General Electricals: GE’s Colin Davidson receives HVDC award from the IEEE Power & Energy Society

Colin Davidson, High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) Consulting Engineer at GE Renewable Energy’s Grid Solutions business, has received the IEEE Power & Energy Society’s (PES’s) Uno Lamm High Voltage Direct Current Award.

The award recognizes outstanding contributions to HVDC technology, which is used for the transmission of electric bulk power over long distances and for strengthening grid connections. With more than 30 years of experience in the electric utility transmission and distribution (T&D) industry, Colin has been instrumental in the design and development of several HVDC products at GE, including the development and evolution of GE’s Voltage Source Converter (VSC) valve technology and the design of GE’s state-of-the-art valve test facility in the UK, which features industry leading capability to test HVDC valves. In addition, Colin has worked with industry bodies, including CIGRE and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), to drive the standardization of HVDC valves.

Colin was presented the award at the IEEE PES’s Award Ceremony on July 19, 2022, in Denver, Colorado, USA. The Uno Lamm High Voltage Direct Current Award was established in 1980 and is the highest honor in the HVDC global community, recognizing no more than one person each year. Since its inception, GE engineers have received this prestigious award a total of eight times. However, this is the first time since 2005 that a current employee of GE Grid Solutions has received the award.

“We want to congratulate Colin on this well-deserved honor,” said Philippe Piron, President & CEO of GE Grid Solutions. “He is one of many outstanding engineers here at GE and I’m delighted to see that his work has been recognized through this award. It is testament to his commitment to the industry and GE’s technical expertise in HVDC systems, which is experiencing rapid growth due to the rise in global energy consumption and as the world integrates more and more renewable energy onto the grid.”

“This is a huge honor and the highlight of my career for me. I have had the privilege of working for two previous winners of this award: Mike Woodhouse, who hired me when I started my career in 1989 and went on to win in 2005, and Bjarne Andersen, who won the award in 2012. I learned so much from them both and from the many other very talented engineers I have worked with at GE,” said Colin Davidson.

Colin is based at Grid Solution’s Stafford site in the UK. He has also received the International Electrotechnical Commission’s 1906 Award, once in 2012 for his work to standardize HVDC VSCs and again in 2020 for his work on standardizing direct current equipment. Colin is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology in the UK and graduated from the University of Cambridge with a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in Physics.