Making Community Microgrids Work: Financing, Developing, and Deploying

Jared joined SEPA in 2017. In his role, he develops strategic plans for programs, products, and service offerings for utility and industry stakeholder members and clients that facilitate the integration of distributed energy resources, non-wires alternatives and microgrids onto the modern grid. Jared leads SEPA’s Microgrids Working Group and co-led D.C. Public Service Commission’s grid modernization working groups.

Prior to joining SEPA, he spent several years working as an environmental engineer and consultant for utility, municipal and commercial clients in the energy and water sectors.

He has a MS, Energy Policy and Climate from Johns Hopkins University, and a BS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Virginia.

Outside of business hours, Jared enjoys skiing, hiking and spending time in the great outdoors.

In Mr. McCartha’s role as senior business solutions analyst, he is responsible for sourcing, evaluating, leveraging and supporting the adoption and implementation of advanced solutions, including software applications, systems, technologies, strategies, processes and approaches required for the operation of the bulk power transmission system and the operations of all related markets.

Mr. McCartha’s responsibilities include working closely with key PJM business units like Markets, System Operations, Planning, ITS, Member Relations, Market Strategy and Corporate Services. He works directly with academic, commercial and research organizations, both domestically and internationally, to identify potential near and long-term solutions for PJM. Mr. McCartha also leads the sourcing, prototyping, evaluation and adoption of advanced innovations consistent with PJM’s business needs.

Mr. McCartha has been with PJM for 19 years. Prior to becoming a senior business solutions analyst , Mr. McCartha has held numerous positions within PJM’s Operations, Markets, and IT Divisions and has lead major initiatives related to battery storage and demand side response.

Mr. McCartha earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and a Masters of Business Administration in Management from Eastern University.

Caleb Stratton is the Chief Resilience Officer for the City of Hoboken, New Jersey.  He supervises implementation of the $230,000,000 Rebuild by Design Hudson River (RBD-HR) flood risk reduction project and Hoboken’s microgrid project. Caleb has over 10 years of experience advising urban and suburban communities on sustainability and resiliency issues. On a day to day basis he coordinates the Mayor’s resilience priorities for energy security, transportation, emergency operations, hazard mitigation, and finance.  He holds two nationally recognized professional certifications through the American Planning Association (AICP) and the American Society of Floodplain Managers (CFM). He has an undergraduate degree in Urban Planning from the University at Albany, and a Masters in Science from the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York, where he is currently an adjunct professor teaching “Resilience by Design”.

Jim Sherman has more than 30 year experience as an engineer and administrator in the electro-mechanical equipment industry. He is currently a Project Technical Analysis with PSE&G’s Solar 4 All program. For the past 4 years, Jim has been working to deploy solar + battery storage systems with the purpose to mitigate the impact solar has on the grid and integrate solar and energy storage technologies to provide backup power in the event of a significant storm. He has experience in equipment design, installation and commissioning of various types of equipment including battery storage systems, solar inverter and solar trackers. Jim is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University.