IEEE is a membership organization working to foster technological innovation and excellence to benefit humanity. As the world’s largest technical professional organization focused on technology advancement, IEEE creates industry standards to establish best practices in a broad range of technologies. Many worldwide governing bodies cite IEEE requirements as required and approved standards.
Through publications, conferences, technology standards, public policy, and professional and educational activities, IEEE has become the trusted global “voice” for engineering, computing, and technology information. Striving to inspire a global community to innovate, IEEE and its members collaborate on world-changing technologies.
IEEE stands for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, but the organization no longer goes by its full name. For many years now, the membership of IEEE has consisted of engineers, scientists, and allied professionals making the full name misleading. Currently, the membership base of IEEE includes 423,000 members in more than 160 countries.
History of IEEE
The origins of the organization began in 1884, during the rise of electricity’s influence and popularity in society. As the electrical profession began to take form, a group of individuals working in the electrical field met in New York to create the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE). Their goal was to support professionals and aid in the innovation and betterment of humanity. Some of the early leaders included:
- Norvin Green of Western Union, representing the telegraphy industry
- Thomas Edison, representing the power industry
- Alexander Graham Bell, representing the telephone industry
As electric power spread quickly and companies producing electric products began expanding and commercializing, AIEE developed their focus on electrical power and its ability to change society. With AIEE’s help, the electrical engineering profession experienced growth and technical standards were created.
Simultaneously to the electrical power growth, the radio industry arose; and in 1912 the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) was created and modeled after AIEE. Both of these membership organization continued to grow and overlap. As the interests of AIEE and IRE began to unite, the leaders of each organization recommended merging. On January 1, 1963, IEEE was formed with the core purpose of fostering technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity
.IEEE is an accredited standards development organization by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). ANSI is engaged in accreditation - assessing the competence of organizations determining conformance to standards.
IEEE Standard 1547.1
IEEE is responsible for creating, maintaining and revising standards as necessary through the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA). One of the recent revisions was IEEE Std 1547.
The IEEE Std 1547 is titled: IEEE Standard for Interconnection and Interoperability of Distributed Energy Resources with Associated Electric Power Systems Interfaces. The first iteration was created under the assumption that low penetration of DER during the interconnection process would continue to be the norm. With increasing technological and economic advances, the grid has begun to experience high levels of penetration, resulting in a need to fully revise IEEE Std 1547.T
he goal of the IEEE Std 154 is to establish distributed energy resources technical capability requirements that will maintain electric power system reliability long-term. This new revision will have a significant impact on the testing standards for critical power-generation systems. Download our white paper to understand how your industry will be affected by the new IEEE requirement.
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*This presentation on IEEE 1547-2018 are the author’s views and are not the formal position, explanation or position of the IEEE or Comrent.
*The author acknowledges the contribution of the IEEE 1547-2018 Working Group, Balloters and Officers
