PowerTech is the anchor conference of the IEEE Power & Energy Society in Europe. It is intended to provide a forum for electric power engineering scientists and engineers to share ideas, results of their scientific work, to learn from each other as well as to establish new friendships and maintain existing ones. The conference is held every second year, and IEEE Grenoble PowerTech 2013 continues the tradition from Athens, Stockholm, Budapest, Porto, Bologna, St. Petersburg, Lausanne, Bucharest and most recently Trondheim. The PowerTech Conference provides a bridge between generations, and students are specifically encouraged to publish their work. The most valuable IEEE student work is awarded with the Basil Papadias award. The event is sponsored by the IEEE Power & Energy Society and will be organized by the french research laboratory, Grenoble Electrical Engineering (G2elab).