A few days ago, EICC (Energy Internet Coordination Committee), the first committee initiated by Chinese scholars in the history of the IEEE and PES, was officially established with the approval from the IEEE PES Technical Council, and its first meeting was successfully held on July 24. EICC is one of the 21 technical committees / coordination committees directly affiliated to IEEE PES at present, and it is the first committee initiated by Chinese scholars since the establishment of IEEE PES for more than half a century. It symbolizes the global leading position of China in the emerging field of energy Internet, and is a milestone for Chinese electrical and energy scholars to lead the establishment and leadership of international science and technology organizations.

Energy Internet is a new generation of energy ecosystem with the deep integration of the Internet and the energy system, the key technical fulcrum of the energy revolution, and the focus of academia and industry at home and abroad. China has gradually stepped to an internationally leading position in this field. In this context, Sun Hongbin, a professor of Tsinghua University, and Zhou Xiaoxin, a CAS academician and honorary president of the China Electric Power Research Institute, acted as co-initiators and jointly proposed to the IEEE PES Technology Council the establishment of the Energy Internet Coordination Committee, which aims to build an international exchange and cooperation platform for the emerging technology field of energy Internet, formulate a scientific agenda in this field, strengthen multi-disciplinary and cross-industry academic exchanges in energy Internet, and promote academic energy Internet research, personnel training and achievement actualization. After 16 months and 4 meetings of questioning, answering and discussing, the IEEE PES Technical Council formally approved the proposal at the beginning of this year, and appointed Professor Sun Hongbin of Tsinghua University as the first chairman of EICC and took the lead in establishing its organizational structure.

IEEE PES EICC was formally established in June 2020, with Sun Hongbin (professor of Tsinghua University) as chairman, Mohammad Shahidehpour (academician of NAE and professor of Illinois Institute of Technology) as vice chairman, Sun Zhengyun (Chief Information Officer of China State Grid Corporation) as chairman of the Steering Committee, and 11 authoritative experts from all over the world including Anjan Bose (academician of NAE, foreign academician of CAS and professor of Washington State University), Mohammad Shahidehpour (academician of NAE and professor of Illinois Institute of Technology), Zhou Xiaoxin (academician of CAS and honorary president of the China Electric Power Research Institute), Cheng Shijie (academician of CAS and professor of Huazhong University of Science and Technology), Chen Weijiang (academician of CAS and deputy chief engineer of the State Grid Corporation), Nikos Hatziargyriou (editor-in-chief of the top class energy journal IEEE Transactions on Power System and professor of the National Technical University of Athens, Greece), Yu Jun (Secretary of the International Department of the State Grid Company), Sun Hongbin (professor of Tsinghua University), Jovica Milanovic (professor of the University of Manchester), Hong Gao (ABB Group) and Dean Sharafi (Australian Energy Market Operator) as members of the Steering Committee.

At 10:00 on July 24 (Beijing Time), IEEE PES EICC successfully held its first meeting online via WebEx. The meeting attracted wide attention, and 66 experts and scholars from 14 countries and regions were invited to the meeting, including Saifur Rahman (former chairman of IEEE PES and candidate chairman of IEEE), Sun Hongbin (chairman of EICC), Mohammad Shahidehpour (vice chairman of EICC), Zhengyun (chairman of EICC Steering Committee), Anjan Bose, Nikos Hatziargyriou, Jovica Milanovic and Hong Gao (members of EICC Steering Committee), Kai Strunz (contact person of IEEE PES ED&PG and professor of Technical University of Berlin), Pengwei Du (contact person of IEEE PES PSOPE and ERCOT), Le Xie (contact person of IEEE PES AMPS and professor of Texas A&M University), Gary Chang (chairman and contact person of IEEE PES T&D, vice president of National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan), Costas Vournas (chairman of IEEE PES PSDP), Russ Patterson (chairman of IEEE PES PSRC), Anurag K Srivastava (vice chairman of IEEE PES PEEC), and scholars from Tsinghua University, Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute and well-known universities and research institutions at home and abroad. Professor Sun Hongbin presided over the meeting and introduced the background, organizational structure and work scope of EICC, and put forward suggestions on the work to be carried out by EICC in the near future, including the establishment of EICC subcommittees, working groups, academic conferences and symposiums. The scholars attending the meeting fully affirmed the great significance of the establishment of EICC, looked forward to sharing and exchanging the latest achievements through EICC, and made a positive discussion on the future work plan. The successful convening of the first meeting was a good start for the development of EICC.

IEEE PES EICC will focus on the opportunities and challenges brought about by the deep integration of energy systems and the Internet, covering: (1) The energy layer: reconstructing the energy network with Internet thinking based on the coordination of electricity, heat, cold, gas, transportation and other energy systems; building Internet-like energy networks based on energy routers, energy hubs, multi-energy storage and plug-and-use technologies. (2) The information layer: the application of new Internet and ICT technologies such as the new generation communication, Internet of things, cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence and blockchain in energy systems; (3) The value layer: new energy policies, market mechanisms and business models based on Internet sharing economy, such as energy P2P trading, etc.