Green Books: Success beyond expectation
2025 was truly special for the Green Books with 3 celebrations: the Scopus referencing in May, the 500,000th chapter download in October and at the end of the year, the celebration of 10 years of cooperation with our Green Books Publisher Springer.
CIGRE main technical output is the Technical Brochures of high value, giving the state of the art on the topic covered, but with a narrow scope. In 2011, Konstantin Papailiou, now our President, stated that after decades it was time to compile them in a comprehensive report presented in a fluid way. He proposed to publish a new media, a book of a self-contained handbook character covering the entire knowledge of the subject within power engineering. In 2014, CIGRE published the first two books as paper books. Rapidly, it becomes of evidence that these books were not visible enough to attract new readers as they were only visible in the CIGRE world and not available electronically. CIGRE decided to contract with Springer to have a worldwide visibility, through universities, research institutions and corporations, Google and other internet platforms. Now Green Books are CIGRE's state of the art, flagship reference publications.
After 10 years with Springer, we have 18 books published in English, 8 of them being translated in other languages and the readers downloaded over 500,000 chapters of our different English books and bought over 8,000 books in English and other languages. Presently, 10 new books are in preparation.
But the question is: can we improve our books to give a better service.
We asked the CIGRE Next Generation Network (NGN) Chair, Conor Mulholland to give his own views:
- How did you discover the Green Books?
I initially was introduced to CIGRE Green Books as part of one of my first roles in the power system industry. I was given a B3 Substations Green Book to assist with reviewing and developing transmission functional specifications. As a young professional, this was a valuable asset to help develop my professional expertise.
- Did you find what you were looking for?
This Green Book contained all the relevant information required to complete my work and It also provided me with the awareness of what the international industry trends which I shared back with my colleagues.
- Did this encourage you to go further with CIGRE and work for the electric power industry?
Using the Green Book, I was better informed on industry trends and standards which has enabled me to knowledge share with Subject Matter Experts (SME) through CIGRE. It was also beneficial as a young professional to be aware of this valuable resource to help aid my professional expertise.
Following this I started to get involved with attending CIGRE conferences, completion of presentations and involvement within working groups.
- What do you expect from a Green Book? Are there topics you would like to be covered?
I expect valuable knowledge and guidance from all CIGRE Green Books on all areas of the power system industry. As a young professional I like to utilize Green Books to be further educated on specific areas such as transmission substations etc.
- How can we improve our GBs?
I believe we can further promote the great content within Green Books to ensure that younger professionals are more informed about how they can benefit. Publications on LinkedIn, webinars etc. can be valuable forums to showcase the great benefit to Green Books and CIGRE members can utilize them for their daily workflow.
We can also ensure that young professionals are participating in the development of Green Books so there is a clear transition of knowledge to the next generation.
Young readers prefer an electronic version of the Green Books, as they are easier to read and access. However, having a paper copy of a digested or summarized version of the full book could also be a useful resource.
It’s clear that the Working Groups are at the center of the CIGRE work and the participation of experts needed:
- to write unbiased reports with confirmed experts,
- to teach young experts who will be our successors in the Electric Power Industry
- to produce a good basis for future Green Books.
As a summary, we are going in the right direction, but the Green Books need the contribution of all experts, old and young to provide the best documents for students, young experts and also confirmed to produce reference documents.
1Electra 341 pp 58-61 – August 2025 “Green Book now referenced by Scopus”
2NGN : Next Generation Network gathering the young professional experts under 35 within CIGRE