Bálint Németh among this year’s CIGRE Fellows

Bálint Németh, an associate professor and deputy head of the Department of Electric Power Engineering at BME, was named one of this year’s recipients of the CIGRE Fellow award. This is the most prestigious honour of CIGRE, the International Council on Large Electric Systems.

Bálint Németh, the first Hungarian to receive the honour, earned it with his “outstanding, long-term scientific and leadership work within the professional community of power systems”. The CIGRE Fellow award is presented every two years to a maximum of five experts of the federation which operates as a global knowledge-sharing network comprising more than 15,000 professionals and 1,250 member organisations.

Full spectrum

“There are two major international organisations in this field: the IEEE, which is primarily active in the Americas, and CIGRE, with a European focus. They are not rivals but rather complement one another. CIGRE covers every segment, from power stations through transmission to services provided to consumers. All major companies with a stake in the sector are members,” Mr Németh told bme.hu.

Due to the large number of members, national committees also operate; the Hungarian one has been led by him for five years, which is interesting in itself, as in other countries this position is typically filled not by those working in academia, but by senior executives of major companies.

It probably speaks to the prestige and professional competence of BME that it is different in Hungary.

CIGRE is not merely an advocacy organisation; alongside sharing best practices and developing new standards, innovation is also part of its activities: “Here at BME, we also have research and development projects linked to CIGRE.”

The biennial main conference and exhibition, the Paris Session, which takes place this year from 23 to 26 August, also serves as a platform for presenting new achievements. The CIGRE Fellow awards will also be presented here, following a nomination and selection process lasting almost a year. Mr Németh’s recognition within the organisation is demonstrated by the fact that he was nominated for the award by representatives from five different countries across three continents.

“It is important to emphasise that the tasks we carry out within the organisation are fundamentally achieved through teamwork:

this is no one-man show; I would not have received this award without my colleagues,”

he said on the telephone from the United States. He was there because a few weeks earlier he had attended the IEEE’s annual general meeting in Montreal, and since then he has been discussing existing and future collaborations with Canadian and American companies.

Incidentally, the IEEE and CIGRE are holding a joint conference in Budapest this October, co-organised by the BME, with nearly 500 participants expected to arrive. The main topic will be the development of smart grids, but other important issues in the sector will also be discussed, including high-voltage transmission lines and digital twins, which are Bálint Németh’s main area of research.

Rector’s Office, Communications Directorate