Click the Breakfast Roundtable session for session descriptions and moderator information.

Smart Grid Integration—Managing the Data Environment SOLD OUT
Smart Grid Building Automation
DMS/Feeder Automation for System Reliability 
Adding Cyber Security to Legacy Systems
Transmission
Renewables
Demand Response
Building Automation and Metering
Distribution Automation & Smart Grid  SOLD OUT
Distribution Automation
Asset Management
Water
Mobile & GIS
What Does DMS Mean to You in a Smart Grid Framework?
Technologies that Touch the Customer
AMI for Smart Grid  SOLD OUT
Substation Automation and Enterprise Data Management to Support Smart Grid
Substation Automation  SOLD OUT
NERC CIP for Substations

Smart Grid Integration—Managing the Data Environment  SOLD OUT
The smart grid shows its intelligence when it leverages applications across the enterprise. The IT system should be familiar with the CIS and the GIS. The current connectivity data should be available from the DMS and feeder automation system; the OMS can identify where the fault might be, remotely isolate the fault and restore services. A connection across all parts of a utility is the intelligence smart grid integration provides. This breakfast roundtable will discuss how to manage that integration and utilize data to its fullest potential within each system and across the whole.

Moderator: Paul Yarka, Hahn Tram, Allen Skopp and Dave Elve

Paul Yarka is the global lead of the Accenture Smart Grid Services asset management practice and a Senior Executive in Accenture’s Transmission and Distribution consulting business. Mr. Yarka has more than 25 years of consulting experience working with utility companies across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Paul has a current focus on smart grid strategy and its business potential for redefinition of utility asset management, work and field force management, system operations, and enabling information technology capabilities, as T&D utilities implement smart infrastructures. Paul has helped many utilities evolve their business and technology strategies and capabilities, develop innovative business architectures, and plan and implement smart grid-enabled business and technology solutions.

Hahn Tram is VP of Enterprise Solutions at Quanta Technology. He has 30 years of experience in planning, architecting, and implementing integrated engineering, automation, information technology, and business solutions for energy utilities worldwide. Over the last five years, he has helped a number of US utilities successfully develop strategic initiatives in Advanced Metering Infrastructure, Smart Grid, and Demand Response to build the foundation for utility and smart grid of the future. Hahn is a registered professional engineer, senior member of IEEE and member of the DistribuTECH Advisory Committee.  

Allen R. Skopp is a Director of Sales for ABB Network Management Inc. and has over forty-five years of experience working with electric utility companies and has extensive experience in the application of computer control systems for the management and control of both Distribution and Transmission networks. Mr. Skopp has been chair of IEEE committees in the areas of electric utility information technology and system infrastructure.

David Elve is a Vice President and Principal Consultant with Enspiria Solutions. His background includes a Vice President position with Cellnet (now Landis+Gyr) and a Senior Vice President at a $6.5B global  IT services firm based in Brussels. His utility background spans over 16 years including stints at Schlumberger and Convergent Group. Mr. Elve holds a B.S. in Business, a MBA in Finance and is a graduate of the Georgia Tech Management Institute’s Executive Program. He has worked with numerous utilities on their Smart Metering programs and he is a frequent speaker in the industry. He is a member of AMI-MDM. He serves on the Distributech Advisory, the Autovation Program and the Metering Americas Program Committees.

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Smart Grid Building Automation
One popular end-user application of a smart grid will be building automation—having a centralized system to control demand response issues, price issues, heating and cooling and two-way communication within the building and with the utility itself. This breakfast roundtable will examine the growing building automation options, how they connect into the current state of smart grid development and possible avenues for the future of building control.

Moderator: Ross Malme
Ross is the Director of the Schneider Demand Response Resource Center (DRRC). The DRRC develops demand response strategies for implementation by Schneider business units and country organizations. The DRRC also manages external relationships with electricity market operators, utilities, demand response aggregators and other strategic alliances. Prior to RETX acquisition by Schneider in 2008 Ross was President, CEO and original founder of RETX, an energy services and technology company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. With more than 25 years of experience in the energy services and technology business Ross is recognized as an international leader in the development of new products and services to serve the energy industry. Ross was instrumental in the introduction of energy information products and services to liberalized markets in the USA and more recently served as Operating Agent for the International Energy Agency (IEA) Demand Side Management Programme Demand Response Resources project. This project which included Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the USA has been heralded as the cornerstone for the introduction of demand side resources into liberalized electricity markets.

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DMS/Feeder Automation for System Reliability  SOLD OUT
The talk of smart grid intelligence often centers around metering and in-home energy management systems, but there are a number of areas within the SCADA/DMS arena that could use equal thought and investment, including feeder applications. Since feeder routes typically involve a variety of moving parts (such as reclosers, switches, sectionalizers and fuses), automating the route can lead to a number of reliability improvements for both the utility and the customer. This breakfast roundtable will discuss the technology involved in feeder automation and the benefits that can be derived from the automation process.

Moderator: ML Chan
Dr. ML Chan has assisted a large number of utilities in developing smart grid strategies and roadmaps. Such clients serve customers in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Asia and China. He helped them in determining how to integrate intertwined enabling technologies to form a smart grid roadmap, taking into account what each utility has installed in various smart grid applications.

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Adding Cyber Security to Legacy Systems
Despite the smart grid push, there are many legacy SCADA systems and protocols still in active use. Utilities are juggling a number of issues with those legacy systems, including what regulatory rules apply, how security issues come into play, what’s OK to ignore, what needs to be dealt with immediately and urgently, what constitutes a critical cyber asset, and what needs to be documented. This breakfast roundtable will focus on the issues and opportunities involved in securing legacy SCADA systems.

Moderators: Bill Ackerman and Robert Sill
Bill Ackerman started work with Automatic Electric Company on the first solid-state SCADA systems (CONITEL-2000) after receiving his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering. He has held various positions in power system operations and substation automation. Bill is a Life Senior Member of the IEEE and the Power Engineering Society and a member of the IEEE-PES Distinguished Lecturers Panel. He is past- Chairman of the Substations Committee of the PES, and of the Automatic and Supervisory Systems  ubcommittee. He is a member of the U.S. Delegation to TC57 of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). He has authored and coauthored numerous papers, including several IEEE Tutorials for the General Meetings of the Power Engineering Society.

An industry pioneer, Robert Sill has more than twenty years of leadership in business, manufacturing and technology, including extensive experience in securing utility control system communications. He specializes in growing companies, RealTime being his fifth. He is a leader in the integration of engineered products with computer technology. Robert has spearheaded the development of lean manufacturing techniques in the automotive industry, managed global purchasing, and patented engineering solutions that have revolutionized industrial systems.

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Transmission
Globally, transmission infrastructure is facing more intricate issues than ever before. Renewable integration, aging infrastructure, limited budgets, growing smart grid intelligence requirements and increasing market issues are all converging on an archaic system that sees little investment. The combination has created an environment of careful and cautious asset management for transmission owners. This breakfast roundtable will talk about the details and hurdles inherent in managing transmission wisely.

Moderators: Michael Feinman and Ed Schnell
Michael D. Feinman is a Consulting Engineer with Energy Initiatives Group (EIG). His experience includes seven years as a consultant to the utility industry and more than 30 years in the power transmission and distribution business at one of the Northeast’s largest electric utilities. During that time, he held a variety of roles in engineering and in support of transmission and distribution (T&D) construction and operations. His experience includes distribution, system planning, substation engineering, protection, telecommunications, project management, automatic meter reading, and field force automation. These experiences have provided a broad and varied background in both the rapidly changing electricity and information technology fields. He has authored/co-authored several technical papers and articles on automatic vehicle location systems, and field force automation. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from the New York Institute of Technology, a Master of Science Degree from the University of Connecticut, and a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He is also a graduate of the GE Power Systems Engineering course, a registered Professional Engineer, and is certified as a Project Management Professional by the Project Management Institute.

Ed Schnell is Director Transmission Dispatching for American Electric Power. Schnell has been with AEP for 29 years, covering various managerial, asset management, project management, and project engineering assignments associated with the AEP System. Schnell is currently responsible for AEP’s transmission dispatching organization to facilitate effective services between the energy delivery regions and transmission dispatching. This includes ensuring the efficient and professional operation of the daily activities and administrative functions of AEP’s Transmission Dispatching Centers, as well as ensuring that dispatching standards are consistent throughout the system with the goal to protect the integrity and reliability of the transmission network. Schnell received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and master’s in business administration at Ohio State University. He is a senior member of IEEE and a registered professional engineer in the state of Ohio.

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Renewables
Many states in America and many countries around the world have adopted aggressive targets for the adoption of renewable energy standards. Yet, most renewable energy sources (such as wind and solar) are, by their nature, intermittent and cannot be counted as firm power by the market or control area operator. This breakfast roundtable will discuss the technical intricacies of connecting renewable energy to the grid and potential resources to mitigate the intermittency issue.

Moderators: Linda Finley and Terry Nielsen
Linda Finley has thirty-six years experience with three electric power utilities. She is currently a Senior Regional Transmission Engineer at Snohomish County PUD. She is actively involved with the regional transmission issues of the northwest through ColombiaGrid and Bonneville Power Authority. Linda’s experience has ranged from managing core areas of the electric utility business, including all aspects of engineering including control centers, dispatch, planning and real estate, substation, relaying, SCADA, energy management systems, telecommunications, demand-side management, business planning, and customer service. She has been actively involved in committees for DistribuTECH, EPRI and the Power Engineering Society. She has championed and sponsored several Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) projects in both the Power Delivery Divisions and Customer Service including several telecommunications test projects. She has authored Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) technical papers on distribution automation, telecommunications, demand-side management and electric system planning.

Terry Nielsen has expertise in defining, developing, and implementing software solutions for the utility industry. With more than twenty years in the development of distribution management systems (DMS), outage management systems (OMS), and energy management system (EMS) applications, Terry is a specialist in operational business and process integration with mobile data systems, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems, Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) systems and Geospatial Information Systems (GIS). Currently, Terry is managing implementation, integration and support efforts for distribution software systems at utilities including Seattle City Light and Kansas City Power and Light. Prior, Terry was the technical lead and project manager on several engagements including the ERCOT CIM based Network Model Management System and EPRI smart grid research projects. Terry has served on the DistribuTECH Advisory Committee since 2001. He is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), where he serves on the Working Group on Distribution Reliability. Terry is a member of the Geospatial Information and Technology Association (GITA) and the IEC TC57 WG16 “Deregulated Market Communications.”

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Demand Response
Demand response (DR) is all the rage these days. After thirty years as a tactical solution for operational needs, DR has emerged as a critical aspect for smart grid and renewable connection goals. DR’s now being integrated into power and economic resource plans. Topics to be discussed at this important time include use of DR with AMI, WAN/LAN one- and two-way communications for DR, AMI-HAN, TOU/critical time pricing, new DR approaches, use of DR as a power resource and new control strategies to maximizing value for customers. This breakfast roundtable will review a number of these related DR topics.

Moderator: Dick Preston, Ron Chebra & Elliot Boardman

Dick Preston has over 30 years experience in the electric energy industry with a focus on Energy & Demand Response programs, AMR/AMI, HAN communications and program implementation.  He is Principal with Preston Energy Services, a consulting group dedicated to serving the electric energy industry. Previously Dick was Senior Director Alliances at Comverge, Inc.  He also served as Vice President North America Sales at Comverge. Earlier work includes: Itron; Vice President SE, Iris Systems, Inc.; Vice President North America Sales and Scientific Atlanta, Control Systems Division, National Sales Manager.  He has a B.S. degree from Georgia State University.  Dick has served as Chairman of the Board (2007-2009) Peak Load Management Alliance (PLMA); DistribuTECH-Committee Chair on Demand Response Advisory Committee and is Past Chairman-Program Committee–Utilimetrics/Autovation™.   He has presented at DistribuTECH and as an instructor at Utility University on Demand Response, AMR and Communication. He has also presented at a number of regional and national events on topics relating to Demand Response, Broadband and Communications.  He is an instructor for educational classes at Autovation™ on AMI Communications and HAN technology.

Ronald Chebra is the Director of KEMA’s North American Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) practice. He has an extensive background in communication systems and telemetry services, with a specialty in business requirements and strategy. He is currently involved in a number of client engagements where he and his team  are evaluating strategies, technical options, and economic considerations for SmartGrid and Advanced Metering. Mr. Chebra has been a long-standing member of the Board of Directors of Utilimetrics (formerly AMRA) and has been actively involved with the leadership of this organization for over 14 years. In 2006, Ron was awarded their “Outstanding Achievement Award” for his contributions to the association and for leading their efforts developing, organizing and chairing their Public Policy Committee.  He has taught detailed courses on communication technologies and applications such that include demand response at many venues, has published many papers on advanced metering, given keynotes at leading conference and is quoted frequently in leading trade industry journals. He is a creative and insightful thought leader; able to motivate and manage and has been called “among this nation’s leading authorities in advanced metering and remote monitoring services."

Elliot Boardman is Executive Director of the Peak Load Management Alliance, a trade association of organizations dealing with demand response in electricity markets. Formerly, Mr. Boardman was Executive Director of the Association of Energy Services Professionals (AESP), Executive Director of Utility Communicators International (UCI), Vice President of Government Institutes, Inc., Director of Technical Divisions of ASM International, Director of Communications for Synergic Resources Corporation and has held various positions in the Aerospace industry.  An engineering graduate of Cleveland State University with a MBA from the Pennsylvania State University, Mr. Boardman has over 30 years experience in energy-related association management, publishing, conferences and trade shows, as well as a background in the aerospace industry.

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Building Automation and Metering
One popular end-user application of a smart grid will be building automation—having a centralized system to control demand response issues, price issues, heating and cooling and two-way communication within the building and with the utility itself. This breakfast roundtable will move beyond the general concepts of building automation and look specifically at how metering will play a factor in its growth.

Moderator: Steve Kearney
Steve Kearney is the Regional Manager for the Southern Region of the U.S. and the Caribbean for EMON, LLC. He is responsible for managing all sales and customer relationships for EMON’s commercial/industrial markets. Steve has experience with distributive automation, meter data collection, web design, real-time pricing, load management, distributive generation, outage management, AM/FM/GIS software and utility operations. Before joining EMON, Steve was the Vice President for an automatic meter reading and web presentation company, responsible for all of the sales and marketing activities for the U.S. and Canada. He was also the Product Manager while working at ConneXt/Enghouse Systems. Steve worked at Oglethorpe Power for ten years in the System Control Center as a Metering/SCADA design engineer and was involved with one of the first MV-90 collections systems. He also was involved with their RTP and DSM programs that controlled over 350 MW during peak times. He has spoken at numerous utility conferences in the area of utility operations and rate development. He is a Certified Energy Manager and member of IEEE, AEE, U.S. Green Building Council and DSMP. Steve holds an MBA from Mercer University (Atlanta) in concentrations in finance and marketing and an Industrial Engineering degree from Auburn University.

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Distribution Automation & Smart Grid  SOLD OUT
Evolution to smarter grid is a growing reality, and automation remains the template for making the entire grid more flexible, more able to encompass the smart grid benefits. Beyond the power plant and the transmission line is the world of power distribution, with millions of switches and bits of software to tie together in just the right way. This breakfast roundtable will examine how the best efforts of distribution automation can enable the smart grid.

Moderator: Dean Mueller & Carl Goeckeler
For the past 20 years Dean Mueller has been involved in Distribution Automation and Customer Engineering at Omaha Public Power District. He has been involved in all aspects of distribution, including planning, engineering, construction, operations and several automation and reliability projects and studies. Dean’s educational background includes an MBA, as well as B.S. in Electrical Engineering. He is a registered professional engineer in the state of Nebraska.

Carl R. Goeckeler, P.E., is the lead Distribution Automation Engineer at KCP&L. He received his BSEE (power systems) at the Missouri University of Science and Technology in 1975. He has 33 years experience with KCP&L in design and operations in Transmission, Substations, and Distribution. He initiated KCP&L’s Power Quality program and is the author of a syndicated P.Q. training publication used at over 20 utilities. Under Carl’s direction, KCP&L has won five national awards for their D.A. projects including the T&D Automation Project of the Year at DistribuTech 2004. Recently KCP&L won the 2007 Edison Electric Institute Utility of the Year Award for their Comprehensive Energy Plan (CEP). KCP&L also received the 2007 PA Consulting Group's National Reliability Excellence Award for sustained leadership, innovation and achievement in electric reliability. Carl is a regular presenter at distribution automation conferences and seminars, and a published author of numerous papers on distribution automation.

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Distribution Automation
Utilities have long known that distribution automation adds intelligence to the power distribution system. And, that intelligence will be tried and tested as the smart grid gets more and more entrenched, which means managers of those systems will need to know all the possible problems involved in automating. This breakfast roundtable will discuss the ins and outs of distribution automation implementation.

Moderator: George Larry Clark, Craig Befus and Anil Pahwa

George Larry Clark is Principal Engineer for Alabama Power Company. He has been with Alabama Power for 42 years. He teaches SCADA/DA courses and is an SME for the Advanced Distribution SCADA Operator Training. Mr. Clark has published 17 papers and made 58 presentations on distribution automation, SCADA and the Smart Grid, and is a coauthor of the book “Electric Power Engineering Handbook,” and the book “Electric Power Generation, Transmission, and Distribution,” published by CRC Press in 2000 and 2007, respectively. He supports the Alabama DA Project and the Southern Company development of the next generation distribution operating system, the Integrated Distribution Management System and the Smart Grid Strategy for Alabama Power Company and the Southern Company. Mr. Clark is Chairman of the Distribution Automation Subcommittee of the DistribuTECH Advisory Committee, Vice Chairman of the IEEE PES Distribution Automation Working Group and member of the IEEE PES Intelligent Grid Coordinating Committee. Mr. Clark holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering degree from the University of South Alabama, is a Senior Member of IEEE and is a registered engineer in the state of Alabama.

Craig Befus is Team Lead for Systems Automation & Protection in Distribution Standards at BC Hydro.  He also serves as senior technical advisor on the Smart Grid Development team at BC Hydro.  Prior to joining BC Hydro in 2006, Craig held positions with S&C Electric as Application Director, Cooper Power Systems as Sr. Apparatus Engineer, and Public Service Company of Colorado as Sr. Engineer.  Craig has been involved in distribution automation for over 22 years.  Craig holds BSEE and MSEE degrees from the University of Colorado and is a 26 year member of IEEE.

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Asset Management
T&D systems involve millions of bits of hardware, software and interconnections. Knowing where items are, how old they might be, how close they are to the end of their life cycle, when new replacements will need to be ordered and installed—all those details can be a logistical nightmare for asset managers. This breakfast roundtable will focus on lessons learned and techniques developed to make asset management easier.

Moderators: Bradley Williams and Koustuv Ghoshal
Bradley Williams is currently Vice President of Oracle Utilities Global Business Unit’s Product Management responsible for outage management, distribution management, mobile workforce management, work and asset management, and load analysis utility applications. Brad has nearly 25 years of utility technology innovation experience. Prior to Oracle, Brad was a Research Director in Gartner’s Energy & Utilities Industry Advisory Services focusing on utility applications of GIS, SCADA/EMS/DMS, Outage and Work Management, and Transmission & Distribution Asset Management research. Prior to being a Research Analyst, Brad directed PacifiCorp’s T&D Asset Management responsible for long-term asset strategies and business technology that developed and implemented comprehensive IT investment programs. As Director of T&D Infrastructure Planning, Brad was responsible for PacifiCorp’s Subtransmission Planning, Telecommunications, and operations Technology Development groups. Brad also worked at Southern California Edison for 10 years where he was involved in transmission system planning, distribution automation, and reliability programs.

Koustuv Ghoshal is presently a Vice President with Siemens Business Services, responsible for its power utilities consulting practice and utilities industry-specific IT outsourcing services for the Americas region. An industry recognized strategist and thought leader whose background includes over 20 years in many facets of the energy & utilities industry – from research to utility operations experience to core utility strategy consulting helping Global Fortune 500 clients, including marketing strategy. He combines deep energy industry strategy and thought leadership around business transformation of energy delivery and IT operations – principally in the areas of real-time Transmission & Distribution asset monitoring and operations, advanced metering, distribution management systems and enterprise IT operations. Today, he also focuses on strategies around the impact of energy policies within various regions of the globe – including mandates around energy conservation and in the increasing use of renewable sources of energy. Koustuv has a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, and also a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering with a focus on Power Systems engineering from the Energy Systems Research Center at the University of Texas at Arlington.

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Water
The growing intelligence evolution impacts water as more water utilities automate and adopt AMI technologies. This breakfast roundtable will provide unique opportunities to discuss the latest technologies, trends and projects in the water industry. In addition, the roundtable will explore what the smart grid means to water utilities, discussing the uses and benefits of cross-industry technology like advanced metering infrastructure.

Moderators: David Foltz and Ian Macleod
David Foltz has worked with private and municipal utilities for 25 years as a business services consultant and operations manager. His diverse utility background includes extensive management capability in metering, billing and collection, customer service, utility accounting, and business unit development. His consulting experience includes work in automated metering technology assessment and procurement; customer service process improvement; revenue enhancement; software selection and implementation; and market and competitive assessment.

Ian Macleod is Director of Marketing for Master Meter, Inc. For over a decade, MacLeod has served in both Territory Sales Management and Product Marketing Management capacities for other water industry organizations prior to heading Master Meter’s marketing department. He presents internationally on topics ranging from water resource management to technology migration for meter data collection and leveraging meter data management. MacLeod is a graduate of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and holds a special diploma in International Studies from Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan.

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Mobile & GIS
Mobile computing and GIS has come a long way in the last few years. More utilities are deploying a variety of devices and data to enable greater use of field resources. Tasks that have historically taken multiple steps are now being done once in the field, updating and triggering other actions automatically. Some of the more progressive uses of field computing include field design sketches, storm damage assessments, smart meter replacement programs and asset inventory management. This breakfast roundtable will examine innovative uses of field computing and challenges to consider when embarking on this maturing technology.

Moderators: Damon Dougherty and Tim Epp
Damon Dougherty is the Geospatial Product Marketing Manager for Bentley Systems. Prior to joining Bentley, Mr. Dougherty was the Industry Manager for Intergraph and was responsible for identifying technological trends, influencing product development, providing industry consulting and performing general market analysis in the utilities and communication industries. His key areas of expertise include mobile workforce management, outage management, geographic information systems, computer-aided design and smart grid technologies. He holds both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from Texas A&M University.

Tim Epp is an IT Business Consultant at Snohomish County PUD where he has worked for 16 years. He has spent the majority of his career working with and researching software solutions related to distribution engineering and operations such as work management, geographic information systems, outage management, mobile workforce management and advanced metering. In his current role Tim helps bridge the gap between engineering/operations and IT and helps develop strategies related to utility automation. Tim holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science & Engineering from LeTourneau University and a Master’s degree from Mars Hill Graduate School.

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What Does DMS Mean to You in a Smart Grid Framework?
Distribution management systems (DMS) will be the backbone of smart grid applications. DMS will take the brunt of most data needs and requests, but how do utilities get their systems ready for such demands? This breakfast roundtable starts at the beginning, with definitions: How does each utility define their DMS? Where does it begin? Where does it end? Where will smart grid demands rest most heavily?

Moderator: Umesh Singh
Umesh K. Singh, Chief Consulting Engineer, GE Energy T&D Automation, has 31 years of experience in automation technology, including 24 years in the electric utility industry. Singh has managed and worked on various SCADA, EMS, DMS, OMS, AMR, GIS, enterprise integration, operations merger and consolidation projects in North America and worldwide. He is currently involved in several smart grid initiatives with electric utilities in North America. He is a member of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), TC57, Working Group 14 (Standard IEC 61968), which is defining the international standards for system interfaces for distribution management systems for enterprise integration. He is also a member of CCAPI (Control Center Application Programming Interface) Working Group defining CIM (common information model) requirements. Singh has been an Advisory Committee member for DistribuTECH since 1998. He has authored several technical papers that he has presented at major industry forums on the subjects of network applications for operations and planning, distribution management systems and enterprise data integration.

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Technologies that Touch the Customer
The newest interactive addition to the utility equation is the customer. Once the customer was merely a consumer of energy, but the future will require a well-informed participant at the end of the supply chain. An intelligent consumer requires intelligent technology like in-home energy displays and energy management systems. This breakfast roundtable will discuss up and coming technologies that will create the perfect, educated smart grid power user.

Moderator: Ralph Abbott & Tim Wolf

Ralph Abbott has been deeply involved as an expert in AMI, load control, premises automation, and customer technologies for 35 years. Now a part of R. W. Beck, an SAIC company, Mr. Abbott’s firm Plexus Research was the designer and integrator of EPRI’s Electric Smart House project AMI and premises automation, and specified the standards-based Electric Utility Gateway used in that project. He has been directly involved in dozens of utility AMI, load control and energy automation projects, including many with HAN-equipped metering end-points. Mr. Abbott is an engineering graduate of Bucknell University, attended the University of San Francisco Graduate Business School, and is a registered Professional Engineer. He holds four patents in control systems technologies and applications. He is a charter member of AMRA, now Utiltimetrics, and serves on the DistribuTECH conference program and Utility University committees.

Tim Wolf, Senior Consultant, R.W. Beck, an SAIC Company, is a nationally recognized marketing expert in the advanced metering and smart grid industries, with deep industry knowledge that encompasses technology, business case, and an understanding of product and solution offerings within the marketplace. In his previous position leading the corporate marketing group at Itron Inc., Mr. Wolf had responsibility in areas of strategic marketing planning and execution, brand management, PR and communications, and campaigns and lead generation. Mr. Wolf is an accomplished writer whose articles appear regularly in utility industry trade publications, and he also is a regular presenter and speaker at industry tradeshows and conferences.

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AMI for Smart Grid
Utilities across the country are moving forward with plans for AMI deployment to improve operations and customer service, manage peak load and advance on the path toward the smart grid. But there are many questions to be answered in this rapidly moving technology sector. This breakfast roundtable discussion will touch on a variety of topics relating to AMI, including business case, meter and communication technology trends, and current implementations.

Moderator: Carolyn Kinsman & Bennie Fussell

Carolyn Kinsman, president of Automated Communication Links, has been consulting to electric and water utilities on AMI and smart metering for over 20 years. Some of her clients include: City of San Francisco, Detroit Edison, CoServ, and Fortis Alberta. She continues to only work for utilities so knowledge imparted is completely unbiased and is based on experiences gained through successful AMI and smart meter business cases and deployments throughout North America.

Bennie Fussell, PE is a experienced electrical engineering professional    recognized for his ability to match technology with customer needs which has consistently improved business processes, created value for the customer, and increased company revenues. Bennie’s expertise stems from over 35 years of experience in utility T&D operations, distribution automation, substation automation, and development of SCADA and advanced application solutions for utilities. He is currently the Electric Industry Smart Grid Solutions Manager for Telvent where he is involved with developing industry leading smart grid solutions for his customers. Prior to Telvent, Bennie spent time with Siemens PTD and Progress Energy in North Carolina.

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Substation Automation and Enterprise Data Management to Support Smart Grid
Substations are crucial links in the T&D grid and critical components of the smart grid. Adding intelligence to the substation and mining the wealth of data from systems within the substation can give utilities more control over their system’s overall reliability. This breakfast roundtable will explore the benefits of automation when paired with overall data management in support of a wider, smarter network.

Moderator: John McDonald
John D. McDonald, P.E., is GM, Marketing for GE Energy T&D in Atlanta, Georgia. John has 36 years of experience in the electric utility transmission and distribution industry. John received his B.S.E.E. and M.S.E.E. (Power Engineering) degrees from Purdue University, and an M.B.A. (Finance) degree from the University of California-Berkeley. John is a member of Eta Kappa Nu (Electrical Engineering Honorary) and Tau Beta Pi (Engineering Honorary), is a Fellow of IEEE, and was awarded the IEEE Millennium Medal in 2000, the IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) Excellence in Power Distribution Engineering Award in 2002, and the IEEE PES Substations Committee Distinguished Service Award in 2003. John is Past President of the IEEE PES, CIGRE U.S. National Committee (USNC) Vice President Technical Activities, Past Chair of the IEEE PES Substations Committee, IEEE Division VII Past Director, and is a registered Professional Engineer (Electrical) in California, Pennsylvania and Georgia. John teaches a course on Modern Energy Management Systems at the Georgia Institute of Technology, a course on smart grid for GE Energy, and has published thirty-one articles and papers and coauthored three books. John is a member of DOE’s Smart Grid Electricity Advisory Committee (EAC), a member of NEMA’s Smart Grid Task Force and on the Board of Directors of the GridWise Alliance. John serves on the DistribuTECH Utility University committee and as chairman of the DistribuTECH Substation Automation subcommittee.

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Substation Automation SOLD OUT
Substation automation will be an important vertebra in the smart grid backbone. Standards and protocols to better the system, like IEC 61850 and P2030, continue to gain prominence in industry discussions. This breakfast roundtable will explore the basic needs of substation automation and ways to tweak the system for optimum impact.

Moderator: Ron Farquharson
Ron Farquharson is a Consultant, Utility Automation on the Smart Grid Engineering team of EnerNex Corporation and has 29 years experience in the electric utility industry. He is currently working with EPRI and leading North American utilities on grid modernization projects including technology assessments, roadmaps, use case workshops, business cases and procurement specifications. Areas of expertise include: substation and distribution automation, communications and protocol technologies, phasor measurement, asset condition monitoring and distributed generation integration. Ron has extensive experience in meeting facilitation and conducting requirements development workshops using the use case methodology. He also has a strong background in business case development for technology implementations and many years in the field of product management. Prior to joining EnerNex he worked for GE Energy/Harris/Westronic for 25 years. During this period his roles included Product Management, Strategic Marketing and Project Management. He has taught courses on automation and Smart Grid technologies and authored a number of papers on topics related to substation automation, protocols, monitoring & diagnostics, integration and communications. Ron serves on the Advisory Committee for DistribuTECH. As a Senior Member of the IEEE, Ron is a member of the Power Engineering Society, Substations Committee, the IEEE Intelligent Grid Coordinating Committee and the IEEE Standards Association.

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NERC CIP for Substations
2009 marked the passage of the NERC CIP standards deadline. Utilities are working to understand and comply with the standard with the threat of major fines weighing down the process. This breakfast roundtable will focus on how utilities are weathering the NERC CIP adjustments.

Moderator: Ameen Hamdon
Ameen Hamdon, P. Eng., is President of SUBNET Solutions Inc. (SUBNET). Ameen was a member of the DNP Technical Committee (1994 - 1998) and the President of the DNP Users Group from 1998 – 2004. Ameen began his career in the electric utility industry working for Alberta Power Limited (1986 – 1993), as a Telecontrol Engineer and Load Research Engineer in the Electrical Power Distribution/DCS. For over 15 years, Ameen has focused on providing the highest quality substation data communications software products, training and system integration services to over 300 utilities and 50 electric utility product vendors around the world.

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