GTM Forum: Grid Edge East 2019

Melissa Dykes serves as JEA’s President and Chief Operating Officer. She leads the operation of the utility, responsible for providing reliable, affordable, safe utility services to more than one million people across four counties. Her team of more than 1,900 employees includes electric, water, wastewater, customer experience, human resources, environmental services, compliance, technology, supply chain, and legal. She is responsible for nearly all of JEA’s $2 billion budget and management of assets of $8.8 billion.

Ms. Dykes served as JEA’s Chief Financial Officer for nearly six years prior to her current role. As CFO, she provided leadership to ensure the financial health of JEA, resulting in access to capital at low cost on behalf of JEA’s customers. Her efforts as CFO helped JEA deliver more than $1 billion in cost savings to the community, including savings from refundings, a rate restructuring, and savings from the shutdown of the St. Johns River Power Park earlier this year. She was responsible for all aspects of JEA’s finances, including treasury, financial reporting, budgeting, supply chain management, and shared services, and had lead responsibility for ensuring compliance with all reporting, regulatory and tax requirements for JEA.
 
Prior to joining JEA, Ms. Dykes was CFO at a portfolio company of a large energy private equity firm and a principal in a renewable energy development company, where she was responsible for origination, commercial structuring, development and capital raising for renewable energy projects. She also was Vice President of Investment Banking at JPMorgan, where she was responsible for providing capital solutions for clients, including more than $26 billion in financings for many municipal electric and water systems across the country, risk management product delivery, and mergers and acquisitions. Prior to joining JPMorgan, Ms. Dykes worked for The World Bank Group, where she researched and published on private participation in infrastructure industries in developing countries. She is a graduate of the University of Florida and holds a certificate in Advanced Management from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

Raiford Smith and his team lead Entergy’s pursuit of new, enabling technologies such as Distributed Energy Resources, big data analytics, and the development of customer-facing products and services. Mr. Smith is based out of Entergy’s offices in The Woodlands, TX. Entergy is an integrated energy company that owns and operates approximately 30GW of electric generating capacity and delivers electricity to 2.9 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

Mr. Smith has 26 years of experience in the energy industry, including various roles in legal, planning and analytics, smart grid, customer management, demand-side management, pricing and rates, product development, wholesale deal structuring, mergers and acquisitions, and technology.

Michael Quinn is Vice President Portfolio Strategy and Risk Management for Oncor Electric Delivery.  He has been charged with setting the company’s course in transforming the value of the electric grid through innovative, technology-driven and customer focused solutions that meet the growing and changing needs of the market. His work impacts system performance and capital spending, legislative and regulatory efforts, customer engagement, and future business model evolutions.

He joined Texas Utilities, Oncor’s predecessor company, in 1988 and has had assignments in Nuclear Generation, Fossil Generation, System Protection, Asset Management, Grid Operations, Business Development, Federal Advocacy and Corporate Strategy. Over the last twenty-two years, he has held numerous management and leadership positions within these organizations.

Michael is a 1988 graduate of Clemson University with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering and is a registered professional engineer in the state of Texas.  He is active on numerous trade associations and industry boards including energy storage, environmental science institute, communications, transmission development and NERC compliance.  He is a 2018 graduate of Leadership Dallas.

Michael and his wife Stephanie live in Flower Mound, Texas with their three children, Lexi, McKenna and Hunter.

Leads the Power Supply team responsible for NCEMC’s Asset Management & Compliance (Environmental and Regulatory), Grid Infrastructure (Transmission, Engineering, and Grid Modernization), and Portfolio & Resource Optimization. Member of the NCEMC CyberSecurity steering group and manages our EPRI involvement.

Howard Smith graduated Clemson University in 1977 with a BS degree in Electrical Engineering. 

Currently, Howard is the Manager of Distributed Energy Resource Policy.  In this role, he is responsible for tracking current and future trends and activities involving the broad aspects of DER.  Also, he is responsible for developing plans and policy positions related to DER in support of Executive Management’s efforts in the establishment of goals, actions and policies for the Southern system.

At the present time, Howard is on the Advisory Council for the new Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) which is the merged Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA) and Association of Demand Response and Smart Grid (ADS) associations.  In addition, he was formerly the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the ADS, and he served on the Alabama Governor’s Advisory Team for Industrial Energy Efficient and CHP.  He has made numerous regional and national presentations on integrated resource planning, demand-side management, smart grid and other electric industry related topics. 

Prior Work Experience:

Duke Power

While attending Clemson, he worked as a student engineer for Duke Power Company in their Anderson operating district. Upon graduation, Howard worked as a Quality Assurance/Special Project engineer in distribution.  In 1979, he worked in the Duke Power corporate office as a distribution staff engineer responsible for distribution design and equipment standards, outdoor lighting, and special projects.

Georgia Power

In July 1981, Howard went to work for Georgia Power in their Transmission Substation Design department.  From 1983 through 1992, he held various jobs within Transmission, Generation and Market Planning.  In 1993, Howard became responsible for developing the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP). In addition, he was responsible for the development, filing and approval of Purchase Power Contracts that were the result of competitive bidding of generation needs through a Request-for-Proposals process.    Also, in 2003, Howard became the Metro Team Manager for Key Accounts in the Sales Organization.  In 2005, he became the Manager of Technical Sales and his team was responsible for promoting electric end use processes for non-electrical customer processes.  Also, his team was responsible for the evaluation of Customer Cogeneration Opportunities.

Alabama Power

In May 2008, Howard became the Manager of Resource Planning and Demand Response Operations for Alabama Power.  He was responsible for the development of the generation supply-side and demand-response plan to meet the future needs of Alabama Power’s customers.  This responsibility includes seeking cost effective resources such as: combined heat and power generation, renewable resources (wind, solar, biomass, etc.), traditional generation and customer energy efficiency and demand controlled resources.

Tim Driscoll is director of information management outcomes, responsible for data management, analytics, and distributed intelligence applications and strategy at Itron, a company dedicated to enabling utilities and cities to safely, securely and reliably deliver critical infrastructure services to communities in more than 100 countries. Tim has been in the utility industry for 30 years and has been with Itron for the past 19 years, with roles in marketing, solution architecture, sales, product line management and consulting. Prior to joining Itron, Tim worked at Nova Scotia Power for 10 years in the areas of distribution engineering and load research & forecasting. Tim has a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, both from Dalhousie University in Canada, and is a registered professional engineer.

Ms. Garner is a senior executive overseeing all Sales, Operations and Support, servicing customers in Investor Owned Utilities, Municipal and Public Power programs in 25 US States, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. Her role has direct responsibility for the Regional revenue generation, growth, and operational delivery of Landis+Gyr’s entire portfolio of smart grid products and services.  As VP and GM, she is accountable for building a satisfied customer base, a high-performing organization, and driving profitable revenue with existing and new solutions. Her region generates over $400 million annually, with nearly 400 customers.

Ms. Garner’s career history spans across the utility sector with over 25 years of experience working for or serving utilities in strategy, business management, business development, product management and information technology.

Ms. Garner graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BA degree (majoring in Management, with a minor in Marketing) and an MBA in Finance from Georgia State University.

Gary Rackliffe is the ABB Vice President for Smart Grids and Grid Modernization. He has been in this position since 2009 and leads ABB’s smart grid initiatives in North America. He also is the General Manager for the Smart Grid Center of Excellence located in Raleigh, North Carolina.

With 30+ years of electric grid transmission and distribution experience, Gary has been recognized as an industry leader on smart grid technologies. He is the past chair of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association’s Smart Grid Council and is the Technical Advisor for the IEC US national Committee’s advisory group.

Gary holds BS and ME degrees in Power Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a MBA from Carnegie Mellon University. He is a Registered Professional Engineer and an IEEE Senior Member. He has co-authored a T&D planning book, and has written numerous technical papers and articles.

Elta is the Grid Edge Content Lead at Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables (formerly GTM Research), working on demand-side management in U.S. electricity markets. Prior to joining GTM, Elta pursued a joint Ph.D. funded by the European Commission on Sustainable Energy Technologies and Strategies at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. During her doctoral studies, she researched demand response policies for the implementation of smart grids and has presented her work at both U.S. and European conferences in addition to publishing in international scholarly journals. Elta holds a Master of Science degree in economics and management of network industries and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Union College.

Julian is a staff writer at Greentech Media, where he reports on energy storage and other clean energy sectors. He also has experience covering clean transportation, state and federal energy policy, and climate adaptation. Previously, Julian reported for CityLab at The Atlantic and conducted grant-funded climate change reporting in Bangladesh. He graduated from Duke University with a B.A. in political science.

Dr. Daniel Vermeer is founder and director of Duke University's Center for Energy, Development, and the Global Environment (EDGE), an initiative that harnesses the power of business to meet the global demand for energy, resources, and improved quality of life. Through education, thought leadership, and outreach, EDGE helps to develop promising new solutions to global energy and sustainability challenges, and convenes business, civic, and academic leaders to scale these solutions for maximum impact.

Since EDGE’s founding in 2010, Vermeer has launched several new programs including the Energy Industry Fundamentals workshop, EDGE Seminar on Energy & Environment, EDGE Chats video series, EDGE Notes blog, and the EDGE Forum (2014 Forum on the China Cleantech Revolution). He has also recruited 12 leading global companies to participate in the EDGE Advisory Council, including ABB, Duke Energy, Chevron, Coca-Cola, SunRun and Walmart. EDGE plays a major role in supporting several student clubs (e.g. Energy Club, Net Impact Club, MEM-MBA Club), and coorganizing the annual Energy Conference, Sustainable Business and Social Impact Conference, and Week-in-Cities tours.

Vermeer is Associate Professor of the Practice at Fuqua School of Business and Nicholas School of the Environment, where he teaches sustainability, energy, and international business courses. In addition to his Business Strategies for Sustainability class, Vermeer leads the EDGE Seminar Series, advises student teams through the Fuqua Client Consulting Practicum, and co-leads the China GATE Course, an immersive  introduction to Chinese culture and business that includes a 2-week trip to four Chinese cities. In his consulting practice, he works on sustainability challenges with leading companies and organizations including Bank of America, ABB, GE, Walmart, Dupont, The Nature Conservancy, UN Global Compact, Claremont Creek Ventures, and other private and public organizations.

His areas of expertise include sustainability strategy, risk management, energy & behavior, value chains, resource productivity, water and ecosystem services, sustainable agriculture, industrial efficiency, product certification, and sustainable development. His current research focuses natural capital considerations in business decision-making, water risk and resilience, data and analytics for sustainable agriculture, cleantech urban development, and energy innovation in emerging markets.

At Duke, Vermeer collaborates with several related initiatives, including the Duke University Energy Initiative, Center for Sustainability and Commerce, Duke Campus Sustainability Committee, Food Sustainability Committee, and the Duke Campus Farm. He is the faculty advisor to several student Master’s Projects at the Nicholas School for the Environment and Sanford School for Public Policy. He also serves on the Duke Brazil Initiative Board, and is a partner on a Mellon grant focused on Energy Geopolitics in the Western Hemisphere.

Beyond Duke, Vermeer is an editor for the Frontiers in Energy Systems and Policy journal, and serves on the Award Nominating Committee for the Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability (ARCS). He also is on Sustainability Advisory Boards for Ingersoll Rand and Xylem. He currently serves on USAID’s Powering Agriculture Mentoring Council, where he advises entrepreneurial ventures that provide energy solutions for agriculture in the developing world.

Vermeer joined Duke from The Coca-Cola Company, where he led the Global Water Initiative, an industry-leading effort to protect the quality and availability of the company's primary ingredient. As part of this work, he designed a new risk management methodology for assessing Coca-Cola’s global manufacturing facilities, and founded Coca-Cola’s Community Water Partnerships program, resulting in nearly 500 public-private partnerships in over 90 countries.

During his tenure at Coca-Cola, he also launched the company’s Sustainable Agriculture program to manage lifecycle impacts of agricultural supply chain inputs, and led the Sustainable Value Chain initiative to embed sustainability capabilities across business functions, including finance, strategy, operations, marketing, and procurement.

Vermeer plays a leading public role in advocating for business sustainability through speaking, research, and institution-building. He is the founder and chief architect of the Global Water Challenge, a multi-partner organization for innovative water and  sanitation initiatives, co-author of the CEO Water Mandate (signed by more than 50 Fortune 500 companies), and lead contributor to several policy documents issued through the World Economic Forum, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, and the United Nations Foundation.

Vermeer is trained as an anthropologist, and did extensive fieldwork and research in the Himalayas of India and Nepal as part of his Master’s thesis at the University of Virginia. He completed his Ph.D. in Learning Sciences at Northwestern University, where he conducted research on organizational learning and change at Xerox PARC in Silicon Valley.

With over a decade of experience in the energy industry, Jessica Hamm joins SparkCognition as the Director of Solutions for Utilities.

Previously, Hamm served as the Manager of Emerging Technology Strategy and Communication for Duke Energy, where she was responsible for monitoring technology-driven megatrends, identifying and developing utility technologies, and informing long-term strategy.

Hamm started her career in utilities at Progress Energy. She held roles in Finance and Distribution Project Management, as well as assuming the role of Chief of Staff for the SVP of Midwest Delivery Operations. Prior to that, Hamm was with IBM Global Services.

Hamm earned a bachelor’s degree in business management from North Carolina State University graduating summa cum laude, and was an NC State Park Scholar. She also holds a master’s degree in sustainability from Wake Forest University.

Timothy Johnson is an Associate Professor of the Practice in Energy and the Environment at Duke and Chair of the Nicholas School’s Master of Environmental Management Energy and Environment program.  Tim’s teaching and research address public decision making as it relates to topics at the intersection of energy system planning, design of the built environment, and natural resource management, with a particular interest in how we can leverage interactions among these areas to improve environmental quality and human health.  Prior to joining Duke, Tim worked for the US EPA’s Office of Research and Development, where he was part of a multidisciplinary team of energy analysts responsible for examining the environmental consequences of technology change across the energy system.  Tim earned a M.S. and his Ph.D. from the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University, and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and a M.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Minnesota.

Mike Phillips is the CEO and co-founder of Sense, a startup creating technology that helps homeowners better understand their energy use. A pioneer in the field of machine learning, Mike began his career in speech recognition. He worked as a researcher at MIT before co-founding two speech recognition companies (SpeechWorks and Vlingo) which brought groundbreaking speech recognition capabilities to call centers and to mobile phones, including the technology that powered virtual assistants across hundreds of millions of phones. Mike’s passion for machine learning led him to found Sense in 2013, bringing the power of machine learning into the home.