ISGT NA 2023: Moving to a Self-Driving Grid
Keynotes and Plenary Sessions

Opening Keynote: Challenges in Moving to a Self-Driving Grid
Gilbert Bindewald III, Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, US DOE Office of Electricity

Tuesday, January 17, 2023  (9:00am - 9:30am)

Gilbert Bindewald III, OE-1 Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Electricity
Now serving as the Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Office of Electricity (OE), Mr. Bindewald previously served as the Director for Grid Communications in the Advanced Grid Research and Development group. Mr. Bindewald is a registered Professional Engineer (New York); he received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Union College (Schenectady, NY), and an M.P.A. in International Development (Economics) from Harvard University.

Plenary : Smart Grid Deployments and Future Strategy

Tuesday, January 17, 2023  (10:00am - 11:30am)

The electric power system is going through a foundational transformation as a result of increasing penetration of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) and other smart grid technologies. To that end, in the past decade, some utilities have developed smart grid technology strategies and have been executing the strategies by deploying smart grid solutions. In this plenary session, speakers discuss actual smart grid deployments and utility strategies for future deployments.

Moderator: Ebrahim Vaahedi, Vice President, Open Access Technology International (OATI)

Panelists:

  • Ali Ipakchi, Executive Vice President, Open Access Technology International (OATI)
  • Bryan Fazzari, Senior Engineer, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Inc. (SEL)
  • Joseph Schlusselberg, Operations Program Manager, Con Edison
  • Rana Mukerji, Senior Vice President, New York Independent System Operator
  • S. Lee Ragsdale Jr., Senior Vice President, North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives

Ali Ipakchi has over 35 years of experience in the application of information technologies to power systems and electric utility operations. As the Senior VP of Smart Grid and Green Power at OATI, he is responsible for product development and market strategy for distribution operations and smart grid areas. Prior to OATI, he was Vice President of Integration Services at a leading consulting firm, assisting utilities with technology roadmap, business and implementation strategies.. Prior to that, Dr. Ipakchi held various senior management positions at ABB and Alstom leading teams for power application and market systems development, and system solutions delivery. He has been actively involved in various initiatives under DOE, NIST, SGIP, IEEE and various ISOs. He holds a PhD from University of California at Berkeley, and is co-holder of three US patents on power systems applications and instrument diagnostics.

Joseph Schlusselberg is the Operations Program Manager for Demand Response at Con Edison. He oversees the operation and administration of the DR programs and the implementation of the DRMS. He has been with the DR Team for over 2 years and with Con Edison for over 11 years.

Bryan Fazzari is a Senior Engineer at Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Inc. (SEL). He is currently serving as SEL’s Distribution Automation technology owner, focusing on developing next-generation automation solutions. A patented inventor and product owner, Bryan has guided the development of numerous Distribution Automation solutions including Fault Location, Isolation, and Service Restoration (FLISR), heuristic Volt/VAR control, photo-voltaic (PV) plant control, industrial high-speed load shedding, and wide-area data collection, visualization, and monitoring systems.

Rana Mukerji is responsible for the Market Design; Product and Project Management; Strategic and Business Planning; Research and Development; and Market Training teams.
Mr. Mukerji joined the NYISO in 2006. Previously, he spent several years as a global leader for ABB’s Utility T&D Services, Asset Management and Consulting businesses in North Carolina and Zurich. Prior to ABB, he was General Manager for GE’s Power Systems Energy Consulting Division and was instrumental in establishing the GE-MAPS software as an industry standard tool for evaluating competitive power markets. He earned a B.S in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, a M.S. in Electric Power Engineering and a M.B.A. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program. Mr. Mukerji is also a NY registered Professional Engineer.

Lee Ragsdale serves as the Senior Vice President, Energy Delivery in the Power Supply Division for North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives headquartered in Raleigh, NC.  Lee is a leader in discovering and delivering innovative energy solutions that simultaneously make our grid more flexible and efficient while providing co-op consumer-members new and unprecedented ways to manage their home energy use. Most recently, he has spearheaded North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives’ Distribution Operator initiative, integrating edge-of-grid resources including, microgrid and distributed energy resources, providing enhanced visibility and coordinated efforts across all 26 NC electric cooperatives for reliability on the grid. He joined NCEMC in January 2007 and over the course of the last 15 years has led teams in Resource Planning, Portfolio Management, and Asset Management, and has been actively involved in cybersecurity, grid modernization and company-wide strategic planning.  Lee holds a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Master of Business Administration in Economics from Georgia State University.  He is a licensed Professional Engineer in the state of North Carolina.

Ebrahim Vaahedi is an Associate Vice President at OATI where he leads Smart Grid solution development. He has over 30 years of experience in different segments of Energy Industry specializing in the development and execution of technology strategies for utility industry. Dr. Vaahedi joined OATI following his prior position with a major Canadian utility as Chief Technology Officer where he was accountable for developing and executing a consolidated technology plan. Dr. Vaahedi is a Fellow of IEEE, has authored many publications including a recent book in modern power system operation entitled “Practical Power System Operation”. Presently he chairs IEEE Bulk Power System Operations Committee and IEEE Smart Grid Publications Committee.

Plenary : Guiding Industry and Government for the Self-Driving Grid

Tuesday, January 17, 2023  (12:30pm – 2:00pm)

2022 saw the passing of a US bill and several regional initiatives adding up to a broad multi-national effort to battle climate change like no other ever seen in human history. As most climate change concerns are attributed to the energy sector, an unprecedented flow of government incentivization and private capital promise to revolutionize the electrical grids. This plenary with experts from renowned consultancy firms and think-tanks of the electricity sector will diagnose what went wrong with building the “smart grid”, upgrading and expanding the ageing infrastructure, and failing to promptly and widely adopt digital tools and solutions like other economy sectors did. Three broad perspectives will be explored: enabling entrepreneurship as the bridge between innovation and commercialization, regulation as an impeding but not unnecessary framework, and robust, long-reaching and long-term electricity sector planning. The challenges posed by the recent pandemic and the war in Ukraine will add nuance to the panelists’ angles. The panel is sponsored by the IEEE Smart Grid community and the Climate Change AI initiative.

Moderator: Panayiotis (Panos) Moutis, Special Faculty, Carnegie Mellon University

Panelists:

  • Clare Callahan, Senior Consultant, Deloitte
  • Damir Novosel, Founder and President, Quanta Technology
  • Doug Houseman, Principal Consultant, Burns McDonnell
  • Rob Gramlich, Founder and President, Grid Strategies LLC

Clare Callahan is a Senior Consultant with Deloitte’s Government and Public Services division, focused on government energy clients. She consults on issues of grid resiliency and energy markets for the National Energy Technology Laboratory. Clare has worked in over thirteen countries in Africa, South America, Asia, and the Middle East for government and multinational energy clients.

Damir Novosel is president and founder of Quanta Technology, a subsidiary of Quanta Services, a Fortune 250 company. Previously, he was vice president of ABB Automation Products and president of KEMA T&D US. Dr. Novosel is also an adjunct professor of Electrical Engineering at North Carolina State University.
Damir was elected to US National Academy of Engineers in 2014. He served as president of the IEEE Power and Energy Society, VP of Technical Activities, and received the Patrick P. Ryan Meritorious Service Award. Damir is a secretary of IEEE PES Executive Advisory Council and member of the IEEE Standards Association Standards Board and chair of Strategic and Emerging Standards Committee. He is a member of the CIGRE US National Committee and received the CIGRE Attwood Associate and the Distinguished Member awards. Damir holds 18 US and international patents, published over 200 articles and reports, and contributed to 7 books. Dr. Novosel served on various boards and is presently member of the Sandia National Laboratories Energy and Homeland Security External Advisory Board and Mississippi State University Industry Advisory Board.
Damir, an IEEE Fellow since 2003, holds PhD, MSc, and BSc degrees in electrical engineering from Mississippi State University (where he was a Fulbright scholar), the University of Zagreb, Croatia, and the University of Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina, respectively. Dr. Novosel was selected as Mississippi State University Distinguished Engineering Fellow in 2015.

Doug Houseman is a principal consultant for power at 1898 & Co., part of Burns & McDonnell. Doug started on his career path with the U.S. Navy. With extensive engineering and consulting experience in the energy and utility industries, he has overseen advanced metering infrastructure, distribution and substation automation, enterprise asset management, distributed energy resources, and distribution management infrastructure projects in more than 70 countries. Doug is a leader in grid modernization thinking, including having been asked to author significant portions of the IEEE’s GridVision 2050 and DOE’s QER and to revise CEATI’s Distribution Utility Technology Roadmap. He is a NIST fellow and member of the GridWise Architecture Council (GWAC) where he had a hand in both the Smart Grid Interoperability Maturity Model and Transactive Energy. He has led the IEEE Power and Energy Society’s Intelligent Grid Coordinating Committee and Emerging Technology Committee for the several years. He regularly teaches for IEEE PES and EUCI.

Rob Gramlich is Founder and President of Grid Strategies LLC where he provides economic policy analysis for clients on electric transmission and power markets in pursuit of low-cost de-carbonization. He is co-founder of Americans for a Clean Energy Grid, the WATT Coalition, and the Future Power Markets Forum. Rob oversaw transmission and power market policy for the American Wind Energy Association from 2005 through 2016 as Senior Vice President for Government and Public Affairs, Interim CEO, and Policy Director. He was Economic Advisor to FERC Chairman Pat Wood III from 2001 to 2005, Senior Economist at PJM Interconnection in 1999 and 2000, Senior Associate at PG&E National Energy Group in 2000-2001, and an analyst at the FERC Office of Economic Policy, ICF Resources, the World Resources Institute, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the 1990s. He testifies frequently before the US Congress, US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), US Department of Energy, and state legislatures and regulatory commissions. He has served on advisory committees for the U.S. Department of Energy and the North American Energy Standards Board, on boards of a number of regional clean energy organizations. Rob has several distinctions and recognitions by associations, media outlets and FERC, owing to his extensive work and contributions to crucial projects and publications with the US Dept. of Energy, FERC, PJM and other entities. Rob has a Master of Public Policy (MPP) degree from UC Berkeley and a BA with Honors in Economics from Colby College.

Panayiotis (Panos) Moutis, PhD, has been Special Faculty with the Scott Institute for Energy Innovation at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) since August 2018 (postdoc at Electrical & Computer Engineering – ECE, CMU, 2016-18). Panos researches data-driven optimization, control and planning of electrical grids with high shares of renewables. He has recently been working with the grid operator of Portugal, REN, the moonshot factory of Google, X, and the grid operator of NY, NYISO. Between 2018-20 he served as a Marie Curie Research Fellow with DEPsys, Switzerland, on distribution grid awareness. In 2014 he was awarded a fellowship by Arup, UK (through the University of Greenwich), to study microgrids for residential communities. During 2007-15, as part of Prof. Nikos Hatziargyriou’s research group he contributed to over a dozen R&D projects funded by the European Commission. Panos received both his diploma (2007) and his PhD (2015) degrees in ECE at the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, and has published more than 30 papers and contributed to 4 book chapters. He has over 10 years of industry experience on Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, and serves as advisor and executive in energy start-ups. He is a senior member of the IEEE, member of the IEEE-USA Energy Policy Committee, co-lead of the Distribution Task Team at NASPI and of the Power & Energy Community of the Climate Change AI initiative, senior editor of IEEE & IET scientific journals, member of IEEE standards working groups, and chair of the IEEE Smart Grid Publications Committee. Personal Website for more information: https://panay1ot1s.com/

Plenary: The Role of Grid-Edge Devices and Systems in a Self-Driving Grid

Wednesday, January 18, 2023 (9:00am - 10:15am)

This session will explore recent advances and plans that researchers, vendors, and utilities are employing to address the opportunities and challenges of automation and autonomy at the “edge” of the grid. This is a very broad topic area, encompassing integration of new distributed energy technologies and related controls, networked microgrids, electrification of transportation, flexibility in load management, and the promise of automated metering infrastructure, to name a few possibilities. How all these new technologies, business models, and grid architectures will come together to provide continued reliability and enhanced resilience will be the subject for discussion. This panel can also serve as a lead-in to the new IEEE “Grid Edge” conference slated for later in 2023.

Moderator: Charles Hanley, Senior Manager, Sandia National Laboratories

Panelists:

  • Karma Sawyer, Division Director, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
  • Richard Fioravanti, Executive Advisor and Director, Quanta Technology
  • Matt Golden, Founder and CEO, Recurve
  • Emily Henson, Vice President of Integrated Grid Strategy, Duke Energy

Richard Fioravanti brings over 25 years of experience working with emerging energy technologies in both commercial and consulting roles. He has worked with major manufacturers, utilities, state/federal agencies, and developers to understand and deploy advanced energy systems. He currently focuses his efforts on electric transportation, EV infrastructure, and technology electrification – evaluating electricity grid impacts and linking the technologies to grid modernization, utility of the future initiatives. For electrification, he is currently leading efforts to examine load impacts for airport and seaport electrification.
Mr. Fioravanti also was a founding Board Member of New York BEST (Battery and Energy Storage Technology Consortium) and served on their Board for five years. In this role, he helped create the NY-BEST Energy Storage testing lab for the organization. He has authored several papers on advanced storage technologies and has been cited frequently as a leader in his field.
He received his M.B.A and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California.

Karma Sawyer is the Director of the Electricity Infrastructure and Buildings (EI&B) Division, responsible for shaping and managing a vision and strategy to assure that PNNL addresses DOE’s most important energy efficiency, clean energy and electricity infrastructure challenges. The EI&B Division consists of more than 400 staff members in six technical groups.
Prior to joining PNNL, Karma served as the Program Manager for Emerging Technologies at DOE’s Building Technologies Office. In this role, she developed and executed multi-year R&D strategies across a range of building technologies. She also worked collaboratively with the national labs and external stakeholders to advance cross-cutting initiative, such as the Grid-interactive Efficient Buildings, Advanced Building Construction and Grid Modernization Initiatives. From 2010-2013, Karma served as an Assistant Program Director and Fellow at ARPA-E, focusing on carbon capture and thermal storage technologies.
Dr. Sawyer earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 2008. She also holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Syracuse University.

Matt Golden is the founder and CEO of Recurve, a company that enables demand flexibility to procure virtual power plants to support a resilient, stable, low-carbon grid. Recurve provides revenue-grade telemetry to enable buildings and their occupants to participate in decarbonizing the grid.
Matt has provided his expertise on demand-side technologies, markets, and finance as a serial entrepreneur and policy advocate. He has testified before the US Senate, UK Parliament, and International Energy Agency, spoke at COP21, and featured in numerous articles and publications, including an appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres show.
Previously, Matt helped create Sustainable Spaces, later renamed Recurve (1.0) — the leading tablet-based energy auditing software for the home performance industry built off his experience as a licensed contractor who audited and retrofitted thousands of California homes. Uplight acquired this earlier version of Recurve in 2011.
Matt holds a bachelor’s degree in foreign relations from Georgetown University and is a recovering licensed California contractor.

Emily Henson, Vice President of Integrated Grid Strategy, leads our Grid Systems Integration and Grid Solutions Development teams, focusing on fostering the development and integration of grid assets, products and services to serve our customers and communities with a safe, affordable, clean and reliable grid.
Before her present role, Emily served as Vice President, Customer Delivery Strategy & Transformation, leading the integration of the Distribution strategy to reach Duke Energy’s clean energy goals – challenging our teams to work in a more efficient manner as we prepare our infrastructure to achieve net-zero carbon emissions, improve customer experience and strengthen resiliency of the grid.
Prior to her role in CD Strategy & Transformation, Henson led the Carolinas West region as the Vice President of Operations, delivering safe, reliable and efficient energy to over 2 million customers throughout North and South Carolina.
In 1997, Henson joined Duke Energy and started her utility career as an Associate Engineer in Durham, NC and served in various roles of increasing responsibility in the Distribution and Customer organizations. She subsequently held numerous leadership roles in Engineering, Construction, Business Performance and Customer Services with the Outdoor Lighting team.
Henson spends her free time with her family and friends, while remaining active in the community with volunteer and nonprofit work.
A native of South Carolina, Henson earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of South Carolina. While at Duke Energy, Henson obtained her Professional Engineering certification and completed a master’s degree in business administration from Queens University in Charlotte NC.

Charles Hanley is Senior Manager of the Grid Modernization and Energy Storage Group at Sandia National Laboratories. His group conducts research on enhancing the resilience of our critical energy infrastructures, including grid-scale optimization, controls, and microgrids; energy storage technologies; renewable energy integration; power electronics; cyber security; and advanced analytics for complex systems. He joined Sandia in 1988 and has been working in Sandia’s renewable energy and electric grid programs since 1994. From 2005 through 2014, Charlie managed Sandia’s Photovoltaics and Distributed Systems Integration Program. Prior to that, he managed Sandia’s international renewable energy programs, through which he oversaw the implementation of more than 400 photovoltaic and wind energy systems in Latin America. He received his B.S. in Engineering Science from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, and his M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in Troy, New York.

Plenary: Role of Policies and Regulations for Grid Transformation

Wednesday, January 18, 2023 (12:45pm – 2:00pm)

This plenary will cover implications of policies and regulations, how realizing the promises of grid modernization depends on them to a great extent, and how these can be tools for promoting cost-effective investment in the electric system. The title and abstract will be refined once we have all the panelists and their focus areas.

Moderator: Nicole Hughes, Executive Director, Renewable Northwest

Panelists:

  • Manish Chaturvedi, Senior Vice President, Hannon Armstrong
  • Melanie Kenderdine, Principal and Executive Vice President, Energy Futures Initiative
  • Alexander Núñez, Senior Vice President, Governmental, Regulatory, and External Affairs, Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE)

Manish Chaturvedi is a Senior Vice President at Hannon Armstrong (NYSE: HASI), a leading investor in climate solutions. He is responsible for utility scale portfolio optimization and investment underwriting. Additionally, he focuses on regulatory affairs by working with investment partners and trade associations.
Mr. Chaturvedi is a power market expert with more than 25 years of accomplishments in energy investing, market forecasts and transmission. Prior to joining Hannon Armstrong in 2022, he worked at Transmission Analytics, where he supported clients with congestion analysis for renewable project financings, GE Energy Financial Services, where he led market and transmission underwriting to support Renewable and Thermal investments, and Reliant Energy where he managed the portfolio’s basis risk in PJM & CAISO. He began his career at Entergy, where he held several roles in Transmission and Finance. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from JMI, an MS in Electric Power Engineering from RPI and an MBA in Finance from Tulane University.

Melanie Kenderdine joined former Secretary of Energy Ernest J. Moniz and fellow Principal Joseph S. Hezir in founding the Energy Futures Initiative (EFI), a nonprofit organization dedicated to driving innovation in energy technology, policy, and business models.
Kenderdine worked in the Obama administration at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) from May 2013 to January 2017. She served concurrently as energy counselor to the secretary and as the director of DOE’s Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis. Her 100-person office was responsible for analysis and policy development in areas, including DOE’s role in the annual review of the Renewable Fuel Standard Program requirements, energy innovation, and climate change. Her office produced two installments of the Quadrennial Energy Review and helped conceive and develop the Energy Security Principles adopted by Group of Seven (G-7) leaders in 2014. As energy counselor to the secretary, Kenderdine helped create Mission Innovation, now a 24-country/European Union initiative that supports transformational clean energy research, development, and demonstration; North American grid integration and security; and the modernization of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Prior to her service at DOE, Kenderdine helped establish the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) and served there as executive director. Kenderdine also started the C3E Symposium series, a joint MIT-DOE program to support women’s careers in clean energy with cash prizes; she still serves as a DOE C3E Ambassador.
From 1993 to 2001, Kenderdine was an appointee in President Bill Clinton’s administration, where she served in several key posts at DOE, including senior policy advisor to the secretary, Bill Richardson, director of the Office of Policy, and deputy assistant secretary for Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs.
She was a primary architect of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve oil exchange of 2000, the creation of the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve, and the return of the Naval Oil Shale Reserve No. 2 to the Ute tribe in Utah, the largest land transfer back to Native Americans in the lower 48 in over 100 years.

Alexander G. Núñez is senior vice president of governmental, regulatory, and external affairs for BGE. Núñez oversees the company’s strategic direction and initiatives, regulatory work, state, local, and municipal government engagement, energy acquisition, marketing and communications, economic development, strategic customer-facing programs, and efforts to drive a meaningful, positive impact in its communities.
Núñez served previously in the following executive roles at BGE: senior vice president of strategy and regulatory affairs, senior vice president of regulatory and external affairs, and vice president of governmental and external affairs. In his earlier roles at the company, he served as director of state affairs and as senior public affairs representative and Annapolis counsel. Before joining the company in 2001, he worked for the Maryland General Assembly for several years, where he served as Committee Counsel to the Senate Finance Committee of Maryland.
Núñez contributes actively to several community and business organizations. He serves as vice-president of the Walters Art Museum Board of Trustees and as chair of its Engagement Committee. He is a member of the board of trustees for the Chesapeake Bay Trust. He also serves as Chair of the Corporate Advisory Board for the Baltimore chapter of the Association of Latino Professionals for America (ALPFA). Núñez currently serves as an appointee on the Governor’s Commission on Hispanic Affairs and previously served on the Governor’s Workforce Development Board. He is a member of the Edison Electric Institutes’ Customer Solutions Executive Advisory Committee.
Núñez is a graduate of The LEADERship Class of 2018. He is also a graduate of the Leadership Maryland Class of 2005 and served on its board of directors for several years. He served previously on the boards of directors for Maryland Business Roundtable for Education, the Maryland Government Relations Association, the Utilities State Government Organization, and MD-DC Audubon. Núñez represented the company in the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, including on its Legislative Committee, Environment Committee, and Civil Liability Committee. He was a founding member of the Greater Baltimore Committee’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee and is past-president of the Legislative Committee of the Maryland-D.C. Utilities Association.

Nicole Hughes joined Renewable Northwest as Executive Director in July 2018. She has over 16 years of experience in the renewable energy industry in areas such as project development, construction, finance, permitting and policy for utility-scale wind and solar energy. She has worked for AWS Truepower, HDR, Element Power, RES Americas, Tetra Tech, and The Bonneville Power Administration. In her previous work, Nicole engaged with Renewable Northwest as a member and understands first hand the importance of the organization’s coalition work between advocacy organizations and renewable energy businesses in moving the region forward towards a clean energy future. Nicole has served in a variety of board and volunteer positions working on issues related to support for individuals with disabilities, environmental conservation and energy issues. She currently serves on the boards of the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies, the Renewable Hydrogen Alliance and the Center for Resource Solutions Green E Governance Board. Nicole lives in Portland, OR with her husband and two kids and spends most of her free time recreating in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest.

Plenary: Utility of the Future

Wednesday, January 18, 2023 (3:30pm -4:45pm)

The electric utility industry is being transformed and reshaped with renewable, clean, and more resilient energy solutions. Robust decarbonization goals are being set along with more pressure to increase reliability and become more resilient. This is coupled with the challenges of an aging infrastructure and changing workforce. Power utilities are at the center of this challenge; tasked with integrating record levels of new, renewable, energy assets while accommodating dramatically increased multidirectional power flows, and hardening the grid to prepare for increasingly severe weather events exacerbated by climate change. This panel is made up of industry executives who will present and discuss ideas and initiatives driving Decarbonization, Grid Modernization, and the Utility of the Future.

Moderator: Wayne Bishop Jr., Senior Director of Industry Outreach, Quanta Technology

Panelists:

  • Shay Bahramirad, Senior Vice President of Engineering, Asset Management, and Capital Programs, LUMA Energy
  • Lawrence Jones, Senior Vice President, International Programs, Edison Electric Institute (EEI)
  • Thomas Pierpoint, Vice President of Operations, NOVEC

Shay Bahramirad is the Senior Vice President of Engineering, Asset Management, and Capital Programs at LUMA Energy, the power company responsible for electric service in Puerto Rico.  In this role, she is responsible for the oversight, planning, and execution of plans to modernize the power infrastructure.   This includes a foundation of developing local engineering talent, teams and processes, and the prudent application of new technology.  Her primary goals are the safe, reliable, sustainable, and cost-effective delivery of electricity to the people of Puerto Rico.  
Shay has held several positions in the sector including Vice President of Climate and Resilience at Quanta Technology, where she was responsible for assisting cities and utilities with climate change risk assessments for their assets, operations, and services and for developing investment strategies to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Prior to that, she was Vice President of Engineering and Smart Grid at ComEd, the electric utility serving Chicago and Northern Illinois, where she had led efforts to demonstrate and deploy technologies to ensure that the distribution system meets strategic goals related to reliability, resiliency and sustainability, while developing and implementing a broader community of the future vision including a focus on industry-informed STEM education for underrepresented communities in the industry including girls. She has been an expert witness testifying on several state and federal regulatory proceedings around microgrids, energy storage, investment strategies, and the interconnection of distributed energy resources.
Dr. Bahramirad is a leading figure in the industry. She is the President-elect of IEEE Power and Energy Society, an editorial board member of the Electricity Journal, US CIGRE Executive member, an adjunct professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology, and a founder of IEEE Women in Power.
She is a contributor to the United Nations SG7, Affordable and Clean Energy.
Shay completed her PhD in electrical engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology, and has published more than many academic articles, as well as being the recipient of multiple US patents.

Lawrence E. Jones is a thought leader and practitioner with over twenty-five years of experience in the energy industry. He joined Edison Electric Institute (EEI) in September 2015 as Vice President, International Programs.
Under his leadership, EEI’s International Programs has more than 65-member companies with operations in over 90 countries and has launched several new strategic initiatives including the annual Global Electricity Forum, the Africa Utility Power Sector Exchange, and the Thomas Edison International Utility Executive Fellowship Program. Prior to joining EEI, Dr. Jones was North America Vice President for Utility Innovation & Infrastructure Resilience at Alstom Grid Inc., where he assisted utilities worldwide with formulating strategies for deploying new technology innovated business solutions. While at Alstom, Dr. Jones served as Vice President, Policy, Regulatory Affairs & Industry Relations for the international full-service electric generation and transmission firm. Before joining Alstom, Dr. Jones was a visiting researcher at EDF in France and worked on several projects for ABB in Sweden. He is currently the Senior Vice President for International Programs at EEI.

Thomas Pierpoint has served many years in the electric utility industry and is one of a few that have worked within all three electric utility business models: Investor Owned, Public Power and Cooperative. Tom is currently the Vice President of Operations at NOVEC, a utility serving parts of Northern Virginia. Prior to that Tom was the Vice President of Engineering at Austin Energy, a utility serving parts of central Texas. Prior to that Tom was an executive Director at Exelon and worked across all operating divisions, including the 6 T&D utilities, as part merger, post-merger and business improvement teams. Tom also served for many years as the Incident Command Lead for the Utility Emergency Management team that handled events in the Washington DC metro area. Tom is active with the IEEE and IEEE-USA, most recently serving as the Chair of the IEEE-USA Energy Policy Committee.

Tom holds graduate certificates from both the MIT Sloan School of Management and the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. Tom also completed an MBA, a Masters in Project Management, graduate work in Software Engineering, a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering Technology, an Associates in Electronics Technology, and a certificate as an Electronics Technician.

Wayne Bishop Jr. is Senior Director of Industry Outreach at Quanta Technology, a subsidiary of Quanta Services. He has worked in the electric power industry for over 30 years. Wayne is also IEEE PES Vice President of Meetings and Conferences, a member of the IEEE Power and Energy Society Governing Board and a member of the IEEE PES Executive Committee. He helped write and implement the Long Range Strategic Plan for IEEE PES, and is a Senior Member of IEEE. In addition, Wayne currently serves as an Executive Advisor to LUMA Energy, the electric utility in Puerto Rico.
Previously, Wayne worked at OMICRON electronics for 13 years where he was the Head of Marketing for North America. Prior to that, Wayne was employed at Doble Engineering Company for more than 16 years in several senior management positions. In 2007, he was appointed by Doble’s Board of Directors to serve on the Committee to broker the sale of Doble Engineering to ESCO Technologies.
Wayne is a graduate of Merrimack College, Harvard University, and the Executive MBA Program at Suffolk University in Boston, graduating with honors.
He speaks regularly at Industry Conferences and has published several articles and papers in Industry Publications including IEEE Power and Energy Magazine and T&D World Magazine.

Keynote: The Western Grid: PacifiCorp’s View of the Future

Thursday, January 19, 2023 (9:00am - 9:30am)

Gary Hoogeveen is president and CEO of Rocky Mountain Power. He is responsible for delivering electricity safely and reliably to 1.2 million customers in Idaho, Utah and Wyoming, and also oversees thermal generation and mining for the company.  Previously Hoogeveen served as senior vice president and chief commercial officer at Rocky Mountain Power, leading programs and initiatives to help customers access and benefit from renewable energy.
He joined the Berkshire Hathaway Energy family of businesses in 2000 and served as president of Kern River Gas Transmission Company for nearly five years prior to joining Rocky Mountain Power. He also served as vice president of customer service and business development for Northern Natural Gas Company.

Hoogeveen holds a Bachelor of Science in physics from University of Northern Iowa, and a Ph.D. in space physics from Rice University. He and his family live in Park City, Utah.

Plenary: U.S. Department of Energy Innovation Needs and Challenges

Thursday, January 19, 2023 (9:30am - 10:45am)

This plenary session will be a round-table discussion of U.S. Department of Energy needs and interests in development and deployment of innovative technologies in support of modernization and decarbonization of energy systems.

Moderator: Ron Melton, Senior Technical Advisor, PNNL

Panelists:

  • Gilbert Bindewald III, Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Electricity, DOE
  • Patricia A. Hoffman, Principal Deputy Director, Grid Deployment Office, DOE
  • Alejandro Moreno, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Renewable Power, EERE, DOE

Serving as the Principal Deputy Director for the Grid Deployment Office at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Patricia A. Hoffman is supporting the execution of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the development of the Grid Deployment Office. 

From January 2017 until November 2017, she served as DOE’s Acting Under Secretary for Science and Energy and was also a Senate-confirmed Assistant Secretary for the Office of Electricity from June 2010 to January 2017, after serving as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary since November 2007. The focus of her responsibility was to provide leadership on a national level to modernize the electric grid and enhance the security and reliability of the energy infrastructure.

Patricia holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in Ceramic Science and Engineering from Pennsylvania State University.

Gilbert Bindewald III, OE-1 Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Electricity
Now serving as the Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Office of Electricity (OE), Mr. Bindewald previously served as the Director for Grid Communications in the Advanced Grid Research and Development group. Mr. Bindewald is a registered Professional Engineer (New York); he received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Union College (Schenectady, NY), and an M.P.A. in International Development (Economics) from Harvard University.

Alejandro Moreno currently serves both as Acting Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Renewable Power. He is responsible for the Department’s efforts to advance solar, wind, geothermal, hydropower and marine energy, and to integrate renewables into a clean, resilient power system. Previously, he was the Director of the Water Power Technologies Office and co-led the development of the Department’s Energy Storage Grand Challenge. In addition to his roles at DOE, he has served in the energy groups of the World Bank and International Finance Corporation, where he designed and led regulatory reform programs to spur investment in clean energy and rural electrification. Mr. Moreno holds a Bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and a Master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

Ron Melton is a Senior Technical Advisor in the Electricity Infrastructure and Buildings Division at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). He is a member of the core team for the DOE Grid Architecture project currently leading the Distribution Transformation and Coordinate Storage Network efforts, and Administrator of the GridWise® Architecture Council. Previously he was the Group Leader of the Distributed Systems Group. He was the original Principal Investigator for the DOE Advanced Grid Research project for an ADMS Open-Source Platform. He was the Project Director of the Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration that concluded in June 2015. He has 10 years of experience in cyber security for critical infrastructure systems and over 30 years of experience applying computer technology to a variety of engineering and scientific problems. Dr. Melton is a Senior Life Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and a Senior Member of the Association for Computing Machinery. He is the past chair of the IEEE Power and Energy Society Smart Buildings, Loads, and Customer Systems Technical Committee and co-chair of the Smart Electric Power Alliance Grid Architecture Working Group. Dr. Melton received his BSEE from University of Washington and his MS and PhD in Engineering Science from the California Institute of Technology.