Speakers

Dr. Murty V.V.S. Yalla has been with Beckwith Electric since 1989 and presently holds the position of President. Previously, he was Vice President of R&D/Engineering from 1994 to 2004. He received a Diploma, BSEE and MSEE from India, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of New Brunswick, Canada in 1987. From 1988 to 1989, Dr. Yalla taught and conducted research on digital power system protection at Memorial University in Newfoundland, Canada. He has published several research papers in international journals on digital protection. He holds six U.S. patents in the areas of digital controls and protective relays. Dr. Yalla has been appointed as the chairman of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC, Geneva, Switzerland) Technical Committee 95, Measuring Relays and Protection Equipment from 2015 until 2021. In this capacity, he provides leadership to experts from the national committees of 36 countries in the development of International Standards. He is also the
convener of IEC TC 95 MT4 which developed the following international standards during the past 10 years: IEC 60255-151 (overcurrent protection), IEC 60255-127 (Over/under voltage protection), IEC 60255-121 (distance protection), IEC 60255-149 (thermal protection) and IEC 60255-187-1 (differential protection). He was a U.S. delegate to the International Council on Large Electric Systems (CIGRÈ, Paris, France) Working Groups on Modern Techniques for Protecting and Monitoring Generating Plants and Power Transformers. He was a member (subject matter expert) of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) System Protection and Control Subcommittee (SPCS). He is also a member of IEEE PES Industry Technical Support Leadership Committee, ITSLC (Liaison between PES and NERC). He also served on the Merit Review Panel of US Department of Energy Projects related to DER in 2012 and 2015.
In 2006, Dr. Yalla was elected to Fellow grade by the IEEE Fellow Committee for his contributions in computer relays for power systems. He served on the IEEE PES Fellows committee from 2012 to 2016. He is an active member of the IEEE Power System Relaying Committee (PSRC) for the past 25 years. He is appointed as the Vice chair of the IEEE PES PSRC Committee from 2019 to 2020. He was the Chairman of the Rotating Machinery Protection Subcommittee of the PSRC (Jan 2012 to Jan 2015). He was also the chairman of the working group which developed IEEE Standard C37.102-2006 “Guide for AC Generator Protection.” He co-authored an IEEE PES tutorial on the “Protection of Synchronous Generators.” He was the organizer of the IEEE PES Tutorial on Distribution Volt VAr Control and Optimization in 2015 and 2016 PES General Meetings. He was also the organizer of the Tutorial on Cybersecurity of Electric Power Transmission and Distribution Systems at PES General Meetings in 2017 and 2019 and IEEE T&D meeting in 2018. He chaired the working group which received the IEEE Power Engineering Society (PES) Working
Group Recognition Award for an outstanding technical report “Application of Peer-to-Peer Communications for Protective Relaying” at the IEEE PES General Meeting in Denver, Colorado in June 2004. He received the IEEE Florida Council Outstanding Engineer Award in 2005 and 2018. Dr. Yalla received the IEC 1906 Award in 2010 which honors the IEC experts around the world in recognizing their exceptional recent achievements and contributions to the IEC committees. He also received the Indo-US Chamber of Commerce Businessman of the Year Award in 2013.