Volume 11: Issue 2: Evolving Electrification Technology

The June 2023 issue of IEEE Electrification Magazine has eight feature articles. Five articles focus on various technologies relevant to electric vehicles (EVs), including state policies on EVs in the United States, heavy-duty excavators using motor drives, lithium-ion batteries for EVs, sensing and perception technology (an area very important to safety), and race car inverters. The remaining three articles cover the following topics: community electrification in Madagascar, electrification of marine power systems, and supraharmonic sensing technology for microgrids. This issue also launches a dedicated column to technology history by Prof. Marcelo Godoy Simões: "The Elektron Whisperer." In his first column, Prof. Simões shares with us his wonder about technologies and leads us to visit the early history of induction motor drives. Eventually, he shows us how technologies (e.g., cycloconverters, insulated-gate bipolar transistor inverters, pulse width modulation, volt/hertz control, vector control, and digital signal processor boards from Texas Instruments), developed over decades by many brilliant engineers and scientists, led to the booming industry of variable-speed motor drives, wind turbines, smart grids, and more.