Advisory Council

Ahmed is the Utility of the Future manager at PSE&G, working towards a 100% renewable system in a reliable, innovative and cost effective manner. Ahmed is the technical leader for PSE&G’s Clean Energy Future, NJ Energy Masterplan 600/2,000 MW energy storage mandates, 3,500/7,500 MW wind mandates, climate change, intelligent touchless substation, microgrids, non-wire alternatives, electric vehicles, smart home, voltage VAR optimization, net zero/near-net zero buildings. Ahmed developed the DER interconnection guide. Ahmed is responsible for preparing the Integrated Distribution Plan. Ahmed has over 16 years utility experience @ PSE&G, Con Edison, First Energy & PEPCO.

Active board member: NJIT electrical and engineering Industry Advisory Board, Rutgers University cyber security board & New Jersey Association of Energy Engineers.
Ahmed is an adjunct Professor at NJIT. Author of 4 books & several electrical engineering PE courses. CEO/Founder: Electric Bridge Consulting and 100% Energy Club. Ahmed received his B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering from Stony Brook University and Manhattan College.

Alex joined GM in 2007 and has worked across various teams to create frameworks around new innovative eco-friendly products – Chevy Bolt and GM’s Hydrogen Fuel Cell Equinox – so that consumers will have the best experience, including while charging.  His unique skill in balancing energy policy, environmental engineering and business strategy has given him an innovative toolbox to tap into to electrify mobility. He also has been appointed and served as the Commissioner in Massachusetts’ Zero Emission Vehicle Commission and for the Maryland Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Council.  He currently serves on the Boards of the Alliance for Transportation Electrification and the Electric Drive Transportation Association.

Alex began his career in environmental consulting where he managed the assessment and remediation of hazardous waste sites for Fortune 500 companies. He has extensive experience in environmental policy design and implementation.  He is passionate about electric vehicles in his personal life as well and drives a Chevy Bolt. On the weekends, he lists his car on General Motors’ car-sharing platform, Maven, so others can experience what a great car EVs are to drive. One of the things he loves about driving an EV is how simple it is to charge and gives him back the time to spend with his family that otherwise be spent at the gas station.

Alex earned a B.S. in Natural Resource Management and a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Michigan.

Chair

Ms. Jackson leads the System Strategy and Planning organization for Xcel Energy. This is a new organization that focuses on integrated system planning, including strategically planning generation, transmission and distribution of Xcel’s electric and natural gas systems. Since joining Xcel Energy in 2011, Alice has held various positions of increasing responsibility. Directly prior to her role as Senior Vice President, Ms. Jackson led the Operating Company team for Public Service Company of Colorado as President. In this role she was responsible for the community, legislative, regulatory activities and held responsibility for delivering on corporate financial outcomes and objectives for Xcel Energy – Colorado. Prior to her executive leadership roles within Xcel Energy, Alice held various regulatory positions with Southwestern Public Service Company in Texas and with Public Service Company of Colorado.

Before her time with Xcel Energy, Alice spent nearly 10 years with Occidental Petroleum Corporation (Oxy) managing the nationwide energy needs of this large industrial consumer. In Alice’s early roles with Oxy, she utilized her information technology background and technical acumen to provide software development and systems support to various trading activities as well as electric market deregulation. Through her involvement in the federal and state electric markets, multiple rate cases, and interaction with customers, large and small, Alice developed a unique perspective for utilities and their contributions to society.

As if having a full-time career, being married to her high school sweetheart and having four sons is not enough of an adventure in life, in 2017 Alice completed the Program for Leadership Development at Harvard University. Alice earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Management Information Systems from Texas A&M University.

Avi leads the Smart Grid research program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The program is focused on enabling modernization of how energy is produced, managed, and consumed, and includes research on topics that address issues from device interoperability and cybersecurity to economic modeling of transactional energy resources.

Prior to joining NIST Avi served as a diplomat in the State Department’s Energy Resources Bureau, where he focused on sustainable expansion and transformation of energy systems worldwide, especially through private sector investment. During that time Avi led the State Department’s contributions to the U.S. Government’s Power Africa initiative, and also served as the U.S. delegate to the International Energy Agency’s Committee on Energy Research and Technology. Prior to joining the State Department Avi was senior energy advisor to the Under Secretary for Science at the Department of Energy, where he co-authored the Department’s Report on the First Quadrennial Technology Review and the attendant technology assessments.

Prior to joining government, Avi worked as an engineer in fields ranging from aerospace to biotech and has earned engineering degrees from Maryland and Case Western Reserve Universities.

Brian Callnan is Vice President of Power Resources and Access for New Hampshire Electric Cooperative. He joined NHEC in 2017 as its Director of Power Resources and Access.  Brian assumed his current position at NHEC in 2019 and is responsible for managing the cooperative’s power resource portfolio strategy.

Brian began his utility career in 2003 as a Resource Planning Analyst at Burlington Electric Department with a focus on Energy Efficiency valuation and systems design. In 2007, he moved to Vermont Public Power Supply Authority, a joint action agency of 12 Vermont municipal electric systems. He became VPPSA’s Director of Power Supply and Transmission in 2010; in that position he was responsible for all aspects of power supply and transmission, including representation of public power in municipal government, the State of Vermont and the ISO-NE stakeholder process.

Brian is an alumnus of the University of Colorado Leeds Business School and Deming Center for Entrepreneurship, and he holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Management with a focus in Resource Economics from the University of Vermont.

Bryan Hannegan (he/him) is President and CEO of Holy Cross Energy, a not-for-profit, member-owned electric cooperative utility providing electricity and energy products and services to more than 46,000 customers in Western Colorado. Headquartered in Glenwood Springs, Holy Cross Energy is leading the responsible transition to a clean energy future with its “Journey to 100%” plan aimed at obtaining 100% renewable and clean energy for its members by 2030. For its efforts, Holy Cross Energy was named 2020 Electric Cooperative of the Year by the Smart Electric Power Alliance.

Prior to joining Holy Cross in July 2017, Bryan was an Associate Laboratory Director at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), where he co-founded the US Department of Energy’s Grid Modernization Initiative and started up the Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF), a unique “distribution grid in a box” enabling utilities, entrepreneurs and consumers to work together on cleaner, more affordable and more reliable energy systems. Earlier in his career, Bryan held senior leadership roles at the Electric Power Research Institute, the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

Bryan holds a Ph.D. in Earth Systems Science and a M.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, both from the University of California at Irvine, and a B.S. in Meteorology from the University of Oklahoma. He is a former member of the California Council on Science and Technology, and serves as an advisor to GridLab, GridFWD, the Energy Systems Integration Group, and NRECA’s Science and Technology Advisory Council.

Bryan Hannegan is President and CEO of Holy Cross Energy, a not-for-profit, member-owned electric cooperative utility providing electricity and energy products and services to more than 42,000 customers in Western Colorado. Prior to joining Holy Cross in July 2017, Bryan was an Associate Laboratory Director at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), where he co-founded the US Department of Energy’s Grid Modernization Initiative and started up the Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF), a unique “distribution grid in a box” enabling utilities, entrepreneurs and consumers to work together on cleaner, more affordable and more reliable energy systems. Earlier in his career, Bryan held senior leadership roles at the Electric Power Research Institute, the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

Carine Dumit is Director of Market Development and Public Policy for the Eastern US at EVgo where she leads public policy and market strategy to advance transportation electrification and the deployment of charging infrastructure.

Carine has a more than a decade’s experience working at the cross-section of policy, markets, business and programs in the EV and power sectors, advising public and private sector entities on emerging matters. Her career has focused on analyzing market developments, formulating and leading regulatory and policy strategies to promote frameworks and programs that enable growth and innovation in the clean energy economy.

Prior to EVgo, she was Senior Policy Advisor at Tesla and Director of Policy and Electricity Markets at SolarCity in the northeast. She has also advised federal agencies on renewable energy programs and served as a consultant at the World Bank examining institutional frameworks promoting energy efficiency.

Carine holds a M.S. in Engineering Management and a B.S. in System Engineering from the George Washington University. She was a recipient of the GWU Presidential Administrative Fellowship.

Caroline Choi is senior vice president of Corporate Affairs for Southern California Edison, one of the nation’s largest electric utilities, and its parent company, Edison International. Choi is responsible for overseeing Government Affairs, Public Affairs, and Corporate Communications on national, state, and local levels.

Previously, Choi served as senior vice president of Regulatory Affairs at SCE. In this role, she was responsible for the company’s regulatory strategy and policy at the national and state levels, including regulatory affairs, regulatory operations and environmental affairs.

Choi previously was vice president of Energy and Environmental Policy at SCE, where she oversaw the analysis of federal and state energy and environmental policies; development of a long-term environmental, energy and technology strategy for SCE; and management of regulatory efforts at the California Public Utilities Commission and other state energy and environmental agencies.

Before joining SCE in 2012, Caroline was executive director of Environmental Services & Strategy at Progress Energy, where she was responsible for leading environmental permitting, compliance and policy. She served the company in various roles, including director, Energy Policy and Strategy and manager, Federal Public Affairs.

Choi is active in national policy and community engagement, where she serves on the executive board of the Smart Electric Power Alliance, a nationwide organization that supports utilities in the implementation and deployment of clean energy and distributed resources. She also serves on the boards of the Alliance for Transportation Electrification and the National Forest Foundation. Choi holds a bachelor’s degree in government from Dartmouth College.

Chris Monacelli is the Electric Utility Manager for the City of Westerville’s public power utility.   The Utility employs 44 full-time staff members and serves more than 17,000 customers.  Chris has nearly 15 years of experience in working in local government including seven years working for the Electric Utility.  Chris graduated from the University of Akron with a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting.  In Chris’s time at the Utility, he has led Westerville’s Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) deployment, oversaw BusinessWISE – Westerville’s Energy Efficiency Rebate Program and developed a rate structure redesign that continues to ensure that the Utility will thrive in a changing industry.  Chris implemented several new customer-focused initiatives:  a four percent rate reduction, outage texting capabilities and outage map, a residential thermostat demand response program, a commercial and residential electric vehicle charging station rebate program and a commercial solar power rebate program.  Chris represents Westerville on the Board of Trustees of American Municipal Power, Inc.   Chris also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Ohio Energy Project, a nonprofit organization that provides energy education to students.  Chris and his wife, Lyndsay have two active sons, Wyatt and Sawyer.

Chris leads strategy and execution of Amazon’s commitment to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2025 and net zero carbon throughout the company’s real estate portfolio by 2040. This commitment is part of The Climate Pledge, a commitment by Amazon to meet the Paris Agreement 10 years early. Prior to Amazon, Chris led energy, water, and sustainable building initiatives within Boeing’s real estate operations, and has 15 years’ experience driving initiatives in corporate energy and sustainability. Chris has a Master’s degree in Engineering from Cambridge University, a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington, and is also on the board of the Smart Building Center in Seattle.

Christopher Irwin has spent over 22 years in a diverse spectrum of high technology fields from HVAC to semiconductor manufacturing, satellite communications, communication networks for advanced metering, and Smart Grid infrastructure.

At the US Department of Energy Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, he has managed over $1.5B in grid modernization projects. He has seen some of the top utilities in the country, from very large to very small, tackle technology, integration and business challenges necessary to bring about the Smart Grid.  He also interacts with DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy on Building-to-Grid research and development and is a strong advocate for coordinated interoperability at the B2G, I2G and DER interfaces.

Chris leads DOE’s Smart Grid standards and interoperability efforts, working alongside NIST, FERC and others in the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel and other forums. He founded DOE’s participation in the Green Button Data Access Initiative to empower customers with improved access to their own energy data and works with the GridWise Architecture Council on Transactive Energy concept development.

Danielle Sass Byrnett has been Director of NARUC’s Center for Partnerships & Innovation (CPI) since December 2017. She leads this grant-funded team focused on identifying emerging challenges and connecting state public utility commissions with expertise and strategies to navigate complex decision-making. CPI builds relationships, develops resources, and delivers training in areas ranging from energy efficiency and distributed energy resources to natural gas infrastructure to cybersecurity and more. Danielle launched and leads the NARUC-NASEO Task Force on Comprehensive Electricity Planning.

Prior to joining NARUC, Danielle served in the federal government and consulting roles at the U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In this work, she supported state environmental and energy agencies in expanding their clean energy policies and programs through facilitated workshops, direct technical assistance, national and state-level analyses, resource development, and numerous publications.

Danielle holds a BS in biology and environmental studies from Swarthmore College and an MPP with an energy and environment concentration from Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy.

David is a Senior Consultant with Utilicast who works across the Generation, Transmission and Distribution, Central markets and Regional Reliability and Enterprise solution areas.  He leads the Grid Architecture and ITSM solution offerings. He has more than 25 years of experience in the industry and began his career at Austin Energy where he ultimately served in the CIO role.

David is a member of the Gridwise Architecture Council since 2013 and has served at the Chair since 2015.   He is a frequent conference presenter on the Council’s behalf.

David and his co-authors were 2021 Cleanie Gold Award winners for their publications on Energy Central.

Prior to joining Utilicast, David held multiple positions at the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, including Senior Director IT, and Director of Enterprise Architecture and IT Transformation and Infrastructure Program Manager on the Texas Nodal implementation.

David has served as member and Chair of SGIP, was a member of the SEPA Board of Directors and Chair of SEPA’s Technical Advisory Council.

He has a BBA University of Texas and MBA from St. Edward’s University, both in Austin.

Debra Smith is the General Manager and CEO of Seattle City Light, one of the nation’s largest community-owned electric utilities. City Light serves more than 480,000 meters and 955,000 people across Seattle, parts of eight surrounding communities and unincorporated King County.

Debra believes in transparency, accountability, and intentionality as well as the value of teamwork, partnerships, and collaboration. As a long-term public employee, she prioritizes customer needs while acknowledging that great customer service starts with engaged and committed employees. Under her leadership, City Light is focused on electrification, equity and improving the customer experience.

Previously, Debra served as Central Lincoln PUD’s General Manager from July 2013 to October 2018. She brought 17 years of experience to that role from the Eugene Water and Electric Board, where she held a variety of positions, including Assistant General Manager. Debra earned a Bachelor of Science in Finance from Arizona State University and she served as the first Chairwoman of the Public Power Council (PPC). Currently, Debra serves as Vice Chair of Long-Range Planning for PPC, and is on the board of the Pacific Northwest Utilities Conference Committee (PNUCC), the Electrical Power Research Institute (EPRI), the American Public Power Association (APPA) as well as APPA’’s Climate Change Task Force, the Large Public Power Council’s Steering Committee, Puget Sound Energy’s Beyond Net Zero Advisory Committee, the Columbia Basin Collaborative, and the Pacific Northwest National Lab’s Energy and Environment Directorate Advisory Committee.

Debra and her husband Dale have raised three sons and two daughters. They love city life and are committed to being part of downtown Seattle’s post-pandemic recovery. They also have a home in Eugene, Oregon where three of their kids live as well as their six-year-old grandson Oliver, and his soon to be new baby brother. In her spare time – there really isn’t any – Debra enjoys travel, time with friends and family, and hanging out on her and Dale’s favorite pandemic purchase – their pontoon boat/party barge.

Marion Gold is a Senior Advisor with the National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO) and also serves as a Senior Advisor with the Ad Hoc Group, an advisory firm which helps climate tech start-ups navigate and shape policy. She is the President of the Board of the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnership (NEEP).

A former regulatory commissioner, Marion was appointed to the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission by Governor Gina Raimondo in 2016. She served a five-year term with a focus on clean energy and power sector transformation.

Previously, Marion was the Commissioner of the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources. She also served on the Executive Board of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and was a managing director of the New England State Committee on Electricity (NESCOE).

Prior to serving as State Energy Commissioner, Marion was the Director of the Mallon Center at the University of Rhode Island, where she established the URI Partnership for Energy, initiated efficiency programs for public sector buildings, and launched the Energy Fellows Program, which has placed over 100 students in energy-related employment with the private and public sector.

Marion holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences from the University of Rhode Island. She received her BS and MS from the University of Michigan and Michigan State University, respectively.

Erick focuses on advanced mobility and regulatory policy and growing the market for transportation electrification across North America. Erick’s experience and engagement in related policy and advocacy spans a wide array of jurisdictions from coast to coast.

Prior to joining Greenlots, Erick served as Manager of Policy and Regulatory Programs at Sungevity, holding related positions there and at other distributed energy resources and distributed generation companies over the prior decade. He began his career in environmental policy and advocacy, including at the UN Environment Programme in Geneva.

Erick holds a master’s degree in Energy Regulation & Law from Vermont Law School, and two Bachelor of Science degrees from UC Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources.

Gary is a senior advisor to the VP of Innovation & Research at TVA, working on special projects advancing the transformation of the energy network in the TVA region. Prior to taking this role, he was Director of Enterprise Research & Technology Innovation, leading the team responsible for all R&D work at TVA and the coordination of research and pilot projects with the 154 local power companies (distribution utilities) that operate in the region. Gary has also been engaged in the development of innovation strategy at TVA and the engagement of the company with startups, accelerators, and incubators.

Prior to his role in R&D, Gary managed the 2015 Integrated Resource Planning (IRP) project and led teams responsible for long-range capacity planning, portfolio optimization and resource selection & evaluation in TVA’s Enterprise Planning group.

Before joining TVA, Gary spent 20 years in the Electric Department at the City of Tallahassee, FL where he managed a team responsible for generation and transmission planning studies, forecasting, energy efficiency program design, and marginal cost studies. He held various other positions at the City including managing the central business function support group for electric, gas and water utilities and supervising the electric system dispatch center. Gary also participated in several NERC committees during his tenure at Tallahassee.

Gary began his utility career at Southern Company in Birmingham, AL where he spent 6 years in the generation and transmission planning departments. He holds a BS and MS in electrical engineering from Auburn University and is a registered professional engineer in 4 states.

Hannah serves as the Chief Market Innovation Officer at Uplight, where she leads policy, market development, and partnerships to enable residential electrification and a more flexible and resilient grid.

Previously, Hannah was the Head of Energy Partnerships at Google Nest. She joined Nest in 2014, growing the energy business from the ground up – delivering energy savings, demand response, and customer engagement that set the foundation for the future of the grid. After Nest’s integration with Google, Hannah focused on product and service partnerships for Nest Renew, setting the stage for new offerings across the energy ecosystem, including with third-party OEMs.

Prior to joining Nest, Hannah spent time at PG&E, consulting, and in the nonprofit space. She holds an MBA from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business, and a BA with Honors from Brown University.

Jason Handley, P.E. is the General Manager of the Distributed Energy Group at Duke Energy. He is a respected utility industry professional based in Charlotte, North Carolina.  Jason has over 25 years of utility experience specializing in the smart grid, distributed intelligence, and operations management.   Jason excels at understanding the increasingly complex utility environment, managing the new digital utility workforce, and delivering on the execution and financials of technology projects.

In his current role, Jason leads a team that engineers, deploys, operates, and maintains regulated distribution distributed energy resources.  Solar, energy storage, and microgrids projects are his teams’ deliverables for all six jurisdictions covered by Duke Energy. In his previous role as Director of the Emerging Technology Office, he managed a team that identifies and develops new technologies impacting the electrical grid and oversees all the ongoing operational aspects on new technology pilot projects.

Jason is a past Chairman of EPRI’s IntelligGrid Program Advisory Committee P161, served on the Board of Directors for the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel, and served on the National Institute of Standards and Technology Smart Grid Advisory Committee.  Currently, Jason serves on the SAS Utility Advisory Board, and the DistribuTECH Advisory Committee. Jason received his electrical engineering degree from Auburn University and his MBA at Wake Forest University. He has been a registered professional engineer since 2002 and received his electrical contractor’s unlimited license in 2009.

Jeff Guldner leads Pinnacle West Capital Corporation and its primary subsidiary, Arizona Public Service Company (APS). The companies are headquartered in Phoenix. Guldner was promoted to his current position in November 2019 from his dual roles as president of APS and executive vice president, public policy of Pinnacle West. Since joining APS in 2004, Guldner has held a number of leadership positions responsible for areas including legal, rates and regulation, government affairs and customer service. He is also on the Board of Directors for Nuclear Energy Institute, Edison Electric Institute, and Institute of Nuclear Operations.

Jeff Ressler is Chief Executive Officer of Clean Power Research. Before taking the CEO role in 2017, Ressler led the company’s software team for ten years, building it into a trusted software-as-a-service provider that informs, streamlines and values energy-related decisions and processes for utilities, energy professionals and consumers.

Ressler has overseen the inception of several of the company’s cloud software solutions, including SolarAnywhere and WattPlan, while growing PowerClerk from a nascent, online incentive processing tool into a powerful, general purpose energy program automation platform. Under his leadership, the company’s products serve ten of the top ten utilities on the Fortune 500 as well as countless project engineers, renewables developers and independent power producers around the world.

Prior to his time at Clean Power Research, Jeff spent more than ten years at Microsoft. During his tenure there, Jeff led business, product management and planning teams for a range of products, including multibillion-dollar enterprise systems like Exchange and SQL Server. For a nearly three-year assignment, Jeff was speech assistant to Bill Gates, crafting visionary technology messaging and demos for a diverse range of global audiences. He started his career at Microsoft as a technical product manager in the tools group, working on Visual Studio, C++, C# and MASM.

His early career included stints at both Oracle and Disney. Jeff holds a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University.