Resilience Planning with SEPA, AEP, and NRECA

Weston joined SEPA’s content team in December 2021 and supports the association’s microgrids for resilience and DER economic valuation work. Weston comes from a consulting background, where he supported utility DER program design and evaluation, emergency preparedness exercises, and energy resilience projects for a strategic and technical consultancy.

He has also served in roles related to utility tracking and energy benchmarking, energy efficiency and renewable energy programs, sustainable product procurement, and demand-side management.

He has a MA, Energy and Environment and a BA, Environmental Science from Boston University.

Tolu Omotoso is the Director of Energy Solutions at the NRECA’s Business and Technology Strategies Department. He is one of NRECA’s subject matter experts on Distributed Energy Resources (DER) with a specific focus on Battery Energy Storage Systems and Microgrids.

He leads NRECA’s DER Member Advisory Group, whose mission is to promote DER technologies and practices to enable implementation and application by cooperatives. Prior to joining NRECA, Tolu was the Manager of Smart Grid at Tipmont REMC in Indiana where he developed smart home energy efficiency programs, and managed DER interconnections to the grid. Tolu is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP®), a Certified Energy Manager (CEM®), and holds a Master’s degree in Civil/Environmental Engineering from Purdue University.

Daniel has worked for American Electric Power in a variety of Distribution, Transmission and customer facing roles over his 33+ year utility career.

He currently leads the Distribution Planning teams in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Virginia where they support all major Distribution driven projects including large customer service plans such as INTEL’s newly announce central Ohio project.  He started his career working his first 16 years as a Distribution Planner in Ohio before transitioning to a Transmission Planner role in 2006.  In 2011 he was promoted to Manager Transmission Planning Ohio, leading the team as AEP experienced a rapid increase in investment to rebuild much of the aged Ohio Transmission system and support numerous generation retirements.

In 2017, Daniel became Manager Transmission Connections, leading a team supporting both Transmission Customer Interconnections (T delivery points) as well as AEP’s PJM Generation Interconnection Studies. His efforts helped support the Data Center boom in central Ohio by presenting to and helping land such customers as Amazon, Facebook, and Google. In 2021 he transitioned to Manager of Distribution Planning for the AEP system.  His staff and coworkers also support DER studies for AEP’s eastern footprint in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Virginia.  The team also evaluates “non wires alternatives” to look at newer technologies to solve traditional Distribution Planning system needs.

Daniel continues to aspire to help his coworkers and customers of all types achieve their goals and objectives.  His unique understanding of Transmission and Distribution systems, coupled with his customer centric culture and ability to create large customer power solutions, helps him navigate challenging situations to arrive at favorable outcomes for all.