Energy Systems Integration Group (ESIG) Announces 2022 Excellence Awards

March 24, 2022 – The Energy Systems Integration Group (ESIG), a nonprofit organization that marshals the expertise of the electricity industry’s technical community to support grid transformation and energy systems integration, recently announced the recipients of its 2022 Excellence Awards.

These awards recognize energy professionals from around the world for their contributions and accomplishments toward the planning and operation of energy systems across multiple pathways and geographical scales in ways that are reliable, economic and sustainable.

The awards were presented during a ceremony as part of ESIG’s annual Spring Technical Workshop, held in Tucson, Arizona.“

Announcing this year’s recipients is a special moment for everyone as it shows how critical it is to keep moving forward and pushing one another in our industry to continue to innovate and lead,” said Mark Ahlstrom, ESIG Board of Directors President. “We are pleased to recognize each of these individuals for their hard work and accomplishments.”

Lifetime Excellence Awards were presented to:

• • Mike Cookson, retired from EDF Renewables – For a lifetime of contributions to wind plant O&M practices and wind turbine technology.
  • Chris Walford, retired from Puget Sound Energy – For a lifetime of contributions to wind plant O&M practices and wind turbine technology.

The Ross Newlin Achievement Award was presented to:

• • Matt Brzezinski, Pattern Energy – For his ongoing contributions and leadership to the ESIG Operations & Maintenance Users Group.

Excellence Award recipients include:

For leadership in furthering Regional Coordination initiatives among the European TSOs and implementation of EU Network Codes 

• • Sonya Twohig, Secretary-General, ENTSO-E

For a better understanding of the long-term growth of renewables in MISO through the Renewables Integration Impact Assessment

• • Jordan Bakke, MISO

 For international cooperation, leadership and contributions to the GPST in the transition to a clean energy future

• • Julian Leslie, National Grid EDO
  • Anders Bavnhøj Hansen, Energinet
  • Luke Robinson, AEMO
  • Liam Ryan, Eirgrid
  • Eoin Kennedy, Eirgrid
  • Phil Pettingill, CAISO
  • Jeff Billo, ERCOT

For leadership in resource adequacy in the West

• • Gregg Carrington, Western Power Pool

For leadership in transmission analysis and reform 

• • Johannes Pfeifenberger, The Brattle Group, Boston University, and MIT

For leadership in the integration of DER into system planning and operation 

• • Doug Smith, Green Mountain Power
  • Kerri Carnes, Arizona Public Service
  • Tom Hines, Tierra Resource Consultants

For international leadership in power systems R&D in support of the energy transition 

• • Gabriel Bareux, RTE

For leadership in the design and analysis of grid forming inverter systems

• • Vahan Gevorgian, NREL
  • Shahil Shah, NREL

For advances in dynamic model quality and acceptance testing requirements to support high shares of inverter based resources

• • Mark Gordon, AEMO

For advances in dynamic model quality and integration to support high shares of inverter based resources

• • Nilesh Modi, AEMO
  • Sorrell Grogan, AusNet Services 

For leadership in the North American Renewable Integration Study

• • Greg Brinkman, NREL

For engineering and scientific contributions to the understanding of climate change impact on wind energy resources

• • Sara C. Pryor, Cornell University

For contributions to advances in renewable energy forecasting and development of renewable energy forecasting systems

• • Ricardo Bessa, INESC TEC

For contributions to transmission interconnection queue process reform

• • Joe Rand, LBNL
  • Will Gorman, LBNL

Service Award recipient includes:

For 7 years of faithful service to the ESIG board and the O&M Users Group

• • Ed Henderson, DTE Energy 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more information on ESIG, please visit www.esig.energy.