Ammi Amarnath
Senior Technical Executive, Electrification & Customer Solutions Research Area | Electric Power Research Institute
Ammi Amarnath is a Senior Technical Executive in EPRI’s Electrification & Customer Solutions Research Area. He works with a team of engineers and scientists in the research, development, and deployment of energy efficient and demand responsive technologies, including in the residential, commercial, and industrial sectors, the energy-water nexus, and related end-use smart technologies that integrate with the modern grid. Amarnath has a Bachelor of Engineering (India) and a Master of Science (UC Santa Barbara) in chemical engineering. He also has an MBA from the University of Houston.
Kathleen Ave
Senior Climate Strategist | Sacramento Municipal Utility District
Kathleen Ave is the Senior Climate Strategist in SMUD's Customer & Grid Strategy Organization and the co-chair of the EPRI's Power in Pollinators initiative. Her current work is focused on climate readiness, pollinator habitat, land-based carbon, and natural refrigerants. A past chair of the Capital Region Climate Readiness Collaborative, she was named a Living Future “Hero” by the International Living Future Institute in 2019 and is a UC Certified California Naturalist.
Daniel J. “DJ” Chapman
Senior Mechanical Engineer | ADM Associates Inc.
DJ Chapman developed rockets with NASA for his graduate work prior to joining the energy industry. After earning a master’s in physics, he worked on thermal energy storage and concentrating solar for a European firm called Abengoa Solar for several years before joining ADM. Now he is a Senior Mechanical Engineer focused on assessing emerging technologies.
Albert Chiu
Product Manager | Pacific Gas and Electric Company
In his 20-plus years working in Load Management, Integrated Demand Side Management, and Distributed Energy Resource (DER), Albert Chiu has developed energy efficiency, demand response, and vehicle grid integration (VGI) policies and programs for utility customers.
Ryan Fedie
Senior Strategist | Bonneville Power Administration
Ryan Fedie crafts his work to lead the transition to a more efficient economy powered by a clean and modern electric grid. At BPA, Fedie has lead the energy efficiency engineering department and research and emerging technology programs and been heavily involved in regional and national research efforts. More recently, Fedie has been executing BPA’s top priorities by driving programs and culture change to advance grid planning, non-wires, grid modernization, and real-time operations across power and transmission.
Philip Gleckman
CEO | Sunvapor, Inc.
Philip Gleckman is the cofounder and CEO of Sunvapor, Inc., a leading project development and delivery company serving the energy-water-food nexus. Gleckman has served as Principal Investigator for numerous R&D awards to Sunvapor from the Department of Energy and the CEC in solar steam, energy storage, and desalination. Gleckman was a key member of Google’s original renewable energy research team. The holder of over 30 patents, he earned his PhD from the University of Chicago and his BS from MIT, both in physics.
Jonathan Heller
President | Ecotope, Inc.
Jonathan Heller, President of Ecotope, Inc., has more than 30 years of experience providing mechanical engineering design, research, and consulting on energy and resource efficiency in the building sector. He leads the Technology Transformation Team within Ecotope, focused on bringing new mechanical system technologies to market to dramatically reduce buildings’ energy and carbon impact.
Hunter Johnson
Data Scientist | Res-Intel
Dr. Hunter Johnson creates data pipelines and generates analytics and interactive data visualizations from the data lake. He is experienced in using econometric and machine-learning methods to gain insights into important research and program questions. Dr. Johnson received his PhD in economics from Claremont Graduate University.
Bryan Jungers
Senior Research Manager, Technology Assessment | E Source
Bryan Jungers conducts research on emerging, energy efficient, and distributed energy resource technologies. He has over 15 years of experience as an energy engineer and research analyst, including for EPRI, the CEC, and UC Davis. Jungers worked as a research manager, product manager, and lead analyst before becoming a Senior Manager at E Source. He holds a BS in environmental engineering from Humboldt State University and an MS in civil and environmental engineering from UC Davis.
Ryan Kerr
Senior Manager, Emerging Technologies | GTI
Ryan Kerr leads GTI’s efforts to accelerate the commercialization and adoption of the latest energy efficient technologies for residential, commercial, and industrial end-use markets. Kerr developed, launched, and manages GTI’s Emerging Technology Program (ETP). GTI’s ETP is a collaborative of 25-plus North American utilities working together to identify, review, develop, and deploy new or underutilized products for utility energy efficiency and decarbonization programs. Kerr is an industry leader serving on several advisory board positions as well as a Panel Leader for the ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings.
Tim Kingston
Director, R&D | GTI
Tim Kingston manages the Building Energy Efficiency group within GTI’s Energy Delivery and Utilization sector as well as programs in the residential and commercial sectors, including projects on building energy efficiency analysis, carbon management, space conditioning, water heating, combined heat and power systems, and integrated energy systems. His emphasis is on development, testing, and deployment of new fuel-fired and hybrid end-use technologies that improve efficiency, expand the product portfolio, and minimize environmental impacts.
Aanchal Kohli
Air Resources Engineer | California Air Resources Board
At CARB, Dr. Aanchal Kohli develops policies and regulations to reduce emissions of F-gas from the refrigeration and air-conditioning sector. Dr. Kohli has worked with local governments and environmental nonprofits on air pollution, climate change, and renewable energy and developed an app to increase air pollution awareness and public health protection. Dr. Kohli has a doctorate in environmental science and engineering and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from UCLA.
Steve Kujak
Director, Next Generation Refrigerant Research | Trane Technologies
Steve Kujak is the Director of Next Generation Refrigerant Research for Trane Technologies (divisions include Trane and ThermoKing). He has over 29 years of HVACR industry experience involving development of new refrigerants and HVACR systems. Kujak authored or co-authored 50-plus publications related to refrigerants, has 27 patents related to HVACR products, and is involved in numerous refrigerant safety standards globally.
Doug Lindsey
Technical Leader | Electric Power Research Institute
Doug Lindsey is the Technology Evaluation Area Lead for EPRI’s Customer Technologies research program. He has worked at EPRI for the past 9 years, managing projects that assist the electric utility industry in advancing energy efficiency, demand response, electrification, and decarbonization.
Michael Lozano
Senior Mechanical Engineer | California Energy Commission
Michael Lozano has worked as a Senior Mechanical Engineer for the CEC’s Energy Efficiency Research Office since 2005. Lozano specializes in managing demonstrations and developing grant funding opportunities for natural-gas energy efficiency research projects. He also has been a member in the scoring committee for the Emerging Technology Demonstration Grant series which funded 38 projects with over $34 million in research funds from 2009 through 2015. A registered professional engineer in both mechanical and civil engineering, Lozano is a graduate of UC Berkeley with a BS in civil engineering and an MBA as well as a graduate of Texas A&M University with an MEng in civil engineering.
Jay Madden, PE
Senior Engineer, Emerging Products & Technologies | Southern California Edison
Jay Madden is a Senior Engineer with SCE’s Emerging Products & Technologies team. He conducts field assessments of heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration systems for energy efficiency and global-warming potential reduction. He spent over 25 years designing air-conditioning systems for commercial and industrial buildings. Madden has a degree in mechanical engineering from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
Mark Martinez
Senior Portfolio Manager, Demand Response Emerging Markets | Southern California Edison
Mark Martinez is a Senior Portfolio Manager for SCE with over 25 years’ experience in the policy oversight and operation of electric demand-side management programs. He’s the lead for SCE’s Emerging Markets and Technologies program that supports SCE’s grid modernization efforts and the market needs for enabling advanced customer technologies. The program focuses on the next generation of energy innovation, such as smart ZNE homes, and addresses the California policies for beneficial electrification and GHG reductions.
Hal T. Nelson, PhD
CEO | Res-Intel
Dr. Hal T. Nelson has been working in the energy program design and evaluation space for over 20 years. Res-Intel utilizes cutting-edge behavioral tools along with AI-driven analysis in energy projects for SCE, PG&E, SoCalGas, and SDG&E.
Mark Rehley
Senior Manager, Codes and Standards | Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance
Mark Rehley is the Senior Manager of Codes and Standards for NEEA. He is focused on helping the region achieve its energy efficiency policies through building energy codes and federal and state standards. During Rehley’s 12 years at NEEA, he helped start and manage its emerging technology and product management group. Prior to NEEA, Rehley spent 20 years in engineering and management positions in the high-tech industry. He has a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from Oregon State University and a master’s in management of science and technology from Oregon Health & Science University.
Randy Robinson, Jr.
Senior Project Manager | Southern California Edison
Randy Robinson, Jr., is a Product Manager at SCE, where he focuses on early- and mid-stage product and program development. Robinson’s work centers around emerging technologies for impactful products and programs. Currently, Robinson is leading SCE’s Smart Speaker Pilot, part of a larger strategy to understand how energy fits in the connected home ecosystem.
Siva Sankaranarayanan
Senior Technical Leader | Electric Power Research Institute
Siva Sankaranarayanan is a Senior Technical Leader at EPRI in Palo Alto. He leads the Building Decarbonization research area within EPRI’s Advanced Buildings Research Program and was the Technical Architect of EPRI’s Demand Side Resource Integration Platform, which serves as a mechanism for understanding the feasibility and scalability of integrating smart home devices for energy management. Sankaranarayanan has more than 20 years of experience in research, technology, and management consulting industries.
Kevin Uy, PE
Supervisor | California Energy Commission
Kevin Uy is the Supervisor for the CEC’s Food Production Investment Program. Uy leads the implementation of this program, which has provided over $115 million in grants to California food-processing facilities for large, capital-intensive energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. Through his efforts, nearly 50 food-processing facilities are implementing projects to modernize their facilities while contributing to a low-carbon future. Uy holds BS and MS degrees in mechanical engineering from UC Davis and is a registered professional engineer in the state of California.
Danielle Wright
Executive Director | North American Sustainable Refrigeration Council
Danielle Wright is the Executive Director of the NASRC, a nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing the environmental impact of supermarket refrigeration through the use of natural refrigerants. For the past decade, she has been working in the grocery and food retail sector with a focus on energy efficiency and sustainability. Prior to her current role, she managed large-scale utility programs delivering energy savings across the commercial portfolio.