions from 19 countries and after a rigorous review process involving 38 technical program chairs and 386 reviewers, 320 papers were accepted for camera-ready submission. Special care was taken to ensure a very good peer review stage with quality reviews for the benefit of the authors. Subsequently, 301 camera-ready submissions were received and finally, 298 papers from 15 countries were presented in the conference. All the presented papers in the conference are eligible for submission to IEEE Transaction on Industry Applications, subject to further round of review of the journal.

The technical program of PESGRE2020 consisted of four tutorials, four plenary talks, two student forums, one industry session, and 44 technical sessions. The tutorials were delivered by well-known experts, Prof. Prasad Enjeti, Prof. Krishna Vasudevan, Dr. Dinesh Kumar, Prof. Anurag K Srivastava, Prof. Sukumar Kamalasadan, and Prof. Sheldon S. Williamson. Plenary lectures were delivered by Dr. Tomy Sebastian, Prof. Wang Peng, Prof. Kashem Muttaqi and Prof. Biplab Sikdar on topics of interest to power engineering community. The sessions were chaired by active researchers from reputed institutes.  There was a lot of interaction and exchange of information during the technical program and during industry exhibit.

The Young Professionals also had variety of activities at PESGRE2020. They had a YPP student forum lead by Dr. Sanjib K Panda, Dr. Anurag K Srivastava, Dr. Harish S Krishnamoorthy and Dr. Akshay Rathore followed by a social gathering. Thirty of the young professionals received travel grant from IAS society to attend PESGRE2020.

The conference proved to be an excellent forum for technical exchange among researchers from academia, research groups, and industries. The next edition of the conference, PESGRE2022 will be held at Kovalam, Kerala, India during 2-5 Jan 2022.