At the International Council on Large Electric Systems (CIGRE) Biennial Session held in Paris from August 23 to 28, Professor He Jinliang from the Department of Electrical Engineering served as a Special Reporter and chaired the Group Discussion Meeting (GDM) of Study Committee C4 (Power System Technical Performance Study Committee). Professor He Jinliang was invited to serve as Special Reporter for Study Committee C4 as early as the preparation stage of this Session. He is the first expert affiliated with a mainland Chinese institution to receive this appointment within Study Committee C4.

Throughout the day on August 25, Professor He Jinliang co-chaired the GDM together with other Special Reporters of Study Committee C4. The meeting focused on the challenges and opportunities facing power system technical performance in the context of the energy transition, and reached the following main consensus:

• The energy transition is increasing system complexity and posing challenges to existing engineering practices;

• The rapid growth of inverter-based sources and loads is changing system behavior, bringing new issues in stability, system strength, power quality, electromagnetic compatibility, and transient performance;

• Advanced modeling, simulation, and analysis tools have become indispensable means for the planning, design, and operation of future power systems;

• Measurement-based model validation is increasingly important and is key to ensuring the credibility of models and research conclusions;

• Emerging technologies such as grid-forming converters, advanced monitoring systems, and artificial intelligence provide important opportunities for enhancing system performance and resilience;

• International cooperation and knowledge sharing remain crucial for the transition toward net-zero power systems.

Special Reporters are selected by Study Committees from among international peers as experts with deep academic credentials and a global perspective, and the role is one of the core academic roles of the CIGRE Paris Session. Their responsibilities are to study in advance the more than one hundred papers accepted by their Committee, distill common themes and development trends, write a comprehensive Special Report, and on that basis propose discussion questions for global experts to respond to; before the Session, experts submit "Contributions" in response to the questions; during the Session, the Special Reporters chair the GDM, guiding the direction and depth of discussion; and after the Session, they participate in producing the Daily Report. This mechanism enables CIGRE to efficiently process a volume of papers far exceeding that of traditional conferences within a single day, achieving high-density knowledge aggregation.

The GDM is the principal formal academic activity of the CIGRE Paris Session. Over the five-day Session, 16 Study Committees each host their own GDM, covering the entire chain of generation, transmission and distribution, and planning and operation; the discussion outcomes are consolidated through the Daily Reports, becoming the cornerstone of the research directions of the Study Committees and their subordinate Working Groups for the next two years, and are fed back to the Technical Committee to determine the Preferential Subjects of the next Session.

Professor He Jinliang's selection as a CIGRE Special Reporter is both a high recognition of his personal academic attainments and international influence, and a sign that the depth of participation and voice of Chinese power sector experts in CIGRE's top-level academic organization have risen to a new height.

Professor He Jinliang has long served as the Chinese National Member of CIGRE Study Committee C4, and has successively led as Convener four Working Groups: C4.26 "Evaluation Methods for Lightning Shielding Failure Characteristics of EHV/UHV Transmission Lines," C4/A3.53 "Low Residual Voltage Arresters for Suppressing Overvoltages in UHV AC Systems and Their Application Effects," C4.61 "Lightning Transient Sensing, Monitoring and Application in Power Systems," and C4/A3.79 "Transient Overvoltage Protection Technology for High-Voltage Transmission Systems of Large Renewable Energy Bases," and has participated in the work of 13 CIGRE Working Groups. He was named a CIGRE Distinguished Member in 2020 and elected a CIGRE Fellow in 2024.

He Jinliang chairs the GDM of CIGRE Study Committee C4